SEO audit cost: compare coverage, evidence and implementation handoff
Worked amounts are fictional USD examples unless a named, dated offer is identified. Unknown charges are not zero.
Worked scope and budget
| Fictional proposal or check | Known price or inventory | Included evidence | Acceptance boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| A · crawl export | $1,200.00 | Export and walkthrough only | No claim that diagnosis or fixes are included. |
| B · evidenced diagnosis | $3,600.00 | Reproduced findings, priority and handoff | Implementation remains outside this scope. |
| C · defined fixes and retest | $6,000.00 | Named fixes plus agreed verification | Not an unlimited promise to fix everything. |
| Coverage inventory | 1,200 URLs · 8 templates · 2 languages | Separate discovered, fetched, rendered and analyzed | Document sampling, exclusions and inaccessible areas. |
| Final payable amount | Quoted base is not the whole engagement | Tax, extras and future work unconfirmed | Request a complete written scope and price. |
Distinguish URL count from analytical coverage
The original fictional store has 1,200 discovered URLs, eight templates and two languages. Proposal A, USD1,200, supplies a raw crawl export and walkthrough. Proposal B, USD3,600, adds scoped analysis, reproduced examples, prioritization and an implementation handoff, but no fixes. Proposal C, USD6,000, adds a named set of implemented fixes and a retest against agreed acceptance checks. These made-up prices illustrate different deliverables, not market levels. Taxes and unlisted work remain unknown. Compare what the site needs before treating these numbers as interchangeable quotes.
Ask which URLs were discovered, which were fetched, which were rendered and which received manual analysis. Record exclusions such as authenticated routes, staging hosts, parameter combinations or inaccessible resources. Eight template samples do not automatically prove every URL is correct, and a 1,200-row export does not establish that every page was analyzed. Tie sampling to a stated hypothesis and preserve counterexamples. For a reproduced issue, record an exact URL, observation date, evidence, expected behavior, proposed action, owner and verification method.
Public offers observed on 27 October 2026
These are advertisements, not purchased or tested services, endorsements or market averages. Recheck the exact tier, currency, taxes, billing and scope before relying on a quote.
WebFX Market Leader audit: advertised starting at $8,600/audit; table lists up to 70 pages, 45 days and up to 2.5 hours of implementation training/support. Optional link work is separate; taxes, currency code and actual delivery scope need confirmation.
WebFX
Your comparison record
| Field to confirm | Your evidence |
|---|---|
| Audit objective, domains, templates and languages | Not yet confirmed — record the source and date |
| Discovered/fetched/rendered/analyzed coverage and exclusions | Not yet confirmed — record the source and date |
| Access permissions, dates and evidence requirements | Not yet confirmed — record the source and date |
| Finding, priority, proposed action and owner | Not yet confirmed — record the source and date |
| Implementation scope and retest acceptance checks | Not yet confirmed — record the source and date |
| Price, taxes, extras, unresolved items and handoff | Not yet confirmed — record the source and date |
Before comparing proposals
- Define the question and coverage before asking for prices.
- Separate exports, analysis, implementation and retesting.
- Preserve exact URLs and reproducible evidence.
- Grant only the access required for the agreed stage.
- List unresolved items and verify implemented fixes.
Agree access and handoff before work begins. Google’s hiring guidance advises read-only Search Console access during an initial audit and cautions against guaranteed first-place claims. Ask for findings whose recommendations can be checked against primary documentation. Define who approves production changes, who implements each fix and who performs the retest. A useful final record includes unresolved findings and inaccessible areas, not just completed items. The worksheet runs locally and does not crawl your site, grant access or connect Search Console; these must be arranged separately.
The audit is not an ongoing SEO retainer, and advice is not implementation unless the scope says so. A paid diagnosis can still leave development, content work or later monitoring outside its price. Do not divide a vendor’s advertised price by its page limit and present that as a universal per-page rate. Nor does a larger report prove better recommendations, future rankings or return on spend. Recheck the offer and confirm all unpriced items; accept deliverables with evidence and evaluate later outcomes separately.