How to test your website’s SEO for free (step by step)

Testing your SEO means measuring how well your site is understood by search engines and AI search. This guide walks through what a free SEO assessment checks and how to check each item, step by step.

Why should you test your SEO?

Your page may look great, but a search engine reads it differently: it evaluates technical signals like the title tag, URL structure, mobile-friendliness and structured data. An SEO test surfaces the gaps in these invisible signals, so you move on evidence rather than guesswork.

What does an SEO test check?

A thorough assessment checks seven areas:

How do you test each one for free?

1. Technical SEO: In the page source, confirm there is a single <title>, one <h1> and a meta name="description". Make sure the address starts with https.
2. Content: Check that the H1 carries the main topic, subtopics are H2s, and your audience’s questions are answered.
3. Links: Review that internal links work and use descriptive text instead of "click here".
4. Images: Make sure every meaningful image has ALT text.
5. Schema: Look for at least one JSON-LD block (Organization/LocalBusiness) in the head.
6. Performance: Measure speed and Core Web Vitals with Google PageSpeed Insights.

The fast way: all of it in one scan

Instead of checking all seven areas one by one, enter your URL in UC SEO Audit; in 60 seconds you get your SEO, GEO, Schema and Performance scores plus your issues sorted by priority. No sign-up required.

What to do with the results

Read the scores as a compass, not a target: close the critical findings first, then the medium ones. For reading and prioritizing findings see the reading the findings guide, and for AI-search readiness see the what is GEO guide.