What’s actually in an SEO audit (and do I need one for my business)

Jun 25

If you've been thinking about SEO for a while but aren't quite sure where to start, or you've just had a new website built but not sure whether you have a solid SEO foundation, an SEO audit is probably the conversation that needs to happen first.

I get asked about this a lot. What does an audit actually involve? Is it just a report full of things I won't understand? Do I really need one if my website has been live for a few years already?

These are completely reasonable questions. And the honest answer is: a good SEO audit should leave you with a clear picture of where your website stands and what to do about it. Not a 40-page PDF of red flags that leaves you more confused than when you started.

Here's what my SEO audit involves

First a bit of context

An SEO audit is a review of your website, to understand how well it's set up to be found online, both by search engines like Google and by the people who are actually out there searching for what you do.

It's not about finding fault. It's about finding opportunity. And sometimes the biggest opportunities are the simplest fixes

Here’s what I look at:

Technical health

This is the stuff that happens behind the scenes, the things that affect whether Google can even find and read your website properly in the first place. I look at:

Whether your pages are indexed (visible to Google at all)
Page speed and Core Web Vitals. Google's specific measures of how quickly and smoothly your site loads and responds. There are three things it measures: how fast your main content appears, how stable the page is as it loads (nothing jumping around unexpectedly), and how quickly it responds when someone clicks something. For visually rich websites (florists especially) this is often where issues show up.
Whether your site is secure (HTTPS) and whether there are any mixed content warnings
Broken links or error pages
Redirect issues, which matter a lot if you've recently changed platforms or redesigned your site
Your sitemap, and whether it's giving Google accurate information
Mobile usability, how your site actually behaves on a phone, which is where most of your potential clients are browsing

Often this is where the biggest quick wins are hiding.

Your Google Business Profile

For local businesses, florists, coaches running in-person sessions, yoga teachers, studios, your Google Business Profile (the listing that appears in Google Maps and the local results panel) is often the most visible thing about you online. I check whether it's complete, accurate, optimised and actually working in your favour.

This is something I flag in almost every audit. A Google Business Profile that's half-finished, out of date, or missing key information is a real missed opportunity, and it's very fixable.

Your content and keywords

I look at what your website is currently telling Google you do, and whether that matches what your ideal clients are actually searching for. That means looking at your page titles, headings, meta descriptions, and the language used throughout your site.

I also check for duplicate content (pages that are too similar to each other and confuse Google about which one to show), and for thin pages — ones that don't have enough substance to rank for anything.

Your images

This one matters particularly if you're a florist, a photographer, a designer, or anyone whose website is doing a lot of visual heavy lifting. Large, unoptimised images are one of the most common causes of slow-loading websites, and slow websites lose visitors before they've even had a chance to see your work.

I check whether images are an appropriate file size, and crucially, whether they have alt text. Alt text is the written description attached to an image that tells Google (and screen readers used by people with visual impairments) what the image actually shows. "IMG_4782.jpg" tells Google nothing. "Seasonal autumn wedding bouquet with dahlias, berries and eucalyptus" tells Google quite a lot, and that specificity adds up across a whole site.

How your pages connect to each other

Internal linking, the way your pages link to each other, matters more than most people realise. A well-linked website helps Google understand which pages are most important to you, and helps visitors navigate naturally from an interesting blog post to your services page to an enquiry form, without hitting a dead end.

I look for orphaned pages (pages that have no links pointing to them and are essentially invisible to Google), and check that your most important pages — your services, your contact page, any key blog posts — are being properly supported by the rest of your site.

Schema markup

This is one of the areas that's become increasingly important, especially with the rise of AI Overviews — and it's one most small business websites don't have in place at all.

Schema markup is a piece of structured code that sits in the background of your website and tells Google (and AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity) explicitly what type of business you are, what you offer, where you're based, and how to contact you. Rather than leaving Google to figure it out from your copy, schema markup says: here is exactly what this page is, in a format machines can read immediately.

For a local florist, that means LocalBusiness schema, your name, address, phone number, opening hours. For a coach with a services page, it might be a Person schema or a Service schema. For blog posts, Article schema helps content get picked up in AI-generated answers. For retreat or event listings, Event schema can make your dates show up directly in search results.

It doesn't change what visitors see when they land on your website. But it does change how clearly your website communicates with search engines behind the scenes — and that matters a great deal right now.

Your backlink profile

Backlinks are links from other websites pointing to yours, and they act as a signal to Google about how credible and established your site is. I take a look at who's linking to you, whether those links are from relevant, trustworthy sources, and whether there are any that might be doing more harm than good.

For most small businesses I work with, this section of the audit is less about problems and more about identifying where there might be natural opportunities, local directories, industry listings, collaborations, that are worth building on.

Your current visibility

I use Google Search Console, a free Google tool that tracks how your site is performing in search, to understand where you're already showing up, and where you're close to page one but not quite there yet. This is genuinely useful data, and most people have never looked at it.

Recommendations

The audit ends with a clear, prioritised list of what to fix, what to improve, and what to build on. Everything is written in plain English. I explain why something matters, not just that it does. And I'll always tell you what's actually urgent, what can wait, and what would make the biggest difference for your specific business.

Do I need an SEO audit, or monthly SEO support?

This is one of the questions I get asked most often, and the answer depends on where you are right now.

The SEO Clarity Audit is the right starting point if:

— Your website has never had any SEO attention, or only the very basics

— You've recently launched a new site or moved to a different platform

— You've had a redesign and aren't sure whether your existing SEO came through it intact

— You want to understand where you actually stand before committing to anything ongoing

— You'd rather see the full picture first and then decide what to do next

Monthly support tends to be a better fit if:

— You've already got solid foundations in place (or you'd like me to put them in place as part of getting started together)

— You're ready for ongoing strategy, content, keywords, regular reporting

— You want a long-term partnership rather than a one-off project

Some clients start with the audit and then move into monthly support once they can see exactly what needs doing and why. Others do the audit, hand it to their web designer or in-house team, and take it from there themselves. Both are completely fine, the audit is yours to keep either way.

A note on implementation

I also offer an SEO Clarity Audit + Strategy + Implementation option, which means I carry out the audit and handle all the fixes myself. You don't have to find someone else to implement the recommendations, translate anything technical, or wonder if things have been done correctly. This is the option most of my clients choose, because it means you can get on with running your business while I take care of it.

Nearly every client I've worked with has said some version of the same thing: I knew something wasn't working, I just didn't know what.

An audit answers that question. It turns a vague, nagging feeling that your website isn't doing enough into something specific and fixable.