SEO audits are essential for building any website, whether for a large online business or a personal blog selling handmade products.
A professional SEO audit can significantly improve your marketing efforts.
The cost of an SEO audit varies based on many factors, and sticking to a budget might require prioritizing certain services.
Understanding what goes into an SEO audit can help you make informed decisions.
What is an SEO Audit?
What is an SEO Audit?
An SEO audit evaluates your site’s Search Engine Optimization. This helps a site owner understand how well their site ranks for the right search terms and how effectively they capture natural traffic from search platforms. SEO audits involve various services, each targeting different parts of SEO management. A typical SEO audit includes numerous checks and tests to gauge your site’s SEO quality and effectiveness.
Depending on the exact SEO services you need, SEO audits might cover elements like:
Link Audit
A link audit reviews your website’s overall link profile, measuring links by quality and quantity. This is meant to point out any areas where bad links might be holding you back or spaces where you have not used links to their fullest potential.
Content Audit
A content audit focuses on the content of your website, from blog pages and company about pages to individual product listings. It is focused not only on the accuracy and quality of content but also on optimizing metadata like title tags and improving individual images.
Technical SEO Audit
A technical SEO audit examines your site’s technical aspects from an SEO perspective, such as identifying duplicate content or links to error pages. It can also cover slow-loading pages or poorly designed menus, which can weaken particular SEO campaigns.
Competitive Audit
A competitive audit compares you against your competitors, highlighting areas of success and situations where you have weakened your position against a competitor.
This is meant to clarify areas where major improvement might be necessary or explain which areas your competitors have overtaken you.
Social Audit
A social audit examines your social media presence, showing how many people engage with your social accounts. It also examines social-related elements on your website, such as integrated social media feeds or built-in share buttons for specific pages.
Comprehensive SEO Audit Report
In some cases, an SEO audit is simply meant to cover as much as possible and deliver a clear report on the state of your SEO.
These are not geared towards any particular part of search engine optimization and are more of a way to understand as much as possible about your SEO.
Other Audit Aspects
One important thing to understand about SEO services like audits is their flexibility. A comprehensive SEO audit report can cover many elements, from your overall SEO strategy to simpler things like broken internal and external links.
An SEO audit can be a targeted check of a specific part of your website’s SEO or a full breakdown of your entire website.
Your options depend on your SEO strategies and what you want to know about them to improve them further.
Which of These is a Full SEO Audit?
An SEO audit isn’t one-size-fits-all; it includes various elements and focuses. Some audits target a single aspect, like content, while others cover many SEO topics and factors. A complete content audit evaluates site structure, keyword usage, backlinks, on-page SEO, and technical SEO. Each part plays a role in improving site performance and search rankings.
What to Know About SEO Audit Costs?
Before you jump into learning about the expected SEO audit cost ranges, it is important to know more about audits as a whole.
What to Know About SEO Audit Costs?
Before you learn about the cost ranges for SEO audits, it’s helpful to understand what an audit involves.
How are SEO Audits Priced?
SEO audit pricing depends on the company offering each audit. For example, comprehensive SEO audit pricing might be based on the time taken by one company. At the same time, another may have a flat rate for that SEO audit report.
You can often ask about SEO audit pricing before you start working with a company or look at the details of their SEO audit pricing on their website.
To be safe, ensure you understand all the finer details about their SEO audit pricing system before you commit to working with them.
Is Buying SEO Audit Tools Cheaper?
Buying the SEO audit tools you need to approach an SEO audit yourself is generally far more expensive.
For example, a detailed technical audit could require five pieces of technical audit software costing close to £2000 (split between monthly and yearly licenses for different tools).
While having access to an SEO tool never hurts, most SEO companies can afford all these tools by offering their services to clients.
A good SEO audit process involves a lot of expensive tools, so going with an SEO agency is always cheaper if you need an SEO audit.
Are Free SEO Audits Worth It?
A free SEO audit report is usually more of a marketing tool for an SEO agency. The free audit shows that you have room for improvement.
Free SEO audits are usually partial and/or very basic since SEO agencies do not want their free SEO audit to invalidate their paid services.
However, a free SEO audit can still help. Even a minor one can reveal areas for improvement.
They also often allow the company to give you a quote based on the kind of SEO audit they think you need.
Are SEO Audit Costs Included in Other SEO Services?
Check with each agency to see if audits are included in their other services. Some agencies might offer a basic SEO audit as part of their monthly services but charge separately for a detailed audit. Others might include it all in one service or keep them completely separate. This means the cost of an SEO audit might change if you’re using that agency’s services, as the audit cost could be included in the price you’re already paying.
Knowing what an SEO audit typically costs and what factors influence these prices helps understand the value.
How Much Does an SEO Audit Cost?
SEO audit costs can vary widely depending on the type of audit. Different audits, tailored to the client’s needs, can result in different costs. For instance, a comprehensive technical SEO audit might range from £4000 to over £75,000, depending on the company size and work required. Meanwhile, a basic link audit might only cost a few hundred dollars or pounds for a small business. Hence, price quotes from different companies are essential to understand the proposed costs.
Various factors influence these cost ranges, revealing much about what impacts an SEO audit.
What Impacts SEO Audit Cost Ranges?
SEO audit services are variable and tailored to each company or client. They include various SEO services and audit checks, adjusting prices accordingly. For example, complex technical audits, in-depth content analyses, and comprehensive backlink evaluations can influence the cost.
Some of the factors that can significantly change the overall cost include:
SEO Audit Complexity
A professional SEO audit can take on many different forms. For example, a technical SEO audit could be a quick overview of your on-page optimization or a full-scale SEO report of your site’s technical features and design elements.
Many variations can be involved since many larger SEO performance audits comprise several smaller ones (such as a technical audit and a comprehensive analysis of your link profile and chosen keywords).
Many SEO services are offered as customized assessments tailored to the client’s needs.
More complexity and scale mean a higher overall cost. This can be especially true for bespoke audits that must go beyond what the service usually covers.
SEO Audit Depth
The cost of an SEO audit can also be influenced by the depth required. A smaller business might only need a brief overview of its SEO efforts to find flaws and stay competitive. Still, a larger company could require a comprehensive audit from an experienced team.
The more depth an audit requires, the more time and effort it requires. This usually means greater overall costs since the team must spend much more time putting together all the details.
A larger or more complicated website usually means more depth, especially if multiple sites are connected to the same brand or business.
SEO Audit Scale
Naturally, a greater scope means more time spent on the audit and, therefore, higher costs. While this is technically similar to depth, it can also be quite different depending on the situation: for example, the more competitors you want a competitive audit against, the more time it will take to prepare.
Regardless of the SEO agencies you work with, a larger project means more time spent using various SEO audit tools to pull out the required data.
This can also require extra steps to keep the data properly logged and usable, especially if the audit covers multiple aspects of your SEO performance.
Tool Variety
SEO agencies usually need to pay for their tools (not counting free ones like Google Search Console).
This means that more tools being involved usually means a higher cost, which can make certain services much more expensive if the agency charges extra.
Of course, not all of them will. Suppose an agency can already afford all of its tools anyway. In that case, it might not raise the price based on the number of tools involved; instead, it should only focus on how complicated the audit will be.
Other Factors
Many elements can change how costly your SEO audits are, some of which are easy to overlook.
Understanding these can help if you are trying to minimize the costs while still getting complete SEO audits done for your business.
Base Prices
Certain SEO professionals and teams charge more for their services on average. This could be due to their location and higher cost of living, their greater skills, or just because they have decided to charge more than other options on the market.
Experience
It is common for a more experienced agency to charge extra overall, especially if it is an established agency with a solid reputation.
A typical SEO package might cost more from then on compared to less well-known options due to the quality guarantee that comes with them.
Bespoke Tweaks
While an SEO audit is always technically a bespoke process, getting some highly custom work done will often increase the costs. For example, getting a complete evaluation of multiple connected websites will cost more.
Reporting
There are different ways to use a finished SEO audit, including getting the team to produce a clear report for you.
If you just want raw data, you will probably pay slightly lower audit costs than if you are asking for an actionable report that simplifies their findings into something more digestible.
Industry
The industry that you are in can matter, especially since some industries are a lot more competitive than others. The more competition you need to identify and get data on for comparison purposes, the higher you can expect the SEO audit price to climb.
Speed and Deadlines
You can sometimes pay extra for a faster audit. Expedited SEO audits cost more because you’re paying for priority service, which can be crucial when working under tight deadlines. If time is of the essence, the added cost may be justified.
How Can a Link Building Agency Assist with Your SEO Audit?
A link-building agency evaluates your backlink profile, identifies harmful links, and finds opportunities for high-quality backlinks. They analyze competitors’ link strategies, offering insights for a competitive edge. The agency also reviews your website structure, optimizing internal linking for better navigation and crawlability.
They report your site’s authority and trustworthiness, crucial for search engine rankings. Their expertise helps identify gaps in your link strategy for a targeted approach. This analysis improves your site’s SEO performance, credibility, and visibility.
Link-building agencies also recommend content improvements to attract more backlinks, aligning content strategies with link-building goals for a cohesive SEO plan. Their support is invaluable in conducting a thorough SEO audit. You need a reliable partner to guide you through this process for the best results.
Why Select Searcharoo as Your SEO Audit Partner?
Choosing Searcharoo for your SEO audit offers many benefits. With our experience and knowledge, we provide a thorough check of your website’s SEO health. Our team uses advanced tools to find hidden issues and make actionable recommendations.
We stand out for our personalized approach. We fit our audit process to your needs, covering all aspects of your website. We ensure a full audit of technical SEO, content quality, and backlinks.
We also value transparency and communication, keeping you informed throughout the process. Our reports are clear and easy to understand, and we’re always available to discuss findings and next steps. We aim to help you understand and solve any problems effectively.
With Searcharoo, you’re not just getting an audit; you’re getting a partner dedicated to your website’s success. Our expert insights and strategic advice will help you make informed decisions and achieve better search rankings. This way, you’ll know if investing in an SEO audit is the right choice for your business.
Is an SEO Audit Worth It?
Like the question, “How much does an SEO audit cost?” This is another question that does not have a defined answer. A good audit can make a huge difference to your SEO strategy and overall search engine success, but the answer depends on many factors.
This is mostly because an audit can mean many different things: identifying technical issues like website speed and duplicate content, improving digital marketing across other search engines, identifying a good target audience, picking out highly competitive keywords, breaking down your Google analytics, or just improving on-page SEO content.
Since there will be no consistent audit cost in 2024, it will all come down to your needs and budget preferences.
Some people will be willing to pay a higher implementation cost that covers more pages and SEO ranges. In contrast, others will not, but that does not make the option any less “worth it” in the right circumstances.
Remember that the cost of an audit can include auditing tools and SEO tools, implementation services, experience with software like Google Search Console, and a host of other benefits. You are paying for the SEO tools, the entire process, and the benefits they bring.
The best way to find an ideal audit cost in 2024 is to explore your options, find SEO audit services that meet your needs, and get price quotes or estimates from as many as possible.
The more options you have to compare, the easier it will be to choose the best one for your situation and budget.
