What does an SEO audit include, and how much does it cost?

A proper SEO audit checks five things: the technical set-up Google relies on to find and index your pages, your content against what your customers search for, your local SEO and Google Business Profile, the links pointing to your site, and the competitors who outrank you. You finish with every finding ranked by impact and effort, so you know what to fix first. The price is set by the scope, meaning which of those areas the audit covers and how far it goes, and we confirm the scope and price with you before we start.

A free online checker that hands you a score and a long list of warnings isn't the same thing. Here's what a real audit looks at, what you should get at the end and what decides the cost.

When does a business need an SEO audit?

When you need to know why you rank where you do, and what to do about it. The common triggers are clear: enquiries from Google have dropped, a competitor has overtaken you for the searches that bring in work, or you're about to rebuild your website and don't want to lose what's already working.

Google's own guidance on hiring an SEO, last updated in June 2026, says a great time to bring one in is when you're considering a site redesign, and the earlier the better. An audit before the rebuild tells your designer which pages, content and links are earning your rankings, so they survive the move.

An audit is also the right first step before any big decision. Before you hire an agency, commit a bigger budget or move to a new platform, it gives you the facts. If you have someone in-house doing SEO, it gives them an expert second opinion and a prioritised list.

What does the technical part of an audit check?

Whether Google can find, crawl and index your pages, and whether your site gives it a clear picture of what you do. That covers page speed, indexing, the structure of your site and the structured data that labels things like your services, address and opening hours.

Google supplies much of the evidence itself. Its help page on Search Console, checked in October 2026, describes it as "a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot" your site's presence in Google Search results. Among other things, it confirms that Google can find and crawl your site, alerts you to indexing problems and shows you which sites link to yours. An audit reads that data, explains what it means for your business and turns it into fixes.

A technical problem can quietly undo everything else. A service page that isn't indexed can't rank, however well it's written.

How does an audit judge your content and keywords?

By comparing what your pages say with what your customers type. A good audit starts with keyword research: the searches people use when they're ready to buy what you sell, in the places you work. Then it checks whether you have a page that answers each of those searches properly.

The gaps are where the opportunities sit. A single "services" page that lists extensions, loft conversions and roofing is being asked to rank for three very different searches, and it won't do any of them justice. An audit spots that kind of gap and recommends the pages worth creating or rewriting, in order of what they're worth to you.

What about local SEO and your Google Business Profile?

If you serve customers in an area, the map results matter as much as the main ones. A local audit goes through your Business Profile line by line: categories, services, areas, opening hours, photos and reviews. It checks that your name, address and phone number match on your website and everywhere else you're listed. A wrong number or out-of-date hours costs you calls from people who were already searching nearby.

We've covered how the map results work in our guide to getting into Google's map results. In an audit, the job is to find exactly where your own profile falls short and what to fix first.

Why do links and competitors matter?

Because links are part of how Google judges how well-known you are. Google's help page on local ranking, checked in October 2026, says prominence counts the number of websites linking to a business and the number of reviews it has. An audit reviews the sites linking to you, flags anything that looks like a problem and identifies the local and industry sites where you should be mentioned and aren't.

Then it compares you with the businesses ranking above you. What pages do they have that you don't? Which searches do they win? Which sites link to them? That comparison turns a list of general fixes into a plan to close the gap with the specific competitors taking your customers.

What should you get at the end of an SEO audit?

A plan, not a data dump. Our audits run in four steps:

• Scope: a short call to agree the audit, the questions to answer and the access we need.
• Review: our specialists analyse your site, accounts, data and competitors.
• Report: clear findings, evidence and recommendations ranked by impact and effort.
• Plan: a walkthrough of the results, with an optional strategy and action plan.

Ranking by impact and effort is the part that saves you money. Some fixes take an hour and make a real difference. Others take weeks and barely matter. You should know which is which before you spend a penny on the work.

Google sets the standard in the same guidance on hiring an SEO: "An SEO audit should be about giving you realistic estimates of improvement, and an estimate of the work involved." Hold any audit to that. If it ends with a promise of rankings instead of a costed list of work, it isn't telling you what you need to know.

How long does an SEO audit take?

We complete most single-area audits within two to three weeks of getting access to your accounts. Larger combined audits take longer, and we confirm the timings before we start. The clock starts when access arrives, so we agree what's needed on the scoping call.

What decides the price of an SEO audit?

Scope, and two parts of it in particular. The first is how many areas the audit covers. A technical SEO audit, a local SEO audit or a Google Business Profile audit each look at one area, while a full SEO audit covers all of them. The second is how far you want to go: a search visibility comparison against named competitors, a combined SEO and GEO audit that also checks how AI tools describe you, or a strategy and action plan on top of the report.

That's why we don't publish a single audit price. We agree the scope on a short call, then confirm the price before any work starts. It's a one-off piece of work with no ongoing contract, and you can see every audit we offer on our audits page.

What happens after the audit?

You choose. You can hand the report to your own team or developer and work through it in order. If you'd like help with the fixes, we'll talk that through once you've seen the findings.

If you want SEO handled every day after that, it runs inside our Growth Engine, alongside daily content, technical SEO and backlinks. The Growth Engine is £1,499 a month + VAT over a 12-month term. Our SEO page explains how that works, and our GEO page covers being recommended by AI tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.

Frequently asked questions

Is a free online SEO checker the same as an SEO audit?

No. A checker lists warnings. An audit tells you which ones cost you customers, compares you with the competitors who outrank you and ranks every fix by impact and effort.

Do I need an ongoing contract to get an SEO audit?

No. Our audits are standalone, one-off pieces of work. If you want help putting the recommendations in place, we can discuss that afterwards.

Does an SEO audit cover AI search?

Yes, if you choose our combined SEO and GEO audit. It checks how you appear in AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews as well as in Google's normal results.

How much does an SEO audit cost?

The price is set by the scope: which areas the audit covers and how far it goes. We agree the scope on a short call and confirm the price before we start.

Book a scoping call

Want to know what's holding your site back? Ring +44 1382 699595 or tell us about your site, and we'll scope your audit and confirm the price.