The difference between an SEO audit and a website audit comes down to depth versus breadth. An SEO audit is a specialist. A website audit is a generalist. If you're not sure where your website problem is, that distinction matters more than you might think.
Think of it like medicine. An SEO audit is a cardiologist: deep expertise in one system. A website audit is an ER doctor: trained to assess the whole patient and figure out what's actually wrong. If your heart is the problem, the cardiologist is exactly who you want. But if you walk into a cardiology office with a broken leg, you're in the wrong place.
What an SEO Audit Covers
SEO audits focus on search engine visibility. They check whether Google can find, crawl, and rank your pages.
The scope typically includes:
- Technical SEO: Can search engines crawl your site? Are pages indexing correctly? Is the site structure logical?
- On-page SEO: Title tags, meta descriptions, heading structure, keyword usage, image alt text
- Off-page SEO: Backlink profile, domain authority, competitor comparison
- Keyword analysis: Which terms you rank for, gaps in your targeting, search intent alignment
This is valuable work. If you're invisible to Google, nothing else matters. Google's Search Essentials outlines what search engines need: technical accessibility, spam-free content, and helpful information. SEO audits verify you meet these standards.
The limitation is the scope. An SEO audit tells you whether Google can find you. It doesn't tell you whether visitors buy once they arrive.
What a Website Audit Covers
Website audits evaluate everything affecting whether your site works for visitors. ObservePoint defines a comprehensive audit as covering four areas: usability, measurability, privacy, and findability. SEO (findability) is one of four concerns, not the whole picture.
A generalist website audit typically includes:
- Performance: Page speed, mobile responsiveness, Core Web Vitals
- Security: SSL certificates, security headers, HSTS implementation
- Trust signals: Professional design, credentials, reviews, contact information
- User experience: Content clarity, call-to-action visibility, navigation logic
- Google Business Profile: Whether your local presence is claimed and optimized
- Basic SEO: Title tags, meta descriptions, indexing status
The tradeoff is depth. A website audit covers security headers but not penetration testing. It checks indexing status but not comprehensive backlink analysis. The goal is identifying problems across categories, not exhaustive analysis within one.
What SEO Audits Miss
Here's where the specialist/generalist distinction gets expensive.
The Stanford Web Credibility Project found that 46% of users assess website credibility based primarily on visual design: layout, typography, font size, and color schemes. An SEO audit doesn't evaluate design. Your site could rank first and still look untrustworthy.
Forrester Research found that sites with superior user experience can achieve 400% higher visit-to-lead conversion rates. An SEO audit doesn't measure UX. You could fix every technical SEO issue and still have visitors bouncing because they can't find your phone number.
Security is another blind spot. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 43% of cyberattacks target small businesses, yet only 14% are adequately prepared. An SEO audit checks whether HTTPS is enabled (because Google prefers it), but doesn't evaluate security headers, TLS configuration, or whether your site would trigger browser warnings.
Mobile usability follows the same pattern. Research shows 17% of small business websites don't comply with Google's mobile-friendly requirements. An SEO audit flags this because Google uses mobile-first indexing. But the SEO fix (passing Google's mobile test) isn't the same as the UX fix (actually being usable on a phone).
The broken leg problem in practice: a business hires an SEO specialist, fixes crawl errors, optimizes title tags, builds some backlinks. Traffic increases. Sales don't. The specialist successfully treated the heart while the broken leg went unexamined.
Which One Do You Need?
Start with an SEO audit if:
- You know your site works well but you're not appearing in search results
- Organic traffic dropped after a redesign or migration
- You're competing for specific keywords and need to understand the gap
- You already have healthy conversion rates and need more visitors
Start with a website audit if:
- You're not sure where the problem is
- Visitors arrive but don't convert
- You're preparing to hire an agency and want to know what to ask for
- You need to prioritize fixes on a limited budget
- Your site hasn't been evaluated in years
You might need both if:
- You're getting traffic but not conversions (start with website audit to fix the broken leg first)
- You're converting well but need more visitors (start with SEO audit)
- You're building a complete picture for a major investment
Quick Comparison
| Aspect | SEO Audit | Website Audit |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Search visibility | Overall effectiveness |
| Analogy | Cardiologist | ER doctor |
| Depth | Deep in one area | Broad across many |
| Speed metrics | Core Web Vitals for Google | Real user experience |
| Security | HTTPS check | Headers, TLS, HSTS |
| Design/trust | Not evaluated | Yes |
| UX analysis | Not evaluated | Yes |
| Google Business | Sometimes | Yes |
| Best for | "Google can't find me" | "I'm not sure what's wrong" |
Next Steps
If you know your problem is search visibility, find an SEO specialist. They'll go deeper than a generalist can.
If you're not sure where the problem is, start broad. A generalist audit identifies which systems need attention. You might discover the issue is SEO, in which case the audit points you to a specialist. You might discover it's trust signals or mobile usability or something else entirely.
Most small business websites have problems in multiple areas. Starting with a generalist view helps you avoid fixing your heart while your leg stays broken.
Anthrasite audits take the generalist approach: 50+ factors across speed, security, mobile, design, and search visibility. If the audit reveals you need specialist depth in a specific area, it tells you that too.