If you searched "SEO audit company," you are probably looking for someone to tell you exactly what is wrong with your website's search performance — and what to do about it. Not a generic checklist. Not a free tool that spits out 200 errors with no context. A real audit from a company that does this work every day and can explain, in plain English, why your site is not ranking where it should.
Digital Project LLC is an SEO and web development agency based in Kent, WA, serving businesses across Kent, Seattle, Renton, Auburn, Bellevue, and greater South King County. We conduct technical SEO audits as both standalone engagements and as part of our monthly SEO retainer tiers. This guide explains what a professional SEO audit includes, what to look for when choosing an audit company, and what you should get back at the end.
What a real SEO audit includes
An SEO audit is not a single tool run. It is a structured review of everything that affects whether your site shows up in search results. Here is what a thorough audit covers:
Technical infrastructure
- Crawlability and indexability — can Googlebot reach your pages, and are they being indexed? This includes robots.txt, XML sitemaps, canonical tags, and noindex directives.
- Site speed and Core Web Vitals — how fast your pages load for real users, with specific metrics for Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift, and First Input Delay.
- Mobile usability — whether your site works on phones, which is where most local searches happen.
- Structured data — whether your site uses schema markup (LocalBusiness, FAQ, BreadcrumbList) that helps search engines understand your content.
On-page elements
- Title tags and meta descriptions — are they unique, properly length, and keyword-targeted?
- Heading structure — does your H1/H2/H3 hierarchy make sense to both users and crawlers?
- Internal linking — are your pages connected in a way that distributes authority where it needs to go?
- Content quality — is your content answering the questions your customers actually ask?
Local search presence
- Google Business Profile — is your listing complete, accurate, and optimized with photos, posts, and categories?
- Local citations — does your NAP (name, address, phone) match across directories?
- Review profile — what does your review landscape look like, and are you responding?
- Local keyword rankings — where do you actually rank for the searches that bring customers to your door?
What to look for in an SEO audit company
Not every company that shows up for "SEO audit company" actually delivers a useful audit. Here is how to tell the difference:
They explain their methodology upfront
A good audit company tells you exactly what they check and why. If the response is "we run our proprietary tool," that is a tool, not an audit. Look for a company that walks you through crawl analysis, manual page review, and competitive benchmarking before you commit.
They deliver a written report you can act on
The deliverable should be a prioritized document, not a dashboard link. You should be able to hand it to a developer (or the audit company itself) and start fixing things. Each issue should come with: what is wrong, why it matters, and how to fix it.
They know local SEO, not just national
If your business serves a local market — Kent, Seattle, the Puget Sound — your audit needs to cover Google Business Profile, local citations, and geo-targeted keyword tracking. A generic national SEO audit will miss the local factors that actually drive foot traffic and phone calls. Digital Project LLC covers Google Business Profile optimization as a core part of every local audit.
They can implement, not just diagnose
An audit that identifies 47 issues but leaves you to fix them all yourself is only half the job. Look for a company that offers ongoing implementation — technical fixes, content creation, and monitoring — so the audit turns into results, not a PDF that sits in a folder. Our SEO service tiers include both the audit and the ongoing remediation work.
They are transparent about pricing
An SEO audit should have a clear price. Digital Project LLC publishes its SEO pricing: the Local tier is $297/month plus a $500 setup, the Growth tier is $597/month plus $1,000 setup, and the Authority tier is $997/month plus $1,500 setup. A standalone audit starts at $500 as a one-time engagement. No hidden fees, no "custom quote" that changes based on how much we think you can pay.
What you get back from a Digital Project LLC audit
When we run a technical SEO audit for a business in the Kent, WA area, the deliverable includes:
- A crawl report — every page on your site analyzed for technical issues, exported with specific error codes and affected URLs.
- A prioritized fix list — issues ranked by impact and effort, so you know what to fix first and what can wait.
- A competitive snapshot — how your site compares to the businesses already ranking for your target keywords.
- A local SEO assessment — your Google Business Profile, citation consistency, review profile, and local keyword positions.
- A content gap analysis — the topics and questions your competitors are answering that you are not.
- A 30-minute walkthrough call — we explain the findings in plain English and answer your questions.
SEO audit vs. ongoing SEO services
An audit tells you what is broken. Ongoing SEO services fix it and keep it fixed. Here is how they relate:
- Start with an audit if you have never had your site professionally reviewed, or if your rankings have dropped and you do not know why.
- Move to a retainer once the audit is done and you want someone to implement the fixes, monitor your rankings, produce content, and report on results monthly.
Most of our clients start with an audit, then transition into a monthly retainer. The Local SEO tier includes 20 tracked keywords, monthly on-page fixes, and blog content. The Growth and Authority tiers add more keywords, backlink outreach, and review monitoring.
You can read more about how to choose the right SEO agency or about why monthly SEO audits matter in our other posts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an SEO audit company do?
An SEO audit company examines your website technical infrastructure, on-page elements, content quality, and local search presence to identify issues holding back your rankings. The audit covers crawlability, site speed, metadata, structured data, keyword gaps, and Google Business Profile optimization, then produces a prioritized action plan.
How much does an SEO audit cost in the Kent, WA area?
SEO audit costs vary by scope. A standalone technical SEO audit from Digital Project LLC starts at $500 as a one-time engagement, or it is included as part of the Local, Growth, and Authority SEO retainer tiers. Contact us through the form on our site for a quote tailored to your website.
How long does an SEO audit take?
A technical SEO audit for a small business website typically takes 3 to 5 business days. Larger sites with hundreds of pages or complex e-commerce setups may take longer. The audit includes crawl data analysis, manual review of key pages, and a written report with prioritized recommendations.
What is the difference between an SEO audit and ongoing SEO services?
An SEO audit is a one-time diagnostic that identifies issues and produces a fix list. Ongoing SEO services implement the fixes, monitor rankings, produce content, and track results over time. Many businesses start with an audit to understand where they stand, then move into a monthly retainer for continuous improvement.
The bottom line
A good SEO audit company does not just hand you a report — it gives you a clear picture of where your site stands, what is holding it back, and exactly what to do next. If you are in Kent, Seattle, or anywhere in South King County and want a technical SEO audit from a company that publishes its pricing and explains its methodology, reach out through our contact form. We respond within 24 hours.