What free tools can I use to check my website's SEO health?

Essential free SEO tools: Google Search Console (index coverage, search performance, Core Web Vitals), Google PageSpeed Insights (performance scores), Bing Webmaster Tools (Bing-specific data), Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs for crawl analysis), Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free backlink and keyword data for your own sites), and browser-based tools for checking DNS, HTTP headers, meta tags, and page size.

What should I check first in an SEO health audit?

Start with the fundamentals: (1) Is HTTPS properly configured with no mixed content? (2) Does Google Search Console show index coverage errors? (3) Are canonical tags correct on all pages? (4) Is the sitemap submitted and returning 200? (5) Are Core Web Vitals passing? (6) Are there any manual actions or security issues in GSC? Fix these before worrying about keywords or backlinks.

How do I check if my pages are indexed by Google?

Use Google Search Console's Coverage report for a complete picture. For individual pages, use the URL Inspection tool in GSC — it shows whether the page is indexed, when it was last crawled, and any issues. You can also search "site:yourdomain.com" in Google to see a rough count of indexed pages, though this is not always accurate for large sites.

What are Core Web Vitals and do they affect rankings?

Core Web Vitals are Google's metrics for page experience: LCP (Largest Contentful Paint — loading speed), INP (Interaction to Next Paint — responsiveness), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift — visual stability). Google confirmed they are ranking factors in 2021. Pages that pass all three thresholds (LCP <2.5s, INP <200ms, CLS <0.1) get a small ranking boost, especially in competitive niches.

How to Check Your Website's SEO Health Without Paying for Tools

Why You Do Not Need a $200/Month SEO Tool for Basic Audits#

Enterprise SEO platforms like Semrush, Ahrefs, and Moz provide immense value for competitive keyword research and backlink analysis. But the foundational technical SEO checks — are my meta tags correct, is my schema markup valid, does Googlebot see my robots.txt correctly, is my sitemap clean — require no subscription. Google itself publishes free tools (Search Console, PageSpeed Insights) and the underlying standards (schema.org, Sitemaps protocol) are open. A systematic audit using free tools catches the majority of technical SEO issues that actually affect rankings: missing titles, duplicate descriptions, blocked crawl paths, invalid structured data, and oversized pages.

Checking Meta Tags: Title, Description, and Open Graph#

Meta tags are the most fundamental on-page SEO element. The Meta Tag Checker at allio.tools/meta-tag-checker/ reads any URL's title tag, meta description, Open Graph tags (og:title, og:description, og:image), Twitter card tags, canonical URL, and robots directives. Check each page type — homepage, category pages, individual product/tool/post pages — rather than just the homepage. Common issues found: title tags over 60 characters (Google truncates them); missing or duplicate meta descriptions; og:image pointing to an image under 200×200 px (which won't display on social shares); canonical pointing to a 404 URL. Fix these before any other SEO activity.

Validating Schema Markup for Rich Results#

Schema markup (structured data in JSON-LD format) is how you communicate page content directly to search engines in a machine-readable way. Correct schema enables rich results — star ratings, FAQ dropdowns, breadcrumbs, recipe cards — which increase click-through rates by 20–30% in search results. The Schema Markup Validator at allio.tools/schema-markup-validator/ checks any URL's structured data against schema.org specifications, identifying missing required properties, incorrect value types, and deprecated fields. Google's own Rich Results Test (search.google.com/test/rich-results) complements this by showing which rich result types your schema qualifies for.

Testing robots.txt: What You Are Accidentally Blocking#

Robots.txt is a plain text file at your domain root that tells search engine crawlers which URLs they should not access. Mistakes in robots.txt are among the most damaging SEO errors because a single misconfiguration can block Googlebot from an entire section of your site — or block it from the CSS and JavaScript files it needs to render your pages. The Robots.txt Tester at allio.tools/robots-txt-tester/ fetches your robots.txt and lets you test any URL against it to see whether it would be allowed or blocked. Test every important URL type: homepage, category pages, individual content pages, CSS files, JS files. Blocking CSS and JS is a very common mistake that prevents Google from seeing how your pages look.

Validating Your Sitemap for Errors Google Cannot Tell You About#

XML sitemaps help search engines discover pages they might not find through crawling alone and understand your content's priority structure. The Sitemap Validator at allio.tools/sitemap-validator/ checks your sitemap's XML syntax, confirms all listed URLs are accessible (returning 200 OK), flags URLs returning 301 redirects (which should be updated to the final URL), and identifies any URLs blocked by robots.txt. A sitemap that lists redirected or blocked URLs is actively confusing to search engines — it suggests those pages are important while simultaneously preventing access to them. Submit your sitemap in Google Search Console and check its coverage report weekly after any major site changes.

Page Size and Load Time: The Technical SEO Floor#

Google's Core Web Vitals — specifically Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) — are confirmed ranking factors. Pages that load slowly or shift layout as content arrives are penalised in rankings and abandoned by users. The Page Size Checker at allio.tools/page-size-checker/ measures the total file size of any URL, identifying bloated pages before you investigate further. For context: Google recommends keeping total page weight under 1.6 MB; pages under 500 KB load in under one second on average mobile connections. Images are usually the largest contributor — a single uncompressed photograph can exceed an entire page's ideal total weight. Run the check on your five highest-traffic pages.

Keyword Density: Finding the Right Balance#

Keyword density — the percentage of a page's total word count represented by a target keyword — is a basic on-page signal. The Keyword Density Checker at allio.tools/keyword-density-checker/ analyses any URL and shows the top keywords by frequency and their density percentages. Optimal keyword density for primary terms is typically 1–3%; above 4–5% is considered over-optimisation (keyword stuffing) and can trigger ranking penalties. But density is a secondary concern — primary keywords should appear naturally in the title tag, H1, the first paragraph, and at least one H2 heading. If your keyword appears naturally in those locations, density will usually fall into a sensible range without any artificial manipulation.

Building a Monthly SEO Audit Routine#

A practical monthly routine that takes under 30 minutes: check Google Search Console for new crawl errors, coverage drops, or manual actions (free; provides ground truth from Google's own data); run five important URLs through the Meta Tag Checker for title and description accuracy; validate schema markup on one key page type; check robots.txt with one URL from each main content type; verify sitemap submission status in Search Console; run the Page Size Checker on your top landing page. Log each check's result in a simple spreadsheet. Trends matter more than individual snapshots: a page size that grows by 200 KB month over month is a performance regression waiting to become a problem.