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DIY SEO check: 15 checks in 15 minutes (with a free tool)

Guide by Alessandro Mari · · 8 min read

You don't need a thousand-euro audit to find out whether a site has obvious SEO problems. Fifteen minutes and the right checks, done in the right order, are enough to uncover 80% of the issues keeping a site off the first pages of Google. Here is the checklist I actually use before putting together any quote — with a free tool to speed up the technical part.

Why a DIY SEO check makes sense before you pay anyone

Many business owners come to SEO consulting without even knowing whether their problem is technical, content-related, or simply a lack of dedicated time. A check done in-house, however basic, changes the conversation: instead of "my site doesn't show up on Google" you arrive with "the homepage has no meta description and three key pages return a 404 error" — and that is a problem to be fixed, not a mystery to be solved. It doesn't replace a professional audit, but it saves you time (and money, if the problem turns out to be trivial) before you ask for a quote.

I split the checks into three blocks: what Google needs to be able to read, what the user sees, and what generative AI systems now read too. Neglecting that last block in 2026 is like ignoring mobile in 2015.

Block 1 — Technical basics (5 checks)

  • Is the site indexed? Search Google for site:yourdomain.com. If nothing comes up, Google doesn't know the site exists: that is the first thing to fix, before you think about any other optimisation.
  • Does an XML sitemap exist, and can it be reached? Try opening yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. If it errors or is empty, search engines struggle to discover new pages.
  • Is the robots.txt file blocking something by mistake? A Disallow: / left over from a staging build that someone forgot to remove is a classic that wipes out the visibility of an entire site.
  • Is the site on HTTPS across every page? A missing padlock, or worse, mixed http/https content, is a negative signal both for Google and for the user's trust.
  • How fast is the homepage on mobile? Loading speed remains a direct ranking factor and, above all, the main reason a visitor leaves before reading a single line.

Block 2 — Content and structure (5 checks)

  • Does every page have a unique title and meta description? Duplicate or missing titles across several pages leave Google unsure which page to show for which search.
  • Is there a single H1 per page, and does it actually say what the page is about? A generic ("Welcome") or missing H1 is a wasted opportunity: it is the first semantic clue you give the search engine.
  • Do the internal links work? A site with broken links (404) to its own pages tells Google that maintenance stopped some time ago.
  • Do the images have meaningful alternative text (alt)? Beyond accessibility, alt text is still one of the few textual signals Google has about an image.
  • Does the content actually answer the question that brought the user to the page? This is the most subjective check but the most decisive: a technically perfect page that doesn't answer the right query still won't rank.

Block 3 — Readiness for generative AI search (5 checks)

With AI Overviews and ChatGPT now capturing a growing share of searches, traditional SEO checks are no longer enough on their own. It is worth adding these five, designed for SEO for AI systems:

  • Does the content give a direct answer in the first few lines? Generative engines tend to quote sentences that answer the question straight away, not long introductory paragraphs before the point.
  • Is there structured data (schema.org) on the key pages? FAQ, product, article: schema helps AI systems understand what they are reading, not just Google.
  • Does the site have an llms.txt file, or at least easily extractable content? It is still a young practice, but some AI crawlers already use it to find their way around.
  • Are the numbers and data cited on the site verifiable and up to date? A language model that has to choose a source to cite tends to prefer content with concrete, dated data over generic claims.
  • Is the brand mentioned consistently off-site? Reviews, profiles, mentions on other websites: generative AI systems draw on those too when deciding whether and how to cite you.

How to run all these checks in 15 minutes, not 3 hours

Doing all fifteen checks by hand, page by page, would take hours even on a small site. To speed up the technical and content side I have made public the free SEO analysis tool I also use in my own audits: enter the URL, the tool analyses the site across four areas (technical, content, performance, AI readiness), assigns a score and returns a prioritised action plan — what to fix first and why. It doesn't replace a human eye on content and strategy, but it automates exactly the technical and structural checks above, in a few minutes instead of hours.

Once the check is done, the next step depends on what comes out of it. If the problems are few and well defined, they can often be fixed in-house. If instead several issues emerge together — technical, content and AI readiness — a structured intervention makes more sense: here you'll find the SEO services we offer, with real prices and no hidden annual lock-ins.

In short

A 15-minute DIY SEO check doesn't replace a professional audit, but it picks up most of the obvious problems: indexing, speed, duplicate titles/descriptions, broken links and — now essential in 2026 — how ready the site is to be cited by generative AI. Do it before asking for any quote: it changes the conversation and saves you time.

Want the check done automatically? Try the free SEO analysis tool now, or write to me if, after the check, you'd rather have a human opinion on what really matters most in your case.