What is an SEO audit?
The featured-snippet answer, in plain language.
An SEO audit is a structured diagnosis of why a website is not ranking, converting, or growing the way it should. For small businesses and SMEs, the Illucrum audit reviews 52 points across eight sections: technical SEO, on-page SEO, keyword opportunities, competitor analysis, local SEO, UX and conversion signals, AI search readiness, and the backlink profile. The output is a written report with scored severity and prioritised fixes, delivered in 5 to 8 business days.
Who this is built for
The general audit is the right fit for any site that isn't SaaS or an online store.
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Service businesses
Consultancies, agencies, professional services, whose website is the entry point to the sales conversation.
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Content sites and publishers
Where organic traffic is the primary revenue driver.
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Local businesses, small businesses, and SMEs
That have never had a formal SEO audit and want a clear baseline. This is the only audit with a dedicated local SEO section (Google Business Profile, NAP consistency, citations, reviews, local schema).
If your site is a SaaS application or an e-commerce store, the dedicated SaaS SEO audit or e-commerce SEO audit is the closer fit, with vertical-specific checks that this generic audit does not include.
How much does an audit cost in 2026
An SEO audit often pays off better than paid ads, but that doesn't answer the question of how much it costs. So here is the price, and what you get for it.
| Price | |
| Check count | 52 points |
| Sections covered | 8 |
| Backlink and authority review | Included |
| Local SEO | 5 checks |
| AI search readiness | 6 checks |
| Competitor depth | Top 3 competitors, with content and link-gap analysis |
| Delivery | 5 to 8 business days |
| Output | Written report, prioritised action plan |
* Discount offered to the first clients 10 clients in exchange for a review on clutch.co. 9 offers left
Considering whether a vertical-specific audit is a better fit? See SaaS vs website SEO audit or e-commerce vs website SEO audit.
For full pricing across all audit types, see the pricing page.
The eight sections of an SEO audit
The 52 audit points are grouped into eight sections. Every check is scored on severity (green / amber / red) and prioritised by likely impact.
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Technical SEO (12 points)
Page speed and Core Web Vitals, mobile friendliness, HTTPS, XML sitemap and robots configuration, canonical handling, structured data, crawl errors and index coverage, redirect chains and 4xx errors, duplicate and thin pages, and hreflang on multilingual sites. Most quiet ranking suppressors hide here.
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On-page SEO (10 points)
Title tags, meta descriptions, heading structure, image alt text, content quality and length, and internal linking, plus URL structure, social meta tags, content freshness, and keyword placement. This is also where cannibalisation and zombie pages (indexed, no traffic) surface.
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Keyword opportunities (6 points)
Ranking keyword overview, striking-distance keywords sitting in positions 4 to 20, and local keyword coverage. The audit also covers search intent alignment, the keyword gap against competitors, and the branded versus non-branded traffic split.
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Backlink profile (5 points)
Total backlinks and referring domains, toxic and spammy links, anchor text distribution, links lost and gained over the last 90 days, and the link gap against direct competitors. 66.5% of all web pages have zero backlinks; the audit identifies what is realistic to close in 6 to 12 months.
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Competitor analysis (4 points)
The top 3 organic competitors are identified and their authority scores benchmarked. The audit also covers a top-pages comparison and a content depth analysis, quantifying the gap.
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Local SEO (5 points)
Google Business Profile optimisation, NAP consistency across the web, and review score and recency, plus local citations and local schema. This is the section the SaaS and e-commerce audits drop; if you serve a geographic market, it is the reason to choose this audit over those.
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UX and conversion signals (4 points)
Clear CTAs on key pages and navigation and site structure, plus bounce rate and session duration and intrusive pop-ups and interstitials. SEO traffic only matters if it converts; this section reviews where the conversion gap is.
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AI search and answer engine optimisation (6 points)
Google AI Overview presence, answer engine visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, and AI crawler access and llms.txt. The audit also covers answer-ready content structure, citation-worthy signals and E-E-A-T, and AI-focused structured data.
Patterns that repeat across website audits
Anonymised examples of what the report surfaces.
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Wrong page targeting the head term
A homepage targeting a high-volume informational keyword that does not convert, while the actual money pages are buried three clicks deep in the navigation.
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Duplicate title tags
Title tags duplicated across 40+ pages, suppressing each page's ability to rank.
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Internal linking on the wrong pages
Internal linking concentrated on the homepage and the contact page; the actual service pages receive almost no internal link equity.
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Core Web Vitals failing on mobile
Core Web Vitals failing on mobile, with mobile being 60%+ of the site's traffic.
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Blog zombies
A blog with 80 posts where 75 receive zero organic traffic; the remaining 5 carry the whole site.
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Competing CTAs above the fold
A contact page with three competing CTAs above the fold, each pointing somewhere different.
The report is specific to the site. No filler.
How an audit takes shape, in five steps
Same shape for every audit. The detail differs by vertical; the deliverable does not.
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Intake
A short brief: the site, the stage, the question you want answered. WhatsApp or email; no calls required.
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Crawl and tooling
The site is crawled and analysed across the standard toolset (Google Search Console, PageSpeed, SEOptimer, structured-data validators).
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Manual Research
We research your business, industry, we read your website, so we are sure we have a clear picture.
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Analysis
Once the data is gathered, it's time to analyze it. The analysis is done manually, no AI.
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Report
A written PDF report with scored findings, prioritised fixes, and an action plan. Delivered to your inbox.
Full process detail at How an Illucrum SEO audit takes shape.
Why this audit, not another
We don't sell a dump of an automated tool. We look into your business, your industry, to understand the context. This is the only way to ensure the audit is 100% helpful to your website.
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One process, adapted to each client
The templates are not rigid. If we think breaking the pattern will be more useful, we are happy to adapt and deliver the audit you need.
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Source-backed methodology
Every benchmark referenced in the report has a citable source. The full SEO facts list is published openly at SEO facts and statistics.
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Written-first delivery
No retainer trap, no sales call, no calendar block. WhatsApp, email, written report. A debrief call if you need it. That is the whole engagement.
SEO audit FAQ
The questions that come up most often before a website audit. The full FAQ has more.
What is an SEO audit and what does it include?
An SEO audit is a structured diagnosis of why your site isn't ranking, converting, or growing the way it should. The Illucrum audit covers 52 points across eight sections: technical SEO, on-page SEO, keyword opportunities, backlink profile, competitor analysis, local SEO, UX and conversion signals, and AI search readiness. The output is a prioritised, scored action plan, not a generic checklist.
How long does an SEO audit take?
Five to eight business days, counted from the moment we have your brief and the access we need. The window reflects the manual review; a real audit cannot be compressed below it without cutting the part that produces the findings.
Can I do my own SEO audit?
For a small site with low competition, yes, especially on the on-page side. For competitive niches or anything beyond the basics, the bottleneck is rarely knowledge; it is interpretation and prioritisation. The full answer lives at SEO audit vs DIY.
Will an SEO tool do the same job?
Tools surface symptoms; an audit interprets them. Also the tool treats each website the same. We adapt to your website type, but also your industry, to make sure we provide valuable information to you. The full comparison lives at SEO audit vs SEO tool.
What happens after the report?
You implement the findings yourself, you can also hire us to do it for you. There is no obligation to continue. The decision logic lives at SEO audit vs SEO retainer.
Is the audit confidential?
Yes. No client work is published without explicit permission, and no findings are shared externally.
See the full FAQ for website audits for more questions, or jump to general SEO audit questions.
Ready to find what's slowing your site down?
Audits are scheduled in the order requests come in. Describe the site and the question you want answered; we will scope it from there.
Contact us