Is the audit really free? What's the catch?
No catch. The audit is free, the action plan is free, and there's no obligation to hire me afterwards. The reasoning is straightforward: most Tampa businesses don't know what's actually wrong with their SEO, and the audit gives me a chance to show I know what I'm doing. Some people implement the recommendations themselves, which is fine. Some come back six months later when they realize they need help, which is also fine. Either way, the audit isn't a sales funnel that ends in a contract.
How is this different from running my site through SEMrush or Ahrefs?
SEMrush and Ahrefs site audit tools run a crawl, surface technical issues, and give you a numerical score. They're great for spotting big technical problems — broken links, missing meta tags, slow pages. Where they fall short is interpretation. They'll tell you that you have 47 issues but not which 3 actually matter, or how your situation compares to your specific Tampa competitors, or what the realistic timeline is to fix things. That interpretation is what you're getting with this audit.
How long does the audit take to deliver?
48 hours from when you submit your URL is the typical turnaround. Sometimes faster if I'm not deep in client work. The audit isn't an automated process — I'm reviewing your site, running competitor comparisons in SEMrush, and writing the action plan myself, so it takes real hours of my time. That's a feature, not a bug.
What information do I need to provide?
Just your website URL and a couple of sentences about what your business does. If you have specific competitors in mind or specific keywords you want to rank for, that helps me prioritize. Read-only access to Google Search Console is useful if you have it, but not required.
Do I need to hire you after the audit?
No. The action plan is yours to execute however you want — in-house, with another agency, or with me. I'd rather give you a useful audit and have you remember me when you're ready to engage than try to convert you on the call. The audit conversion isn't the business model; consulting work is.
Is this audit good for businesses outside Tampa?
It's built for Tampa businesses because that's where I focus — the competitive analysis is most useful when I know the local market. For businesses in nearby Florida markets (St. Pete, Clearwater, Sarasota, Brandon, Wesley Chapel) the audit is just as valuable. For businesses far outside Florida, the technical and on-page findings still apply, but the local competitive analysis won't be as sharp because I'm not in those markets.
What if my site is brand new with no rankings yet?
For brand new sites, the audit shifts to a "foundation review" — technical setup, keyword targeting strategy, content cluster planning, and competitive analysis to scope realistic ranking timelines. Less about diagnosing existing problems, more about setting up the foundation correctly the first time.