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OnPageIQ Documentation

SEO Audit

Updated · Aug 16, 2026

Site-wide SEO audit dashboard with crawl status, scores, and deep-dive sub-routes.

What changed

The SSL/HTTPS portion of the audit now actually runs. It had been resolving the site's address from a column that does not exist, so it silently found nothing on every audit and the absence of certificate findings read as a clean result. Audits run from now on report certificate, HTTP→HTTPS redirect, and mixed-content findings; a site that has been audited before may show SSL issues for the first time without anything having changed on it.

User goal

Run and monitor SEO audits; review H1 fold evidence; navigate to errors, duplicates, and technical sub-pages.

Tier
Pro+
Nav label
SEO Audit
Route
/projects/{project}/seo
Gates
seo-audit

Prerequisites

  • seo-audit tier/flag
  • URLs in project
  • Queue for audit jobs

QA focus

  • Audit jobs complete
  • Sub-routes middleware seo-audit
  • Scores consistent with issue counts
  • H1 Fold tab empty states match org flags

Overview

SEO Audit is the project hub for search health: run or re-run an audit, see a health score, and work Issues, H1 Fold, and Duplicates from one place — with deeper surfaces for errors, anchor text, canonicals, robots.txt, llm.txt, and Keyword Opportunities when that add-on is active.

What you get

  • An overview of the latest audit run, health score, and start/re-run controls
  • H1 Fold Analysis chips that deep-link into the annotated screenshot gallery
  • Tabs and sub-pages for issues, fold evidence, duplicates, and technical SEO files
  • SSL/HTTPS findings on the site's certificate and how it serves HTTPS
  • The H1 Fold gallery when Rendered Performance and Rendered Fold Measurement are on for the org (see the H1 Fold guide)

SSL and HTTPS

The audit checks the certificate on your homepage's domain and how the site handles HTTPS, and files what it finds alongside the other issues:

  • The certificate itself — expired, expiring within 30 days (7 days raises the severity), invalid, an incomplete chain, or issued for a different hostname than the one you serve
  • HTTP → HTTPS — whether plain HTTP redirects to HTTPS at all, whether it does so permanently (a temporary redirect is flagged), and whether it takes more than one hop
  • Mixed content — HTTPS pages that pull scripts, styles, or images over plain HTTP, which browsers block or downgrade

These checks need a crawled homepage to work from — if the crawl produced no homepage node, the audit has no address to test and reports nothing rather than guessing.

How it works

  • Open SEO on the project and start or re-run an audit (jobs run in the background)
  • Triage findings from the dashboard tabs; open Canonicals or other guides for specialized workflows
  • Re-run after fixes to refresh scores and evidence

Common issues & false alarms

  • Audit stuck if crawl job fails
  • Sub-route 403 when flag off
  • Empty H1 Fold gallery when rendered-performance / rendered-fold-measurement are off
  • SSL findings appearing on a site that has been audited before is expected — those checks were not running until 2026-08-16, so their first real run looks like a regression and is not one
  • No SSL findings at all usually means the crawl never recorded a homepage, not that the certificate is healthy

Interactive guide

Step of

All steps (reference)

  1. Step 1. SEO audit dashboard

    Overview of latest audit run, health score, H1 Fold Analysis chips, and start/re-run controls.

    What to do: Open projects.seo

    Where: projects.seo

    SEO audit dashboard

    Expected (pass)

    • Dashboard 200 on Pro+
    • Run audit dispatches jobs
    • H1 Fold Analysis chips deep-link to the gallery

    Negative cases (must fail safely)

    • Free tier → upgrade or limited checks
  2. Step 2. Review H1 Fold evidence

    Open the H1 Fold tab to browse paired desktop/mobile annotated screenshots, inspect in lightbox, and triage with notes. Requires rendered measurement flags — details in the H1 Fold guide.

    What to do: Open projects.seo → H1 Fold tab (?tab=fold)

    Where: projects.seo

    Review H1 Fold evidence

    Expected (pass)

    • Gallery shows measured pages when flags on and audit ran
    • Honest empty state when flags off or captures failed

    Negative cases (must fail safely)

    • Flags off → empty state explains how to enable
  3. Step 3. Crawl errors sub-route

    HTTP errors, redirect chains, and broken links from audit crawl.

    What to do: Navigate to projects.seo-audit.errors

    Where: projects.seo-audit.errors

    Crawl errors sub-route

    Expected (pass)

    • EnsureFeaturesAreActive seo-audit
    • Error table populated after crawl

    Negative cases (must fail safely)

    • Direct URL without flag → 403
  4. Step 4. Anchor text analysis

    Internal/external anchor distribution and over-optimization flags.

    What to do: projects.seo-audit.anchor-text

    Where: projects.seo-audit.anchor-text

    Anchor text analysis

    Expected (pass)

    • Charts/tables load
    • Links scoped to project crawl
  5. Step 5. Canonicals review

    Open Search & Visibility → Canonicals (or the SEO/Metadata deep-links). Review dual-source health, open issue details in the slide-over, and optionally connect GSC. Full walkthrough: the Canonicals guide.

    What to do: projects.seo-audit.canonical (also linked from SEO overview + Metadata)

    Where: projects.seo-audit.canonical

    Canonicals review

    Expected (pass)

    • Overview/issues/chains/map/rules tabs load
    • Details opens a slide-over (not a modal)
    • GSC banner shows inspection coverage when connected

    Negative cases (must fail safely)

    • seo-audit flag off → 403
    • Map tab hidden when canonical-map is deactivated for the org
  6. Step 6. Review SSL/HTTPS findings

    Certificate expiry and validity, HTTP→HTTPS redirect behaviour, and mixed content, filed with the rest of the audit issues.

    What to do: Filter the issue list by the SSL/HTTPS category after an audit completes

    Where: projects.seo

    Expected (pass)

    • Certificate findings reference the homepage domain
    • A site with no crawled homepage produces no SSL findings rather than a false all-clear

    Negative cases (must fail safely)

    • Crawl produced no homepage node → no SSL issues recorded
  7. Step 7. Technical files (robots & AI crawlers)

    Manage robots.txt and llm.txt recommendations.

    What to do: Visit robots-txt and llm-txt managers

    Where: projects.seo-audit.robots-txt

    Technical files (robots & AI crawlers)

    Expected (pass)

    • Both routes 200 with seo-audit
    • Save persists project-scoped config

    Negative cases (must fail safely)

    • Invalid robots syntax → validation warning

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