What a B2B SEO audit actually covers
Most "SEO audits" delivered by agencies are automated Semrush or Ahrefs site crawl exports. They list technical issues in bulk, prioritize nothing, and provide no context for which fixes will actually move rankings. A real B2B SEO audit is a manual diagnostic that covers five distinct layers.
The five layers are: technical health (can Google crawl and index your site correctly), topical coverage (are you covering the topics your buyers are searching), on-page optimization (are your existing pages structured to rank for their target terms), AEO readiness (is your content structured to be cited by AI systems), and competitive positioning (why are competitors outranking you and what it would take to overtake them).
Layer 1: Technical SEO audit
Technical SEO is the foundation. If Google cannot crawl, index, or understand your site correctly, content quality is irrelevant. Technical issues typically account for 30 to 50 percent of why a well-funded content strategy underperforms.
- Canonical tag audit — is every indexable page self-canonicalizing?
- Robots.txt and noindex — are any important pages accidentally blocked?
- Sitemap audit — does the sitemap match your actual indexable page set?
- Core Web Vitals — LCP, INP, CLS scores and failure points
- Mobile rendering — full responsive audit, no content hidden on mobile
- Crawl depth — are all important pages reachable within 3 clicks from homepage?
- Duplicate content — are there URL parameter, trailing slash, or pagination issues?
- Schema markup — is structured data implemented and valid?
Canonical errors are the most common technical issue for B2B sites. A single incorrect canonical pointing all pages to the homepage can cause the entire site to soft-404 in Google Search Console.
Layer 2: Topical coverage audit
The topical coverage audit maps every keyword cluster your buyers search across the awareness, consideration, and decision stages — and identifies which clusters you currently have no content for, which you have thin content for, and which you are ranking for but not capturing.
For most B2B companies, the biggest opportunity is in the consideration layer: the how-to guides, methodology posts, and comparison content that your buyers consume when evaluating solutions. These pages are what builds trust before a contact form is filled.
- Full keyword and intent map for your ICP
- Current content inventory against the map
- Gap identification: no content, thin content, poorly optimized
- Competition difficulty by cluster — quick wins vs long-term plays
- Internal linking audit — are existing cluster pages connected?
Layer 3: On-page SEO audit
For each existing page that has ranking potential, the on-page audit reviews title tags (are they keyword-optimized and under 60 characters), meta descriptions (under 160 characters, include the target keyword and a CTA), heading structure (clear H1, logical H2/H3 hierarchy), body content (does the page genuinely answer the search query better than the current #1 result), and internal linking (does this page link to and receive links from related cluster pages).
Layer 4: AEO readiness audit
The AEO readiness audit evaluates how likely your content is to be cited when AI systems answer questions in your topic area. The audit reviews: directness of answer (does the first paragraph directly answer the target question), FAQ schema implementation, factual specificity (does the content contain citable statistics and positions), and entity recognition (is your brand clearly identified as a credible source on your topic).
B2B buyers increasingly shortlist vendors from AI answers before visiting any website. If your content is not AEO-ready, you do not exist in a growing portion of the buyer research journey.
What you receive from a Luma Growth Lab SEO audit
Our B2B SEO audit delivers a written report covering: a prioritized list of technical fixes (categorized by impact and effort), a topical coverage map showing your gaps vs competitors, an on-page optimization plan for your top 10 existing pages, an AEO readiness score and fix list, and a 90-day content publication roadmap.
The audit is diagnostic, not prescriptive. We tell you exactly what to fix, in what order, with an estimated impact for each item. You can implement the fixes yourself, with your existing team, or with us.