Worked example
Worked example: the audit we run first, and the three things it finds
Before we quote a Southampton business anything, we run the same three measurements on its site. They are free, they take an afternoon, and they decide what the first month should be spent on. This page is the audit itself: what each check is, what a good and a bad answer looks like, and what putting it right involves. It is labelled a worked example because the site is new here and we do not yet have a Southampton account to publish. The figures used as reference come from two real accounts elsewhere and are marked where they appear.
By Daniel Stoychev, Webso Digital · 4 September 2026
3
measurements, all free to repeat
1 afternoon
to run them on a normal site
2.5s
the load-time line worth crossing
35%
the duplication line worth staying under
How long until a customer can use the page on a phone
How it is measured. PageSpeed Insights on mobile, plus the page opened on a real handset on mobile data rather than office wifi. We record the time until the page can be used, not the time until something appears.
What the answer means. Under 2.5 seconds is fine. Between 2.5 and 4 is worth work. Over 4 seconds is losing you customers before they read a word.
Reference figure. On a real account elsewhere this figure was 11.0 seconds and became 2.4 seconds, and the mobile score went from 65 to 96, in one week without a redesign. That account is not in Southampton and is not named, which is our rule for every case study. It is the scale we plan against, not a promise about your site.
How much your area pages repeat each other
How it is measured. Every page that names a place is compared with every other, with the place names masked so that structure is compared rather than geography. This is the check that catches a page made by copying another and swapping Southampton for Eastleigh.
What the answer means. Under 30% is healthy. Above 35% the pages compete with each other. Above 60% Google usually keeps one and drops the rest.
Reference figure. On the same real account this figure was 72% and became 29% once each area page was rewritten around what is actually different about that place. That account is not in Southampton and is not named, which is our rule for every case study. It is the scale we plan against, not a promise about your site.
How many of your pages Google has actually indexed
How it is measured. Search Console coverage against your sitemap and against what we find by crawling the site ourselves. The three numbers rarely agree, and the gaps are the story: pages nothing links to, pages excluded as duplicates, pages left in the sitemap after they were deleted.
What the answer means. Under 40% of a site indexed is not a page problem, it is a site problem, and it changes what the first month should be spent on.
Reference figure. On the same account, 44 pages were resubmitted once the linking and the sitemap were repaired; on another, 39 of 40 pages were indexed after a clean build. That account is not in Southampton and is not named, which is our rule for every case study. It is the scale we plan against, not a promise about your site.
What the audit decides
Three answers, three different first months
A site that loads in two seconds, has distinct area pages and is fully indexed does not need a technical month, and we say so rather than selling one. Its first month is the Google Business Profile and the reviews routine, because that is where a Southampton business gets found soonest.
A site failing the indexing check gets that fixed before anything is written, because new pages on a site Google is not indexing are money spent on pages nobody will see. A site failing the duplication check gets its area pages rewritten before any new town is added, for the same reason.
You get the three numbers whether or not you hire us, with the method next to each so you or anyone else can repeat them.
How to read this page
- The checks and the thresholds are exactly what we use, and are not hypothetical.
- Every number is from a real account elsewhere and is labelled on the line where it appears.
- No Southampton client is named, described or implied, because there is not one yet on this site.
- The accounts behind the reference figures are on the results page, each with its period and its caveat.
Have the three checks run on your site
Send the address and the areas you cover. You get the load time, the duplication figure and the indexed count, the method beside each one, and a plan for whichever of the three your site fails.