SEO Audit Framework — Full-Site Diagnostic System

Audit Philosophy: Fix the Foundation Before Building

A site audit diagnoses the gap between current state and the ranking potential the site should have. Rankings are downstream of fundamentals. The audit identifies which fundamentals are broken and prioritizes fixing them in the order that unlocks the most ranking potential.

Audit sequence: Technical health → Entity signals → Content quality → Local presence → Link authority → AI visibility

Each layer depends on the one below it. A perfect content strategy on a technically broken site produces no results. Fix in order.

Layer 1: Technical Health (10 checks)

1.1 Crawlability

robots.txt: no important pages blocked
Sitemap: submitted to GSC, no 404 URLs listed, all canonical URLs present
Crawl coverage: GSC Coverage tab — ratio of Valid pages to Excluded pages

1.2 Indexation Status

"site:domain.com" count vs actual page count (significant discrepancy = indexation problem)
GSC Coverage: fix all Crawl Anomaly and Server Error pages first

1.3 Core Web Vitals

LCP under 2.5 seconds
CLS under 0.1
INP under 200ms
Source: GSC Core Web Vitals report + PageSpeed Insights

1.4 Mobile Optimization

GSC Mobile Usability report — zero errors target
Viewport meta tag present on every page

1.5 HTTPS and Security

Full HTTPS enforcement (HTTP → HTTPS redirect at server level)
No mixed content warnings
Valid SSL certificate

1.6 Redirect Hygiene

No redirect chains (all redirects single-hop)
No redirect loops
301 vs 302 correct usage (301 for permanent moves)

1.7 Canonical Architecture

Self-referencing canonical on every page
Parameter variants handled (UTM, session, pagination)
www/non-www consistent with canonical base

1.8 Duplicate Content

Near-duplicate pages identified (location pages, service variants)
Thin content pages identified (under 300 words)

1.9 Structured Data Validity

Google Rich Results Test: zero errors on all priority schema types
Coverage: LocalBusiness, FAQPage, Article on appropriate pages

1.10 Page Depth

All money pages within 3 clicks of homepage
No orphaned pages (pages with zero internal links pointing to them)

Layer 2: Entity Signals (5 checks)

2.1 Business Entity Declaration

Business name, type, and location in H1 and first paragraph of homepage
LocalBusiness schema with @id, address, telephone, areaServed

2.2 sameAs Network

Organization schema with 5+ sameAs links to authoritative profiles
All sameAs URLs are active and accurate

2.3 GMB Completeness

100% GMB profile completeness (all fields populated)
Weekly post frequency maintained
Q&A section populated with 5+ self-posted questions

2.4 Knowledge Panel

Brand knowledge panel present?
Panel attributes accurate?
Panel verification claimed?

2.5 Schema Stack Coverage

Priority schema types present: LocalBusiness, FAQPage, AggregateRating (if applicable), Article/BlogPosting
@graph with cross-linked @id for schema cascade effect

Layer 3: Content Quality (7 checks)

3.1 Topical Map Coverage

Service pages exist for all offered services
Location pages exist for all target service areas
Blog/PAA content exists for top 20 buyer questions

3.2 Content Depth

Word count vs SERP average (target: #1 competitor + 10%)
Related phrase coverage (80%+ of empirically required co-occurring phrases)

3.3 E-E-A-T Signals

Experience markers per piece (minimum 2)
Author credentials visible
Authoritative outbound links present (minimum 2 per post)
Trust signals present (NAP, license, BBB)

3.4 Featured Snippet Targeting

At least one H3 + 40-60 word answer block on each priority page
FAQPage schema matches visible FAQ content

3.5 Internal Linking

Pillar pages receive 3+ contextual body links from spoke pages
No orphaned pages
Anchor text descriptive and varied

3.6 Content Freshness

No posts with data older than 24 months without update
dateModified in Article schema updated on refresh

3.7 Intent Match

Each page targets a single clear intent type
No intent mismatch (informational content on transactional pages or vice versa)

Layer 4: Local Presence (4 checks)

4.1 Citation Consistency

NAP identical across all Tier 1 citations (GMB, Bing, Apple Maps, Yelp, Facebook, BBB)
No duplicate listings

4.2 Review Signals

Volume: 50+ reviews minimum for competitive local markets
Recency: new reviews within last 30 days
Sentiment: service keywords and city names in review text

4.3 Local Content

Location pages have 30%+ unique content (not just city-swapped templates)
Local entity enrichment: neighborhoods, landmarks, zip codes, local regulations

4.4 Geographic Schema

LocalBusiness schema with geo coordinates on all location pages
areaServed populated with all service cities

Layer 5: Link Authority (2 checks)

5.1 Backlink Profile

Root domains linking to site (minimum 20 for local, 50+ for competitive)
Ratio of niche-relevant links vs generic directories
No toxic links requiring disavow

5.2 Local Link Signals

At least 3 local authority links per location (Chamber, BBB, local associations)
GMB CID link in H1 or first paragraph

Layer 6: AI Visibility (2 checks)

6.1 Temperature Zero Score

15-query audit across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini
Target: 15+ out of 30 for local service businesses

6.2 llms.txt

File present at domain root
Entity declaration accurate and specific
Key content listed with descriptions

Remediation Roadmap Output

Prioritize all findings using:

| Impact | Effort | Priority | |--------|--------|----------| | High | Low | Immediate (Week 1-2) | | High | High | Phase 1 (Month 1-2) | | Medium | Low | Quick win (Week 2-4) | | Medium | High | Phase 2 (Month 2-3) | | Low | Any | Backlog |

Deliver as: priority-sorted finding list with specific fix instruction per finding, time estimate, and expected ranking impact.

Cross-References

crawl-budget-optimizer — Layer 1 crawlability deep dive
duplicate-content-risk-scanner — Layer 1 duplicate content audit
eeat-audit — Layer 3 E-E-A-T full pipeline
local-link-silos — Layer 5 local link acquisition
metehan-aeo-rrf — Layer 6 AI visibility deep audit

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