Data, SEO & AI Search · How-to guide
How to run an SEO audit
What an SEO audit really checks, the five layers that matter, the order to work through them, and how to turn a long list of issues into the few fixes that move rankings.
The short answer
What is an SEO audit, and what does it check?
Key takeaways
An audit checks five layers: technical, content, links, experience and AI readiness.
Work top down: a fast, crawlable, indexed site first, then content and authority.
Most issues are noise. A good audit surfaces the few fixes that change rankings.
You can self-audit the basics; the judgement on what to fix first is the hard part.
The layers
The five layers a real audit checks
A real audit looks at five layers. Skip one and the others underperform, because a brilliant page on a site Google cannot crawl still goes nowhere.
Technical health
Crawlability, indexation, site speed and Core Web Vitals, mobile rendering, HTTPS, redirects and a clean site structure. Can engines reach and read every page that matters.
Layer 1On-page and content
Titles, headings, intent match, depth, internal links and answer-first structure. Does each page deserve to rank for the query it targets.
Layer 2Authority and links
The quantity and, far more, the quality of links pointing in, plus brand mentions. Is the site trusted enough to rank for competitive terms.
Layer 3User experience
Page experience, layout stability, intrusive interstitials and the path to a conversion. Search rewards sites people are happy to use.
Layer 4AI readiness
Structured data, clean quotable passages and entity clarity. Can an answer engine lift and cite your page, not just index it.
Layer 5The order
The order we work in
Top down, because the plumbing decides everything above it.
The layers are not equal, and order matters. We work top down, because there is no point polishing content on pages an engine cannot crawl or index.
Crawl and index
Pull the site with a crawler, confirm what Google actually has indexed, and find the pages that are blocked, broken, duplicated or orphaned. Fix the plumbing before anything else.
Speed and experience
Measure Core Web Vitals on real pages, not the homepage alone. Slow, unstable pages cap everything above them.
Content and intent
Map each important page to the query it should win, and check it matches intent, answers first and links to its siblings.
Authority
Review the link profile for quality and risk, and find the realistic gaps against the sites already ranking.
Prioritise and report
Score every issue by impact and effort, then ship a short ordered plan, not a raw export of three hundred warnings.
The priorities
The issues that actually move rankings
Most findings are noise. These are not.
Most issues a tool flags will never change a ranking. These are the ones that usually do, and the ones we chase first.
| Usually noise | Usually moves rankings | |
|---|---|---|
| Technical | A handful of long meta descriptions | Pages blocked from indexing, or slow Core Web Vitals on key templates |
| Content | One missing alt tag | A money page that does not match search intent or answer the question |
| Links | A single low-quality link | No authority at all relative to the sites you are trying to outrank |
| Structure | Cosmetic heading order | Important pages orphaned, with no internal links pointing to them |
This audit is the first thing we run on every new engagement, through our search engine optimisation service, so the plan is built on what your site actually needs rather than a generic checklist.
Doing it
DIY or done for you
You can run the basics yourself. A free crawler and Google's own tools will surface most technical and indexing issues. What is hard to do alone is the judgement: deciding which of the findings actually matter for your market, and in what order to fix them.
Start here
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How to run an SEO audit FAQs
What is included in an SEO audit?
A thorough audit covers five layers: technical health (crawling, indexing, speed, Core Web Vitals), on-page content and intent, authority and backlinks, user experience, and AI readiness such as structured data. The deliverable that matters is a short, ranked plan of the fixes that will move rankings, not a raw list of every warning.
How long does an SEO audit take?
A focused audit of a small to mid-size site takes a few days to a week or two, depending on size and how much the crawl turns up. The analysis and prioritisation take longer than the data pull, because deciding what to fix first is the valuable part.
How much does an SEO audit cost in Australia?
It ranges from free, often as a sales tool, to a few thousand dollars for a deep manual audit of a larger site. The cost per click on the term sits around $17 in our 2026 Australian data, which tells you how commercially valued audits are. Judge value on the plan, not the page count.
Can I do an SEO audit myself?
Yes for the basics. A crawler plus Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights will surface most technical and indexing issues. The harder part is judgement: deciding which findings actually matter for your market and the order to fix them in.
How often should I audit my site?
A full audit once or twice a year, with lighter monthly checks on indexing, Core Web Vitals and any new issues. Audit again after a migration, a redesign or a sudden ranking drop, because those are exactly when new problems appear.
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