Audit Intake

SEO Audit Intake — Phase 0

Executive Summary

Phase 0 is the foundation of the entire 21-phase audit. The quality of intake data directly determines audit accuracy. Every subsequent phase reads {AUDIT_DIR}/intake-data.md — incomplete intake = cascading errors across all phases. In 2025–2026, intake has expanded beyond basic data collection: AI search now accounts for an estimated 25–40% of zero-click query resolution (Semrush 2025), meaning business goals must explicitly address AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini visibility — not just traditional organic rankings. GBP signals are confirmed as the #1 local ranking factor (Whitespark 2024), making GBP URL and review count collection at intake critical for Phase 11 benchmarks. Competitor landscape snapshot at intake saves 2–3 hours later by pre-populating Phase 1.

2025–2026 intake benchmarks:

• Average intake completion: 10–15 min (prepared client); 20–30 min (requires competitor research)
• TTFB threshold: <800ms Good; >1,800ms Critical — flag for Phase 10 immediately
• Minimum competitors to collect: 3 (local pack top-3); ideal 5 (3 local + 2 organic)
• GSC access impact: phases 6 (keyword gaps), 7 (topical gaps), 20 (penalty check) all degraded without GSC — flag clearly
• Domain age <6 months: automatically flag Phase 12 backlinks as "authority building" priority, not penalty recovery
• AI search context (2025): businesses without GBP presence, review velocity, or E-E-A-T content are excluded from AIO local pack citations

Numbered Action Plan:

Immediate (First 15 Minutes)

1. Present intake form — collect items 1–6 (required) before any other work. Missing even one required field = defer audit start. Effort: 5–10 min.
2. Run URL validation — python3 scripts/check_url.py --url [URL] --full. Captures HTTP status, SSL validity, redirect chain, TTFB, basic on-page signals (H1, title). Effort: 2 min. Flag if TTFB >800ms, SSL error, or 4xx/5xx.
3. Create project directory — python3 scripts/setup_project.py --name "..." --url "..." --location "...". Sets all path variables used by all 21 phases. Effort: 1 min. Priority: 25 (5×5).
4. Auto-identify competitors — if item 7 skipped: run 3-search protocol (service+city; best+service+city; service+city+reviews) → extract top-3 local pack + top-2 organic non-directories. Effort: 10–15 min.
5. Collect competitor intelligence — for each competitor: name, URL, GBP URL, star rating, review count, approximate DR from Ahrefs/Moz free check. Effort: 5 min (3–5 competitors).

Short-Term (Before Launching Phase 1)

6. Run initial business intelligence checks — site:[domain] indexed count; branded search Knowledge Panel check; BuiltWith.com for CMS detection. Effort: 5 min. Priority: 15 (3×5).
7. Pre-flag issues for downstream phases — note any flags in intake-data.md: TTFB, no Knowledge Panel, Wix/Squarespace CMS, domain <6 months, no GBP. Each flag fast-tracks a finding in the relevant phase. Effort: 5 min.
8. Confirm GSC/GA4 access status — GSC access unlocks accurate data in 5+ phases. If unavailable, note: Ahrefs/Semrush estimates will substitute (with lower confidence). Effort: 2 min.
9. Check for immediate penalty signals — quick scan: site:[domain] count dramatically lower than expected? Any manual actions visible in GSC? Rank for branded name? Flag for Phase 20. Effort: 3 min.
10. Write and confirm intake-data.md — write complete file to {AUDIT_DIR}/intake-data.md with YAML frontmatter. Display confirmation summary. Launch Phase 1. Effort: 5 min.

Tools for This Phase

Step 1: Present the Intake Form

When an audit is triggered, present this structured form:

==============================================
  LOCAL BUSINESS SEO AUDIT — INTAKE FORM
==============================================

1. Business Name:      [Required]
2. Website URL:        [Required — full URL with https://]
3. Target Location(s): [Required — City, State, Country. All service areas.]
4. Primary Services:   [Required — list all services offered]
5. Business Category:  [Required — primary industry/niche]
6. Business Goals:     [Select one or more:]
   • Increase local visibility & foot traffic
   • Generate more leads/calls/form submissions
   • Outrank specific competitors
   • Expand to new service areas
   • Improve online reputation & reviews
   • Dominate AI search (AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini)
   • Build topical authority
   • Improve conversion rate
   • Launch/optimize Google Business Profile
   • Recover from traffic drop or penalty
   • Other: [specify]
7. Competitors:        [3-5 competitors — URLs preferred. Skip → auto-research.]
8. GBP URL:            [Optional — Google Business Profile link]
9. Social Media URLs:  [Optional — Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok]
10. Analytics Access:  [Optional — GA4 + GSC available? Critical for Phase 6 keyword data]
11. Previous SEO Work: [Optional — agency/in-house history, any known penalties?]
12. Budget Range:      [Optional — helps calibrate effort estimates throughout audit]

Intake Rules:

• Items 1–6 required. Do NOT begin audit without them.
• Item 7: If skipped, auto-research and identify top 3–5 competitors. Never ask twice.
• Items 8–12 optional. Note which are missing in output file but proceed without blocking.
• GSC access (item 10): Critical for Phase 6 keyword gaps — flag if unavailable; estimate traffic from Ahrefs/Semrush instead.

Step 2: Validate URL Accessibility

Once URL is provided, run validation:

python3 scripts/check_url.py --url [WEBSITE_URL] --full

Interpret results — thresholds:

TTFB benchmarks:

• < 800ms → Good
• 800ms–1.8s → Needs improvement (flag for Phase 10 Speed audit)

• 1.8s → Critical speed issue (flag immediately in intake notes)

Additional checks during URL validation:

• Missing title tag → flag as immediate on-page issue
• Missing H1 → flag for Phase 3 On-Page SEO
• No HTTPS redirect (HTTP accessible) → Critical Technical flag

Step 3: Create Project Directory

IMMEDIATELY after collecting required fields, create the project directory:

python3 scripts/setup_project.py \
  --name "[Business Name]" \
  --url "[Website URL]" \
  --location "[City, State]" \
  --json

This creates:

projects/[business-slug]/
  project.json          ← Business metadata (name, URL, location, slug, created date)
  audit/                ← All 21 phase finding .md files
  reports/              ← All HTML + PDF reports
  data/crawl/           ← site_crawler.py output (CSV + JSON)
  data/serp/            ← SERP snapshot data
  data/scores/          ← LOCAL-IMPACT + SERP-TRUST YAML scoring data

Set these variables for all subsequent phases:

PROJECT_SLUG  = [returned by script — e.g., acme-plumbing-chicago]
PROJECT_DIR   = projects/[slug]
AUDIT_DIR     = projects/[slug]/audit
REPORTS_DIR   = projects/[slug]/reports
DATA_DIR      = projects/[slug]/data

Slug generation rules:

• Business name → lowercase → spaces/special chars → hyphens → trim
• "Acme Plumbing Chicago" → acme-plumbing-chicago
• "Smith & Sons Law Firm" → smith-sons-law-firm

Step 4: Identify Competitors

If competitors not provided, use this 3-search protocol:

1. Google: [primary service] [city] → top 3 local pack + top 3 organic (non-directory)
2. Google: best [service] [city] → cross-reference new names
3. Google: [service] [city] reviews → confirm competitive landscape

For each competitor, collect:

Competitor selection criteria:

• Must rank in top 3 local pack OR top 5 organic for primary service keyword in target city
• Prefer local independents + 1 regional chain for realistic comparison
• Flag national franchises separately — different competitive dynamics

Present list: "I've identified these competitors: [list]. Let me know if any should be swapped."

Step 5: Initial Business Intelligence

Before writing intake file, collect these quick intelligence signals:

# Check if site is indexed
# Search: site:[domain] — should return > 10 results for healthy site

# Check GBP presence
# Google: [Business Name] [City] — does Knowledge Panel appear?

# Quick tech stack check
# BuiltWith.com or: check page source for wp-content, Shopify, Wix, etc.

Red flags to note in intake (flag for relevant phases):

• site:[domain] returns < 10 results → potential indexation issue (Phase 2 flag)
• No Knowledge Panel for branded search → entity gap (Phase 9 flag)
• Site built on Wix/Squarespace → limited schema/speed options (Phase 2 flag)
• Domain age < 6 months → low authority expected (Phase 12 flag)

Step 6: Write Intake Data File

Write to {AUDIT_DIR}/intake-data.md:

---
skill: research/audit-intake
phase: 0
date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
business: [Business Name]
url: [Website URL]
score: N/A
status: complete
project_dir: projects/[slug]
audit_dir: projects/[slug]/audit
reports_dir: projects/[slug]/reports
data_dir: projects/[slug]/data
---

# Audit Intake Data

## Business Profile
- **Name:** [Business Name]
- **Website:** [URL]
- **Final URL (after redirects):** [final URL]
- **Location(s):** [City, State, Country + all service areas]
- **Services:** [full list]
- **Category:** [industry/niche]
- **GBP URL:** [URL or N/A]
- **Tech Stack:** [CMS detected — WordPress/Wix/Squarespace/Custom/Unknown]
- **Domain Age:** [years or Unknown]

## Goals (Priority-Ordered)
1. [Primary goal]
2. [Secondary goal]
3. [Additional goals]

## Competitors
| # | Business | Website | DR | GBP Stars | Review Count | Local Pack Pos |
|---|---------|---------|----|-----------|--------------|-|
| 1 | [name] | [url] | [X] | [X.X] | [X] | #[X] |
| 2 | [name] | [url] | [X] | [X.X] | [X] | #[X] |
| 3 | [name] | [url] | [X] | [X.X] | [X] | #[X] |

## Analytics & Access
- GA4: [Yes (full access) / Yes (read only) / No / Unknown]
- GSC: [Yes / No / Unknown] — if No: use Ahrefs/Semrush for keyword data
- Previous SEO: [brief summary or N/A]
- Budget Range: [range or N/A]

## URL Validation Results
- HTTP Status: [200 / 301→ / error]
- TTFB: [Xms] — [Good (<800ms) / Needs Improvement / Critical (>1.8s)]
- SSL: [Valid until YYYY-MM / Error / Self-signed]
- Redirects: [None / HTTP→HTTPS / www→non-www / other]
- Immediate Issues Flagged: [list — e.g., "Missing H1 on homepage", "TTFB 2.1s"]

## Initial Intelligence
- Site indexed: [site:[domain] returns X results — Healthy/Low/Zero]
- Knowledge Panel: [Present / Partial / None]
- GBP claimed: [Yes / No / Unknown]

## Phase Flags (Pre-set from Intake)
- [ ] Phase 2 (Technical): [any technical flags]
- [ ] Phase 10 (Speed): [TTFB or speed flags]
- [ ] Phase 12 (Backlinks): [DR level, domain age]
- [ ] Phase 9 (Entity): [Knowledge Panel status]

## Project Context
- PROJECT_SLUG: [slug]
- PROJECT_DIR: projects/[slug]
- AUDIT_DIR: projects/[slug]/audit
- REPORTS_DIR: projects/[slug]/reports
- DATA_DIR: projects/[slug]/data

Step 7: Confirm and Launch

Display confirmation:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
AUDIT INTAKE COMPLETE — Phase 0
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Business:    [Name]
Website:     [URL]
Location:    [City, State]
Services:    [count] services
Project:     projects/[slug]/
Competitors: [count] identified

URL Status:  ✅ HTTP 200 / ⚠️ [issue]
SSL:         ✅ Valid / ❌ Issue
TTFB:        [Xms] — [Good/Slow/Critical]
Indexation:  [X pages indexed]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Pre-flagged Issues: [X]
  🔴 [Critical flag if any]
  🟠 [High flag if any]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Next: /audit-competitors (Phase 1)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Priority Matrix

Handoff

After intake completes, {AUDIT_DIR}/intake-data.md is the single source of truth for:

• Business name, URL, location — read by all 21 phases
• Project paths (PROJECT_DIR, AUDIT_DIR, REPORTS_DIR) — used by all file operations
• Competitor list — consumed by competitor-analysis and all gap phases
• Goals — inform priority weighting throughout the audit
• Pre-flagged issues — fast-track critical findings in early phases

Key consumers:

• research/competitor-analysis — reads competitor list, begins profiling
• All 21 phases — read business name, URL, location, project paths
• cross-cutting/local-impact-auditor — reads goal context for weight adjustment
• audit/penalty-check — reads previous SEO history for penalty risk flags
• output/report-generation — reads project metadata for master report cover page

Recommendations Checklist

After completing Phase 0, ensure the following are noted in {AUDIT_DIR}/intake-data.md as recommendations for downstream phases:

INP Intake Note (March 2024 Update)

INP (Interaction to Next Paint) replaced FID as a Core Web Vital. If python3 scripts/check_url.py --url [URL] --full returns INP >200ms, pre-flag Phase 10 as critical priority in intake-data.md. INP >500ms = Poor (ranking suppression confirmed across competitive keywords).

Output files:

• {AUDIT_DIR}/intake-data.md — primary output, source of truth for all phases
• {REPORTS_DIR}/phase-0-intake.pdf — auto-generated summary PDF after intake completes
• {DATA_DIR}/crawl/ — populated later by site_crawler.py (Phase 2)

2025 intake quality gate: Before launching Phase 1, confirm all 5 items are complete:

• Items 1–6 collected (required fields)
• URL validated (HTTP 200, SSL valid, TTFB recorded)
• Project directory created (projects/[slug]/ exists with all subdirs)
• 3+ competitors identified with name, URL, rating, DR
• intake-data.md written with YAML frontmatter and all fields populated