Specialist SEO
SEO Audit Services That End With What to Fix First
Most audits list everything that is wrong with a site. Mine rank what is actually costing you traffic and enquiries, explain why, and hand your team an order of work they can start on the following Monday.
- years in SEO
- 6+
- client websites worked on
- 60+
- person doing the work
- 1
Why so many SEO audits end up unread
My SEO audit is a fixed-scope review of your technical health, content, links, local presence and measurement that ends in a ranked list of what to fix first. I have read plenty of audits that ran to ninety pages and changed nothing. The problem was never a shortage of findings. It was that a missing alt attribute and a noindex tag on the main service page sat in the same bullet list, at the same font size, with the same red icon next to them. When everything is flagged as urgent, nobody can tell what is.
A useful SEO audit answers three questions in this order: what is holding the site back, how much each problem is likely to be costing, and what should be done first. The crawl exports, screenshots and long tail of minor warnings are supporting evidence, and they belong in an appendix.
That is the standard I hold my own audits to. The first page you read is a ranked list of the handful of things that matter most, in plain English, with the reason each one made the list.
Key takeaways
- An audit is only worth paying for if it changes what your team does next week. Findings without an order of work are noise.
- I review six layers - technical foundations, content and intent, architecture and internal links, authority, local presence and measurement - because traffic problems rarely live in just one.
- Every finding is scored for impact against effort and assigned an owner, so developers, writers and marketers each get their own list.
- Your own data comes first: Search Console, analytics and enquiry records beat any crawler score as evidence of what matters.
- The audit is a fixed-scope project with an end date. Ongoing technical work, content production and link campaigns are separate pieces of work, scoped only if you need them.
What's included in my SEO audit services
Seven review layers, each answering one question, and a ranked shortlist at the end. We agree the depth of each layer before I start: a single-location practice gets more local review and less log analysis, a large catalogue the reverse.
Technical foundations - can search engines reach, render and index your key pages?
A full crawl, checked against the Search Console indexing reports, the rendered HTML of key templates and, where you can supply them, server logs. The question is deliberately narrow: are the pages that earn money being found and indexed? Months of rendering or crawl work is scoped separately under technical SEO.
- Indexing and canonical conflicts on money pages
- Rendered output compared with source HTML
- Leftovers from the last rebuild: missing redirects, staging hostnames
- Log file review on larger sites
Content and search intent review for the pages meant to win enquiries
For each important page I compare the queries it actually earns with what the live results reward. Service pages that repeat a phrase but never cover price approach, process, timescales or proof show up here, as do blog posts that pick up the commercial query. Follow-up work sits under content strategy.
- Query-to-page match from Search Console
- Live results review for core query groups
- Keep, merge or rewrite call for each important page
Keyword coverage and cannibalisation checks across your query groups
Mapping queries to URLs exposes two problems: valuable query groups that no page owns, and several pages fighting over one query so none holds a top position. Both are cheap to spot and often cheap to fix with a merge, a redirect or a clearer brief. New research is a job for keyword research.
- Query-to-URL map from Search Console and rank data
- Cannibalising page sets with a merge or split call
- Gaps where a new page is justified
Site architecture and internal links - is authority reaching the right pages?
Crawl depth, inlink counts and the navigation show whether links send authority to the pages that make money. Location pages reachable only from the sitemap and service pages buried several clicks deep are regular finds. Fixes are written so your developer or on-page SEO work can pick them up.
- Orphaned and deeply buried pages
- Inlinks to commercial pages compared with blog posts
- Navigation and hub page review
Backlink profile reviewed against the sites holding the positions you want
Referring domains, their quality and anchor patterns are compared with the competitors outranking you. The verdict is one of three: links are a strength, a gap worth closing or a risk to manage. Campaign work, if you need it, follows through link building or wider off-page SEO.
- Referring domain gap by source type
- Anchor and placement patterns that look bought
- Old URLs with links that now return a 404
Local presence checks for businesses that serve a defined area
Where you serve an area, I review your Business Profile, map pack visibility for core terms, a sample of citations and the location pages themselves. Inconsistent names, categories and addresses are common and easy to fix once someone owns them. Ongoing map pack work is scoped under local SEO.
- Business Profile categories, services and details
- Map pack checks for core terms
- Citation consistency sample
A measurement check so every fix is judged on numbers you can trust
Before any fix can be judged, the numbers have to be right. I check that Search Console and GA4 are set up sensibly and that enquiries are really being recorded, because key events firing on page load and duplicate tags are common. If the setup needs proper work, that moves to a GA4 audit.
- Search Console property and coverage
- GA4 key events compared with real enquiries
- Duplicate or missing tags
A ranked shortlist, a 90-day order of work and a recorded walkthrough
Everything ends up in one document with a one-page ranked shortlist at the front and detailed findings behind it. Each finding is scored for impact, effort and dependency and given an owner type - developer, writer, marketer or you - with implementation notes written for your platform.
- One-page shortlist backed by detailed evidence
- 90-day order of work: quick fixes, structural changes, parked items
- Recorded walkthrough with your team
- A follow-up window for questions while fixes ship
Experience
SEO Audit from someone who has done it many times
You work with me from the first call to the last report. No account managers, no hand-offs to a junior team.
Book a free call- years in SEO
- 6+
- client websites worked on
- 60+
- documented case studies
- 35
When an audit is the right next step
An audit earns its cost when you need an independent view before committing budget, or when something has gone wrong and nobody can say why.
Traffic has flattened or slipped
Rankings that crept up for years and then stopped, or a slow decline with no obvious trigger. The cause is usually several things at once, and an audit separates them.
A sudden drop you cannot explain
A core update, a plugin change, a Friday developer push. I line the drop up against releases, algorithm dates and indexing changes to find what actually moved.
You are about to invest in SEO
Before you hire a writer, sign a retainer or commit a developer sprint, a baseline tells you which of those the site needs first, and which it does not need at all.
Leads are down but traffic is not
Sessions look healthy while enquiries fall. That points to pages ranking for the wrong intent, tracking that stopped firing, or landing pages that rank but do not persuade. An audit looks at all three.
A redesign is coming
If a rebuild is already planned, the audit becomes the input to it. If the launch date is set and URLs are changing, you need SEO migration support as well, because the risks are different.
A tool report versus an audit you can act on
Crawlers are part of my toolkit. The difference is what happens between the export and the document you receive.
Automated site score export
- Hundreds of warnings sorted by the tool's own severity labels
- A health score that rises when you fix trivial issues and ignores serious ones the tool cannot see
- No idea which pages earn revenue, so a broken contact page and a broken tag archive look identical
- Generic fix text copied from the tool's help pages
- Nothing on intent, content quality, competitors or whether your tracking works
My audit
- A ranked shortlist up front, with the rest grouped as supporting evidence
- Severity judged by commercial impact on the pages that bring in enquiries or sales
- Findings checked by hand, so false positives never reach your developers
- Fixes written for the person who will ship them, on the platform you actually run
- Intent, content, competitors and measurement reviewed alongside the technical layer
Free review
Get a free SEO Audit review
Send me your site. Before the call I look at your rankings and pages, then tell you what I would fix first and what it is likely worth.
How the audit runs from kickoff to walkthrough
Most audits take three to five weeks from access to walkthrough.
- 1
Kickoff and access
A short call about your goals, your best-selling services or products, what has already been tried, and any history such as migrations, penalties or agency changes. I ask for read access to Search Console, analytics and, where possible, your CMS.
- 2
Data first, crawl second
I start with your own data: which pages earn clicks, which queries have slipped, where enquiries come from. That tells me where to look before the crawler produces thousands of rows that all look equally important.
- 3
Layer-by-layer review
Each layer gets examined against the evidence. Anything that looks serious gets reproduced by hand - the rendered page, the live result, the redirect response - before it goes into the findings.
- 4
Competitor and results check
For your most valuable query groups I review who ranks, what kind of page wins and what those sites have that yours lacks. Gaps in content depth and authority usually become obvious here.
- 5
Scoring and ordering
Every finding is scored for likely impact, effort and dependency, then grouped by owner into an order of work: the first fortnight, what follows, and what can wait.
- 6
Walkthrough and handover
A recorded call with everyone who will do the work. I go through the shortlist and adjust the order where your team knows something I do not, such as a release freeze or a platform limitation.
Excerpt from a findings shortlist
A simplified version of the first page of a typical audit for a service business. Each row links to a detailed write-up with evidence and implementation notes.
| Finding | Layer | Why it matters | Effort | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main service pages canonicalised to a parameter version after a theme update | Technical | Google is choosing which version to index; the clean URLs have dropped out | Low - one template setting | First week |
| Three pages competing for the same core service query | Intent | Rankings swap between them and none holds a top position | Medium - merge and redirect | First fortnight |
| Contact form submissions not recorded as a key event | Measurement | No way to prove whether SEO work produces enquiries | Low | First week |
| Location pages reachable only from the sitemap | Architecture | Orphaned pages receive little internal authority and rank poorly | Medium - navigation and hub page | Month one |
Rankings versus enquiries
Ranking pages that cannot convert are part of the audit
A page that ranks well and produces no enquiries is an SEO finding, not just a design one. For your highest-traffic organic landing pages I check whether the first screen matches the query's intent, whether there is a clear next step, and whether the proof a buyer needs sits anywhere near it. Where the gap is large, it goes on the shortlist with the same weight as a technical fault. Redesigning the page itself is then a job for your designer or web team.
Scope, timing and what I need from you
The audit is a defined project with an end date, not a retainer in disguise. It diagnoses and prioritises; it does not include implementing the fixes, writing new pages or running outreach. If you want help with any of that afterwards, it is scoped separately once we both know what the site needs.
If your site is large, JavaScript-heavy or carries years of technical debt, the audit will say so and point to the parts that need sustained technical SEO work. If a relaunch is weeks away, it feeds into the migration plan rather than replacing it.
From your side I need read access to Search Console and analytics, a contact who knows the platform and its recent changes, and an hour with the people who will do the work for the walkthrough. Server logs, enquiry data and previous audits are optional but sharpen the result.
What usually happens after the audit
Some teams take the shortlist and ship it themselves, and the document is written so they can. Others want help with the layers where the gaps were largest.
Content and intent findings usually lead into content strategy or a fresh round of keyword research. Authority gaps lead to link building. Map pack and location findings go to local SEO. Measurement problems are fixed through the analytics services, ideally before anything else, so the rest of the work can be judged properly.
If you would like to see how an audit fed into a longer engagement, the case studies show the kind of work that tends to follow. Or go back to the SEO services overview to see how everything fits together.
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SEO Audit Services FAQs
How is your SEO audit different from a free audit tool?
Tools are good at finding patterns in a crawl and poor at judging what those patterns cost you. I use them, then check findings by hand, weigh them against your Search Console and enquiry data, and review content, intent, competitors and tracking, which tools largely ignore. You get a short ranked list rather than a long score report.
How long does an SEO audit take?
Usually three to five weeks from the day I get access to the walkthrough call. A small service business site sits at the shorter end. Large catalogues, multi-location businesses and sites with complex histories take longer because more of the review has to be done by hand.
Do you implement the fixes as well?
Not as part of the audit. The audit is written so your developers, writers or agency can implement it without me. If you want hands-on help afterwards, I scope that separately for the specific areas that need it, which is usually cheaper than an open-ended retainer.
Is this mainly a technical review of the site?
No. The technical layer is one part of this audit, reviewed far enough to find what is holding the site back. A deep technical engagement with log analysis, rendering work and developer support over months is its own service, and the audit will tell you whether you need it.
What access do you need?
Read access to Search Console and analytics is essential. CMS access helps me check templates and settings, and server logs help on larger sites. I never need admin rights, and I do not change anything on the live site during the audit.
How often should a site be audited?
A full audit every year or two is plenty for most sites, plus one before any redesign or platform change. In between, a light quarterly check of Search Console, indexing and tracking catches most new problems while they are still cheap to fix.
See whether a full SEO audit is worth it for your site
Tell me what has changed - a drop, a plateau, a new team or a planned rebuild. On a free 30-minute call I will look at your site and Search Console with you, name the likely problem areas, and tell you honestly whether a full audit is worth it.