It’s hard not to look for the basic elements of SEO when first introduced to a site. I look if they have a robots.txt, a sitemap, if their meta fields are completed and what their keyword density is pretty much right away (the SEOQuake plugin is great for this).
What I do with that information? Sometimes I’m just looking for interest and will never tell the person who shared the site. Other times I’ll do a detailed analysis just to keep my skills sharp. BrandiMae shared one of her recent projects with me and I think I’ll do a full SEO analysis. I’ll probably share it too!
Image lifted from www.seoquake.com