SEO audit: the complete diagnosis of your website

Quick answer: An SEO audit is an in-depth analysis of a website's health, designed to identify what holds back its ranking on Google. For micro-businesses and SMEs, this work fixes technical errors, optimises content for targeted local queries and strengthens the domain's overall authority in order to attract qualified customers.

Digital visibility now determines the commercial success of any local business. Recent data shows that 89% of internet users use search engines to make their purchasing decisions. A poorly optimised website therefore loses sales opportunities every day to better-ranked competitors.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) offers a lasting way to capture this qualified traffic. However, applying fixes blindly rarely delivers the expected results. A structured approach always begins with a precise review of the current situation. This analysis maps the strengths and weaknesses of a digital platform in order to draw up a prioritised action plan.

This complete guide details the workings of this technical and semantic analysis. You will discover how to structure your online presence to meet the requirements of search algorithms while offering a smooth user experience. Local businesses will find here the keys to turning their website into a genuine growth lever.

An SEO audit is a technical, semantic and competitive diagnosis that assesses how well a website complies with Google's ranking criteria. This analysis dissects the site's architecture, the quality of the source code, the relevance of existing content and the strength of inbound links. The aim of the SEO audit is to identify precisely the blockages that prevent web pages from reaching the top positions on search engine results pages (SERPs). At the end of this review, the site owner receives a detailed roadmap containing technical and editorial recommendations ready to be implemented. The SEO audit also prepares the ground for GEO in Tarbes: AI assistants cite well-structured sites.

A hyper-localised SEO audit captures nearby traffic with strong purchase intent. Industry statistics show that 70% of clicks go to the first five Google results. For a hotelier or craftsperson based in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, appearing on the second page amounts to having no visibility at all. By working with an organic SEO agency in Bayonne, local businesses identify the exact keywords typed by their regional audience. The audit reveals, for example, whether customers search more for “gourmet restaurant Bayonne” or “best local menu Basque Country”, making it possible to adjust the content accordingly. The audit shows where you stand in the SEO Bayonne market against your direct competitors.

The ARETA agency provides tailored SEO audits that go beyond the simple automated reports generated by software. ARETA's team of consultants takes the time to understand the business context, the competitive environment and the specific commercial ambitions of each micro-business or SME. This human approach ensures that the SEO recommendations align directly with the company's revenue targets. Rather than delivering an endless list of technical problems, the ARETA agency prioritises the corrective actions with the best return on investment in the short and medium term. The audit is part of our overall marketing agency for SMEs offer, from visibility to conversion.

The technical SEO audit makes sure that Google's crawlers can easily read, understand and index the pages of your website. A technically sound site is the essential foundation of any SEO strategy.

• Site architecture and crawling (crawlability): A logical silo structure helps search engines understand the hierarchy of your information. The audit checks that there are no orphan pages and that internal linking is optimised.
• Mobile compatibility and loading speed: Google uses mobile-first indexing. The technical audit measures Core Web Vitals to ensure fast loading and a perfect display on smartphones.
• Structured data and Schema markup: Adding Schema.org markup helps Google display rich snippets such as customer review stars or opening hours, which considerably increases the click-through rate.
• Optimising the XML sitemap and the Robots.txt file: These files guide indexing robots. The audit makes sure the sitemap contains the right URLs and that the Robots.txt file does not accidentally block crucial resources.

The on-page SEO audit aligns the visible content of your pages with the real search intent of internet users. This editorial side is essential to demonstrate the company's expertise.

• Keyword research and optimisation: The analysis identifies strategic queries. Working with an organic SEO agency in Biarritz makes it possible, for example, to target effectively the vocabulary specific to tourism on the Basque coast.
• Content quality and uniqueness: Algorithms penalise duplicate content. The on-page audit assesses the semantic depth of the texts to make sure they bring genuine added value to readers.
• Meta tags, descriptions and Hn tags: Optimising the Title tag and the Meta Description directly influences how attractive the result is on Google. Structuring with H1, H2 and H3 tags makes reading easier for the user and for the algorithm.
• Image optimisation: Image files must be light so as not to slow the site down, and include descriptive “Alt” tags to rank on Google Images and improve web accessibility.

The off-page SEO audit measures the popularity and credibility of your website through the external signals pointing to it. Google treats these signals as votes of confidence.

• Link profile analysis (backlinks) and link building: The audit assesses the quantity, but above all the quality, of inbound links. A healthy link building strategy consists of obtaining links from authoritative sites in the same field, while disavowing toxic links.
• Local SEO optimisation (Google My Business): For businesses in Pau or Bayonne, the Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is the engine of local SEO (the Local Pack). The audit checks that the name, address and phone number (NAP) are consistent across the web.
• Social signals and brand mentions: Although social shares are not a direct ranking factor, an active presence on social networks generates qualified traffic and increases online brand mentions, indirectly strengthening domain authority. The audit quantifies your link gap, then our backlinks service closes it with clean links.

The audit process begins with an in-depth strategic interview between the SEO expert and the business owner. During this initial phase, the ARETA agency gathers the core data on the target market, direct competitors and the flagship products or services to promote. This step ensures that the consultant's technical work directly serves the SME's growth ambitions, whether that means increasing table bookings for a restaurant or generating quote requests for a tradesperson.

The ARETA agency carries out a detailed competitor pre-analysis to spot weaknesses in local competitors' strategies. By analysing the keywords that competing players rank for, the SEO consultant detects untapped traffic opportunities. This cross-analysis highlights the geographic areas or topics where competition is weak, allowing the very small business or SME to quickly capture new market share by creating dedicated pages.

The support of the ARETA SEO agency does not stop at handing over a technical document. The team of experts puts the structural fixes in place, from code optimisation to a redesign of the site structure. Depending on the package chosen, the agency writes optimised content, manages technical tags and launches link acquisition campaigns (link building). Regular progress meetings ensure full transparency throughout. The audit leads to a concrete plan to improve your website's organic SEO.

SEO optimisation is more effective when it is synchronised with the company's whole marketing mix. The ARETA agency makes sure that the organic traffic generated by the SEO audit feeds the overall conversion funnel. The key messages defined by the brand platform are built into the texts optimised for search engines. This synergy between relationship marketing, content strategy and organic SEO maximises visitor engagement and encourages their conversion into loyal customers.

Tracking SEO performance relies on analysing several tangible key performance indicators (KPIs). The first is organic traffic growth, measurable with tools such as Google Analytics. The second KPI is the ranking of strategic keywords on results pages. Finally, the SEO conversion rate measures the percentage of organic visitors who complete a desired action (purchase, form, phone call). Calculating the return on investment (ROI) of the SEO campaign lets managers confirm that the work pays off.

Organic SEO is not a one-off action but an iterative process. Google updates its algorithm thousands of times a year, constantly changing the ranking criteria. Local competitors also keep adapting their own digital strategies. A follow-up SEO audit, carried out once or twice a year, checks that the site maintains its technical standards. This regular check prevents traffic drops caused by broken links, slower loading speeds or the arrival of new algorithmic requirements.

Solid organic traffic drastically reduces customer acquisition costs (CAC) over the long term. Unlike paid advertising (SEA), where visibility stops as soon as the advertising budget does, the work invested in an SEO audit produces lasting results. A leading position on a local query strengthens the brand's credibility in consumers' eyes. In addition, the technical optimisations that come with the audit significantly improve the overall user experience, which benefits all of the company's acquisition channels.

A professional SEO audit brings a level of technical and analytical expertise that is impossible to reach in-house without specialist tools. Consultants master the subtleties of crawl budget, latent semantic indexing and complex algorithmic penalties. Calling on experts ensures that corrective actions comply with Google's guidelines (White Hat SEO), protecting the domain name against possible penalties that could devastate revenue.

The ARETA agency's local roots give it a decisive competitive advantage for optimising local search visibility. Its experts understand the specifics of the catchment area from the Basque coast to Haut-Béarn. This detailed knowledge of the local economy makes it possible to design content perfectly targeted at the search habits of residents and tourists in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.

Setting up a lasting visibility strategy starts with a precise diagnosis of your current situation. Entrusting the analysis of your digital ecosystem to a recognised organic SEO agency is the starting point of your digital growth. ARETA offers a free first strategy discussion of 30 minutes. Contact the experts today to schedule your website's SEO audit and begin your climb towards the top positions on Google. The audit leads into the full support of areta.

The cost of an SEO audit varies widely with the size of the website, the complexity of its technical architecture and the level of competition in the sector. A standard audit for a local showcase site calls for a different investment from the one needed for a complex e-commerce site with thousands of product pages. Agencies generally offer tailored quotes after a first free pre-analysis.

The cost of an SEO audit varies widely with the size of the website, the complexity of its technical architecture and the level of competition in the sector. A standard audit for a local showcase site calls for a different investment from the one needed for a complex e-commerce site with thousands of product pages. Agencies generally offer tailored quotes after a first free pre-analysis.

The SEO audit itself is a diagnosis that generally takes one to three weeks to deliver. Concrete results on traffic appear after the recommended fixes are implemented. Improving SEO rankings is a gradual process: the first effects on local rankings can be seen within three to six months, while highly competitive queries often call for continuous work over nine to twelve months.

A complete website redesign is only needed if the underlying technology is obsolete or if the current structure fundamentally blocks search engine indexing. In the vast majority of cases, the SEO audit recommends precise adjustments, code fixes and content restructuring that can be applied directly to the existing platform without interrupting online activity.

Traditional SEO aims to rank a website for generic queries at national or international level. Local SEO, for its part, focuses specifically on capturing geolocated queries (e.g. “accountant Pau”). A local SEO audit places paramount importance on optimising the Google Business Profile, on keeping the company's contact details uniform across regional directories, and on keywords that include precise geographic terms.