Confirm that important pages are reachable
Open your service pages on a phone and follow their links from the home page. Check that each page returns normally, has a clear main heading and lets a visitor take the next step. A sitemap helps discovery, but it does not replace useful navigation or guarantee indexing.
Check robots rules, canonical URLs and any noindex instructions. Keep one preferred HTTPS URL for each page. If a page is intentionally private or a duplicate, record that choice before treating its absence from Google as a defect.
- List the important service URLs.
- Check each page and its canonical URL.
- Confirm the sitemap contains preferred public URLs only.
Match each page to one customer need
Read the title, description, heading and opening paragraphs as a potential customer. State the service, the audience and the practical scope in plain language. Add evidence you can verify, such as actual deliverables and starting terms. Do not add a city office, client result or certification you cannot prove.
Avoid creating multiple near-identical pages for small keyword variations. A focused page that answers a real question is easier to maintain and more useful than a group of doorway pages. Link related guides to the service they support.
Inspect mobile experience and conversion
Use a real phone to test text size, menu access, tap targets, form errors and loading. A fast page that hides key information or breaks the inquiry path still fails its business purpose.
Test with keyboard and assistive technology where possible. Record any layout shift, oversized image or blocked interaction. Fix the highest-impact user problem first instead of chasing a single lab score.
Use Search Console as evidence
Verify ownership of the correct property and submit the public sitemap. Inspect a few important URLs to see the last crawl, index status and Google-selected canonical. New properties may take time to populate performance and indexing reports.
Record query, page, country, device, impressions and clicks over a defined period. Compare later periods after changes, but do not call a ranking movement a sale or a cause without more evidence. Search Console reports can omit or aggregate some data, so keep the period and filters with every export.
- Save the audit date and page list.
- Assign a fix owner and verification method.
- Review impressions, clicks and qualified inquiries separately.
Official references
- Google Search Essentials ↗
- Google SEO Starter Guide ↗
- Build and submit a sitemap ↗
- Search Console performance data ↗
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