NO. 03 · SEO · EDITION 1.0
The $5,000 SEO Audit
The full audit process, with every check, template and priority score.
$149
PDF · 81 pages · 9 templates · 30-min call · Verified 2026-10
Includes a call of 30 minutes with a specialist from the desk. Book within 60 days of purchase.
Full refund within 30 days, no questions. Free updates to this edition.
Every SEO tool gives away an audit. This is the method for the one worth $5,000: audit templates rather than URLs, check crawling, rendering, speed and content against Google's documented behaviour, and rank every finding with a priority score so the top ten are worth more than the other two hundred.
About this book
At the average rate in Ahrefs' survey of 439 SEO providers, $111 an hour, $5,000 buys about 45 hours. This book shows where those hours should go: scoping around business questions, a template inventory, the checks that matter, and the scoring and reporting that turn findings into a plan.
It covers crawling and indexing, JavaScript rendering and mobile parity, Core Web Vitals from field data, titles, duplication, internal links, structured data and hreflang, each against what Google documents today. Then it shows how to score findings, write the report, present it, and track fixes until they are verified and measured.
It is written for in-house SEO leads auditing their own site and for consultants selling audits, with a chapter on scoping and pricing. It comes with nine templates, including a 62-check master checklist and a redirect checker script. Every number carries its source and date.
Contents
- How to use this book 5
- 01 What a $5,000 audit buys 9
- 02 Scope, access and the template inventory 17
- 03 Can Google find and keep the pages? 23
- 04 Does Google see what users see? 33
- 05 Page experience and speed, from field data 39
- 06 Does each page say what it is, and say something worth indexing? 45
- 07 The priority score 53
- 08 The report, and selling the audit 59
- 09 After the audit, and the 90-day plan 65
- How this book was verified 71
- All sources 73
- The template pack 77
- Changelog for this edition 79
INCLUDED
Your 30-minute consultation
Every copy of this book includes one video call with a specialist from the desk, to apply the book to your situation.
- 01Get your linkIt comes with your download, by email and in your account.
- 02Book within 60 daysPick a time. Send your site, account or question ahead if you can.
- 03Leave with next stepsWe work through your case using the book's method and its templates.
The call is practical marketing guidance. It is not legal, tax or financial advice.
What's inside
The book, plus 9 templates you can use the same day.
- audit-checklist.xlsx SPREADSHEET 62 checks across crawling, indexing, rendering, mobile, speed, on-page, links, markup and hreflang, each with how to test it and the evidence to keep, with results per template.
- template-inventory.xlsx SPREADSHEET Every page type with its URL pattern, crawl, sitemap and index counts, clicks and conversions, and flags for templates with many URLs and little traffic.
- audit-scope-and-access.docx DOCUMENT The scoping document: business questions, in and out of scope, access with owners, timeline and sign-off.
- redirect-checker.py SCRIPT Follows redirects hop by hop for a list of URLs and reports chains, loops, temporary redirects and dead ends. No packages to install.
- cwv-by-template.xlsx SPREADSHEET Field Core Web Vitals per template at the 75th percentile, rated against the published thresholds and weighted by each template's share of clicks.
- findings-and-priority.xlsx SPREADSHEET The findings log with the priority score (impact, reach, confidence, effort), tiers, ranking and an automatic top ten for the report.
- audit-report-template.docx DOCUMENT The report: one-page executive summary, priority list, five-part finding pages, template inventory and appendix.
- audit-proposal-and-pricing.xlsx SPREADSHEET For consultants: hours per stage, adjustments for site size, languages, migrations and JavaScript, your rate and the resulting fixed fee, plus proposal text.
- implementation-tracker.xlsx SPREADSHEET Fixes from ticket to shipped, verified and measured against a baseline and untouched templates, with the 13-week plan.
THE RECEIPTS
Sources this book draws on
The main sources behind the numbers in this book. The book cites each one in the sentence where it is used, and lists every source with the date we accessed it.
- 01 web.dev How the Core Web Vitals metrics thresholds were defined
- 02 HTTP Archive Web Almanac 2025: Performance
- 03 Google Search Central How HTTP status codes, and network and DNS errors affect Google Search
- 04 Google Search Central Understand the JavaScript SEO basics
- 05 Zyppy Google Rewrites 61% of Page Title Tags
- 06 Ahrefs The Most Common Hreflang Issues Across 374,756 Domains
- 07 Ahrefs SEO Pricing: How Much Does SEO Cost? 439 People Polled
- 08 Google Search Central Blog Changes to HowTo and FAQ rich results
How we choose and check sources: the method.
Two sample pages
Want more? Chapter 1 is free.
Changelog for this book
- No. 03, Edition 1.0 released
