SEO audit: how to check your own NZ website

Tools you need (all free)

You don't need a $200/month subscription to audit your website. These free tools cover everything:

• Google Search Console - shows how Google sees your site, which pages are indexed, and which keywords drive traffic. If you haven't set this up, do it now at search.google.com/search-console - it takes 10 minutes
• Google PageSpeed Insights - tests speed and Core Web Vitals at pagespeed.web.dev
• Your phone - the best mobile testing tool is your own phone
• Screaming Frog (free tier) - crawls up to 500 URLs and identifies broken links, missing titles, and technical issues. Download at screamingfrog.co.uk
• Ahrefs Free Backlink Checker - shows who links to your site at ahrefs.com/backlink-checker

For the full tool comparison with paid alternatives, see our best SEO tools guide.

Step 1: Is Google blocking your site? [CRITICAL]

Before anything else, confirm Google can actually see your website. Two things to check:

WordPress users: go to Settings → Reading. Is "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" checked? If yes, uncheck it immediately. This single checkbox tells Google to ignore your entire site. It's sometimes left checked after development and is the most devastating mistake in WordPress SEO.

Check robots.txt: type yourdomain.co.nz/robots.txt into your browser. If it says Disallow: / your entire site is blocked from Google. It should allow Googlebot access to all important pages. If it's blocking pages that should be visible, fix it immediately or ask your developer to.

Check for noindex tags: right-click any important page, click "View Page Source," and search for "noindex." If you find on a page you want ranked, it needs to be removed. This tells Google not to include that page in search results.

These are "site-down" issues. If any of these are present, nothing else in this audit matters until they're fixed.

Step 2: Check your indexing status [HIGH]

Open Google Search Console. Go to Pages (left menu). This shows how many of your pages Google has indexed (can show in search results) and how many are excluded.

What to look for:

• "Not indexed" count. If important pages (services, products, blog posts) are in the "Not indexed" list, investigate why. Click each reason for details
• "Discovered - currently not indexed." Google knows about these pages but hasn't bothered to index them - usually means Google thinks they're low quality or duplicates
• "Crawled - currently not indexed." Google looked at these pages and decided they weren't worth indexing. Often thin content or pages with no unique value
• "Duplicate without user-selected canonical." Common on Shopify stores - means Google found duplicate versions of a page

Step 3: Test your site speed [HIGH]

Go to pagespeed.web.dev and enter your homepage URL. Check the mobile score - that's what Google uses for ranking.

NZ-specific check: where is your website hosted? If your hosting is in the US (GoDaddy, Bluehost, SiteGround US), you're adding 200-400ms of latency for NZ visitors. Our technical SEO guide covers the NZ hosting problem and fix in detail.

Also check Core Web Vitals: LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1. PageSpeed Insights shows all three with pass/fail indicators. If any are red, that metric is hurting your rankings.

Step 4: Mobile experience check [HIGH]

Open your website on your phone. Not a simulation tool - your actual phone. Answer these questions honestly:

• Can you read the text without zooming?
• Can you tap buttons without accidentally hitting the wrong one?
• Does the page load in under 3 seconds?
• Is the phone number click-to-call?
• Can you navigate to key pages easily?
• Do forms work properly on mobile?
• Are images visible and not broken?

Any "no" answer is a problem. Google uses the mobile version of your site for all indexing and ranking. Over 65% of NZ web traffic comes from mobile. If your mobile experience is broken, your rankings suffer - regardless of how good your desktop site looks.

Step 5: Audit your title tags and meta descriptions [HIGH]

Title tags are the single most important on-page SEO element. Open Screaming Frog, enter your domain, and hit "Start." Once the crawl completes, check the "Page Titles" and "Meta Description" tabs.

Red flags to look for:

• Missing titles: pages with no title tag at all. Every page needs a unique title
• Duplicate titles: two or more pages with the same title. Each page must be unique
• Titles over 60 characters: these get truncated in search results with "..."
• Generic titles: "Home," "Services," "About Us" - these should include your primary keyword and location
• Missing meta descriptions: not a direct ranking factor, but they affect click-through rate
• No location in titles: for NZ businesses, service page titles should include your city or suburb

Step 6: Review your content quality [MEDIUM]

Not every page needs to be a 2,000-word masterpiece. But every page that you want to rank needs to be comprehensive enough to satisfy the search intent behind its target keyword.

Check each important page for:

• Word count: service pages need 800+ words. Blog posts need 1,500+. Under 300 words is "thin content" that Google struggles to rank
• Keyword presence: does each page's target keyword appear in the title, H1, first 100 words, and naturally throughout the content?
• NZ specificity: does your content mention NZ cities, NZD pricing, NZ regulations, or NZ examples? Generic content without local signals competes with the entire English-speaking internet. NZ-specific content competes with a much smaller pool
• Duplicate content: if you're using manufacturer descriptions, supplier copy, or the same text across multiple pages - rewrite them. Google ignores duplicate content
• Freshness: are dates on your content current? A page dated 2021 with "2021 pricing" signals outdated information. Update dates and content annually at minimum

Step 7: Check your internal links [MEDIUM]

Internal links connect your pages together, spread ranking authority, and help Google discover all your content. Poor internal linking is one of the most common - and easiest to fix - SEO issues on NZ websites.

What to check:

• Orphan pages: use Screaming Frog to identify pages with zero internal links pointing to them. These are invisible to Google. Every important page needs at least one internal link from another page
• Anchor text: are your internal links using descriptive text? "Read our complete SEO guide" is good. "Click here" tells Google nothing about the linked page
• Blog-to-service links: do your blog posts link to your service pages? A blog post about "how to fix a leaking tap" should link to your plumbing services page. This is how you transfer blog authority to revenue-generating pages
• Broken internal links: Screaming Frog flags 404 errors from internal links. Fix all broken links - they waste crawl budget and create dead ends for users

Aim for 3-5 internal links per 1,000 words of content. Every article in this SEO cluster links to multiple related guides - that's the internal linking strategy in action.

Step 8: Audit your Google Business Profile [HIGH for local businesses]

For NZ businesses serving local customers, your Google Business Profile is as important as your website. Open your GBP and check:

• Completeness: every field filled? Description, services, products, hours, phone, website URL, service areas?
• Primary category: is it the most specific option? "Plumber" not "Home Service"
• Photos: at least 15+? Real photos of your business, team, and work - not stock images?
• Reviews: how many vs your top 3 map pack competitors? Are you responding to every review?
• NAP consistency: does your business name, address, and phone number match your website exactly? Even small differences ("St" vs "Street") weaken your local rankings
• Posts: have you posted in the last 7 days? Weekly posts signal an active business to Google

Step 9: Check your backlinks [MEDIUM]

Go to Ahrefs Free Backlink Checker (ahrefs.com/backlink-checker), enter your domain, and review the results.

What to look at:

• Total referring domains: how many unique websites link to yours? This matters more than total link count
• Competitor comparison: check your top 3 competitors' referring domains. If they have 40 and you have 8, the backlink gap is a priority
• NZ directories: are you listed on Yellow.co.nz, Finda.co.nz, and your industry association? These are easy wins if you haven't done them yet
• Toxic links: any links from obviously spammy or irrelevant foreign sites? These could be hurting you. If you find them, consider a disavow file in Google Search Console

Step 10: Find your quick wins [HIGH]

The most valuable step. In Google Search Console, go to Performance → Search Results. Filter for the last 3 months. Sort by impressions.

Look for keywords where your average position is 8-20 (bottom of page 1 or page 2). These are your quick wins - pages already ranking close to the top that need a small push to break onto page 1 or into the top 5.

For each quick-win keyword:

• Find the page that ranks for it (click the keyword, then switch to the "Pages" tab)
• Improve that page's title tag to better match the keyword
• Expand the content - add more depth, NZ examples, and answer related questions
• Add 2-3 internal links from other pages pointing to this page
• Update the content date to show freshness

Quick wins often jump 5-10 positions within 2-4 weeks. This is the fastest way to get more traffic from the pages and keywords you're already ranking for.

The priority fix matrix

You've completed the audit. Now fix issues in this order - highest impact first:

Frequently asked questions