Picture the audit many businesses already own: a 60-page PDF where a missing alt tag and a noindexed service page sit side by side in the same red font. Nobody knows where to start, so nothing changes.
The audit I deliver answers three narrower things. What stops the right buyer finding your pages, what stops them understanding your offer, and what stops them contacting you. Each answer comes with the order in which to fix it.
Separate Blockers From Warnings
Every finding gets one of three labels: blocking leads, slowing growth, or cosmetic. Blockers are explained in detail and fixed first. Cosmetic issues get a short note at the end.
For example, a dental practice site with every service page set to noindex has a blocker. The same site with a few images missing alt text has a minor issue that can wait. The shortlist is what your team works from, and the full export stays in an appendix for reference.
Check Five Layers of the Site
Technical SEO
Indexing, crawl paths, duplicate URLs, redirects, canonical tags, sitemaps, mobile layout and page speed on the templates that matter. Search engines cannot rank pages they cannot reliably reach, so this layer comes first.
Content and page targeting
Titles, headings and metadata, whether each page matches its target search, and whether service pages explain the service or only name it.
AEO and entity clarity
Whether your business name, services, locations and expertise are stated clearly enough for AI search systems to describe you correctly, plus FAQ and structured data opportunities.
Local visibility
Google Business Profile alignment with the site, service-area pages, and name, address and phone consistency.
Conversion friction
Common problems include:
- Phone numbers that cannot be tapped on mobile
- Forms with too many fields
- Calls-to-action below the fold
- No proof near the point of contact
Read the Pages, Not Just the Crawl
Crawlers find patterns. They do not notice that a roofing page never mentions storm damage, or that the contact form sends to an inbox nobody checks. I read the important pages myself, on mobile and desktop, and test the forms.
From Kickoff Call to Fix List
- Review your goals, key services, target areas and any analytics or Search Console access.
- Crawl the site and review key pages manually.
- Label each finding by priority and effort, with a plain explanation of why it matters.
- Deliver the audit summary, page-by-page notes and a 30-day action plan.
- Walk through the findings on a call so your team or developer knows what to do.
Quick wins, such as unblocking a page or making the phone number tappable, often take days. Deeper fixes are scoped separately. If you want them handled, website optimization is the usual next step.
Check the Fixes Actually Landed
Success is measured by priority fixes completed, index coverage and crawl errors in Search Console before and after, and clicks and inquiries on the pages that changed. An audit does not move rankings by itself. The implementation does.
Book One Before a Redesign or Migration
Request one when the site is not ranking as expected, gets traffic that does not convert, or is about to be redesigned or migrated. Before a redesign it stops old problems carrying into the new site. For a shorter, high-level view first, use the free website review, and the SEO audit guide explains what a useful audit should contain.
Questions about seo/aeo site audits
What does an SEO/AEO site audit include?
It covers technical SEO, page targeting and content quality, AI-search and entity clarity, local visibility and conversion friction. Findings are ranked by impact and effort, with page-by-page notes and a 30-day action plan.
Do you implement the fixes?
Yes, if you want me to. The audit is written so any developer can act on it, and it is scoped separately so ordering it does not commit you to implementation.
Is an audit useful before a redesign?
Yes, it is one of the best times for one. It tells you which pages and URLs to protect, which content to improve and what the new structure needs to fix, so old problems do not move to the new site.
How is this different from an automated SEO report?
Automated reports list everything a crawler detects at roughly equal weight. I use crawlers too, but I read the key pages myself and rank findings by whether they affect leads, so attention goes to what matters.