SEO Audit

SEO Audits That Tell You What To Fix First

Our SEO audit services review your technical health, content, backlinks, local presence and analytics, then rank every finding by the traffic and revenue it is likely to affect — so you finish with a short, ordered plan instead of a 200-page export.

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What is included

What the SEO audit covers

Technical

Crawling, indexing, site speed, mobile usability, structured data and site architecture.

Content

Keyword-to-page mapping, intent match, thin and duplicate pages, and content gaps against competitors.

Links

Backlink profile quality, competitor gaps, toxic patterns and internal linking.

Local

Google Business Profile, reviews, citations and location pages, where relevant.

Analytics

GA4 and Search Console setup, conversion tracking and data you can trust.

Roadmap

A prioritised 90-day plan with owners, effort and expected impact.

Why most SEO audits are not worth reading

Run any website through a crawler and you will get hundreds of warnings: missing alt text, long titles, pages with low word counts. Many agencies package that output as an SEO audit. The problem is that most of those warnings make no difference to rankings, and the few that matter are buried among them.

Our audit starts from the other end. We ask what is stopping this site from earning more organic traffic and revenue, then work out which issues explain that. A finding only makes the top of the list if fixing it is likely to change an outcome you care about. Everything else is recorded, but clearly marked as low priority.

Technical audit

We crawl the site and compare the crawl with Search Console’s indexing and performance data. This shows which important pages Google is not indexing, where crawl effort is wasted, and which templates have problems. We check redirects, canonicals, robots rules, XML sitemaps, hreflang, structured data and Core Web Vitals, and on JavaScript-heavy sites we compare rendered and raw HTML. Our technical SEO services explain each area in more depth.

Content audit

We map your target keywords to the pages meant to rank for them and check each one against what Google currently rewards. Common findings include several pages competing for the same term, important topics with no page at all, pages that answer a different question from the one being searched, and old content that has quietly lost rankings. We also note where an AI Overview now sits above the results, using the checks in our guide on how to rank in AI Overviews.

For each content issue we recommend an action — improve, consolidate, redirect, create or leave alone — and explain why. Our content refresh framework describes how we make those calls.

Links audit

We review the quality and relevance of the sites linking to you and compare your profile with the sites that outrank you for your key terms. The gap tells us how much authority you need to compete and which kinds of sites are linking to competitors. We also check for patterns that suggest past link schemes, such as large volumes of paid or exact-match anchor links, and only recommend a disavow file when there is real evidence of risk.

Local audit

For businesses that serve customers in specific areas, we audit your Google Business Profile, review profile, citation consistency and location pages, and benchmark them against the businesses in the map pack for your main searches. If local search does not matter to your business, this section is skipped.

Analytics audit

Many audits stall because the data cannot be trusted. We check that GA4 is recording conversions correctly, that Search Console is verified for the right property, that internal traffic is filtered, and that you can actually see enquiries or sales from organic search. If tracking is broken, fixing it becomes priority one, because every later decision depends on it.

The audit deliverable

You receive three things: a short executive summary covering the five issues that matter most, a full findings document with evidence and recommendations for every issue, and a 90-day roadmap. We walk you through it on a video call so you can ask questions and challenge priorities.

Executive summary for decision-makers
Full findings with evidence, impact and effort for each issue
Developer-ready tickets for technical fixes
Keyword-to-page map
Prioritised 90-day roadmap
Recorded walkthrough call

Turnaround

Most audits are delivered within two to three weeks of receiving access to Search Console, analytics and your CMS. Large or complex sites, ecommerce stores with big catalogues and multi-language sites take longer, and we confirm the timeline before starting. If you need something faster, start with our free SEO audit, which highlights the biggest constraint in a few working days.

The questions every SEO audit should answer

An SEO audit checklist is only useful if each item leads to a decision. These are the questions our audit is built to answer, roughly in the order they matter:

Can Google crawl and index the pages that matter to the business?
Is each important page the clear, single target for its main search, or are several pages competing?
Does each page satisfy the intent behind the searches it targets better than the pages that outrank it?
Is the site fast and stable enough on mobile that visitors stay?
Does the site have enough authority to compete for its target terms, and if not, how big is the gap?
For local businesses, is the Business Profile complete and are reviews competitive?
Is tracking accurate enough to measure whether changes work?

If the answer to the first question is no, the rest can wait. That is why the order matters as much as the list.

How to choose the best SEO audit for your site

Search for an SEO audit in the UK and you will find everything from a free automated score to a five-figure consulting engagement. The difference is rarely the price. It is whether the audit was written for your business and whether it ends in decisions you can act on. These are the tests worth applying to any audit proposal:

Is it independent? An audit that is only available with a retainer is a sales document, not a diagnosis. Ours is a fixed-fee project and you can take the findings to any agency or developer.
Does it rank the findings? Every site has hundreds of issues. A useful audit says which five matter, why, and what happens if you ignore them.
Is there evidence behind each finding? A line such as "improve internal linking" is worth nothing without the specific pages and the specific links to add.
Are there developer-ready tickets? Technical findings need enough detail for someone to implement them without a phone call.
Who writes it? Ask who does the analysis and whether they will present it. If the answer is a junior with a template, expect a template.
What does it cost and what is excluded? Published pricing and a clear scope beat a quote that changes after you have shared access.

If you want the short version: the best SEO audit is the one that tells you something you did not already know, in an order you can follow, for a price that does not depend on you signing something else afterwards.

What an SEO audit company should send you

A professional audit report is a working document, not a PDF to file away. Ours follows a fixed structure, and it is a reasonable checklist to hold any provider to:

Section	What it contains	Who uses it
Executive summary	The five issues that matter, what they cost you and the order to fix them	Owners and marketing leads
Findings	Each issue with evidence, likely impact, effort and a recommendation	Marketing team
Technical tickets	Reproduction steps, affected URLs and the fix, written for developers	Developers or CMS agency
Keyword and page map	One primary search per page, plus gaps and overlaps	Content team
Link analysis	Profile quality, competitor gap and realistic targets	Marketing lead
90-day roadmap	Sequenced work with owners and expected effect	Everyone

Red flags in an audit you are offered elsewhere: a page count in the hundreds with no priorities, findings that are all technical with no commercial reasoning, "proprietary" scoring with no explanation, no access to the underlying data, and a recommendation to start a retainer before you have read the findings.

Who needs an SEO audit

An SEO audit is the right starting point if your organic traffic has plateaued or fallen, if you are about to redesign or replatform, if you have inherited a site and do not know its history, or if you are about to invest seriously in SEO and want to spend the budget in the right order. It is also useful when you are choosing between agencies: an independent audit gives you a baseline to judge their proposals against.

If your site is very small and new, a full audit may be more than you need. Our free SEO audit or a short consulting session can be a better fit.

After the audit

You own the audit and can act on it however you like. Some clients hand the tickets to their own developers and writers. Some ask us to implement the first few priorities as a fixed project. Others move onto a monthly plan, in which case the audit becomes the roadmap for the first quarter and its cost is not repeated.

Whichever route you choose, we recommend a re-check after the main fixes ship. A short verification crawl confirms that the changes worked as intended and that nothing new broke along the way.

Free audit tools vs a professional SEO audit

Free tools such as Search Console, PageSpeed Insights and crawler trials are genuinely useful, and we use them too. What they cannot do is judge which issues matter for your business, explain why a page is losing to a competitor, or decide what to fix first when resources are limited. A tool reports that 300 pages have duplicate titles; an audit tells you that 290 are harmless filter pages and 10 are product categories cannibalising each other, and that those 10 are worth fixing this week.

If you want to try the free route first, Search Console’s Page Indexing and Performance reports are the best place to start, and our robots.txt generator covers one common technical task.

Audits for ecommerce and large sites

Large sites need a different approach. Instead of reviewing pages one by one, we audit templates — category, product, filter, blog, location — and sample URLs from each, so findings scale across thousands of pages. Server log analysis is often included, because crawl budget becomes a real constraint at scale. See our ecommerce SEO services for what follows.

Process

How we work

Access and scoping
We agree goals, gather access and confirm what the audit should answer.
You getScope confirmation and timeline.
Data collection
Crawl, Search Console, analytics, backlink and competitor data gathered.
You getRaw data set for your records.
Analysis
Issues diagnosed, linked to evidence and ranked by impact and effort.
You getFindings document and tickets.
Walkthrough
We present the findings and agree the roadmap with your team.
You getRecorded call and 90-day roadmap.

Comparison

How we compare with a typical agency

	SEO Agency Leeds	Typical agency
Output	Short, ranked plan plus full evidence	Long crawler export
Prioritisation	By revenue impact and effort	By number of warnings
Scope	Technical, content, links, local and analytics	Technical only
Next steps	Do it yourself, with us, or with anyone	Audit only useful with a retainer
Cost	Fixed fee from £495	Often free, then a hard sell

Packages

Pricing

A full SEO audit and roadmap is a fixed-fee project from £495. If you then start a monthly plan, the audit becomes your first month’s strategy. All prices are monthly, in GBP and exclude VAT. See full SEO pricing and what each package includes.

Starter

from £300/month

£300 to £500 typical

For local businesses and focused, early-stage SEO

Choose Starter

Most popularGrowth

from £700/month

£700 to £800 typical

For businesses building a dependable organic channel

Choose Growth

Scale

from £1,000/month

£1,000 to £1,200 typical

For complex websites, ecommerce and multi-location brands

Choose Scale

Results being documented

What we will show you before you buy

Ask during your free review and we will show you a redacted example audit so you can see the format and depth before committing. Client results will be published on our case studies page once approved.

Sample report layout, not client data. Figures are published only with agreed baselines and client permission.

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

Need something more specific? Ask a strategist

01Who provides the best SEO audit in the UK?

There is no single best provider, only the best fit for your site and budget. The test is independence, evidence, prioritisation and whether the report ends in decisions you can act on. Ours is a fixed-fee project from £495, and the findings are yours to use with or without us.

02How much does an SEO audit cost?

Our full SEO audit and roadmap starts from £495. A technical-only audit for larger sites starts from £995. Prices exclude VAT and are confirmed after a short scoping call.

03Do I have to sign up to a monthly plan after the audit?

No. The audit is a standalone project and plenty of clients act on it themselves or hand the tickets to their developers. If you do move onto a plan, the audit becomes the roadmap for the first quarter rather than being repeated.

04What does an SEO audit report include?

An executive summary of the five issues that matter most, a full findings document with evidence and impact for each issue, developer-ready tickets, a keyword-to-page map and a 90-day roadmap, followed by a recorded walkthrough call.

05What is the difference between the free audit and the paid audit?

The free audit is a focused review that identifies the biggest constraint and the first fix. The paid audit is a full investigation of technical, content, links, local and analytics, with evidence for every finding and a 90-day roadmap.

06How long does an SEO audit take?

Two to three weeks for most sites once we have access. Larger or more complex sites can take longer, and we confirm timings before starting.

07What access do you need?

Read access to Google Search Console and Google Analytics, and ideally view access to your CMS. Server logs are helpful for large sites but not essential.

08Can we implement the recommendations ourselves?

Yes. The audit is written so your team or another agency can act on it. Technical findings come with developer-ready tickets.

09Do you include an SEO audit checklist?

The findings document doubles as a checklist, with every issue marked by priority and status so you can track progress as fixes are made.

10How often should we have an SEO audit?

A full audit every 12 months is sensible for most sites, plus a focused audit before and after any redesign, replatform or major content change. Ongoing monthly plans include continuous technical monitoring.

11Will the audit tell us why our traffic dropped?

Usually, yes. We compare the timing of the drop with site changes, algorithm updates, indexing reports and tracking changes to identify the most likely cause, and we say clearly when the evidence is uncertain.

Free SEO audit

Get a straight answer on what to fix first.

Request a free SEO audit and we will come back with the largest constraint on your organic growth and the first practical fix. No sales sequence.