01
Define the decisions the audit needs to support
An audit before a redesign differs from an audit investigating falling organic inquiries. We establish the business question, services in scope, important page groups, and available evidence. Access to Search Console and analytics can strengthen the diagnosis, while missing access limits what can be concluded. The review does not assume every warning is urgent or every traffic decline is technical. We document what is known, what requires further inspection, and which business decisions the findings can reasonably inform.
02
Review search visibility and content together
A crawl shows structure but cannot tell us whether a page answers a worthwhile buying question. We examine service coverage, search intent, competing results, internal linking, and opportunities for consolidation. Content gaps are judged against your actual capabilities, not a competitor’s entire publishing calendar. Existing pages with value may need clearer answers rather than replacement. Unsupported claims, inherited testimonials, and near-identical location copy should be flagged as content-quality problems instead of treated as harmless decoration.
03
Inspect the conversion path, not just the page title
A customer can find a relevant page and still encounter a confusing offer, unusable phone control, or failed inquiry form. We include representative contact journeys in the review and distinguish a conversion attempt from a received request. Campaign and analytics settings may need further specialist work if the data is unreliable. The audit should make those dependencies visible so the team does not optimize search visibility against numbers that fail to represent actual customer activity.
04
Leave with priorities and acceptance criteria
Findings are grouped by likely impact, effort, dependencies, and ownership. A useful recommendation states what needs changing, why it matters, and how to verify the result. You can discuss an implementation scope or use the agreed findings with your current team; the audit does not automatically require a continuing retainer. Rankings and traffic gains are not guaranteed. The deliverable is a better-founded decision about the next work, including changes that can safely wait.
Questions worth asking.
Is an audit the same as implementation?
No. An audit diagnoses and prioritizes. Any implementation work should be explicitly included or quoted separately.
Do you need analytics access?
It helps validate performance and conversion issues. Without it, we explain the limitations rather than invent conclusions.