Key takeaways
- An audit is a roadmap, not a report
- The 25 checks, by layer
- The prioritization rule
An audit is a roadmap, not a report
The purpose of an SEO audit is prioritization: which ten fixes produce which sales, in which order. Every audit we run is structured around the same 25 checks across four layers, scored for impact and effort. The output is never a PDF that gathers dust - it is a sprint plan.
The 25 checks, by layer
Technical (8): crawlability, indexability, XML sitemap, robots, canonicalization, site speed, mobile rendering, structured data. Content (7): keyword mapping, content gaps, thin pages, duplicate content, internal linking, freshness, E-E-A-T signals. Authority (5): backlink profile, referring domain quality, anchor distribution, digital PR opportunities, competitor gaps. Local (5): GBP completeness, citation consistency, review velocity, local content, map-pack presence.
- Technical 8: crawl, index, sitemap, robots, speed, mobile, schema, canonicals
- Content 7: mapping, gaps, thin pages, dupes, links, freshness, E-E-A-T
- Authority 5: profile, domains, anchors, PR, competitor gaps
- Local 5: GBP, citations, reviews, local content, map pack
The prioritization rule
Score each finding by sales impact and implementation effort; fix the high-impact, low-effort quadrant first - it is almost always technical hygiene and content gaps. The high-impact, high-effort quadrant becomes the quarter's roadmap. And re-run the audit quarterly: SEO compounds when the checklist is a habit, not an event.
