Plenty of “audits” are three tools stitched into a PDF. A real audit is a decision-making document: it tells you what to do first, what to ignore, and what each fix is worth.

Start from the data, not a checklist

Search Console, analytics and a live crawl come before any generic list of best practices. The plan should be built around what your site actually shows, not a template.

Rank everything by impact

Every finding needs an estimated effect on traffic and an effort score. Without that, you get a wall of issues and no idea where to begin.

Make it actionable

The output should read like a roadmap your developers and writers can pick up the same week — not a report that gathers dust.