Audit SEO and Create a Report

Help the user understand which organic-search opportunities and problems deserve action, why they matter, and what should happen next.

Produce a decision-ready SEO report grounded in inspectable evidence rather than a generic checklist.

1. Define the decision and audit scope

Establish:

• website or property;
• audience;
• market and geography;
• priority products, services, or page groups;
• important competitors;
• timeframe;
• business objective;
• decision the audit must support.

Determine whether the request is:

• first-time audit;
• focused diagnostic;
• periodic review;
• redesign of an existing SEO process;
• competitive search review.

Use an existing trusted company or client methodology when one exists.

Define the useful depth and output.

Audit size depends on:

• number of properties;
• number of pages;
• number of competitors;
• number of markets;
• number of queries;
• data availability.

Choose between a focused deep audit and a broad first pass based on the decision.

Confirm whether the result should be:

• concise chat brief;
• document;
• deck;
• dashboard;
• client-facing report.

For client work, verify the exact:

• client;
• property;
• analytics account;
• search property;
• brand;
• reporting destination.

Keep each client's:

• analytics;
• search data;
• credentials;
• findings;
• conclusions;
• deliverables

separate.

2. Gather evidence that can change the decision

Use approved sources such as:

• Google Search Console or equivalent;
• analytics;
• ranking tools;
• crawl tools;
• technical SEO tools;
• previous audits;
• keyword research;
• live site;
• competitor sites;
• current search results.

None of these is mandatory by default.

Use the evidence most likely to change the recommendation and state what is unavailable.

Preserve:

• source;
• date range;
• market;
• device;
• filters;
• property;
• methodology;
• data freshness.

Align definitions before comparing sources.

Check:

• date ranges;
• time zones;
• markets;
• devices;
• currencies where conversion values are involved;
• attribution windows;
• query definitions;
• tool methodologies.

Clearly label data that is:

• sampled;
• modeled;
• estimated;
• stale;
• incomplete;
• contradictory.

Do not treat platform estimates as unquestioned ground truth.

3. Inspect the live experience

Use the actual site and search environment where useful.

Inspect important:

• pages;
• templates;
• SERPs;
• internal links;
• structured data;
• rendering behavior;
• indexability signals.

Preserve source links and, when useful, screenshots that make findings easier to verify.

Do not rely only on exported metrics when the live implementation changes interpretation.

4. Analyze search performance and opportunity

Review the parts of organic performance relevant to scope.

Potential areas include:

Query opportunities

Look for queries with:

• meaningful impressions;
• weak average position;
• low click-through rate;
• declining visibility;
• strong product fit;
• realistic authority fit.

Page opportunities

Look for pages or templates with:

• declining visibility;
• traffic loss;
• conversion contribution loss;
• indexing problems;
• cannibalization;
• stale content;
• weak internal linking.

Competitor gaps

Review competitor:

• queries;
• topics;
• formats;
• offers;
• positioning;
• SERP presence.

Identify gaps the site can credibly address.

Do not infer opportunity from keyword volume alone.

Consider:

• search intent;
• current authority;
• product fit;
• competition;
• conversion value;
• production effort;
• evidence quality.

Content quality

Look for content that:

• overlaps heavily;
• misses user intent;
• lacks supporting evidence;
• has become stale;
• targets the wrong funnel stage;
• is not differentiated.

Technical search issues

Where in scope, inspect:

• crawlability;
• indexability;
• rendering;
• structured data;
• internal linking;
• canonicalization;
• templates;
• page experience;
• technical duplication.

Segment differences

Where useful, compare:

• brand vs. non-brand;
• geography;
• device;
• page type;
• funnel stage;
• audience.

5. Connect organic evidence to other channels carefully

If paid search is relevant, note where organic evidence could support:

• exact-match tests;
• creative angles;
• landing-page hypotheses;
• message validation.

Keep these as recommendations.

Do not configure campaigns, change bids, or modify spend through the SEO audit workflow.

When competitor work expands beyond organic-search opportunity into broader positioning or market activity, route that analysis to the competitor-analysis workflow.

6. Separate evidence, estimates, hypotheses, and recommendations

Classify findings.

Observed evidence

Directly supported by:

• source data;
• site inspection;
• crawl results;
• current SERPs.

Platform estimate

Derived from a third-party estimation model.

Hypothesis

A plausible explanation requiring more evidence.

Recommendation

A proposed action based on the available evidence.

Do not mix these categories.

Group symptoms into underlying causes when the evidence supports a common root problem.

Avoid inflating the report with dozens of repetitive findings that point to the same fix.

7. Prioritize material opportunities

Evaluate each important opportunity using criteria such as:

• likely impact;
• confidence;
• effort;
• dependencies;
• risk;
• time to learn;
• strategic relevance.

For each prioritized item, explain:

• evidence;
• why it matters;
• recommended action;
• responsible owner or dependency when known;
• how success could be measured;
• useful review point.

Keep unknowns and conflicting evidence visible.

8. Build the report

Lead with:

• decision-relevant findings;
• highest-priority actions.

Include:

• scope;
• source coverage;
• limitations;
• current baseline where available;
• prioritized opportunities;
• supporting source links;
• screenshots where useful;
• recommended owners;
• dependencies;
• measurement approach;
• review timing.

Use the approved brand when the result is client-facing.

Keep white-label requirements when requested.

Do not confuse a reviewable report with permission to distribute it.

If substantial extraction, joins, statistics, or data-quality work is required, use the environment's shared data-analysis capabilities while keeping SEO interpretation inside this workflow.

9. Calibrate before expanding

Allow the user to correct:

• scope;
• data sources;
• prioritization;
• assumptions;
• report shape.

Do this before scaling a large audit or recurring SEO process.

10. Keep execution actions separate

Treat these as separate actions:

• read-only audit;
• report creation;
• report sharing;
• content editing;
• technical SEO changes;
• publishing;
• tracking changes;
• paid-search configuration;
• spend changes.

Follow active scoped permission for every:

• client;
• property;
• account;
• source;
• destination;
• action.

Stop or ask when:

• identity changes;
• property scope changes;
• access changes;
• sensitive data handling changes;
• the requested action exceeds permission.

Verify completed external changes when possible.

11. Preserve the accepted audit method

After the audit proves useful, preserve:

• scope;
• source hierarchy;
• definitions;
• prioritization method;
• brand rules;
• report structure;
• review behavior.

Only add recurring monitoring when there is a real cadence or trigger.

Define:

• properties;
• comparison period;
• metrics;
• meaningful-change threshold;
• destination;
• review behavior;
• approval boundary;
• stop conditions.