How to read an SEO audit without getting overwhelmed
A framework for turning 47 issues into a 3-item action list
“The goal of an SEO audit isn't to fix everything. It's to find the 3 fixes that will move the needle this week.”
You run an SEO audit and get 47 issues. Congratulations — you're now paralyzed.
This is the most common response to an audit, and it leads to one of two outcomes: fixing everything superficially, or fixing nothing at all.
Here's a better framework.
Step 1: Sort by impact, not by count
Not all issues are equal. A missing canonical tag on your homepage is worth 50 missing alt texts on product images. Triage ruthlessly:
- Critical: issues that directly prevent indexing or ranking (broken robots.txt, redirect chains on main pages, missing canonical, crawl errors) - High: issues that suppress rankings on important pages (missing title tags, no schema, slow LCP on key pages) - Medium: issues that improve existing rankings (meta descriptions, internal linking gaps) - Low: polish items that have marginal impact (alt text on decorative images, minor header hierarchy)
Step 2: Filter by page importance
A missing meta description on your pricing page matters 100x more than one on a blog post from 2019. Weight issues by the commercial importance of the page.
Step 3: Build a three-item list
From your critical and high buckets, pick the three issues that are: a) on your most important pages, and b) fixable this week
Write those three down. Fix those three. Then re-audit.
Step 4: Ignore the noise
Some audit tools flag issues that have no meaningful impact on traffic or rankings. If you can't clearly explain how fixing something will lead to more clicks from Google — skip it.
SEO is a long game. Consistent, prioritized fixes compound over time. Fixing 3 high-impact issues per month beats fixing 47 low-impact issues once.