Downloadable SEO Audit Template for Landing Page Owners

Hook: Your launch page looks good — but does it rank and convert?

Most marketing teams launch pages that look polished and still underperform. The problems aren’t always design or creative — they’re technical glitches, mismatched search intent, thin copy, and weak link signals that kill traffic and conversions. This guide gives you a ready-to-use SEO audit template and a practical landing page checklist (spreadsheet-ready) designed for launch marketers. It covers technical checks, content audits, link analysis, and a simple prioritization matrix so you can ship fixes fast and measure impact.

Why this matters in 2026

Search in late 2025–2026 shifted deeper toward entity-first relevance, stronger signals for content provenance, and stricter quality assessment of AI-produced content. At the same time, page performance expectations (beyond the original Core Web Vitals) now demand sub-second interactive experiences for mobile launch pages. Privacy-driven attribution changes increased reliance on first-party telemetry — which makes technical and measurement hygiene non-negotiable for launch success. That’s why a targeted audit template for landing pages is now a strategic asset.

What you’ll get in this article

• A breakdown of the downloadable spreadsheet columns and how to use them
• A compact landing page checklist for quick triage
• Step-by-step audit workflow using popular tools (crawlers, Lighthouse, GSC, link tools)
• A simple prioritization formula and matrix to schedule fixes
• Actionable examples and recommended post-fix experiments

What the downloadable spreadsheet contains (structure & intent)

The template is optimized for launch pages and campaign funnels — concise, non-technical where possible, and built for rapid handoffs. Copy these columns into Google Sheets or Excel to recreate the file:

1. Page URL — canonical URL audited.
2. Page Type — launch home, signup, pricing, feature, blog support page.
3. Target Keyword / Intent — primary keyword + user intent (commercial, informational, navigational).
4. Search Intent Match (Yes/No) — if content satisfies intent.
5. Meta Title — current title (for quick edits).
6. Meta Description.
7. H1 — top heading text.
8. Content Word Count.
9. Entity/NLP Notes — key entities present (product names, benefits, related topics).
10. Schema Type — product, FAQ, FAQ+Q&A, none.
11. Canonical & Rel=prev/next — correct and present?
12. Mobile LCP (ms) — from PageSpeed/Lighthouse.
13. CLS — cumulative layout shift score.
14. INP / TTFB — interaction timing and server response.
15. Indexed (GSC) — yes/no and last crawl date.
16. Internal Links — count & quality (anchor relevance).
17. Backlinks — referring domains & quality (Ahrefs/Moz).
18. Toxic Score — spammy link flag from your link tool.
19. GA4 Conversions — conversions and conversion rate (last 30 days).
20. Issue Summary — 1-line diagnosis (duplicate title, thin content, slow LCP).
21. Impact (1–5) — expected traffic/conversion lift if fixed.
22. Effort (1–5) — dev or content time estimate.
23. Confidence (1–3) — how sure you are about the impact estimate.
24. Priority Score — formula column. (See prioritization below.)
25. Owner, Due date, Status.

Practical checklist for rapid landing-page triage

Use this landing page checklist to triage new launch pages in under 30 minutes. Each item maps to a spreadsheet column so you can fill audit rows quickly.

• Technical checks
  • Confirm canonical and noindex tags — ensure the launch page is indexable.
  • Run Lighthouse / PageSpeed Insights mobile — record LCP, CLS, INP.
  • Verify server response and CDN — TTFB under 600ms targeted for launch pages.
  • Check robots.txt and sitemap inclusion.
  • Verify schema for product and FAQ where appropriate.
  • Confirm hreflang for multi-region launches.
• Content checks
  • Does the title and H1 match user intent and contain the target phrase?
  • Is there a clear hero value proposition (one sentence) above the fold?
  • Content depth: >300 words for landing pages with commercial intent; more for complex features.
  • Entity coverage: list prominent product/benefit entities the page must mention.
  • CTA clarity and technical setup (forms, tracking pixels, GA4 events, server-side conversion APIs).
  • Check for duplicate content across campaign variants.
• Link analysis
  • Count referring domains and identify top backlinks to the page or root domain.
  • Flag risky backlinks or spammy patterns for disavow if necessary.
  • Audit internal linking — are primary pages linked from the nav or campaign hub?

Step-by-step audit workflow (fast path for launch teams)

Follow this workflow to populate the spreadsheet and produce an action plan in a single working session.

1. Data collection (30–60 minutes)
   • Run one page through PageSpeed Insights mobile and Desktop. Record LCP, CLS, INP.
   • Fetch URL in Google Search Console (URL Inspection) to check index status and last crawl.
   • Crawl the page with Screaming Frog for meta tags, canonicals, and response codes.
   • Pull backlink snapshot using Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush (referring domains, top anchor text).
   • Open GA4 to get conversion metrics for the past 30–90 days; if new launch, use bench metrics.
2. Rapid content audit (20–40 minutes)
   • Evaluate headline, hero proposition, and CTA. Is it aligned to the paid/ad creative?
   • Scan for entity coverage and topical depth. Add missing entity targets to the spreadsheet.
   • Use a snippet of the content to run through an AI content-quality check if you rely on AI — flag low-provenance content that needs human review in 2026.
3. Link triage (15 minutes)
   • Sort backlinks by DR/referring domains and flag any toxic-looking links for review.
   • Add internal link opportunities: where can you add 1–2 contextual links from high-traffic pages?
4. Populate impact/effort/confidence and compute priority (10 minutes) — see matrix below.
5. Action plan & sprint handoff
   • Create tasks in your project tool (Jira/Asana) from high-priority rows — include test hypothesis and expected metric lift.
   • Schedule QA checks post-deploy: render tests across browsers and Lighthouse re-checks.

How to prioritize: a simple, effective formula

Complex scoring systems rarely get used. Use a lightweight formula that’s easy to explain and enforce with stakeholders.

Priority Score = (Impact × Confidence) / Effort

Scale definitions:

• Impact (1–5) — How much traffic or conversion downside does this issue cause? 5 = severe loss.
• Confidence (1–3) — How sure are you about the impact estimate? 3 = high confidence (data-backed).
• Effort (1–5) — Dev + design + QA cost. 1 = trivial, 5 = major engineering work.

Sort descending by Priority Score. Typical cutoffs we use at landings.us:

• Priority Score ≥ 6: Ship ASAP within the launch sprint.
• 3 ≤ Priority Score < 6: Plan in next sprint (validate A/B tests possible).
• Score < 3: Backlog or monitor.

Example

Page: /launch/ai-assistant — Issue: LCP 4.2s (slow hero image delivery). Impact 4, Confidence 3, Effort 2 → Priority = (4 × 3) / 2 = 6 — ship fix now (optimize images + critical CSS inline).

Technical checks: what to fix first

For launch pages, most traffic loss is recoverable with a few high-leverage technical fixes. Prioritize these:

• Hero LCP optimization — inline critical CSS, preload hero image, serve next-gen formats (AVIF/WebP) via CDN, and use server-side rendering for the hero where possible.
• Reduce JavaScript main-thread work — defer non-critical bundles, use code-splitting for analytics scripts, and adopt server-side measurement (Conversions API) for stable analytics under privacy restrictions.
• Fix crawlability & indexability — ensure no unintended noindex, correct canonicals, and sitemap presence.
• Implement minimal structured data — add Product and FAQ schema to improve SERP real estate for launches. (See our entity-first optimization notes.)
• Form and tracking reliability — QA form submissions and ensure GA4/Server-side events fire (critical for attribution).

Content audit: make launch pages useful to search and people

Landing pages must match both ad creative and searcher intent. For launch pages, that often means balancing short, persuasive copy above the fold and richer supporting content lower on the page. Use this checklist:

• Does the top fold answer: what this product does, for whom, and what to do next? If no, rewrite headline and supporting sentence.
• Add 3–5 entity-rich bullet points covering features, benefits, and use cases (helps entity-based search).
• Ensure unique title and meta description for each campaign variant (avoid duplicate titles across A/B test variants).
• Include customer proof that’s indexable (text testimonials, not just images).
• For complex launches, add a short FAQ (structured data) answering the common pre-purchase questions — Google increasingly surfaces FAQ results in 2026.

Link analysis: fast wins for trust and visibility

Link signals still matter, especially for new product pages. But for launches you want quick wins, not a link-building overhaul.

• Add internal links from high-traffic assets (blog, docs, pricing) — one or two contextual links can accelerate indexation and signal importance.
• Request one external mention from partner sites or PR pickups — a single high-quality referring domain can improve discovery for a campaign.
• Disavow obvious spammy links only when they affect rankings — most small launch pages don’t need aggressive disavowal. If you suspect link noise, follow an outage & recovery playbook that includes communication and remediation steps.
• Monitor anchor text diversity — include brand + product and commercial anchors conservatively to avoid manual signal noise.

Post-fix validation & experiments

After you implement fixes, validate impact with measurable tests and experiments:

• Re-run Lighthouse and record delta for LCP/CLS/INP before and after.
• Use GA4 event funnels and server-side conversion events to measure lift in completed signups or MQLs.
• Run an A/B test when content or CTA changes are major. Hypothesis, metric (conversion rate), sample size, and run time must be documented in the spreadsheet row for the change.
• Track SERP visibility using the target keyword and impressions in GSC; expect 3–8 weeks for indexation signals to stabilize for new pages.

“In our 2025–2026 launches at landings.us, fixing a handful of technical issues + aligning the hero copy to ad creative yielded a median 28–40% boost in conversion rate within two weeks.”

Integrating the template into your launch workflow

To make the template operational across teams, follow these implementation tips:

• Embed the spreadsheet in your campaign playbook and require an audit row per launch page in the pre-launch checklist.
• Designate an SEO owner and an engineering owner for each high-priority row — no ambiguous accountability.
• Use webhooks or automation (Zapier, Make) to create tasks in your project tracker from new high-priority rows.
• Archive audit snapshots before a major launch so you can A/B test changes and reliably roll back if needed.

Advanced strategies & 2026 trends to plan for

As search continues to evolve, keep these strategies on your roadmap:

• Entity-first optimization: map product attributes and related entities in your keyword matrix so landing pages reflect the topical graph search engines expect.
• Content provenance: publish author or brand verification notes for AI-assisted content — content provenance and AI annotations are becoming a ranking signal.
• Server-side measurement: reduce client-side pixel load and improve data reliability by adopting server-side conversion APIs for key launch events.
• Performance budgets for marketing: set strict LCP and INP budgets for campaign pages; marketing code should never breach them. Consider edge-first, cost-aware strategies to stay within budgets.
• Automated readiness checks: integrate automated Lighthouse checks and link snapshots into your CI pipeline for preview environments — see our notes on DevOps and automated playtests.

Quick wins checklist (copyable)

• Preload hero image + use next-gen format.
• Shorten meta title to 50–60 chars; include primary keyword.
• Ensure H1 is unique and aligns with ad creative.
• Add 1 contextual internal link from a high-traffic page.
• Enable server-side form submission and event logging for a reliable conversion signal.

Final takeaways

Landing pages for launches demand a different, faster kind of SEO audit: focused, action-oriented, and integrated into the marketing sprint. Use the downloadable spreadsheet structure above to triage issues quickly, then apply the simple prioritization matrix to decide what to fix first. In 2026, technical performance, content provenance, and entity alignment are the dominant ranking levers — optimize them early in your launch process to win organic visibility and conversions.

Call to action

Ready to cut launch friction? Download the complete SEO audit template and the one-page landing page checklist from our template library and start your next launch with a data-backed audit. Prefer hands-on help? Book a 30-minute launch audit with our team — we’ll populate your first spreadsheet and hand you a prioritized action plan you can implement this sprint.

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