A score isn't an audit
Tools generate warnings by the hundred. An audit decides which of them affect the pages that earn you business, and sets the rest aside.
A real SEO audit checks four things: whether search engines can crawl and index your site, whether your pages answer what people actually search, whether your business is trusted beyond your own site, and whether AI assistants can read and cite you. It should end with a ranked order of work, and good SEO and AEO work is scoped from it, not sold before it.
Most audits fail the buyer at the last step. A tool can produce hundreds of warnings in a minute. The audit's job is to tell you which few are costing you business, why, and what fixing each one involves.
Key Takeaways
Four layers, not one
Technical access, content, off-site trust and AI answer visibility each fail differently. An audit that checks only one will misread the others.
The deliverable is an order of work
Every finding should come with evidence, its impact and what the fix involves, ranked so you know what to do first.
Read access is enough
Google's own advice is to grant read-only Search Console access at the audit stage. Nobody needs ownership of your accounts to diagnose them.
Best For
Get a full SEO and AEO audit before a rebuild, after a traffic drop, or before you buy ongoing search work. If traffic is growing and nothing is changing, a lighter check of Search Console may be all you need.
What does an SEO audit include?
A complete SEO audit covers six areas: technical access, on-page content, Search Console performance, local and off-site trust, AI answer visibility, and measurement. Each one answers a different question about why search isn't sending you business. The audit should check all six, then say which problems actually matter for your site.
| Area | What it checks | What a problem looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Technical access | Crawling, rendering, indexing, redirects, speed and mobile layout | Key pages missing from Google's index, or content that only appears after JavaScript runs |
| On-page content | Titles, headings, search intent, internal links and pages competing for the same search | Two pages splitting one search, or a service page that never says plainly what you do |
| Search Console data | Queries, impressions, positions, click-through and indexing reports | Pages that show up often in search and almost never get clicked |
| Local and off-site trust | Google Business Profile, business name, address and phone across listings, reviews and earned mentions | Listings still showing an old phone number or a different business name |
| AI answer visibility | AI crawler access, snippet eligibility, self-contained answers and whether assistants cite you | AI crawlers blocked by a CDN rule, or assistants naming other businesses for your services |
| Measurement | Analytics and conversion tracking | Traffic reported, but no record of which visits became enquiries |
The order matters as much as the list. A technical block can hide every content improvement, so a good audit checks access first and only then judges what's on the page.
What's the difference between an SEO audit and an AEO audit?
An SEO audit asks whether search engines can find, understand and rank your pages. An AEO audit, for answer engine optimization, asks whether AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews can reach, read and cite them. The two overlap heavily, because most answer engines start from the same crawlable, indexable pages.
Google is explicit about its side. Its guidance on AI features in Google Search says there are no extra technical requirements for AI Overviews or AI Mode: a page must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet, and no special file or markup is needed. Visits from those features are counted in Search Console's Performance report under the Web search type.
The AEO layer adds what a traditional audit skips: whether other AI crawlers are allowed through your robots file and CDN, whether a nosnippet or similar directive is quietly removing you, whether pages hold clean answers an assistant can lift, and whether assistants name you at all. Once the audit is done, here's what AEO services cover.
Is a free SEO audit worth it?
A free SEO audit is worth running as a smoke alarm, not as a diagnosis. Automated tools catch broken links, missing titles and slow pages quickly. They can't tell which pages earn your money, can't see your Search Console data, and rate a missing alt tag with the same urgency as a service page Google can't index.
| Free automated report | Practitioner audit | |
|---|---|---|
| Finds | Rule-based warnings that apply to any site | Problems specific to your business and your search demand |
| Data | A crawl of public pages | The crawl, plus Search Console, analytics and your conversion goals |
| Priority | Severity set by the tool | Ranked by impact on the pages that bring in enquiries |
| AI answers | Rarely checked | Crawler access, snippet eligibility and whether assistants cite you |
| Output | A score and a long list | An order of work, with what each fix involves |
Be wary of free audits offered as a sales opener. A report built to alarm you tends to find exactly the problems the sender happens to sell.
What should you get at the end of an SEO audit?
You should get a ranked order of work, not a score. Each finding needs the evidence behind it, the pages it affects, why it matters to the business, and what fixing it involves. Blockers should be separated from cleanup, and the audit should record where your search performance stands today so later work can be measured against it.
- Findings ranked by impact, with blockers at the top
- Evidence for each finding: a Search Console report, a crawl result or a live example
- The pages each finding affects, by URL
- What each fix involves and who needs to do it: a developer, a writer or the business itself
- A baseline of current queries, impressions, positions and indexed pages
- What the audit didn't cover, stated plainly
Google's own advice on hiring an SEO says an audit should explain the work involved and what improvement is realistic. It also says nobody can guarantee a first-place ranking, so an audit that promises one has stopped being an audit.
What access does an SEO auditor need?
Read access is enough. An auditor needs to see your Search Console data, your analytics and the public site, plus a list of the pages and enquiries that matter most to the business. Google advises granting only read access at the audit stage. Nobody needs ownership of your accounts, your passwords or the ability to change anything.
- Search Console: a user with read access, not an owner
- Analytics: viewer access
- The live site, which any crawler can reach without a login
- Your business-critical pages and what counts as an enquiry
- Recent changes: a redesign, a domain move, new pages or removed ones
Keep ownership of every account in the business's name. If an auditor or agency asks to become the owner of your Search Console property or analytics, say no and offer read access instead.
When should you get an SEO audit?
Get one before a big change and after an unexplained drop. The moments that matter most are a rebuild or domain move, a sustained fall in search traffic, a decision to hire ongoing search work, and finding out that AI assistants recommend other businesses for what you do. Outside those, a lighter regular check of Search Console is usually enough.
| Situation | Why audit now |
|---|---|
| Planning a rebuild or domain move | Records what ranks today so the new site keeps it |
| Search traffic has dropped and nobody knows why | Separates technical faults from changes in demand and competition |
| About to hire an SEO provider | Gives you a scope to compare proposals against |
| AI assistants name other businesses for your services | Checks whether answer engines can reach and cite you at all |
| Traffic is growing and nothing is changing | Probably not needed yet. Watch Search Console instead |
A rebuild is where an audit pays off most. Whether a new website will hurt your SEO depends largely on what you record and map before launch.
If assistants keep naming other businesses, the fix usually starts off your own site, with listings, reviews and mentions. Here's how to get your business recommended by ChatGPT.
What are the red flags in an SEO audit?
The biggest red flags are guaranteed rankings or timelines, a score with no priorities, findings that happen to match the package the auditor sells, and requests for ownership of your accounts. An audit that never opens your Search Console data, or ignores AI answers entirely, is reading half the picture.
- Guaranteed rankings, positions or timelines
- A score or grade with no ranked order of work
- Hundreds of findings with no explanation of which matter
- Recommendations that mirror the auditor's own packages
- A request for owner or admin access instead of read access
- No Search Console data anywhere in the findings
- Nothing on AI crawler access or AI answers
Ask whether the auditor follows Google Search Essentials and how they'll measure whether the work helped. A practitioner will answer both directly.
So, what should your SEO audit include?
Technical access, content against search intent, Search Console performance, local and off-site trust, AI answer visibility and measurement, delivered as a ranked order of work with evidence behind every finding. Give read-only access, expect no guarantees, and judge the audit by whether you know what to fix first when you finish reading it.
We work on SEO and AEO, websites, apps and AI under one roof, and I'm the practitioner on every SyncDS engagement. When the findings point at the site itself, the website build happens in the same place as the search work.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does an SEO audit take?
It depends on the size of the site, how much Search Console history exists, and whether the audit covers AI answers and local listings as well as technical SEO. A small site needs far less time than one with thousands of pages. Ask for a delivery date before work starts, and be wary of anything returned within minutes.
How much does an SEO audit cost?
Cost follows size and depth: the number of pages, the layers covered and whether the findings come with a plan for the fixes. A free automated report costs nothing because it doesn't interpret anything. A firm price before anyone has seen the site and its data is a guess.
Can ChatGPT do an SEO audit?
An AI assistant can review a page you paste in, explain a crawl error or suggest better titles. It can't see your Search Console data unless you share an export, it doesn't know which pages earn your money, and it can describe problems confidently that aren't there. Treat it as a second reader, not the auditor.
How often should you get an SEO audit?
Get a full audit before major changes, such as a rebuild, a domain move or a new service line, and after any unexplained drop. Between those, review Search Console regularly for indexing errors, falling pages and new queries. Running an audit before the decisions it informs matters more than running one on a calendar.
Does an SEO audit include competitor analysis?
A good one compares your pages with the pages that actually rank for your most valuable searches, because those set the standard you're measured against. The point is to find what they cover that you don't, not to copy them. The businesses you think of as rivals matter less than the pages that really rank.
Will an SEO audit improve my rankings?
Not by itself. An audit finds and ranks the problems; the fixes do the work, and no one can guarantee rankings whatever an audit finds. What a good audit gives you is a clear order of work, so the effort goes to the problems that affect the pages that bring in business.
Should the company that audits my site also do the fixes?
It can, and it often saves time. The test is whether the findings are ranked by impact or by what the auditor sells. Ask for findings written so any competent developer or writer could act on them. If you couldn't take the audit to someone else, it's a proposal, not an audit.
Does an SEO audit cover Google Business Profile?
For any business that serves customers in a place, it should. The audit checks that the profile is claimed, the categories fit, and the business name, address and phone number match your website and major listings. Mismatched details, such as an old number on a directory, split the signals search engines and assistants rely on.
Can an SEO audit be done remotely?
Yes. Search Console, analytics, crawling and AI answer checks all work remotely, and the findings walkthrough works well over a video call. We're based in Winnipeg and work with clients across Canada and any English-speaking country.