SEO Audit

/digital-marketing-pro:seo-audit

Purpose

Perform a comprehensive SEO audit that evaluates a website across all major ranking dimensions. Produces a prioritized action plan with estimated impact and effort for each recommendation.

May 2026 Core Update context (read before triaging volatility)

Google rolled out a broad core algorithm update starting 21 May 2026 with the usual ~2-week deployment window. If the audit is being run inside that window (or in the 4 weeks after) and the brand is showing ranking volatility:

• Do not make reactive changes during the rollout. Wait for the update to fully deploy (Google announces completion in the Search Status Dashboard) plus 7–14 days of post-deploy settling before drawing conclusions.
• Diagnose direction before scope. A site-wide drop vs a single-section drop vs a single-template drop have very different root causes. Use Search Console to compare pre-rollout (21 days before May 21) vs in-rollout vs post-rollout impressions and clicks segmented by page-group.
• Core updates re-weight existing signals, they don't introduce new ones. The audit dimensions below remain authoritative; the right response to a Core Update hit is usually to deepen E-E-A-T, improve unique value, fix thin/duplicated content, and reduce low-quality affiliate or AI-spam pages — not to chase rumoured signals.
• Flag in the executive summary whether ranking deltas pre-date the rollout (likely site-specific issues) or coincide with it (likely Core Update reweighting). This determines whether quick wins are appropriate or whether the brand needs a multi-quarter quality program.

Input Required

The user must provide (or will be prompted for):

• Website URL: The domain or specific pages to audit
• Target keywords: Primary keywords the site should rank for (optional — can be researched)
• Competitors: 2-3 competitor URLs for benchmarking (optional)
• Audit scope: Full site or specific area (technical, content, local, links)
• Known issues: Any existing problems the user is aware of

Process

1. Load brand context: Read ~/.claude-marketing/brands/_active-brand.json for the active slug, then load ~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/profile.json. Apply brand voice, compliance rules for target markets (skills/context-engine/compliance-rules.md), and industry context. Also check for guidelines at ~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/guidelines/_manifest.json — if present, load restrictions and relevant category files. Check for custom templates at ~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/templates/. Check for agency SOPs at ~/.claude-marketing/sops/. If no brand exists, ask: "Set up a brand first (/digital-marketing-pro:brand-setup)?" — or proceed with defaults.
2. Technical audit: Crawlability, indexation, Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, structured data, HTTPS, XML sitemap, robots.txt, canonical tags, redirect chains
3. On-page audit: Title tags, meta descriptions, heading hierarchy, keyword usage, image alt text, internal linking structure, URL structure
4. Content audit: Thin content, duplicate content, content gaps, freshness, E-E-A-T signals (author pages, citations, credentials, first-hand experience)
5. Local SEO (if applicable): Google Business Profile, NAP consistency, local schema, reviews, local link profile
6. Link profile: Domain authority, backlink quality, toxic links, anchor text distribution, link velocity, competitor link gap
7. Score each dimension on a 1-10 scale
8. Prioritize findings by impact (high/medium/low) and effort (quick win/medium/major project)
9. Generate the audit report with actionable recommendations

Output

A structured SEO audit report containing:

• Executive summary with overall health score
• Technical SEO scorecard with specific issues and fixes
• On-page optimization findings per page/template
• Content quality assessment with gap analysis
• E-E-A-T evaluation and improvement recommendations
• Local SEO assessment (if applicable)
• Link profile analysis with opportunities
• Prioritized action plan sorted by impact-to-effort ratio

Agents Used

• seo-specialist — All audit dimensions, scoring, prioritization, and recommendations