Before you start
Before You Start
What you'll need
You need your phone, a computer with a browser, and about 15 minutes. If someone set up Google Search Console for your site, have that login handy too, but don't worry if you don't have it. Keep a notepad or a note on your phone open, and jot down anything that surprises you. You're not trying to fix anything yet. You're just finding out where you stand.
One word of warning about automated SEO checkers: many give your site a score out of 100 and a long list of problems, and some of those problems barely matter for a small business site. Learning how to check website SEO score with a tool can be useful, but a score isn't the goal. The checks below focus on what actually affects whether customers find you and call. Think of this as a quick DIY SEO audit, done the way a customer would experience your site.
Seven checks
How to Check Website SEO Status in 7 Steps
Work through these in order, because each one builds on the last. The first few take a minute or two each and need nothing but a search box. The last few use free tools from Google itself, which are more reliable than most third-party checkers because they show what Google actually sees. Give yourself a simple pass, maybe, or problem for each one as you go.
1
Search for your business name
Type your exact business name into Google, as a new customer who heard about you would. Your website should appear at or near the top, and ideally your Google Business Profile shows on the side or above the results with your hours and phone number. If a directory listing or an old page ranks above your own site, or your profile doesn't appear at all, that's the first thing to note. This is the easiest search you'll ever rank for, so it needs to work.
2
Search like a customer
Now search the way a stranger would, for your main service and your town, like "electrician in Graham" or "tax preparation Wichita Falls." Do it on your phone, since that's where many local searches happen. Note where you appear, if at all, in the map results and in the regular results below. Don't panic if you're not on the first page. This simply tells you how much work there is between where you are and where your customers are looking.
3
See which pages Google knows about
In the Google search box, type site: followed by your domain, with no space, for example site:yourbusiness.com. Google's own guide to the site: search operator explains it. The results show a sample of the pages Google has in its index. If important pages, like your main services, are missing entirely, Google may not be finding or keeping them. If you see old pages you thought were gone, they may still be sending customers to outdated information.
4
Read your page titles and descriptions
While you're looking at those site: results, read the blue headline and the short text under each one. Those are your page titles and descriptions, and they're often the first thing a customer reads. Take an electrician whose every page shows the title "Home" or just the business name: Google and customers get no clue what each page is about. Good titles name the service and the place, in plain words. My guide to on page SEO for a new site covers what to set up.
5
Use your site on a phone
Picture it this way: a customer finds you while standing in a parking lot. Open your site on your own phone and try to find your phone number, your main services, and your service area, using one thumb. If you have to pinch, zoom, or scroll sideways, or the menu fights you, customers feel it too. My article on making sure your website is mobile friendly has a fuller set of phone checks.
6
Test your page speed
Go to Google's free PageSpeed Insights, paste in your homepage address, and run the test. Speed is the one part of how to check website SEO status that a tool measures well, so look at the mobile result first. Don't chase a perfect score; plenty of successful sites never reach it. What you're looking for is a site that isn't badly slow, and the report's list of the biggest opportunities. If your homepage takes many seconds to show anything on a phone, that's worth fixing, because customers leave before it loads.
7
Check Google Search Console
If you have access to Google Search Console, open its Pages report to see how many of your pages are indexed and whether Google lists problems. Then open the Performance report to see which searches showed your site and how often people clicked. For anyone learning how to check website SEO status regularly, those searches are gold: they tell you how customers actually find you. If nobody ever set up Search Console for your site, that's a finding in itself, and worth fixing.
Here's a simple rule of thumb: if a customer can't find you by name, on a phone, in a few seconds, fix that before anything else.
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Your results
What Your Results Mean
Look back at your notes. If the name search, the phone test, and the page titles all passed, your site has a solid foundation, and the next step is usually more useful pages for the searches your customers make. If the name search failed or Search Console shows many pages left out, those are foundation problems and come first. Speed and title problems sit in the middle: real, fixable, and usually not urgent emergencies.
A quick way to sort your findings
Fix first
You can't be found by name, the site is broken on phones, or key pages aren't indexed.
Fix soon
Generic page titles, slow mobile pages, or old pages still showing up.
Keep improving
Not yet ranking for your service and town, once the basics pass.
The honest answer
When to Get a Second Opinion
Now you know how to check website SEO status at a basic level, and that's more than many owners ever do. Some findings are easy to act on yourself, like correcting your hours or rewriting a page title. Others, like pages Google won't index or a site that falls apart on phones, usually need someone who knows where to look. If the results left you with more questions than answers, a second set of eyes can save you a lot of guessing.
Send me your web address and I'll look at your site the way a new customer and Google would, then tell you in plain English what's working and what I'd fix first. There's no long report full of jargon and no pressure to hire me for anything. If you'd rather talk it through first, you can start with a free, no-pressure conversation instead.
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Get a Second OpinionKeep reading
Why Mobile Friendly Website Design Matters
Simple checks to see how your site works on a phone.
Read the article