SaaS SEO Audit Services: Proposal Checklist for Smart SEOs

Although marketing has been around for decades as a stand-alone science, you still have some mountains to move.

For example, some CEOs expect a budget – or even wholly free audits – from their marketing agencies.

In our previous article on how to sell SEO audit services to SaaS companies, we discussed the importance of positioning your audit services as premium.

SaaS founders understand that things aren’t cheap in this industry, so they expect to pay more for quality.

But you can’t exactly touch the corner of your mouth with your pinky and demand one billion dollars like Dr. Evil.

Instead, read this article to find out what a fair price SEO Audit checklist would look like in 2023.

‍TL;DR

Pitching Customers – The Prep Work:

• Demonstrate expertise without revealing too much.
• Explain to SaaS CEOs how quality audits can identify and rectify errors, saving money long-term.
• Consider offering a free standard audit or a quick-win method to gain trust.
• SEO audits should encompass categories like SEMRush ranking, keyword ranking, organic traffic, home page UX, and primary forms.

Before the SEO Audit:

• Establish a monthly retainer based on website size, industry, and potential.
• Discuss key objectives with clients.
• Prepare a checklist, including access details, company background, goals, competition, and target analysis.

SEO Audit Proposal Checklist:

• Be transparent about pricing. It's often better to sell bundled services at a discounted rate than individual ones.
• Detail each action in the audit process for transparency, including tools setup, content audit, keyword research, competitor analysis, and more.
• After identifying errors, propose actionable solutions, such as fixing technical issues, refining content, and optimizing keyword strategies.
• Define SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) objectives with clients.

Conclusion:

• Position SEO services as premium and offer bulk service discounts.
• Clearly list all services to ensure clients understand their investment.
• Maintain a professional website to enhance credibility and conversions.

How to Pitch Customers with an SEO audit – The Prep Work

This stage is essential because you want to show you’re an expert in your field without disclosing too much.

You also need to understand niche specifics, so your pitch should differ for SaaS and eCommerce SEO audits, for example.

If you’re pitching to SaaS CEOs, they’ll understand why quality audits can help them solve and prevent many errors.

They'll understand that targeting relevant keywords can attract more potential customers. After all, if you're optimizing your websites for the target keywords people are using, more of them will find you. As such, your organic search will skyrocket. Your user experience will increase as well, and so will your conversion rates.

At this point, you can explain how an initial audit done by your SEO agency can save them money in the long run.

Not sure where to start? Feel free to share these stats to impress your SEO clients:

🚀High ROI from SEO campaigns: Investing in high-quality SEO campaigns yields substantial returns. For instance, the average ROI for a well-executed SEO campaign is approximately 748%. But a well-executed campaign starts with a good plan – which is based on an in-depth audit.

🚀Significant contribution to website traffic: Organic search is a major driver of website traffic, accounting for 53% of all trackable website visits. That’s why it’s so important to optimize correctly for search engines to capture a substantial share of potential customers. ​An SEO audit can uncover potential optimization issues so you can scale much faster.

🚀Higher lead conversion rates: Leads generated through SEO efforts have a 14.6% close rate, significantly outperforming the 1.7% close rate of outbound leads. This highlights the effectiveness of SEO in attracting and converting high-quality leads. But if your website doesn’t perform, you need a solid audit to find out why,

🚀Cost-effectiveness compared to paid search: SEO is often more cost-effective than pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, with 70% of marketers reporting that SEO generates more sales than PPC. This indicates that a well-planned SEO campaign can provide better long-term value.

🚀Impact of page speed on user behavior: Website performance, particularly load time, is crucial for user retention. Nearly 53% of users will leave a site if it doesn't load quickly, emphasizing the need for technical optimizations identified through SEO audits. ​

🚀Reduction in bounce rates: Regular SEO audits can identify pages with high bounce rates. By optimizing these pages, businesses can reduce bounce rates by up to 50%, leading to improved user engagement and retention.

You can also suggest a free standard audit if you feel this increases your chances with a particular client.

The quick-win method works, too.

Here’s how you do it:

Split your SEO audit into categories like:

• SEMRush ranking review
• Keyword ranking
• Anchor texts
• Organic traffic
• Home page
• UX
• Primary forms (contact, e-mail, and lead generation)

Auditing these services won’t take long, plus they’re treasure troves of minor errors that break the conversion funnel. So, if you can identify and fix a checkout page bug that leads to more conversions, you can get the job done faster.

Bonus: Here’s an in-depth video to sell more SEO services:

Before the SEO Audit: What SEO Agencies Need to Know

In this stage of the conversation, you’ll have to be very precise about your pricing structure.

Our advice when selling separate SEO services is to sell them more expensively because:

You’ll need to set aside some hours to understand a company, whether you’re doing just keyword research or the whole shebang.

If you’re using this knowledge for three services, you don’t need to charge the client each time you’re applying an insight you’ve gained on their company.

Here’s an example:

A customer needs an SEO audit with content strategy, keyword research, and technical SEO.

In this case, you can reduce the total price of your package.

Besides, your customer perceives your business relationship as valuable to you.

So, your SEO audit’s prices should reflect all the actionable steps you’re taking and what you’re looking for.

We’re going to give you a ballpark list below, but you should detail it with as many actions as possible so that the client understands what you’re doing:

✅ SaaS SEO Checklist (Expanded)

🔧 Core Audit Components

1. SEO tools setup: We configure all necessary tools to gather accurate insights, including Google Search Console, Google Analytics (GA4), SEMrush, Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, Screaming Frog, and website performance monitoring software. This ensures that we track everything from crawlability to conversion paths.

2. Index & crawl audit: We review which pages are being crawled and indexed by Google and whether important pages are missing or blocked. This includes analyzing your robots.txt, crawl budget usage, and sitemap structure to ensure efficient indexing and online visibility.

3. Current content audit: We assess all existing pages for content quality, originality, engagement, and alignment with keyword intent. We review external and internal links. Thin or outdated content is flagged for improvement, merging, or removal to enhance authority and relevance.

By the way, here’s one of the fastest ways to sleuth out and remove outdated content:

4. On-page & website structure audit: We evaluate page-level SEO elements (title tags, meta descriptions, headers, alt text, load speed) and the broader site architecture — including navigation, URL structure, and crawl depth. The goal is to ensure a logical hierarchy and keyword-friendly formatting.

5. Current ranking & position review: We analyze where your pages rank in Google for key terms, how rankings have changed over time, and where the biggest opportunities lie. This helps us identify which pages to optimize first for quick wins.

6. Keyword research, portfolio, & analysis: We audit your existing keyword portfolio, identify high-value missed opportunities, and map out keywords by funnel stage and user intent. The goal is to align your content with what your ideal SaaS customers are searching for.

7. Inbound link profile audit: We review your backlink profile to identify toxic links, missing authority-building opportunities, and areas to improve domain authority. This includes analyzing anchor text distribution, referring domains, and disavow recommendations.

8. Competitor audit: We benchmark your SEO performance against top competitors. This includes comparing content depth, keyword overlap, backlink strength, and UX. It helps uncover gaps in your strategy and ideas worth replicating.

📈 Advanced Technical & Performance Audit

9. Core Web Vitals audit (LCP, CLS, FID): We test key UX metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and First Input Delay (FID). These directly impact Google rankings and bounce rates, especially for SaaS landing pages. Here’s a quick way to do a CWV check:

10. Schema markup review: We check for structured data like FAQ, Review, Article, and Product schema. Adding or fixing schema helps search engines better understand your site and improves visibility with rich snippets. Here’s a great tool to implement FAQ schema.

11. Site speed performance (desktop/mobile): Using tools like PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix, we test loading speed and recommend optimizations (lazy loading, image compression, JS minification) to reduce bounce and improve rankings. Here’s what that kind of report looks like:

12. Robots.txt & Sitemap.xml checks: We ensure your robots.txt isn’t blocking important pages and that your XML sitemap is clean, up-to-date, and submitted to Google Search Console. This helps crawlers prioritize what to index.

13. Duplicate content identification: We scan for duplicate titles, meta descriptions, and page content, which can confuse search engines and dilute authority. Includes canonicalization checks and internal duplication fixes.

14. Internal linking strategy review: We assess how your pages link to one another. We look for orphaned content, broken links, and missed opportunities to pass link equity to high-value pages. This improves crawlability and engagement.

15. Keyword cannibalization audit: We check for multiple pages competing for the same keyword — a common SaaS issue. Then, we recommend merging, differentiating, or re-targeting content to ensure every page serves a unique purpose.

16. Content gap analysis vs. competitors: We compare your content library to top competitors and surface missing topics and formats (e.g., case studies, templates, TOFU content). This helps shape your editorial roadmap with high-ROI content ideas.

Here’s a quick example of a traffic analysis we did for one of our clients and their main competitors:

17. Conversion path review (from SERP to goal): We track how users move from clicking your SERP listing to converting on your site. We flag any friction (e.g., unclear CTAs, broken forms, confusing UX) that hurts SaaS lead generation or demo requests.

18. GA4 setup & SEO event tracking audit: We audit your GA4 configuration to ensure key events (form submissions, scrolls, CTA clicks) are tracked properly. If not set up, we’ll map out tracking plans to monitor what actually drives conversions.

19. International SEO / hreflang checks: If you target multiple countries or languages, we review your hreflang setup, international content strategy, and localized keyword usage to avoid cannibalization and ensure global visibility.

At this point, it’s up to your customer whether they want to continue working with you or not. If they do, they’ll want you to fix all of the mistakes you’ve identified to ensure their website gets smooth conversions.

So, your price proposal should include things to fix or use after the audit, such as:

• Technical problems
• Shortlisting some of the most successful competitors that could give you valuable ideas for more relevant content
• Auditing the content on all of the website’s pages
• Indexing difficulties
• Crawling efficiency
• Any problems with their link profile
• Devising useful keyword maps that would attract more visitors and trigger more conversions

Besides, you must set up a meeting with your customer to decide on a few goals.

If you remember this from college, your objectives have to be SMART, which means:

• Specific: The precise increase in revenue within a fixed time frame and set budget.
• Measurable: Make sure you can keep track of these objectives with your system (it can be Google Analytics or another).
• Achievable: Make sure these goals are feasible for your company; you can’t expect a 300% profit from a brand that’s been declining for a year.
• Realistic: Explain to your customers that a four-hour day won’t help them rank first on Google. Your goals have to be practical compared to the current industry standard and the amount of work needed to make them true.
• Timely: Always set precise times for the goals and make sure your client understands all possible lags before they see a spike in organic results.

💰 SEO Audit Packages & Pricing for SaaS Companies

Not sure how to price your SEO audits? Here’s a quick idea, but feel free to change these sums and services according to what your SEO company offers:

💡 Optional Add-Ons

These are great upsell opportunities post-audit or during the retainer pitch.

Grab your free SEO price plan here:

Client Onboarding Checklist (Pre-Audit Prep)

Before we begin your SEO audit, we’ll need a few essential items to ensure we’re working with the full picture. Gathering these upfront helps us save time, spot quick wins faster, and deliver a more tailored strategy.

✅ Please provide:

• Access to tools:
  
  
  • Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
    
    
  • Google Search Console (GSC)
    
    
  • Content Management System (CMS)
    
    
  • Customer Relationship Management tool (CRM), if relevant to funnel tracking
    
    
• Sitemap URL: A direct link to your live XML sitemap (e.g., yoursite.com/sitemap.xml).
  
  
• Current goals and KPIs: Revenue targets, lead gen goals, or specific conversion benchmarks — anything that defines “success” for your SEO strategy.
  
  
• List of key competitors: Direct or indirect — anyone you believe is outperforming you in search or content visibility.
  
  
• Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): Details on your primary target audience: industry, job title, region, company size, etc.
  
  
• Existing content strategy (if available): Editorial calendars, topic clusters, SEO briefs — anything we can use to assess alignment and fill in the gaps.

🧩 Your SEO Agency Does Great Work — Let Us Help You Do Even More

Now you know what you should include in your proposal and what prep work you need to do before sending your proposal.

Remember to start with a helpful correction and to position your services as premium.

You can offer a considerable discount for bulk services, plus a free initial audit to hook your customers.

Prepare a complete list with all your services, too, so your customers understand where they’re investing their money.

Another essential element is to make sure your website looks professional.

That way, your customers will see all the valuable info faster, and you’ll get more conversions.

If your team specializes in content strategy, technical SEO, or link building but doesn't offer full-scope audits, we’ve got your back.

We provide white-label SEO audit services that you can plug directly into your client work. No generic templates, no fluff — just in-depth, agency-ready audits that help you win more clients, upsell confidently, and retain accounts longer.

👉 Looking for a reliable partner to extend your SEO offer? Let’s talk.

FAQ

1. What is an SEO campaign, and how does it help SaaS companies?

An SEO campaign is a structured set of strategies aimed at improving your website’s search engine rankings. For SaaS businesses, it aligns your blog content, product descriptions, and landing pages with your target audience’s search intent — helping attract relevant traffic and reduce customer acquisition costs over time.

2. What does a typical SEO audit include?

A comprehensive SEO audit covers multiple layers:

• Technical SEO issues (e.g., crawl errors, broken links, site speed)
• Content audits (to identify duplicate content, outdated pieces of content, and gaps in your content calendar)
• Keyword strategy (using keyword research tools to identify search terms. We’re looking at whether you have enough long-tail keywords or are mostly targeting seed terms. We’re also looking at whether you’re using more transactional or more informational keywords.)
• Backlink profile (assessing external links, toxic domains, and link-building opportunities)
• Meta elements like meta titles and descriptions
• Insights from tools like Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights

3. Why is technical SEO important for SaaS websites?

Technical SEO ensures your site is accessible to search engine crawlers and search engine bots. It improves load time, mobile usability, indexing and eliminates errors that might prevent proper search engine visibility. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and content delivery networks (CDNs) help optimize performance and reduce bounce rates.

4. How does keyword research tie into the audit?

Keyword research helps you uncover high-opportunity search queries that your ideal customers are searching for. We analyze keyword difficulty, match terms to customer personas, and identify gaps where your buyer journey lacks alignment with search engine algorithms. This helps build a smarter content marketing roadmap and increases click-through rates.

5. How do you improve blog content during an audit?

We assess your blog title, readability, structure, and SEO signals. We optimize for long-tail keywords, align with search intent, and flag duplicate content or underperforming posts. Our audit provides actionable insights to refresh, consolidate, or repurpose blog content for stronger performance.

6. How does SEO impact the sales cycle and customer retention?

By attracting relevant traffic with optimized content tailored to the buyer journey, SEO shortens the sales cycle and improves lead quality. Strong search engine optimization also builds trust, which improves customer retention. When paired with insights into customer personas, it supports long-term engagement and business goals.

7. How does link building factor into an SEO audit?

We evaluate your external links, identify link gaps vs. competitors, and flag any toxic backlinks hurting your domain authority. An effective link building strategy strengthens your domain in Google's eyes and gives your brand a competitive edge in organic rankings.

8. Can a digital marketing agency help with ongoing SEO execution after the audit?

Yes. A strong digital marketing agency can move beyond audits to support execution — building content around search terms, running content marketing campaigns, fixing technical SEO issues, and guiding your team through implementation. This partnership helps keep your SEO aligned with your evolving business goals.