Seo Audit Orchestration

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: seo-onpage, seo-backlink-audit, etc.)
• Investigating a specific traffic drop (use seo-traffic-diagnosis)
• Tactical questions like "which keywords should we target" (use seo-keyword-gap-audit)
• Routine monitoring (use seo-rank-tracking)

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 | seo-site-health-audit | Prioritized technical fix backlog |

| Backlinks | seo-backlink-audit | Profile health, toxic list, reclamation list |

| Keywords | seo-keyword-gap-audit | Prioritized opportunity list |

| Content | seo-content-gap-audit | Create/update/merge roadmap |

| Page-level | seo-onpage | Per-page audit on top pages |

| AI search | seo-aeo-geo | 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.

10. 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 - Template for the rollup report including executive summary, theme structure, and roadmap format.