An SEO audit that tells you exactly what to fix, and in what order
Most SEO audits are hundreds of pages of tool warnings. Ours is a clear diagnosis of what's limiting your organic traffic and leads, with every issue explained, evidenced and prioritised by business impact, so your team knows exactly what to do next.
What an SEO audit is for
An SEO audit is a structured review of everything that affects how your website performs in search: how it's built, what it says, how it's linked internally and externally, how it appears locally, and how well it turns visitors into enquiries. Its purpose is not to produce a score. It's to answer three practical questions:
- What is limiting our organic performance right now?
- Which fixes will make the biggest difference for the effort involved?
- Who needs to do what, and in what order?
Automated tools are useful for gathering data, but they can't judge context. A tool might flag hundreds of missing meta descriptions as critical while missing the fact that your most valuable service page is accidentally blocked from Google. We use tools for coverage and experienced people for judgement.
When to get an SEO audit
- Traffic has dropped and you need to understand why.
- Rankings have stalled despite regular content and effort.
- Before a redesign or migration, to know what to protect and what to fix.
- When a new marketing lead or agency starts, to establish a baseline.
- Once a year, as a health check, even when things seem fine.
Audit or ongoing SEO?
An audit is a one-off, fixed-price diagnosis. It suits businesses with in-house teams or developers who can implement the recommendations, and anyone who wants clarity before committing to a retainer.
If you'd rather we handle implementation and ongoing growth, the audit becomes the first month of our SEO services.
- No retainer required
- Fixed price agreed upfront
- You keep the report and all data
- Optional support to implement fixes
What our SEO audit covers
Scope is tailored to your site, but a full audit typically reviews these eight areas.
1. Technical health
Crawlability, indexation, rendering, canonicals, redirects, status codes, sitemaps, robots.txt, site architecture, Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, structured data and security. See technical SEO.
2. Keyword targeting
Which searches your pages target, which they actually rank for, and where pages compete with each other or miss valuable opportunities.
3. On-page optimisation
Titles, headings, content structure, internal links, images and how well each priority page matches search intent.
4. Content quality and gaps
Thin, outdated or duplicate content; topics competitors cover that you don't; pages to update, merge or remove.
5. Backlinks and authority
The strength and relevance of sites linking to you, compared with competitors, plus any risky link patterns.
6. Local search
Google Business Profile, local citations, reviews and location pages, where local visibility matters.
7. Analytics and tracking
Whether GA4 and Search Console are set up correctly and organic conversions are measured accurately.
8. Conversion from organic traffic
How well key landing pages turn organic visitors into enquiries or sales, and where they lose them.
How scope changes by type of site
Every audit covers the eight core areas above. Depending on your site, we add deeper analysis where the biggest risks and opportunities usually lie.
| Type of site | Where we look more deeply |
|---|---|
| Small business or service site | Service page depth, local search, conversion paths and tracking |
| E-commerce store | Category and product pages, faceted navigation, product schema, duplicate variants |
| Large content or publishing site | Crawl efficiency, content quality at scale, internal linking, pruning opportunities |
| Multi-location business | Business Profiles, location pages, consistency of business information |
| Multi-language or multi-country site | hreflang, regional targeting, duplicate content across markets |
| JavaScript-heavy site | Rendering, link discovery and indexing of dynamic content |
How findings are presented
Every issue is written up the same way, so your team can act on it without an SEO specialist in the room. Here's an illustrative example.
| Field | Example entry (illustrative) |
|---|---|
| Issue | Service pages are duplicated under two URL paths |
| Evidence | Crawl shows the same content at /services/x/ and /our-services/x/; both are indexed in Search Console |
| Why it matters | Ranking signals are split between duplicates, weakening both versions for commercial searches |
| Recommended fix | 301 redirect the /our-services/ versions to /services/ and update internal links and the XML sitemap |
| Owner | Web developer |
| Impact / effort | High impact, low effort: priority 1 |
| How to verify | Old URLs return 301; only /services/ versions appear in Search Console after recrawl |
Issues are then grouped into a prioritised roadmap: quick wins to do this month, important projects for the next quarter, and lower-priority improvements for later.
Issues our audits commonly uncover
Every site is different, but these problems appear again and again, often on sites whose owners had no idea they existed.
Important pages missing from Google
Accidental noindex tags, blocked sections in robots.txt or pages that search engines chose not to index because they looked thin or duplicated.
Pages competing with each other
Several pages targeting the same search, so none of them ranks as well as one strong page would.
Commercial pages that are too thin
Service or category pages with a few lines of text, outranked by competitors who answer buyers' questions properly.
Lost value from old URLs
Redesigns that removed pages without redirects, wasting links and rankings earned over years.
Slow templates
A single heavy theme, script or image pattern slowing down every page built on it.
Broken measurement
Organic conversions not tracked, or tracked twice, so nobody knows what SEO actually delivers.
What happens after the audit
An audit is only valuable if it leads to action. After the walkthrough, you'll have a clear roadmap and three options: implement the recommendations with your own team, ask us to implement specific fixes as a project, or continue with ongoing SEO where the roadmap becomes our plan of work.
Whichever you choose, we recommend a short follow-up check a few months later to confirm that fixes were implemented correctly and are having the expected effect.
How to prepare
- Grant read access to Search Console and GA4
- List your most important pages and services
- Name your main competitors
- Note any recent site changes, migrations or traffic drops
- Tell us who will implement fixes, so we write for them
What an audit gives your business
A good audit replaces guesswork with a shared, evidence-based view of what to do next.
- Clarity on what's really holding organic performance back.
- A prioritised plan so effort goes where it matters most.
- Evidence for decisions about budgets, redesigns and hiring.
- Protection before risky changes like migrations.
- A baseline to measure future SEO work against.
Why choose MarquixAd for your SEO audit?
The value of an audit depends entirely on the judgement behind it. Here is what you can expect from ours.
Expertise
Audits carried out by experienced specialists, not generated by a tool.
Strategy
Findings linked to business outcomes, not technical trivia.
Technology
Professional crawlers, backlink tools and Search Console data combined.
Data
Every issue supported by evidence from your own site.
Execution
Developer-ready recommendations with verification steps.
Optimisation
Optional follow-up check to confirm fixes worked.
Reporting
A concise executive summary alongside the detailed findings.
Communication
A walkthrough call to explain findings and answer questions.
Scalability
Audits scoped for small sites through to large catalogues.
Our SEO audit process
A typical audit takes [2–4] weeks from access to walkthrough, depending on site size.
Scope and access
We agree goals, priority pages and competitors, and get read access to Search Console, GA4 and, if relevant, your CMS.
Data collection
Full crawl, Search Console and analytics exports, backlink data, competitor benchmarks and local search checks.
Analysis
Specialists review each area, find root causes and assess business impact.
Prioritisation
Each issue scored for impact and effort, then grouped into a roadmap.
Report
Executive summary, detailed findings and action plan delivered.
Walkthrough
A call with your team to explain findings and agree next steps.
Follow-up (optional)
A re-check after fixes are implemented to confirm they worked.
What you receive
Everything is delivered in formats your team can use straight away.
| Deliverable | Description |
|---|---|
| Executive summary | The key findings and priorities on a few pages, written for decision-makers |
| Detailed findings | Every issue with evidence, impact, fix, owner and verification steps |
| Prioritised roadmap | Quick wins, next-quarter projects and later improvements |
| Keyword and content map | Target keywords assigned to pages, with content gaps identified |
| Data exports | Crawl data and supporting spreadsheets for your team |
| Walkthrough call | A session to discuss findings and answer questions |
SEO audit: frequently asked questions
Ready to start? Request an audit.
What is an SEO audit?
A structured review of the technical, content, authority, local and conversion factors that affect your organic search performance, with a prioritised plan to improve it.
How much does an SEO audit cost?
Audits are fixed-price projects based mainly on site size and complexity. Small business sites cost considerably less than large e-commerce or multi-language sites. We confirm the price before starting.
How long does an SEO audit take?
Usually two to four weeks from receiving access, depending on the size of the site and the scope agreed.
What access do you need?
Read access to Google Search Console and GA4 is essential. CMS access and a list of priority pages and competitors are helpful.
Is a free SEO audit tool enough?
Tools are a useful starting point, but they can't judge business context or prioritise effectively. They often flag minor issues while missing critical ones.
Will you fix the issues you find?
The audit is diagnosis and planning. We can implement fixes as a separate project or through our ongoing SEO services, or support your team as they do it.
Do we have to sign up for ongoing SEO afterwards?
No. The audit is a standalone project and the report is yours to use however you like.
Can you audit a site before a migration?
Yes, and it's one of the best times to do it. A pre-migration audit identifies what to preserve, what to fix during the rebuild and how to map redirects.
Do you audit competitors too?
We benchmark your site against key competitors for rankings, content coverage and authority, to show where the gaps are.
What's the difference between a technical audit and a full SEO audit?
A technical audit focuses on how the site is built and served: crawling, indexing, speed and structure. A full SEO audit also covers keywords, content, backlinks, local search, tracking and conversion. We can scope either.
Will an audit tell us why our traffic dropped?
Usually, yes. We compare timing with site changes, algorithm updates, indexing reports and competitor movements to identify the most likely causes and what to do about them.
How often should we audit our site?
At least once a year, before any major site change, and whenever organic traffic drops unexpectedly.
Know exactly what to fix next
Request a fixed-price SEO audit with a clear, prioritised action plan.