What is an SEO audit? What a good one finds and what it costs

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What is an SEO audit, in plain English?

Think of it as an MOT for your website. Someone goes through the whole site page by page the way Google does and writes down everything that stops it being found: pages Google can’t read, slow loading, missing titles, broken links, pages that compete with each other for the same search and gaps where people are searching for what you do but you have no page for it.

The useful bit isn’t the list. It’s knowing which fixes matter for your business and which ones are noise. A 40-page report full of red warnings helps nobody if the three things actually costing you enquiries are buried on page 31.

Why did most small businesses never have one done?

First, a bit of honesty: every website has errors. Even sites built on big budgets with monthly SEO support behind them pick up faults as they grow. A page gets renamed and old links break, a new section never gets a proper title, images creep up in size and pages slow down. None of that means the site was built badly. It’s just what happens to a living website.

The problem was the cost of finding it all. Checking every page by hand, pulling keyword data, testing speed one page at a time and then fixing it was days of work, so the bill ran into thousands. Most small businesses looked at the price, shrugged and put it off. Fair enough.

That’s changed. The tools that only the big agencies used to pay for (keyword research, rank tracking, full-site crawls, Search Console and analytics data side by side) are now part of how we work on every SEO job. What took days now takes a fraction of the time, so work that would have cost thousands is now within reach and the foundations end up stronger. We wrote about why SEO isn’t a one-off job, but getting the foundations right first is what makes everything after it work.

What should an SEO audit check in 2026?

Here’s what we look at on every site. If an audit you’ve been offered skips half of these, ask why.

• Can Google read every page? Pages blocked by mistake, missing from the sitemap or not indexed at all.
• Speed on a phone. Most of your visitors are on mobile and Google measures how quickly your main content appears. Slow pages lose people before they’ve read a word.
• Broken links and redirect chains. Every link inside your site should go straight to the right page, first time.
• Titles, headings and descriptions. Each page should say clearly what it is and who it’s for, using the words people actually search.
• Pages fighting each other. Two pages chasing the same search split the ranking between them.
• Search Console and analytics set up properly. Without them nobody can prove what’s working.
• Keyword gaps. Searches with real demand in your area where you have no page at all.
• Your Google Business Profile and reviews. For local businesses this is often where the calls come from.
• AI search readiness. Clear answers, structured data and facts AI tools can lift and trust.

How do you know if the SEO fixes actually worked?

This is the part most audits leave out and it’s the bit we care about most. Any SEO work we do now comes with two reports:

1. On the day: exactly what we fixed, page by page, with the before and after scores where there are any (speed, for example).
2. Four weeks later: what moved. Rankings for the searches we targeted, Google clicks and impressions from Search Console and enquiries where we can track them. Real numbers, not “it should help”.

That second report also tells us what to do next. If people are searching for a service you offer and you’re sitting on page two, that’s the next page worth building. Recommendations come from what people search for and what the data shows, not from a hunch.

Real pages from our monthly client reports, with names taken out: the work done, the results, where you show on page one and what we’re pushing next.

What does it look like when the fixes land?

A few results from client sites we look after (sectors rather than names), all from Search Console, PageSpeed and enquiry records rather than guesswork:

The wrap company’s average Google position also climbed from 20 to 14 in three months, with page one for searches like caravan wraps. None of that came from one magic trick. It came from fixing the foundations, then building the pages the data said were missing. You can see more on our before & after page.

Does an SEO audit help with AI search like ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers?

Yes and it matters more every month. AI tools pull their answers from websites they can read easily and trust: pages that load fast, answer questions plainly, carry structured data and match what’s said about you elsewhere. Most of what makes a site good for Google makes it good for AI search too.

So we now tick every box we can for AI search as part of the audit, alongside page speed. Work done today keeps paying back into 2027, as more people ask an AI tool for a recommendation instead of scrolling a list of links. If you want the longer version, read how to get found on Google and AI search.

How much does an SEO audit cost?

Prices vary wildly. Some agencies charge hundreds just for the report, then quote again for the fixes. Here’s how we do it:

• The review is free. We go through your site and tell you what’s wrong, what to fix first and what it would cost. No obligation.
• One-off SEO work starts from £250. You only pay for the fixes you choose.
• New pages if the data says you need them. 5 pages for £300 or 10 for £500.
• Monthly SEO from £150 if you want the work to keep building.

Every price is on our SEO pricing page and we’re always happy to work to a budget.

What happens after the audit?

You get the list, the price and a plain-English explanation of what each fix does. You choose what to go ahead with. Once the work’s done you get the day-one report, then the four-week results and our recommendations for what’s next. No contract and no pressure. Plenty of clients start with the fixes and come back for pages once they see the numbers move.

Questions people ask about SEO audits

How long does an SEO audit take?

Not long any more. Work that used to take days now takes about a day, so once you say go most fixes are done in a day. Bigger sites or a batch of new pages take a little longer and we’ll tell you upfront.

How often should a website have an SEO audit?

Once a year is a good rule, plus after any rebuild, redesign or big change to your pages. Google and AI search move quickly and small faults creep in as sites grow.

Can I do an SEO audit myself?

You can run free tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Search Console and they’ll flag plenty. The hard part is knowing which warnings matter for your business and fixing them properly. That’s where a free SEO audit from a real person saves time.

Sources. Google Search Essentials — Google Search Central · Understanding Core Web Vitals — Google Search Central · AI features and your website — Google Search Central. Client figures from our own Search Console, PageSpeed and enquiry records.