The range a business owner is quoted for “an audit” before they call anyone. The low end comes from a 250-business survey, the high end from an unsourced glossary page. The most-cited page in the category contradicts itself by 11× without noticing.
Source: Southern Tide Media review of the audit pricing pages answer engines cite, August 2026Provider pages that show a single page of the document they sell. One shows an illustration labeled “audit pricing” instead of the audit. Buyers are asked for four figures sight unseen.
Source: Southern Tide Media review of 11 provider pages, August 2026Audit pages that say whether you own the report, or whether you may hand it to another agency. It’s the first thing we say about ours.
Source: Southern Tide Media review of the ranking audit service pages, August 2026What’s included
Most audits are a sales document with a chart on the front. This one is the deliverable. It’s specific enough to hand to another agency, and it tells you when something is fine as it is.
Focus areas · Strategy & measurement
Paid media review
Account structure, whether the tracking is telling the truth, wasted spend, and what the numbers say.
SEO & technical
Whether Google can read the site, how it’s structured, how fast it loads, and which pages are doing the work.
AI visibility baseline
Whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews name you, and who they name instead.
Site & conversion
Speed, mobile, accessibility, and where you lose people between landing on the site and buying.
Email & CRM
Deliverability, lists, automation, and the follow-up that isn’t happening.
Reputation & reviews
Rating, review count, how recent they are, and your listings. This is the profile buyers and AI engines check.
Analytics integrity
Whether the numbers you’ve been reporting on are true. If they aren’t, that becomes finding number one, because everything else is guesswork until it’s fixed. See Reporting.
Your side of the work
Read-only access, and about an hour for the walkthrough. That’s the whole ask. You don’t prepare anything, and nothing gets changed while we look.
The prioritized write-up
Findings ranked by what would move the most, in plain English. This is the deliverable, and it’s yours to keep. Hand it to another agency if you want; it’s written to be useful to whoever does the work. See a sample findings sheet →
A page of the findings sheet
The audit is the document, so here’s a page of one, for a business we made up. Look for two things no other audit page shows you: an item marked already working, leave it alone, and a review area marked as something we don’t sell. Read the full sample →
| What we saw | Deposits are completing, but no conversion event reaches Google Ads or GA4. The last recorded booking conversion is dated March 19. |
|---|---|
| How we know | A test booking was placed and refunded; the thank-you page loads but fires no event. The tag exists and is pointed at a page URL that changed when the booking plugin was updated. |
| What it’s costing | Every bidding and budget decision since March has been made on a signal that stopped. That doesn’t mean the spend was wasted. It means nobody can currently tell. |
| What we’d do | Re-point the conversion action at the new confirmation step, pass the deposit value with it, and check two weeks of bookings against the platform’s numbers before trusting them again. |
| Effort, and who | Roughly two hours, us. If you’d rather your own developer did it, the write-up above is enough for them to work from. |
- Ranked, not listed. Thirty-four findings isn’t useful. Four things to do this month is. Everything else is still in the document; it just isn’t pretending to be urgent.
- Two areas marked “we don’t sell this.” The vendor playbook for free audits says out loud that the audit should be scoped to the agency’s own services. That’s exactly why an audit that reviews things we can’t sell you is worth more than one that doesn’t.
- One finding is good news. “Already working, leave it alone.” If an audit never tells you to stop worrying about something, it isn’t a diagnosis. It’s a quote.
Every finding names who should do it: us, you, or your host. Some of the best findings in an audit are ones you’ll never pay us for.
What this audit will and won’t do
The suspicion that a free audit is a sales pitch isn’t paranoia. The vendor playbook that teaches agencies to run them says in print that the point is to “create a need for services.” So it’s worth being specific about what this one is.
What it won’t do
- It won’t be scoped only to the things we happen to sell.
- It won’t be delivered as a call with no document at the end.
- It won’t come with a countdown, a “limited number of audit slots,” or a price that expires.
- It won’t tell you to rebuild something that is working.
- It won’t call a finding urgent to make the next conversation easier.
What it will do
- Cover every area, including the ones we don’t sell, and mark them as such.
- Come as a written, ranked document that is yours to keep and to hand to anyone, including another agency.
- Tell you what’s already working and should be left alone.
- Say who should do each fix: us, you, or your host.
- Tell you plainly if the answer is that you don’t need us right now.
Where it starts
No chargeThe AI Growth SnapshotThe headline findings across every area (ads, site, SEO, AI visibility, automation) with nothing to sign and no obligation. This is the one to start with. It’s a starting point, not a full audit, and we’ll say so instead of dressing it up. Try the instant Website Grader first →
How pricing worksA scan, a Snapshot and an audit are three different things
Type in a URL, get a grade. Our Website Grader is one, and it’s useful: it tells you where to look. What it can’t do is tell you why, or what to do about it. Anybody selling you a scan as an audit is selling you a lead magnet.
The AI Growth Snapshot is a person’s look at the biggest gaps across every area, at no charge and with nothing to sign. It exists because we’d rather you knew whether there’s a real problem before either of us spends money finding out.
Read-only access, every area worked through by whoever runs that discipline here, and a ranked write-up you keep, including the parts that say nothing needs doing. That’s what this page is selling, and it’s what shows up in the sample above.
Why the market’s numbers disagree so wildly: the widely quoted “$5,000–$25,000” band traces back to an unsourced glossary page written by an agency that doesn’t sell audits, while the “$101–$750” figure comes from a survey of 250 businesses and describes a single-channel SEO audit. They aren’t the same product, and neither is quoted against a defined scope. Ours is scoped in writing, based on how many pages, how many ad accounts and how many channels are in play, and you see the number before anything starts.
How pricing works
Three levels, all published. We’ll tell you which one you need, including when the answer is the free one.
The headline findings across every area (ads, site, SEO, AI visibility, automation) with nothing to sign and no obligation. This is the one to start with. It’s a starting point, not a full audit, and we’ll say so instead of dressing it up. Try the instant Website Grader first →
The deep version of one discipline: how AI answers about your category, whether you’re named, and a fix list in priority order. Start AI Visibility Managed within 30 days and the full $499 is credited to your first month.
Full documentation across every discipline, specific enough to hand to another agency. Scoped and priced in writing before anything starts. The number depends on how many pages, how many ad accounts and how many channels are in play.
Bundling is cheaper than buying the pieces.
See plans & pricingHow long it takes
What to expect
An audit is only useful while its facts are fresh, so it runs as a tight sequence, not an open-ended engagement.
Read-only access to what’s already running. No changes made. An audit that edits as it goes isn’t an audit.
Each area worked through by whoever runs that discipline here, not by a template.
Findings in plain English, ranked by what would move the most. We talk it through; you decide what, if anything, happens next.
Who we help
The audit reads differently by category because the money leaks differently. These are the ones we know from the inside.
Hospitality & Resort
How much you depend on Expedia and Booking.com, where direct bookings leak, and spend that follows the season.
Explore →E-commerce & DTC
Product feeds, whether your return-on-ad-spend numbers can be trusted, and the small leaks in checkout.
Explore →Medical & Med Spa
Ad-rule exposure, friction in the consult booking flow, and what your reviews say about you.
Explore →Home Services & B2B
Lead quality, follow-up gaps, and where the phone stops ringing.
Don’t take our word for it
“The Southern Tide Media team has smartly positioned itself as partners, versus “vendors.” Each step along the strategic path, I feel as if they are “all in” and have our best interests at heart.”
“Southern Tide Media increased our conversion rates on our SEO campaigns by 60% in short time… Brandon takes the worry out of all the technical jargon and translates that into workable applications you can understand as a business owner.”
“In every dealing I have ever had with Brandon Evans, he has been knowledgeable, fair, and has responded quickly. I would highly recommend using him for any of your business’s marketing or advertising needs!”
Questions, answered
What does the no-charge Snapshot cover, and what is it not?
The AI Growth Snapshot is a person’s read on the headline findings across every area (ads, site, SEO, AI visibility, automation) with nothing to sign. What it’s not is the full audit. It won’t work every discipline end to end, and it won’t produce the ranked document this page is about. We’d rather draw that line ourselves than let you discover it. If all you want is a scan that spits out a score, the Website Grader does that instantly and for nothing.
Why do I see “$101” and “$25,000” quoted for the same thing?
Because they aren’t the same thing, and nobody quoting them says so. The low figure comes from a survey of 250 businesses and describes a single-channel SEO audit. The widely repeated $5,000–$25,000 band traces back to an unsourced glossary page published by an agency that doesn’t sell audits. Neither is priced against a defined scope. Ours is. It depends on how many pages, how many ad accounts and how many channels are in play, and you see the number in writing before anything starts.
What do I receive at the end?
A written, ranked document, with findings in three buckets and each one carrying the evidence, the likely impact, the effort and who should do it, plus an hour walking through it together. Not a call with nothing to keep afterward. There’s a sample here.
Do you audit things you don’t sell?
Yes, and we mark them. The playbook that teaches agencies to run free audits recommends scoping them to the agency’s own services. That’s exactly why an audit that reviews print, PR or anything else we can’t sell you is worth more than one that doesn’t. If the biggest problem is somewhere we don’t work, you should still hear it from us.
Will you tell me if something is already working?
Yes, in writing. Findings marked “no action needed” are in the document with everything else. An audit that never tells you to stop worrying about something isn’t a diagnosis. It’s a quote.
What if the answer is that I don’t need you?
Then that’s the finding, and we’ll say it. Some of the best items in an audit are ones you’ll never pay us for: a setting your host can change, a fix your own developer can do in an afternoon. We’d rather be the agency that gave you a straight answer than the one that made up a reason.
Do I have to hire you afterward?
No, and the write-up is deliberately specific enough to hand to someone else. The document is yours. You own it, you can share it, and you can give it to another agency without asking us.
Will you need access to my accounts?
Read-only access to analytics, ad accounts and the site, and nothing else. We don’t make changes during an audit. Access is removed at the end, or whenever you say.