How much does an SEO or website audit cost, and is a paid one worth it over a free tool?

Why do audit prices vary so much?

Because the word covers very different jobs. A five-minute automated report, one freelancer running one speed check, and a full evaluation of your website, Google profile, reviews, rankings and competitors are all sold as an “audit”, for very different amounts of work. Before you compare two prices, ask each seller exactly what’s included and how it’s delivered.

What do free audit tools catch, and what do they miss?

PageSpeed Insights and Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report are free, and they catch real technical problems: slow load times, layout that jumps around, pages that fail on mobile. What they don’t touch is anything outside your own website: whether your Google Business Profile is complete, whether your reviews are keeping pace, whether you show up against the competitors holding the spots you want. A clean speed score doesn’t mean a healthy business presence.

When is a paid audit worth it?

When you want someone to join those pieces into one ordered plan, so you stop running five free tools and guessing what to fix first. If your site already has an obvious severe problem (no mobile layout, a contact form that silently fails), fix that first and audit afterward. The money does more repairing something broken than paying someone to tell you it’s broken.

How often should a site be audited?

Mostly after something changes: a redesign, a platform move, a slow season where something may have broken quietly. Otherwise about once a year. A business that’s growing fast or adding locations should check more often than one that’s been steady for years.

What do Forward Dawn’s free Blueprint and $499 audit each cover?

The free Website Growth Blueprint is a diagnostic of your current site: where you stand on trust, lead capture, follow-up, and search readiness, plus the first improvements we’d make. The $499 One-Time Business Audit goes further: your website and Google profile, your reviews, your AI visibility, a local rankings heatmap, your business and offer compared to the market, and a prioritized action plan, delivered as a report, a PDF, and a 30-minute call, with no subscription attached.