An SEO audit sounds technical. It's actually a systematic process of asking one question in a lot of different ways: why isn't this website performing as well as it should in search?

‍

For nonprofits, that question matters more than people often realize. If new donors, volunteers, and partners can't find you through search, your mission is invisible to the people who haven't heard of you yet: and that's often the majority of your potential supporters.

‍

This guide walks through a complete nonprofit website SEO audit. Use it to evaluate your current site, identify the highest-priority fixes, and build a roadmap toward better search performance.

‍

‍

Before You Start: What You'll Need

Optional but useful:

‍

  • Semrush, Ahrefs, or Moz: for backlink data and competitive keyword analysis (paid tools with free trials)

‍

Section 1: Technical SEO Audit

Technical SEO is the foundation. Content and links won't perform well if the technical infrastructure is broken.

‍

‍

Crawlability

Check: Can Google crawl your site?

‍

Go to Google Search Console → Coverage → review for crawl errors. Any pages with errors (404s, server errors, redirect chains) need attention.

‍

Check: Is your robots.txt file correct?

‍

Visit yourorg.org/robots.txt. Verify that important pages aren't blocked from crawling. A common mistake: accidentally blocking all of /wp-admin/ and also blocking content pages.

‍

Check: Is your XML sitemap submitted and error-free?

‍

In Search Console → Sitemaps: verify your sitemap URL is submitted and shows no errors. Every important page should be in the sitemap. Redirected URLs, broken pages, and pages with noindex tags should not be.

‍

‍

Indexability

Check: Are your pages being indexed?

‍

In Search Console → Coverage → Indexed: review how many pages Google has indexed. Compare to how many pages you believe exist. Significant gaps indicate indexing issues.

‍

Check: Are any important pages accidentally set to noindex?

‍

Use Screaming Frog to crawl your site and filter for pages with noindex directives. Confirm these are intentional.

‍

Check: Are there duplicate content issues?

‍

Common culprits: www vs non-www versions of pages, HTTP vs HTTPS, trailing slash vs no trailing slash. Canonical tags should address these: verify they're set correctly.

‍

‍

Page Speed

Check: Mobile and desktop page speed

‍

Run Google PageSpeed Insights on your homepage, donation page, and two or three other key pages. Note the Core Web Vitals scores.

‍

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): under 2.5 seconds is good
  • Interaction to Next Paint (INP): under 200ms is good (note: INP replaced First Input Delay as a Core Web Vital in March 2024)
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): under 0.1 is good

Flag any pages that fail these thresholds. Common fixes: image compression, caching, reducing third-party scripts.

‍

‍

HTTPS and Security

Check: Is the entire site served over HTTPS?

‍

No pages should be served over HTTP. Check for mixed content warnings (HTTPS page loading HTTP resources) in Chrome DevTools → Console.

‍

‍

Mobile Usability

Check: Are there mobile usability errors?

‍

Search Console → Mobile Usability: review for reported issues (text too small, clickable elements too close together, content wider than screen).

‍

‍

Section 2: On-Page SEO Audit

‍

Title Tags

Check: Does every page have a unique, descriptive title tag?

‍

Use Screaming Frog to export all title tags. Review for:

‍

  • Missing titles (default to page/post name)
  • Duplicate titles (two different pages with the same title)
  • Titles over 60 characters (risk of truncation in search results)
  • Titles that don't include a primary keyword

‍

Meta Descriptions

Check: Does every page have a unique, compelling meta description?

‍

Export meta descriptions via Screaming Frog. Review for:

‍

  • Missing descriptions
  • Duplicate descriptions
  • Descriptions over 155 characters
  • Descriptions that don't include the primary keyword and a clear value statement

‍

Heading Structure

Check: Is heading hierarchy logical and correct?

‍

Every page should have exactly one H1 tag. H2s mark major sections. H3s mark subsections within H2s. Check that headings aren't being used for visual styling rather than structural meaning.

‍

‍

Content Quality

Check: Is each important page's content sufficient and focused?

‍

Google rewards content that genuinely answers the user's query comprehensively. For major pages (homepage, programs, about, donation page), review:

‍

  • Is the primary keyword present naturally in the content?
  • Is the content genuinely useful to a first-time visitor?
  • Is it free of grammatical errors and outdated information?

‍

Internal Links

Check: Are pages being linked internally with descriptive anchor text?

‍

Internal links distribute page authority throughout the site and help search engines understand content relationships. Review for:

‍

  • Important pages with few or no internal links pointing to them
  • Link text that says "click here" or "learn more" (non-descriptive) instead of describing the destination
  • Broken internal links (Screaming Frog will flag these)

‍

Image Optimization

Check: Do all meaningful images have descriptive alt text?

‍

Export images via Screaming Frog and filter for missing or empty alt text (note: decorative images should have empty alt text, not missing alt attributes).

‍

Also check: are images properly compressed? Run your pages through PageSpeed Insights and note any "Serve images in next-gen formats" or "Efficiently encode images" recommendations.

‍

‍

Section 3: Content Audit

‍

Existing Content Performance

Check: Which pages are driving the most organic traffic?

‍

In Google Analytics → Acquisition → Organic Search → Landing Pages: identify your top organic landing pages.

‍

In Search Console → Performance → Pages: see which pages get the most impressions and clicks.

‍

These are your highest-value pages. They should be:

‍

  • Properly optimized (title, meta, headings, internal links)
  • Regularly updated with current information
  • Prominently linked from the homepage and navigation

‍

Content Gaps

Check: What queries are you missing?

‍

In Search Console → Performance → Queries: look for queries where you're appearing in positions 11-30 (page 2-3 of results). These are near-misses where improved optimization could push you to page 1.

‍

Also look for queries your audience is clearly searching (using keyword research tools or by simply talking to your stakeholders) where you have no content at all. These are content creation opportunities.

‍

‍

Outdated Content

Check: Is there content that's out of date, inaccurate, or thin?

‍

Review blog posts and program pages for:

‍

  • Dates and statistics that need updating
  • Programs that have been discontinued but still have live pages
  • Very short pages (under 300 words) that may not provide enough value to rank

‍

Section 4: Technical Infrastructure Audit

‍

Redirect Audit

Check: Are there redirect chains or redirect loops?

‍

Screaming Frog → Response Codes → 3XX: review redirects. Chains (A → B → C → D) should be cleaned up to direct redirects (A → D). Loops (A → B → A) are errors that must be fixed.

‍

‍

404 Error Audit

Check: Are there broken pages returning 404 errors?

‍

Screaming Frog → Response Codes → 4XX: every 404 on a page that used to exist (and had links pointing to it) should have a 301 redirect to the most relevant current page.

‍

‍

Schema Markup

Check: Is relevant schema markup implemented?

‍

Schema markup helps search engines understand your content and can enable rich results in search. For nonprofits, relevant schema types include:

‍

  • Organization schema (name, logo, contact, social profiles)
  • Event schema for events
  • Article schema for blog posts
  • BreadcrumbList for page hierarchy

Test current implementation at Google's Rich Results Test.

‍

‍

Section 5: Off-Page Signals

‍

Backlink Profile

Check: What sites are linking to you?

‍

In Search Console → Links → External Links: review which sites are linking to yours and which pages they're linking to.

‍

Using Ahrefs, Moz, or Semrush free trials, export your full backlink profile and look for:

‍

  • High-authority sites linking to you (these are significant ranking signals)
  • Toxic or spammy links that may need disavowal
  • Link opportunities: organizations in your space that link to similar content but not to you

‍

Brand Mentions

Check: Is your organization being mentioned without links?

‍

Unlinked brand mentions are opportunities. A media outlet that wrote about your organization without linking to you can often be contacted to request a link retroactively.

‍

‍

The Complete Checklist

Technical SEO

‍

  • [ ] Google Search Console access: no crawl errors
  • [ ] robots.txt: no important pages blocked
  • [ ] XML sitemap: submitted and error-free
  • [ ] Pages indexed in Search Console match expected count
  • [ ] No important pages accidentally noindexed
  • [ ] Canonical tags set correctly for all URLs
  • [ ] PageSpeed: Core Web Vitals pass on mobile (LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1)
  • [ ] Entire site served over HTTPS, no mixed content
  • [ ] No mobile usability errors in Search Console

On-Page SEO

‍

  • [ ] Every page has a unique title tag (under 60 chars, includes primary keyword)
  • [ ] Every page has a unique meta description (under 155 chars)
  • [ ] Every page has exactly one H1 containing the primary keyword
  • [ ] Heading hierarchy is logical (H1 → H2 → H3)
  • [ ] Internal links use descriptive anchor text
  • [ ] No broken internal links
  • [ ] All meaningful images have descriptive alt text

Content

‍

  • [ ] Top organic landing pages are optimized and current
  • [ ] Queries in positions 11-30 identified for optimization
  • [ ] Content gaps identified and mapped to blog topics
  • [ ] Outdated or thin content flagged for update or removal

Technical Infrastructure

‍

  • [ ] No redirect chains (all redirects are direct)
  • [ ] No redirect loops
  • [ ] All 404 errors on previously-indexed pages have 301 redirects
  • [ ] Organization schema markup implemented
  • [ ] Schema tested in Google Rich Results Test

Off-Page

‍

  • [ ] Backlink profile reviewed for quality and opportunities
  • [ ] Unlinked brand mentions identified for outreach

‍

What to Do With Your Audit Results

Prioritize fixes in this order:

‍

  1. Critical technical errors: Crawl errors, broken redirects, HTTPS issues. These are blocking Google from properly indexing your site.
  2. High-traffic page optimization: Fix title tags, meta descriptions, and on-page content for your top-performing organic pages first.
  3. Content gap execution: Create the content that addresses queries you're missing entirely.
  4. Schema markup: Once the basics are clean, schema adds enhanced search result features.
  5. Link building: The longest timeline, but significant for competitive keywords.

‍

When You Need Professional Help

A DIY SEO audit using this checklist will surface the most important issues on most nonprofit websites. But some situations call for professional support:

‍

  • You're planning a platform migration and need a pre/post migration strategy
  • You've experienced a significant ranking drop and can't identify the cause
  • You've completed the technical basics and need a content strategy built around keyword research
  • Your site is large (500+ pages) and the audit scope exceeds what's manageable in-house

Related: Nonprofit Website SEO: How to Get Found Without a Big Ad Budget → · How to Build a Nonprofit Website on WordPress (Step-by-Step) →

‍

Talk to us about a professional SEO audit for your nonprofit →

‍

Wandr. SEO isn't an afterthought: it's infrastructure. See our nonprofit services →

‍