What does an SEO audit actually cover?
An SEO audit compares your client's site against the pages that actually rank and hands you the gaps and the fixes: what to change on the page, what is missing in the content, what is holding the site back technically, how the experience compares to competitors, and where the best link opportunities are. Every finding is backed by evidence and checked before it reaches you, so it reads like an expert's report, not a generic checklist.
Before you start
- This describes what you get from a run. To start one, see How do I run an SEO audit with the team?.
- Some of the deepest findings need the client's own search data. Connect Google Search Console to unlock them. See How do I connect Google Search Console?.
What the team looks at
You do not have to ask for these one by one. The team decides which apply to the project and covers what is relevant.
Search intent. It reads what the search results actually reward for each target query, then checks whether your client's page is even the right type of page to compete. This comes first, because a great page aimed at the wrong intent still loses.
Content and topic gaps. It finds the topics, questions, entities and formats that the ranking pages cover and your client's page does not, and tells you exactly what to add, each tied to a competitor that proves it earns its place. It judges depth as a measure of coverage, never a word-count target.
On-page and technical health. It checks whether pages can be crawled and indexed, the site structure and internal linking, structured data, page speed and Core Web Vitals, and how the page renders. You get specific, prioritised fixes with the evidence for each.
Visual and experience comparison. It looks at the real rendered pages, on mobile and desktop, against the ranking competitors, and finds the on-page elements users of that query have come to expect: comparison tables, calculators, imagery, trust signals, clear calls to action, and where they sit on the page. Anything the competitors converge on that your client lacks is flagged.
Click performance. Where your client already ranks but earns fewer clicks than its position should, so you can win traffic without moving up. This one draws on the client's own search data.
Overlapping pages (cannibalisation). Where two of your client's own pages compete for the same query and split their chances. This also draws on the client's own search data.
Off-page authority. The most relevant, highest-probability link opportunities, as a prioritised prospect list that says who, why they would link, and the angle, judged against the sites that already rank.
Topical authority. Whether the site covers a topic deeply enough across its pages, and whether its internal links point authority at the pages that need to rank.
Why the findings hold up
Every claim is measured against the pages that actually rank, quoted with the evidence and the source, and put through the Fact Checker before it reaches you. Anything vague, generic or unsupported is cut. Where a number cannot be backed by a connected source, it is marked as provisional rather than presented as fact, so you always know how solid each point is.
How do I know it worked?
The finished audit lands as files and charts in the project's tabs, written as specific changes ("add this, fix that, target these queries") rather than adjectives. See Where does the SEO team's work show up?.
Common problems
"The audit skipped click and cannibalisation findings." Those lean on the client's own search data. Connect Google Search Console and run again to unlock them. See How do I connect Google Search Console?.
"Some points are marked provisional." That is deliberate honesty. It means the team could not back that point with a connected data source, so it flagged it rather than dress it up as certain.