Quick answer: A free SEO check is a quick test of how easily Google can find, read and show your business online. For a local firm, the two checks worth running are a website audit, which looks at the pages Google reads, and a Google Business Profile audit, which shows where you appear on Google Maps. At Auto-SEO you can get both free, and each one ends with a short list of what to fix first.
Key Takeaways
A free SEO check spots the technical problems that stop Google reading your website properly.
Your website and your Google Business Profile are checked in different ways, so it pays to run both.
Our free website audit comes with the 7-day £1 trial and is worth £49 on its own.
Our free Google Business Profile audit takes about a minute and needs no card or account.
A check tells you what's wrong. The results only come when the fixes are made and your site keeps growing.
What is a free SEO check?
Think of it like an MOT for your website. A tool or a person looks over your site and your Google listing, checks the parts that matter for search, and tells you what needs attention.
Most checks look at the same core things. Can Google find your pages, can it read them, do they load quickly on a phone, and do they clearly say what you do and where you do it? The answers show you why customers might be finding someone else.
Your free website check with the £1 trial
When you start your 7-day trial for £1, we include a free website audit worth £49. You can get your free website audit when you choose a plan, and it should land in your inbox within 5 minutes of a successful payment.
It's a clear, jargon-free report on your homepage, the page most customers see first. Here's what it covers:
How Google sees your homepage. Your page title, description and headings: what Google shows and reads first.
The technical checks. Schema (your business details for Google), the canonical tag, social share tags and image descriptions.
Speed and readability. How heavy your homepage is, and whether Google can actually read your text.
The quick wins. A prioritised, plain-English list of the fixes that'll make the biggest difference fastest.
The trial also includes three SEO articles written for your business, published to your site once you've connected it and approved them, plus weekly rank tracking. If anything on your site needs fixing, your audit comes with a clear, fixed-price quote for the work, so you know the cost before anything is done.
Many of the problems a homepage check finds are simple to put right. Our guide to on-page SEO that Google can read explains titles, headings and schema in plain English.
Want the whole site checked? The £49 full audit
A homepage check is a great start, but problems often hide deeper in a site. An old service page that Google can't index, or a run of broken links, won't show up on the front page.
Our full website SEO audit checks your whole site, by hand and with professional tools. It's £49 one-off with no subscription, and your report arrives within 48 hours.
It covers nine areas:
Area | What we look at |
|---|---|
Indexing and crawlability | Whether Google can find and index all your important pages |
Site speed and Core Web Vitals | Load times and the page-experience signals Google measures |
Mobile usability | How your site works on phones |
Titles and meta descriptions | Missing, duplicate or weak tags costing you clicks |
Headings and content structure | Whether your pages are set out to rank for their key phrases |
Broken links and errors | 404s and server errors that lose visitors |
Structured data and schema | Markup that helps your listings stand out |
Sitemap and robots.txt | Whether search engines are being guided round your site correctly |
Keyword and ranking gaps | Where you rank now and the searches you should be targeting |
You get a prioritised, plain-English report of exactly what to fix. If you'd rather not do it yourself, our team can fix it all for you afterwards.
Your free Google Business Profile audit
For a local trade, your Google Business Profile (still often called GMB, or Google My Business) can matter as much as your website. It's what customers see on Google Maps and in the map results at the top of a local search.
Our free Google Business Profile audit is free, takes about a minute and needs no card or account. You find your business, add up to three searches your customers really use, and your results build on screen as each check finishes. We also email you a copy.
Here's what it shows you:
Your Google Maps rank, at 25 points across your area for each keyword, on a heat map.
Who's beating you, meaning the businesses that take Google's top three spots most often, with their ratings and reviews.
Your Google Search position, where your website ranks in the normal results and who holds the map pack.
Your ChatGPT answer, whether ChatGPT recommends you when a customer asks, and who it names instead.
Google's AI answers, whether Google shows an AI Overview for your search and whether it cites your website.
Your AI readiness score, how easy your website is for AI assistants to read, with the quickest wins first.
The heat map is often the eye-opener. You might be first on your own street and much lower a mile away, which shows exactly where your next customers are searching.
If you're happy to, you can also connect your Google Business Profile for a deeper audit. It's read-only, so we never change anything, and it adds your calls, website clicks, direction requests, unanswered reviews and any missing profile details. You can disconnect at any time.
Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. Our guide to local search ranking factors explains what each one means for you.
A website health check is coming to your dashboard
We're building a website health check into the Auto-SEO dashboard. It will let you see your site's health at a glance, without waiting for a report or running a separate tool.
It's coming soon, and we'll let clients know as soon as it's ready. Until then, the free audit and the £49 full audit are the best way to see how your site is doing.
What a free SEO check can and can't tell you
A good website SEO checker is brilliant at finding technical faults. Missing page titles, slow pages, broken links and absent schema are all easy for a tool to spot and easy for you to fix.
What a tool can't judge is whether your pages actually help your customers. It can't tell whether your prices are clear, whether you cover the right towns, or whether a homeowner would trust you enough to pick up the phone.
Scores also differ from tool to tool, so don't chase a perfect number. A site scoring 100 can still sit on page three if it doesn't answer what people are searching for.
And a check is a snapshot of one day. Websites change, plugins update and pages get added, so it's worth checking again every few months.
What to do with your results
Start with anything that stops Google seeing your site at all. Pages that can't be indexed, or a robots.txt file blocking search engines, outweigh every other fix on the list.
Next, sort the quick wins: page titles, meta descriptions, headings and image descriptions. Each one takes minutes and helps Google and customers understand what you offer.
On your Google profile, check your categories, services, hours and photos are complete and correct. Then keep reviews coming in and reply to each one, as our guide to the benefits of Google reviews explains.
Bigger jobs, like speeding up a slow site, may need a web developer. Your audit report will point them straight to the problem, saving them time and you money.
Finally, keep adding helpful content. Fixing faults removes what's holding you back, but new pages that answer your customers' questions are what move you forward. For the full picture, read our website audit guide and checklist.
Frequently asked questions
Is a free SEO check really free?
Yes. Our Google Business Profile audit needs no card and no account. The free website audit is included when you start the 7-day £1 trial, and you can cancel any time.
What's the difference between the free audit and the £49 audit?
The free website audit with the trial focuses on your homepage and arrives within 5 minutes of payment. The £49 full audit checks your whole site, by hand and with professional tools, and arrives within 48 hours.
Why does the Google Business Profile audit ask for my website?
We use your website address to find your site in Google's results, check whether AI answers mention it and score how ready it is for AI assistants. Your Google listing is the main focus.
What if my business isn't on Google Maps yet?
You'll need a Google Business Profile to show on the map, and setting one up is free. Once it's live, you can run the audit and see where you stand.
Will a free SEO check improve my rankings?
Not on its own. A check shows you what's wrong, and the improvement comes from fixing it and adding helpful content over time. Anyone who promises a ranking from a check alone is overselling.
How often should I check my website?
Every few months is sensible, and again after any big change such as a new website, a new theme or a batch of new pages.
Ready to see what's holding your website back? Start your 7-day trial for £1, get your free website audit worth £49, and cancel any time. You can compare all three plans on our Auto-SEO plans and pricing page.
