Video summary

How to do an SEO Audit — 7 Steps for Beginners (Free Tools)

Main summary

Key takeaways

Educational

Main ideas / concepts

  • The video presents a beginner-friendly, fast “SEO audit” workflow that uses mostly free tools to find and fix technical SEO “quick wins.”
  • The goal is to scan for common on-page/technical issues (errors, metadata problems, missing alt text, image bloat, sitemap coverage issues, CTR performance) and then suggest improvements.
  • It emphasizes that the process is not perfect or exhaustive—it’s meant to get you started and help you fix the most obvious problems first.

Methodology: “7 steps” checklist for a free SEO audit

The presenter refers to a checklist with seven steps; the subtitles explicitly cover these steps and their tools.

1) Check for obvious errors (site crawl)

  • Tool: Screaming Frog (Download “Screaming Frog”; use the free version if possible.)

  • How to do it:

    • Open Screaming Frog on your computer.
    • Paste the site URL into the tool’s URL bar for the “spider.”
    • Let it crawl the website.
    • Open the “Errors” tab/box to see issues.

  • What to look for / examples:

    • Multiple H2 tags (not necessarily fatal).

    • H1 tags over 70 characters (Use the left panel to identify which pages, then view the “why” and “how to fix.”)

    • Other obvious structural or crawl-detected issues.

    • Guidance: Fix low-hanging fruit first; don’t stress if you can’t fix everything.

2) Check metadata (meta title/description and heading structure)

  • Tool: “SEO Meta in 1 click” browser extension
  • How to do it:
    • Install the extension (Edge supported; Safari uncertain per subtitles).
    • Visit a page and click the extension to display:
      • Meta title
      • Meta description
      • Number of H1 tags
      • Header structure (H1/H2/H3/etc.)

  • What to aim for / rules mentioned:

    • Ideally only one H1 per page (multiple H1s = “big no-no”).

    • Meta title length target: around 140–155 characters (The subtitles also state an ideal practical target: meta title ideally under 60 characters.)

    • Meta titles/descriptions that are too long can be truncated in search results.

    • Action for issues: Improve meta titles/descriptions (often requires keyword research + rewrite for better targeting/click potential).

3) Check H tag structure (covered via metadata tools / headers)

  • Concept: Ensure headline hierarchy is correct and consistent:
    • H1, H2, H3, H4, etc.
  • Note: Styling can differ, but for SEO audit purposes you need to verify the structure of headers across pages.

4) Check alt text (image accessibility/SEO)

  • Tool: Screaming Frog (used to identify alt text issues)

  • What to look for / examples:

    • Missing alt text on images (Example given: “missing alt text on 10 images.”)

    • Alt text over 100 characters (flagged as a problem).

    • Action: Add or rewrite alt text.
    • Extra resource mentioned: A separate video by the creator on writing alt text using ChatGPT scripts.

5) Optimize images / reduce image size (compression + formats)

  • Tool(s) mentioned:
    • Screaming Frog to identify oversized images (e.g., images over ~100KB)
    • TinyPNG (tinypng.com) for compression
    • Figma (optional workaround if you can’t reach desired size)
  • Suggested workflow:
    • Identify images that are too large (Screaming Frog flags them).
    • Download the image from its URL.
    • Compress it using TinyPNG.
    • Convert to WebP (often preferred in the creator’s workflow) and recompress.
    • If still too large:
      • Resize in Figma
      • Then re-run compression via TinyPNG again.
  • Intent: Reduce page weight to improve performance.

6) Check page speed / performance (realistic testing)

  • Tool: GTmetrix
  • How to do it:
    • Use GTmetrix (free; may require optional free account).
    • Select a test server location close to your audience:
      • Example: if hosting is in Sydney and your audience is in Sydney/Australia, choose Sydney in GTmetrix.
    • Run the test and review:
      • Load time / performance grade
      • Bottlenecks (often images and scripts)
  • What the presenter prioritizes:
    • Performance grade is less important than whether it’s fast for your users.
  • What to fix (examples from results):
    • Large image sizes (example: “1.2MB of images” on a scanned page) → make images smaller.
    • Excess scripts (example mentions too much “script installed” or issues tied to JS/CSS) → reduce custom JavaScript/CSS impact to improve load speed.

7) Check sitemaps and CTR, then use ChatGPT for improvements

This final section combines two key audit checks plus an assistance tool.

7a) Check sitemaps (coverage + indexing readiness)

  • Tool/Source: Google Search Console (free)
  • How to do it:
    • Create and verify a Google Search Console account (via code snippet or DNS records, per typical process).
    • Go to Sitemaps and submit/install the sitemap.
    • View “discovered” pages and compare them to:
      • The pages you know exist in your site backend
  • Why it matters / example:
    • You may see 200 pages on the site but only 172 in the sitemap → investigate whether the sitemap is installed correctly and whether it includes the right pages.
  • Tip: If stuck, the presenter suggests using ChatGPT for step-by-step sitemap installation instructions for specific platforms (e.g., Shopify → X).

7b) Check CTR (click-through rate from search)

  • Source: Google Search Console → Search results / performance overview
  • How to interpret CTR:
    • If you have many top-of-funnel pages (educational blog content) and high competition, CTR can naturally be lower.
    • If CTR is unexpectedly low for the page types/industry, it can suggest you need better meta titles and meta descriptions.
  • Action:
    • Improve click intent using:
      • Power words / sales psychology
      • Numbers
      • Keyword placement early (exact keyword at the front)
    • Note: Google may rewrite snippets sometimes, but you can still influence them when you control the metadata.

7c) Use ChatGPT to resolve specific SEO findings (paid ChatGPT 4 recommended)

  • Tool mentioned: ChatGPT (described as paid ChatGPT-4 in the subtitle)

  • How to use it (practical workflow):

    • When Screaming Frog shows something confusing (e.g., title length too long such as “over 561 pixels”):

      • Take screenshots of the problem
      • Paste into ChatGPT
      • Ask for rewritten or actionable guidance (Example prompt intent: “Rewrite these page titles… in simple bullet points…”.)

    • Use screenshots or copied issue text when you don’t understand errors (e.g., missing size attributes).

    • Ask ChatGPT to explain simpler, step-by-step.
    • Why it’s useful: especially for topics like schema markup and meta title optimization.
    • Constraint: Not “perfect,” but helpful for turning findings into next steps.
    • General advice: Most checks can be done with free tools, though paid tools may help later (examples: Ahrefs, SEMrush), but they’re not required for the quick audit.

Main lesson / takeaway

  • Use a structured, tool-assisted checklist to quickly find SEO health issues, focusing on technical fixes and on-page quick wins.
  • The audit is meant to get you further than starting from scratch, not to guarantee a fully comprehensive audit.

Speakers / sources featured

Speaker(s)

  • Conversion Clinic host / presenter (unnamed in subtitles)

Tools / sources mentioned

  • Screaming Frog
  • “SEO Meta in 1 click” (browser extension)
  • GTmetrix
  • TinyPNG (tinypng.com)
  • Figma
  • Google Search Console
  • ChatGPT (including “ChatGPT 4” as recommended/paid)
  • Ahrefs (mentioned as a paid tool option)
  • SEMrush (mentioned as a paid tool option)

Original video