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Audit Framework

The Compliance-First
SEO Audit.

Standard SEO audits miss massive legal liabilities. This evaluation checklist is engineered specifically for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) sectors—ensuring your digital strategy drives traffic without triggering FDA, FTC, or HIPAA regulatory penalties.

View Checklist Core

Request A Custom Audit

Our strategists will execute this checklist against your primary domains and competitors.

B2B inquiries only. Audits require a 30-minute discovery call.

The Evaluation Framework

Four critical pillars analyzed during a comprehensive tech & compliance audit.

Technical Foundation

  • Core Web Vitals analysis (LCP, FID, CLS gaps)
  • Mobile-first rendering diagnostics
  • Indexation & crawl budget efficiency
  • WCAG 2.2 accessibility mapping (ADA Title III)

E-E-A-T Content

  • Keyword gap & semantic intent mapping
  • Cannibalization & duplicate content scan
  • Author entity & bio markup validation
  • YMYL medical/financial claim verification

Entity Authority

  • Toxic link profile identification
  • Local NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency
  • Google Business Profile suspension risk
  • Competitor link velocity comparison

Conversion Economics

  • Conversion event tracking accuracy (GA4)
  • Form-fill friction & drop-off analysis
  • Cookie consent & GDPR/CCPA risk check
  • Server-side tracking deployment logic

Why Automated Tools Fail Risk Mitigation

Standard auditing tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Lighthouse are excellent for finding broken links. They are completely blind to regulatory compliance failures that could cost your business millions.

The "YMYL" Dilemma

Google categorizes Healthcare, Legal, and Finance websites under "Your Money or Your Life" (YMYL). For these sites, Google mandates incredibly strict E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) signals.

If your medical spa publishes a blog post written by a freelance copywriter without a physician's medically-reviewed byline and schema markup, it will not rank. Our manual audit finds where these trust signals are missing in the code itself.

False Claims & FTC Violations

A standard SEO consultant might optimize a title tag to say "Guaranteed Return on Investment." In financial services, that title tag is a direct SEC/FTC violation.

Our evaluation framework cross-references your current keyword targeting against your industry's compliance guardrails. We map out safe, semantic equivalents that drive the exact same search volume without risking lawsuits or license revocation.

Evaluation FAQ

Why do regulated industries need a specific SEO evaluation?

Standard SEO tactics often trigger compliance violations in healthcare, finance, and legal sectors. For example, using the wrong medical terminology or making unsubstantiated financial claims to rank for a keyword can lead to devastating FTC or FDA penalties. Our evaluation audits for both search visibility and regulatory risk.

Is this an automated audit tool?

No. Automated tools miss nuance, especially concerning compliance. This is a manual framework used by our strategists to evaluate your site against current algorithm requirements. You can use this checklist to perform your own baseline audit before engaging our team.

What happens after the evaluation?

If you engage Custody & Agency for a custom evaluation, we compile our findings into a prioritized roadmap. We highlight critical revenue-blocking issues that need immediate remediation (such as missing GDPR banners blocking European traffic), followed by medium-term algorithmic growth strategies.