SEO Audit Orchestration
Run a complete SEO audit by sequencing the sibling audit skills in a defined order. Stack-agnostic. Assumes the Ahrefs MCP is connected. Produces a single rollup report that synthesizes findings across backlinks, keywords, content, traffic, technical health, and rankings.
When to use
- Running a full SEO audit (quarterly, biannual, annual)
- Pre-acquisition SEO due diligence
- Post-migration verification (after content move, replatform, or domain change)
- Onboarding a new client or new property
- Building a baseline before a major SEO investment
- Diagnosing chronic underperformance
When NOT to use
- Single-dimension audits (use the specific child skill: , , etc.)
- Investigating a specific traffic drop (use )
- Tactical questions like "which keywords should we target" (use )
- Routine monitoring (use )
Required inputs
- The site or properties in scope
- Target market and primary languages
- Competitor set (3-5 properties)
- Goal of the audit (baseline, due diligence, fix plan, growth roadmap)
- Time and reporting constraints
- Confirmation that the Ahrefs MCP is connected and the workspace has access to the target property
The framework: 6 phases of an end-to-end audit
A complete audit moves through six phases in order. Skipping phases produces gaps. Reordering them produces rework.
Phase 1: Scope and baseline
Define the audit before running it.
- What is in scope (subdomains, paths, languages)
- What is out of scope
- Goal of the audit (baseline, fix plan, growth roadmap, due diligence)
- Stakeholders and their priorities
- Reporting format and length expectations
Output: a 1-page audit charter.
Phase 2: Data gather
Pull the raw data from Ahrefs and any companion sources.
Required pulls:
- Site Explorer: organic keywords, organic traffic, top pages, top countries, referring domains, backlinks, anchor text profile
- Site Audit: full crawl results
- Keywords Explorer: target keyword universe and competitor keyword overlap
- Content Explorer: top performing content in target topics
- Rank Tracker: current tracked positions if set up
Companion pulls (not Ahrefs-native):
- Search Console: query and page data, coverage issues
- Analytics: traffic, conversions, segment by source
- Server logs (if available): bot crawl behavior
Document data freshness for every pull. Stale data yields wrong conclusions.
Phase 3: Run the sub-audits
Run each child audit. Each produces its own findings doc.
| Sub-audit | Skill | What it produces |
|---|
| Site health | | Prioritized technical fix backlog |
| Backlinks | | Profile health, toxic list, reclamation list |
| Keywords | | Prioritized opportunity list |
| Content | | Create/update/merge roadmap |
| Page-level | | Per-page audit on top pages |
| AI search | | AI search readiness gaps |
The child skills do the analysis. This skill sequences them and integrates the outputs.
Phase 4: Synthesize
Combine findings into themes. A list of 200 issues is not an audit. A list of 5-7 themes is.
Themes typically emerge in categories like:
- Technical foundation gaps that cap upside
- Content depth gaps in priority topics
- Backlink profile concentration risks
- Keyword opportunities the site is leaving on the table
- Cannibalization or thin coverage
- AI search readiness
Each theme should answer: what is happening, why it matters, what is the size of prize, what is the fix.
Phase 5: Prioritize
Rank the themes. Use a simple impact/effort matrix.
- Quick wins: high impact, low effort. Do now.
- Strategic plays: high impact, high effort. Plan and resource.
- Maintenance: low impact, low effort. Backlog.
- Avoid: low impact, high effort. Drop.
Tie each theme to a measurable target (organic clicks, ranked keywords in target band, conversions from organic).
Phase 6: Deliver
Produce the rollup report. See
references/audit-rollup-template.md
.
Structure:
- Executive summary (1 page)
- Themes and recommendations (5-7 themes, 1 page each)
- Sub-audit findings (linked or appended)
- Roadmap (next 90 days)
Walk stakeholders through it. Get commitment to the next 90 days of work.
Workflow
- Charter the audit. 1-page scope, goal, stakeholders, format.
- Confirm Ahrefs MCP access. Verify the workspace has the target property and recent data.
- Pull all data. Run the gather list in phase 2. Document freshness.
- Run each sub-audit. Use the child skills. Each produces its own findings doc.
- Synthesize themes. 5-7 themes max. Each ties to an impact and a fix.
- Prioritize. Impact/effort matrix. Quick wins surface to the top.
- Draft the rollup. Use the template. Executive summary first.
- Review with the team. Pressure-test conclusions before stakeholder readout.
- Deliver. Walk stakeholders through. Get commitment to next 90 days.
- Schedule the next one. Audits decay. Rerun on a cadence.
Failure patterns
- Audit without a goal. Produces a 60-page document nobody reads. Charter the audit first.
- All findings, no themes. A list of 200 issues is data, not an audit. Synthesize into themes.
- Skipping the sub-audits. Running one big audit instead of six focused ones produces shallow analysis everywhere.
- No prioritization. "Here are 47 things to fix" gets nothing fixed. Rank them.
- Stale data. Ahrefs index updates on a delay. Note freshness. Do not draw conclusions from week-old movement.
- Tool worship. Ahrefs is one source. Search Console, analytics, and logs add ground truth. Triangulate.
- Audit-to-audit drift. Running every audit differently makes trends impossible to spot. Standardize the structure.
- No 90-day roadmap. Without a plan after the audit, the audit is shelfware.
- Solo audit. Audits done alone miss context. Pull in the people who own the work.
Output format
A rollup audit report with:
- Executive summary (1 page).
- Audit charter (scope, goal, methodology).
- Themes and recommendations (5-7 themes, each with what, why, size of prize, fix).
- Sub-audit appendix (linked outputs from each child skill).
- 90-day roadmap (sequenced work with owners and targets).
- Methodology notes (data sources, pull dates, caveats).
Total length: 15-30 pages including appendices. Executive summary readable in 5 minutes.
Reference files
references/audit-rollup-template.md