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SEO audit services from one senior consultant

An SEO audit is a review of what stops a site being found in search, ending in a list of fixes ranked by the traffic each should bring. It's for businesses with stalled traffic or a redesign coming. I'm Will Sibley, one consultant, and I do every audit myself, for a fixed price quoted before work starts.

Send me your site

I reply myself, usually within one working day.

Proof

What an audit-led approach did at The Telegraph

I was Senior SEO Manager at The Telegraph, one of the UK's largest sites. The audit I'd run on your site has the same structure as the one I ran across that newsroom.

220%

year-on-year growth in search traffic to The Telegraph's Money section, from an audit-led approach

“Will is an exceptional SEO professional who collaborated seamlessly with teams across the newsroom to raise SEO standards and deliver measurable results. His expertise and innovative strategies were instrumental in driving The Telegraph's search visibility and organic growth across key target areas.”

Harry Clarkson-Bennett

Harry Clarkson-Bennett

SEO Director, The Telegraph

See more of my work

What's included

What my SEO audit covers

I audit by hand, with Screaming Frog and Google Search Console doing the collecting. Every finding has to pass one test, which is whether fixing only that would measurably improve anything. Findings that fail are cut before you see the list. Audits are one of my SEO services.
  1. 01

    Crawling

    Whether Google can reach every page that matters. I crawl the whole site with Screaming Frog and check the sitemap, the internal links and robots.txt, the file that tells search engines where they may go.

  2. 02

    Rendering

    Whether the page Google sees matches the page a visitor sees. On sites built with a lot of JavaScript the two can differ, and it's the layer automated tools check least well.

  3. 03

    Indexing

    What Google holds in its index, the list of pages it can show, against what should be there. On one Shopify store I found a vendor page and a tracking-link copy listed in place of real pages.

  4. 04

    Site structure

    Whether the links between your pages point Google towards the ones that earn money. This layer takes the most judgement, and it's where audits differ most in quality.

  5. 05

    Speed

    Core Web Vitals, which are Google's measurements of loading speed for real visitors, checked one page type at a time in PageSpeed Insights. I name the cause, such as a 4MB photo at the top of a page.

  6. 06

    Content and what people search for

    Each key page is set against the searches it appears for in Search Console. I flag pages that compete with each other, pages aimed at no search at all and searches you have no page for.

  7. 07

    Competitors and links

    Where you stand against the sites that outrank you, and why, with SEMrush data on who links to each. If a search term is out of reach, I'll say so and point the effort somewhere it can win.

How it runs

How an SEO audit runs, from quote to finished list

An audit typically takes two to three weeks from the day I get access to the day you get the list.
  1. 01

    Day 1

    Scope and a fixed price

    Send me your address. I look at the site's size, its platform and what Google has indexed, then reply with a fixed price and a start date.

  2. 02

    Weeks 1 to 3

    Access, crawl and the audit itself

    You give me read-only access to Search Console and Google Analytics. I crawl the site and work through all seven areas, and nearly all of the time goes on analysis.

  3. 03

    By week 3

    The ranked list

    Every finding says what's wrong, what fixing it is worth and how much effort it takes. You also get a recorded walkthrough to share with your team, and written answers to any questions.

  4. 04

    Afterwards

    The fixes, if you want them from me

    Your developer can work straight from the list, or I can make the fixes as monthly work from £1,000 a month ($1,500). Technical fixes on an established site often show in Search Console within a few weeks.

Price

What an SEO audit costs

Audits are quoted on scope, because a 30-page brochure site and a 30,000-page shop are different jobs. I send a fixed price before work starts. If you run a Shopify store, you can have a free written audit first through my Shopify SEO page.

WhatPriceWhat it covers
SEO auditQuoted on scope, fixed before work startsTechnical, content and competitor review, a ranked list of fixes and a recorded walkthrough.
Technical-only auditQuoted on scopeCrawling, rendering, indexing, structure and speed, for sites that only need those five checked.
Shopify SEO auditFreeTwo to three written pages, sent within three working days, with no logins needed.
Monthly SEO after the auditFrom £1,000 a month ($1,500)Working through the list myself, or alongside your developer.

How to choose

Should you get an SEO audit from an agency or a consultant?

Choose an agency if the audit is the first step in a large contract with a team behind it. Choose a consultant if you want one senior person to read the site by hand and rank the fixes.
An agency is the better choice whenOne consultant is the better choice when
You want the audit, the fixes, paid ads and social media under one contract.You want the audit read and written by the same senior person from start to finish.
You have several sites to audit at once on a tight deadline.Your developer needs a list they can act on without a meeting.
Your buying process requires a supplier with a team behind it.You've paid for SEO before and want a second opinion on what it achieved.
A redesign or migration is coming and you need to know what must not break.

Whoever you choose, ask what's done by hand and what's automated, and ask to see a redacted sample of a past audit. Be wary of a flat price that's the same for 50 pages and 50,000. If a rebuild is coming, my site migrations page covers the checks before and after launch.

Questions

SEO audit questions

How much does an SEO audit cost?

My audits are quoted on the size and scope of your site, with a fixed price sent before work starts. As a guide to the UK market, published pricing guides put a manual audit of a small to mid-size site at £500 to £1,500. Full audits of larger sites, with content and link analysis, tend to sit at £1,500 to £3,000.

How long does an SEO audit take?

Two to three weeks from the day I get access to the finished list. Larger sites with deep technical problems take longer, and I'll tell you before we start if yours will.

What does an SEO audit include?

Mine covers three things. The technical side is crawling, rendering, indexing, site structure and speed. The content side checks each key page against what people search for. The third is how you compare with the sites that outrank you, and it all ends in one ranked list.

Is a free SEO audit tool good enough?

For a small site with a small budget, a free crawl is better than nothing. A tool lists every missing description with equal urgency, though, and can't tell you which three of its 200 flags matter. That ranking is what you pay an auditor for.

Does an SEO audit include fixing the problems?

No, the audit ends with the ranked list and the walkthrough. Your developer can work from it, or I can make the fixes as monthly work from £1,000 a month ($1,500). My technical SEO page explains how that runs.

What do you need from me for an SEO audit?

Read-only access to Google Search Console and Google Analytics, and answers to a few questions about the business. That's all I need to start.

How often should I get an SEO audit?

Every 12 to 18 months is plenty for a typical business, with a lighter check after a redesign, migration or platform move. There's little point auditing again until the last list has largely been fixed.

Do I need an SEO audit before monthly SEO?

Usually, yes. Without one, monthly work is a guess at what to fix first. Every monthly engagement I run starts with an audit for that reason.

Guides

Guides on SEO audit

Written from client work. All guides

Get in touch

Send me your site for an audit quote

Send me the address and a line on what's prompted the audit, such as a drop in traffic or a redesign. I'll reply with a fixed price and when I could start.

  1. 1I reply myself, usually within one working day.
  2. 2I look at your site and its search visibility before we speak.
  3. 3If I can help, I send a scope and a price. If I can't, I say so.

Or email will@sibleydigital.com. I work UK afternoons and the full US working day.

All four fields are needed. I read every message myself and there is no mailing list.