Scope your audit
Plan an SEO audit: define the questions, deliverables and implementation work
A service website and a large catalogue need different investigations. Gloria helps define the questions, access and deliverables before the audit, so you know what it will cover and how the findings can become work.
Your project in practice
Example audit preparation
- Priority
- Understand why an important service page receives few useful visits
- Context
- Recent changes, target market and actual services
- Access
- Relevant site and search data shared through an appropriate method
- Expected output
- Evidence, priorities and checks for the proposed corrections
What it can change
Define the audit questions, expected findings and who will implement corrections
Define the symptoms and business priorities the audit must investigate
Your symptoms, business priorities and planned changes determine which parts of the website need examination.
Specify findings, priorities and supporting examples in the proposal
The proposal specifies the findings, priorities and supporting material your team needs to make decisions.
Assign responsibility for corrections separately from analysis
Responsibilities and the distinction between analysis and corrections are clear before the work begins.
In practice
Investigate a specific SEO problem or prepare a redesign or migration
You have a specific concern
Send the website, the issue and any relevant dates or reports. We use them to propose a focused scope.
You are preparing a larger project
The audit can support a redesign or migration by identifying the questions and existing assets that need attention.
The scope
SEO audit scope, deliverables and implementation responsibilities
Open the sections below to explore the scope, deliverables and practical requirements.
A small service website and a product catalogue need different reviews
We establish the domain, languages, page types, available access and known problems. Recent migrations, page builders and business integrations also influence the scope.
That initial discussion sets the coverage and practical requirements. You know what will be examined, what you need to supply and when the work is planned.
Agree useful deliverables
- A summary of the findings and the limits of the review.
- Examples that can be checked on the pages and templates examined.
- A prioritised action plan with technical dependencies.
- A review meeting to discuss the findings and choose the next steps.
- Supporting exports or working files where they help your implementation team.
The value is in the decisions the report supports, not the number of pages it contains.
What to send first
Share the website address, its commercial purpose, the problem you are seeing and recent changes. Tell us about any redesign or campaign deadline and who will be able to implement recommendations.
Describe the systems involved without sending passwords in the initial enquiry. We arrange the access needed once the scope is agreed.
From proposal to action
- Proposal: coverage, price, deliverables and schedule.
- Preparation: agreed access, inventory and available data.
- Analysis: checks, comparison of evidence and prioritisation.
- Review: findings, decisions and an implementation plan.
The quote separates analysis from corrective work, licences and third-party costs. You may use your existing provider for implementation.
Practical guide
Write the question that the audit must answer
A good audit brief starts with a decision. You might need to know whether a traffic decline is associated with a migration, which technical issues should enter the next development cycle, or whether an existing site can support a larger catalogue. These are different assignments. Asking for “a complete audit” does not identify the evidence or deliverables you need.
Write down the symptom, business impact, affected pages, approximate start date and known changes. Add what will happen after the report: who can approve content, who can change the website and which constraints cannot easily be altered. An investigation should be sized around the decision and available implementation capacity, not around the desired length of a document.
If the issue is one broken form or a single missing page, a focused diagnostic may be a better first step. A broader audit becomes useful when the problem spans page types or its cause is unclear. This distinction helps protect the budget before work begins.
Practical guide
Illustrative brief: a catalogue changed and useful visits declined
Consider a fictional supplier that reorganised its catalogue and then noticed fewer product enquiries. The initial brief should not assume that redirects are the cause. It should ask what changed across addresses, content, internal links, availability and measurement, and which changes plausibly explain the observed pattern.
Swipe across the table to see every column.
| Brief item | Illustrative instruction |
|---|---|
| Decision required | Identify which post-migration issues deserve correction first |
| Evidence supplied | Old and new URL lists, change dates and relevant Search Console access |
| Coverage | Product, category and discontinued-item behaviour, with comparison pages |
| Expected output | Prioritised findings with evidence, affected scope, suggested owner and retest criteria |
The brief should also state what is unavailable. Missing historical data may prevent a precise comparison, but it does not prevent checking the current website. This example is illustrative and does not describe a Gloria client or a guaranteed diagnosis.
Practical guide
Compare proposals on usable outputs and exclusions
Request a clear distinction between automated checks, interpretation, implementation and later validation. A list of tool warnings is not equivalent to an explained set of decisions; equally, a highly detailed investigation may exceed what you need for a narrow problem. Ask what the final document enables your team to do.
Check whether content review, backlink analysis, international versions, server logs and JavaScript behaviour fall inside or outside the scope. Their relevance depends on your website. Fees should reflect the work agreed, while any correction budget remains visible. If another developer will implement changes, confirm that the recommendations will be understandable without access to the agency's private tools.
- Can the important findings be reproduced using the evidence provided?
- Are confirmed faults separated from hypotheses and opportunities?
- Is the proposed action specific enough to estimate and assign?
- Does the scope say who checks the correction and how unresolved questions are handled?
Before accepting the report, review a representative finding with the person responsible for implementation. If they cannot understand the affected pages or the completion condition, clarify it while the investigation is still fresh. That handover is often more useful than adding another summary chart.
Questions about audit pricing and whether corrections are included
Is there a fixed price?
The audit is quoted for your site and the agreed coverage. The accepted proposal sets the price and what is included.
Does the audit change the website?
No changes are made automatically. Any implementation is agreed separately, with its own checks.
Describe the SEO problem your audit needs to investigate
Tell us which decision the audit should help you make.
Discuss your project