A digital marketing audit checks whether your marketing can be found, gets chosen and can prove it worked: your tracking, your ads, your search and AI visibility, and your website. A useful one ends with a short list of fixes in order, not a pile of automated warnings. Mine is free and comes in two types: a Google Ads audit, or a search and AI visibility audit. I do it myself, send the top 3 fixes in writing, and we go through them on a 20-minute call. If the fixes point to something bigger, the next step is the Market Blueprint.
Written by Dan Picken, founder. Last checked 6 November 2026.From my audits
Whatever the industry, a first look at an account or site tends to find the same few things. None of them show up in a monthly report.
Page views, button clicks or newsletter sign-ups counted alongside real enquiries, so the bidding learns to chase the wrong people.
A local business advertising to anyone 'interested in' its area, including people who will never travel there.
The Google Ads account, GA4 or Search Console belongs to a former agency or web developer.
Search Console lists pages crawled but not indexed, and they are often the service or category pages that should be ranking.
Impressions and clicks every month, and nothing that says how many enquiries or sales each channel brought.
The ads agency, the web developer and the SEO each look after their part. Nobody checks the hand-offs between them, which is where most leaks are.
What a proper audit covers
Most audits start with what's easy to see: how the website looks, how often you post. I start with the numbers, because every other finding depends on them being right. These are the six areas, in the order I check them.
Is what's counted a real enquiry or sale, counted once? In Google Ads, auto-tagging is needed to import Analytics data and to track offline conversions. It's on by default for new accounts, and worth checking in older ones.
What I do: Check conversions against a real test enquiry before reading any other number.
Which searches, places and times take the budget. Google's default location option, Presence or interest, also reaches people who have only shown interest in your area.
What I do: For local businesses, check the location option and where clicks actually came from.
Pages left out of Google's index, blocked by mistake, or competing with each other. Google lists a review of your site content or structure among the first things an SEO can help with.
What I do: Read Search Console's page indexing report before suggesting a single new page.
When people ask ChatGPT or Google's AI, are you named, and is what they say true? Google says its AI features run on the same SEO basics, with no special files needed.
What I do: Ask the questions your buyers ask, and note who gets named instead.
Does each page keep the promise that brought people there, and is the next step obvious on a phone?
What I do: Follow the path a real buyer takes, from the ad or search to the form, on a phone.
Ad accounts, GA4 and Search Console in the business's name, or in an agency's or developer's.
What I do: If you don't own them, that's fix number one. The history goes with whoever does.
Every rule above is linked to the platform's own help page, so you can check it yourself or show whoever runs your marketing.
Self-check: which audit first?
Tick what's true for your business today. Leave it unticked if you're not sure: not knowing is a finding too. It shows where the biggest gap is, and which free audit to start with.
Your scores
Start with
Tick what's true, and the suggestion appears here.
Fix first
How to start
The form at the bottom has two audit types. Pick the one closest to where your money or your worry is. If neither fits, pick 'Something else' and tell me what you need.
Search terms, conversions, locations, bidding, budget, ads and landing pages. I ask for read-only access, which can view campaigns but can't edit them.
Best for: You spend on Google Ads and aren't sure which part is working. The free Google Ads audit page lists every check.
Indexing, the searches you miss, who shows up instead, your Business Profile and what AI tools say about you. Your website address is enough to start. Search Console access as a restricted user, with view rights on most data, helps.
Best for: You want more customers from Google and AI answers. See the free SEO and AI search audit page.
My one-off strategy package: maps of your market and a 90-day plan, ranked by impact.
Best for: When the audit shows the problem is bigger than three fixes: a launch, a new area, or several channels with nobody sure which one works. More on the Blueprint.
I run search, paid, or both, with a monthly report on what changed and what's next.
Best for: When the fixes need doing every month, not once. See how working with me goes.
How it works
Choose the audit in the form below. It takes a minute.
Read-only access for Google Ads, or just your website address for search. Nothing in your accounts changes.
I go through it myself and write up the 3 biggest fixes. Audits come back within 1 to 2 business days.
20 minutes to walk through the fixes. Then you decide: do them yourself, the Market Blueprint, monthly work, or nothing at all.
What you get
A check of whether your marketing is set up to be found, chosen and measured: tracking, ads, search and AI visibility, and the website. A good one ranks what to fix first, so you know where the next hour or dollar should go.
Tracking first, because every other number depends on it. Then where the ad money goes, whether Google can find and keep your pages, what AI tools say about you, whether the site turns visits into enquiries, and who owns the accounts.
Audits come back within 1 to 2 business days of me getting access. Then we book the 20-minute call at a time that suits you.
Yes. You get the fixes in writing whether or not we work together. If they are things you can do yourself, I will say so.
No. For Google Ads, add me with read-only access. For search, your website address is enough, and Search Console access as a restricted user helps.
Pick 'Something else' in the form and tell me what you run. I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Three options, all fine: do the fixes yourself or with your current team, go further with the Market Blueprint, or have me run it monthly.
Yes. The self-check on this page is a start. Google's own questions for choosing an SEO, like what results to expect, by when, and how success will be measured, work for any marketing supplier too.
Takes a minute. Audits come back within 1 to 2 business days. For anything else, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
What happens next
Keep going