What an SEO Audit Is, and What to Ask Before You Pay for One

If you have been pitched "SEO" lately, you may have been offered an audit. It sounds technical, and the pitch usually does not say what you get. This guide takes the mystery out of it, so you can tell what is worth paying for. Plan on about 20 minutes, including a short check of your own.

What an audit is

An SEO audit is a review of your website and your online listings against a checklist. It looks for things that could make your business harder to find. Typical items:

• Whether each page has a clear title and a short description that says what the page is about.
• Whether your pages load on a phone and are easy to read.
• Whether links are broken.
• Whether each service has a page that explains it.
• Whether your name, address and phone number match across the internet.
• Whether Google can find and read your pages.

Many of these checks are automated, which is why a basic audit can be produced quickly. That is not a reason to feel cheated. It just means the report is the cheap part. What is valuable is the fixing.

What an audit is not

• It is not a result. A report that says your titles are weak does not make them better.
• It is not a ranking. Google has said plainly that nobody can promise a first place ranking, and that there are no secrets that automatically put a site first.
• It is not instant. Google says some changes show up in a few hours and others can take several months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before deciding whether a change helped.

Five questions to ask before you pay

1. What exactly will I get? A list of problems, a list of fixes in order, or the fixes themselves?
2. Who makes the fixes, and are they included? If the answer is "you" and you cannot do them, the audit does not help you.
3. What will change each month, and how will you show me? If the fee is monthly, ask what is being done for it.
4. What will you measure, and over what time? Honest answers use words like calls, bookings, quote requests and weeks, not promises.
5. What do I own if I stop? Your website, your Google profile, your social accounts and your content should all stay yours.

Signs to slow down

• A guaranteed ranking or a guaranteed number of customers.
• A report full of jargon with no clear next step.
• No access to your own accounts, or they set accounts up in their name.
• A long contract for a report that could be a one time purchase.
• No questions about your business, only a pitch.

What you can check yourself in 10 minutes

You do not need an audit to find the biggest problems for a local business. Try this:

1. Search your business name and city on your phone. Are the hours, phone and address right? See Check How Your Business Shows Up on Google, and Fix What Is Wrong.
2. Open your website on your phone. Does it load quickly, read clearly, and show your phone number and what you do without scrolling around?
3. Do you have a page for each main thing you do? See How to Write a Service Page That Answers Your Customers.
4. Do your Google profile, website and social pages all say the same thing?
5. Do you have recent reviews, and have you answered them?

Those five items are what a local audit most often finds. You can fix many of them yourself in an afternoon.

What to leave to someone else

Technical problems, such as pages Google cannot read, server settings, and site speed, often need whoever built your site. If you have a tool that flags these, send the list to your web person and ask what it will cost. Do not try to fix what you do not understand.

So are audits worth it?

Sometimes. An audit is worth paying for if it comes with clear fixes and someone to do them. A report by itself is a document. A plan that is carried out week after week is a service.

If you would rather hand this off

The work we do is the doing: your Google profile, listings, website pages, posts and review replies, kept up each month. See Local SEO for Small Business and our Pricing FAQ, or get started.