An SEO audit service checks whether search engines can crawl your site, whether your pages are actually indexed, how fast they load for real users, where your content falls short of what ranks, and how your links point around. SerpInsight delivers findings ranked by impact against effort, with the exact URLs affected.
Most audits arrive as a 200-page crawler export with the defaults left on. You get 4,000 “issues”, 3,900 of them duplicate meta descriptions on paginated archives nobody visits. That isn’t an audit. That’s a CSV with a cover page.
A technical SEO audit should end with a short list of things worth doing, in the order they’re worth doing them. The mild opinion we’ll defend: if a website SEO audit doesn’t change what you do next week, it wasn’t worth commissioning.
What an SEO audit is
An SEO audit is a structured review of the technical, content and link factors that decide whether a page can rank — crawlability, indexation, page experience, topical coverage, backlink profile, internal link flow — checked against how search engines treat your site rather than against a generic SEO site audit checklist.
What the audit covers
Crawlability
We crawl the site the way Googlebot would, then compare that against your server logs where you can give us access. We’re looking for robots.txt rules blocking things you didn’t mean to block, redirect chains three hops deep, orphan pages, soft 404s returning a 200 status, and JavaScript navigation a crawler can’t follow. Crawl budget on a large site is finite, and a crawler spending it on faceted filter URLs isn’t spending it on your money pages.
Indexation
Crawlable and indexed are different problems. We reconcile your Search Console coverage data against our crawl: pages marked “Discovered — currently not indexed”, pages excluded by an unexpected canonical, noindex tags left on after a staging push, thin pages Google decided aren’t worth storing. The number that matters is indexed pages against pages you meant to publish. When it’s badly off, no amount of link building fixes it.
Core Web Vitals
We look at field data from the Chrome UX Report first, because that’s what Google actually uses, and lab data second to work out why. Largest Contentful Paint usually traces to an unoptimized hero image or a slow server response. Cumulative Layout Shift is nearly always images without dimensions or a late ad slot. Interaction to Next Paint is normally third-party JavaScript. Page experience is a light ranking factor — we’ll say that plainly — but it’s the difference between a visitor reading your page and bouncing back to the results.
Content gaps
We take the pages ranking in the top ten for your target queries and compare their coverage to yours: subtopics they answer that you don’t, questions they address, formats they use. Then we check your site for cannibalisation — two or three pages competing for one query, splitting signals, none winning. Gaps tell you what to write; cannibalisation tells you what to merge, usually the faster win.
Backlink toxicity
We review your referring domains for patterns that suggest a problem: sudden spikes from unrelated sites, sitewide footer links, anchor text that’s overwhelmingly exact-match commercial, expired domains rebuilt as private blog networks, directories with no standards. We don’t disavow reflexively — Google ignores most junk on its own, and an over-aggressive disavow file does real damage. We flag what looks deliberate and explain why.
Internal linking
Where does authority currently flow? We map internal links to find pages sitting five clicks from the homepage that shouldn’t be, important pages with two internal links while a privacy policy has 300, and anchors saying “click here” instead of what the page is about. Internal links are the cheapest ranking lever you own, and our guide to structuring internal links covers the approach.
What you receive
A findings document, not a data dump. Every finding is ranked by estimated impact against effort, so the first item is the thing to do first. Each names the exact URLs affected, states the fix in terms a developer can action, and estimates effort in hours or days.
You also get a one-page summary for whoever signs off the budget. No score out of 100 — those numbers are arbitrary, and they encourage fixing whatever moves the gauge rather than the rankings.
What a finding looks like in the report
Severity: High. Illustrative example only — not data from a real client.
Finding: Product category pages are canonicalised to a filtered URL variant. Roughly 40 URLs affected, listed in Appendix B.
Why it matters: Signals consolidate onto a filtered page that isn’t in your navigation, so the category page collecting your internal links can’t rank.
Fix: Set each category page’s canonical to its own unfiltered URL; noindex filter combinations beyond one facet.
Estimated effort: 3-5 developer hours, one template change.
How long does an SEO audit take?
Typically one to two weeks from the point we have access, depending on site size. A 200-page brochure site is faster than a 40,000-URL store with faceted navigation. The crawl takes hours; analysis takes the rest.
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Access and scope
Search Console, analytics, and server logs if you have them. We agree which sections and queries matter before starting.
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Crawl and data collection
Full crawl, index reconciliation, field performance data, backlink export, internal link map.
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Analysis
The slow part. Every flagged issue is checked by hand, because crawlers throw false positives at a rate that would make the report useless.
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Prioritisation and walkthrough
Findings sorted by impact against effort with URLs attached, then a call with whoever implements the fixes.
Why we ask you to run this before buying links
Here it is without hedging: if the page you’re pointing links at can’t be crawled, isn’t indexed, or doesn’t cover the topic well enough to compete, links are wasted money. Not less effective. Wasted.
A link insertion (also called a niche edit) passes authority to a URL. If that URL carries a canonical to another page, the authority goes elsewhere. If it’s noindexed, nothing happens. If it’s crawlable but 400 words against competitors running 2,000 with original data, the link improves a page that still loses.
We sell links. Telling you to spend elsewhere first costs us revenue, and we’d still rather do it than take an order for a page that can’t convert it into rankings.
| Scenario | Audit first, then links | Links first, audit later |
|---|---|---|
| Where the first spend goes | Finding what blocks the page from ranking | Referring domains pointed at the current page |
| If the page is technically fine | Small delay; audit cost spent confirming it | Works as intended — the case where skipping the audit pays off |
| If the page is noindexed or canonicalised away | Caught before you spend on links | Every link bought until the problem surfaces does nothing |
| If content coverage is the real gap | Rewrite first; links then amplify a page that can compete | Links push a page that still ranks behind deeper competitors |
| What you learn either way | Which lever was holding you back | That something isn’t working, but not which thing |
That’s reasoning, not a measured study. But the failure mode is common enough that we’d rather check first. Our notes on judging whether a link is worth buying and how many links a month is sensible both assume a sound target page.
SEO audit FAQ
Do you need admin access to my site?
No. Read-only Search Console and analytics access is enough, plus server logs if you can export them. We don’t need CMS logins and we don’t make changes — the audit is diagnosis; fixes are handled separately.
Will an audit tell me how many links I need?
It’ll show where you stand against the sites currently ranking, including their referring domain counts. That’s a range, not a target. Anyone quoting an exact number is guessing, and a site below roughly DR 20 has bigger problems than link volume.
What if the audit finds nothing serious?
That happens, and it’s a useful result — the constraint is content or authority, not technical. We’ll say so and point you at the placement service rather than inventing problems to justify the invoice.
How often should I re-audit?
Once a year for a stable site, or after any migration, replatform or major template change. Those events cause most of the technical damage we find. Monthly audits are a subscription product, not a need.
Can I run an SEO site audit checklist myself?
Yes, and you should check the basics: search site:yourdomain.com, read the Search Console coverage report, run three key pages through PageSpeed Insights. That catches the worst problems in an afternoon. The hard part is deciding which of 200 flagged issues matter.
Where to go next
If you already know the technical side is sound, go straight to per-link pricing or the wider SerpInsight service list. If you’re not sure — most people aren’t — send us the domain and the pages you want ranking. We reply within 24 hours and we’ll tell you which you need.