What Does an SEO Audit Include? And What Should You Get Back?
Run a business in Santa Barbara long enough and somebody will offer you a free SEO audit. Some of those offers come from real people down the street. Some come from people who could not find State Street on a map. We are an SEO company in Santa Barbara, and we think the offer is worth nothing until you know what an audit is supposed to include.
So here it is, in plain words, from the people who do them.
An audit is an inspection, not a sales pitch
Nobody buys a house in Montecito without an inspection. The inspector climbs on the roof, crawls under the floor, flips every breaker and writes down what they find. They do not sell you a new roof. They tell you whether you need one.
A real SEO audit works the same way. Somebody goes through your website the way Google does and the way a customer does, and writes down what is getting in the way. Then they tell you what matters now and what can wait.
Google’s own description of the job starts in exactly that place.
Review of your site content or structure
Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScriptGoogle Search Central, from its list of what an SEO can do for you in Do you need an SEO?
What a real audit actually checks
Think of your website as a house with five parts. A good audit walks all five. If the one you were handed skips a part, ask why.
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01
FOUNDATIONCan Google find and keep every page?
We checkWhether Google can reach your pages, whether it kept them, and whether anything is quietly telling it to stay away. A page Google never kept cannot show up for anything.
You get backThe pages Google is missing, and the reason for each one.
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02
WIRINGSpeed, phones, redirects, broken links
We checkHow fast your pages load on a phone, links that go nowhere, old addresses that bounce around in circles, and error pages.
You get backThe problems that are actually costing you visitors, not every warning a tool can print.
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03
ROOMSOne clear page for every service
We checkWhether each thing you sell has its own page, whether two of your pages fight over the same search, and whether your words match the words your customers type.
You get backThe pages you are missing, and the ones competing with each other.
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04
CURB APPEALHow you look on the results page
We checkThe titles and descriptions Google shows for you, whether the right page comes up for the right search, and whether the AI answers people now read first mention you at all.
You get backWhat a stranger sees when they search for what you do, before they ever click.
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05
NEIGHBORHOODWho shows up around you, and why
We checkThe competitors that come up where you do not, what their pages do that yours do not, and whether your business details match everywhere you are listed.
You get backWho you are really up against, one search at a time.
If your site has years of blog posts on it, the rooms check grows into a job of its own: going through everything you ever published and deciding what stays, what gets fixed and what goes. We walked through that part in what a content audit is.
What you should get back
An inspection is only as good as the report. The work behind it can be excellent and still be useless to you if the report is a wall of jargon. Here is the difference between a report you can act on and one that is quietly selling you something.
- Plain words you can read without a dictionary
- Problems ranked, the expensive ones first
- What each fix involves, and who does it
- Your pages and your searches, named
- A way to check later whether the fix worked
- A score out of 100, and not much else
- Pages of raw tool output pasted into a PDF
- Every single item marked critical
- Nothing about your business, your town or your customers
- A price to fix it before you understand what is wrong
Google suggests asking anyone you hire one question, and it is a good test of a report too.
Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?Google Search Central, Do you need an SEO?
If the answer is yes, you are dealing with somebody who expects you to understand the work. If the answer is a shrug and a monthly fee, keep your wallet in your pocket.
Free audits: worth it, or bait?
Free is not the problem. Who did the work is. Some free audits are a real person reading your site. Plenty are an automated scan with a logo stuck on top, followed by a sales call. And the ones that show up uninvited in your inbox are a category all by themselves. Google does not mince words about those.
Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that email you out of the blue.Google Search Central, Do you need an SEO?
We took one of those emails apart, line by line, in are free, unsolicited SEO audits real? Read it before you answer the next one.
Here is a simple test for any free audit. Call whoever did it and ask them to explain the first item on the list. If they can tell you what is wrong, why it matters and what fixing it takes, it was an audit. If all they can do is read you the score, it was a brochure.
How long it takes, and what happens next
It depends on the size of the house. A small site for a Goleta contractor and a parts catalog with a page for every product are different jobs, and anybody who quotes you the same turnaround for both has not looked.
The audit is not the finish line. It is the inspection before the work. What should follow is a plan: what gets fixed, in what order, who does it, and how you will see that it worked. We put that in writing before anybody touches a thing, and you can see how that goes on our process page.
Send us your website. We go through it the way Google does and the way your customers do, and tell you in plain words what is holding it back and what to fix first. No charge, and no obligation. Or call or text 805.243.8321.
Get My Free Visibility ReportAn audit is the map, not the trip. Get a good one, and everything you spend after it goes where it counts. That is where real SEO work starts.