SEO Audit Intake — Phase 0

Executive Summary

Phase 0 is the foundation of the entire 21-phase audit. The quality of intake data directly determines audit accuracy. Every subsequent phase reads {AUDIT_DIR}/intake-data.md — incomplete intake = cascading errors across all phases. In 2025–2026, intake has expanded beyond basic data collection: AI search now accounts for an estimated 25–40% of zero-click query resolution (Semrush 2025), meaning business goals must explicitly address AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini visibility — not just traditional organic rankings. GBP signals are confirmed as the #1 local ranking factor (Whitespark 2024), making GBP URL and review count collection at intake critical for Phase 11 benchmarks. Competitor landscape snapshot at intake saves 2–3 hours later by pre-populating Phase 1.

2025–2026 intake benchmarks:

• Average intake completion: 10–15 min (prepared client); 20–30 min (requires competitor research)
• TTFB threshold: <800ms Good; >1,800ms Critical — flag for Phase 10 immediately
• Minimum competitors to collect: 3 (local pack top-3); ideal 5 (3 local + 2 organic)
• GSC access impact: phases 6 (keyword gaps), 7 (topical gaps), 20 (penalty check) all degraded without GSC — flag clearly
• Domain age <6 months: automatically flag Phase 12 backlinks as "authority building" priority, not penalty recovery
• AI search context (2025): businesses without GBP presence, review velocity, or E-E-A-T content are excluded from AIO local pack citations

Numbered Action Plan:

Immediate (First 15 Minutes)

1. Present intake form — collect items 1–6 (required) before any other work. Missing even one required field = defer audit start. Effort: 5–10 min.
2. Run URL validation — python3 scripts/check_url.py --url [URL] --full. Captures HTTP status, SSL validity, redirect chain, TTFB, basic on-page signals (H1, title). Effort: 2 min. Flag if TTFB >800ms, SSL error, or 4xx/5xx.
3. Create project directory — python3 scripts/setup_project.py --name "..." --url "..." --location "...". Sets all path variables used by all 21 phases. Effort: 1 min. Priority: 25 (5×5).
4. Auto-identify competitors — if item 7 skipped: run 3-search protocol (service+city; best+service+city; service+city+reviews) → extract top-3 local pack + top-2 organic non-directories. Effort: 10–15 min.
5. Collect competitor intelligence — for each competitor: name, URL, GBP URL, star rating, review count, approximate DR from Ahrefs/Moz free check. Effort: 5 min (3–5 competitors).

Short-Term (Before Launching Phase 1)

6. Run initial business intelligence checks — site:[domain] indexed count; branded search Knowledge Panel check; BuiltWith.com for CMS detection. Effort: 5 min. Priority: 15 (3×5).
7. Pre-flag issues for downstream phases — note any flags in intake-data.md: TTFB, no Knowledge Panel, Wix/Squarespace CMS, domain <6 months, no GBP. Each flag fast-tracks a finding in the relevant phase. Effort: 5 min.
8. Confirm GSC/GA4 access status — GSC access unlocks accurate data in 5+ phases. If unavailable, note: Ahrefs/Semrush estimates will substitute (with lower confidence). Effort: 2 min.
9. Check for immediate penalty signals — quick scan: site:[domain] count dramatically lower than expected? Any manual actions visible in GSC? Rank for branded name? Flag for Phase 20. Effort: 3 min.
10. Write and confirm intake-data.md — write complete file to {AUDIT_DIR}/intake-data.md with YAML frontmatter. Display confirmation summary. Launch Phase 1. Effort: 5 min.

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Tools for This Phase

Tool	Purpose	Cost
python3 scripts/setup_project.py	Create project directory + project.json	Free (local)
python3 scripts/check_url.py --full	Validate URL: HTTP status, SSL, redirect chain, TTFB	Free (local)
Google Search	Identify competitors if not provided	Free
Google Maps	Find GBP listing URL, star rating, review count	Free
Semrush / Ahrefs	Quick traffic estimate + domain rating for competitors	Paid
BuiltWith	CMS detection, hosting stack, tech stack	Free

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Step 1: Present the Intake Form

When an audit is triggered, present this structured form:

==============================================
  LOCAL BUSINESS SEO AUDIT — INTAKE FORM
==============================================

1. Business Name:      [Required]
2. Website URL:        [Required — full URL with https://]
3. Target Location(s): [Required — City, State, Country. All service areas.]
4. Primary Services:   [Required — list all services offered]
5. Business Category:  [Required — primary industry/niche]
6. Business Goals:     [Select one or more:]
   • Increase local visibility & foot traffic
   • Generate more leads/calls/form submissions
   • Outrank specific competitors
   • Expand to new service areas
   • Improve online reputation & reviews
   • Dominate AI search (AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini)
   • Build topical authority
   • Improve conversion rate
   • Launch/optimize Google Business Profile
   • Recover from traffic drop or penalty
   • Other: [specify]
7. Competitors:        [3-5 competitors — URLs preferred. Skip → auto-research.]
8. GBP URL:            [Optional — Google Business Profile link]
9. Social Media URLs:  [Optional — Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok]
10. Analytics Access:  [Optional — GA4 + GSC available? Critical for Phase 6 keyword data]
11. Previous SEO Work: [Optional — agency/in-house history, any known penalties?]
12. Budget Range:      [Optional — helps calibrate effort estimates throughout audit]

Intake Rules:

• Items 1–6 required. Do NOT begin audit without them.
• Item 7: If skipped, auto-research and identify top 3–5 competitors. Never ask twice.
• Items 8–12 optional. Note which are missing in output file but proceed without blocking.
• GSC access (item 10): Critical for Phase 6 keyword gaps — flag if unavailable; estimate traffic from Ahrefs/Semrush instead.

---

Step 2: Validate URL Accessibility

Once URL is provided, run validation:

python3 scripts/check_url.py --url [WEBSITE_URL] --full

Interpret results — thresholds:

HTTP Status	Action
200	Accessible — proceed
301/302	Note redirect destination; use final URL for all phases
403/429	May block crawlers — note for Phase 2 Technical SEO
4xx/5xx	Alert user, confirm URL — DO NOT proceed until accessible
SSL error	Flag as CRITICAL — add to Phase 2 Technical findings immediately

TTFB benchmarks:

• < 800ms → Good
• 800ms–1.8s → Needs improvement (flag for Phase 10 Speed audit)

• 1.8s → Critical speed issue (flag immediately in intake notes)

Additional checks during URL validation:

• Missing title tag → flag as immediate on-page issue
• Missing H1 → flag for Phase 3 On-Page SEO
• No HTTPS redirect (HTTP accessible) → Critical Technical flag

---

Step 3: Create Project Directory

IMMEDIATELY after collecting required fields, create the project directory:

python3 scripts/setup_project.py \
  --name "[Business Name]" \
  --url "[Website URL]" \
  --location "[City, State]" \
  --json

This creates:

projects/[business-slug]/
  project.json          ← Business metadata (name, URL, location, slug, created date)
  audit/                ← All 21 phase finding .md files
  reports/              ← All HTML + PDF reports
  data/crawl/           ← site_crawler.py output (CSV + JSON)
  data/serp/            ← SERP snapshot data
  data/scores/          ← LOCAL-IMPACT + SERP-TRUST YAML scoring data

Set these variables for all subsequent phases:

PROJECT_SLUG  = [returned by script — e.g., acme-plumbing-chicago]
PROJECT_DIR   = projects/[slug]
AUDIT_DIR     = projects/[slug]/audit
REPORTS_DIR   = projects/[slug]/reports
DATA_DIR      = projects/[slug]/data

Slug generation rules:

• Business name → lowercase → spaces/special chars → hyphens → trim
• "Acme Plumbing Chicago" → acme-plumbing-chicago
• "Smith & Sons Law Firm" → smith-sons-law-firm

---

Step 4: Identify Competitors

If competitors not provided, use this 3-search protocol:

1. Google: [primary service] [city] → top 3 local pack + top 3 organic (non-directory)
2. Google: best [service] [city] → cross-reference new names
3. Google: [service] [city] reviews → confirm competitive landscape

For each competitor, collect:

Field	Source	Why
Business name	Google Maps	Identity
Website URL	Google Maps	All subsequent phases
GBP listing URL	Google Maps	Phase 11 Local SEO
Google star rating	Google Maps	Phase 15 Reputation
Review count	Google Maps	Competitive benchmark
Domain Rating (DR)	Ahrefs free / Moz	Phase 12 Backlinks baseline

Competitor selection criteria:

• Must rank in top 3 local pack OR top 5 organic for primary service keyword in target city
• Prefer local independents + 1 regional chain for realistic comparison
• Flag national franchises separately — different competitive dynamics

Present list: "I've identified these competitors: [list]. Let me know if any should be swapped."

---

Step 5: Initial Business Intelligence

Before writing intake file, collect these quick intelligence signals:

# Check if site is indexed
# Search: site:[domain] — should return > 10 results for healthy site

# Check GBP presence
# Google: [Business Name] [City] — does Knowledge Panel appear?

# Quick tech stack check
# BuiltWith.com or: check page source for wp-content, Shopify, Wix, etc.

Red flags to note in intake (flag for relevant phases):

• site:[domain] returns < 10 results → potential indexation issue (Phase 2 flag)
• No Knowledge Panel for branded search → entity gap (Phase 9 flag)
• Site built on Wix/Squarespace → limited schema/speed options (Phase 2 flag)
• Domain age < 6 months → low authority expected (Phase 12 flag)

---

Step 6: Write Intake Data File

Write to {AUDIT_DIR}/intake-data.md:

---
skill: research/audit-intake
phase: 0
date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
business: [Business Name]
url: [Website URL]
score: N/A
status: complete
project_dir: projects/[slug]
audit_dir: projects/[slug]/audit
reports_dir: projects/[slug]/reports
data_dir: projects/[slug]/data
---

# Audit Intake Data

## Business Profile
- **Name:** [Business Name]
- **Website:** [URL]
- **Final URL (after redirects):** [final URL]
- **Location(s):** [City, State, Country + all service areas]
- **Services:** [full list]
- **Category:** [industry/niche]
- **GBP URL:** [URL or N/A]
- **Tech Stack:** [CMS detected — WordPress/Wix/Squarespace/Custom/Unknown]
- **Domain Age:** [years or Unknown]

## Goals (Priority-Ordered)
1. [Primary goal]
2. [Secondary goal]
3. [Additional goals]

## Competitors
| # | Business | Website | DR | GBP Stars | Review Count | Local Pack Pos |
|---|---------|---------|----|-----------|--------------|-|
| 1 | [name] | [url] | [X] | [X.X] | [X] | #[X] |
| 2 | [name] | [url] | [X] | [X.X] | [X] | #[X] |
| 3 | [name] | [url] | [X] | [X.X] | [X] | #[X] |

## Analytics & Access
- GA4: [Yes (full access) / Yes (read only) / No / Unknown]
- GSC: [Yes / No / Unknown] — if No: use Ahrefs/Semrush for keyword data
- Previous SEO: [brief summary or N/A]
- Budget Range: [range or N/A]

## URL Validation Results
- HTTP Status: [200 / 301→ / error]
- TTFB: [Xms] — [Good (<800ms) / Needs Improvement / Critical (>1.8s)]
- SSL: [Valid until YYYY-MM / Error / Self-signed]
- Redirects: [None / HTTP→HTTPS / www→non-www / other]
- Immediate Issues Flagged: [list — e.g., "Missing H1 on homepage", "TTFB 2.1s"]

## Initial Intelligence
- Site indexed: [site:[domain] returns X results — Healthy/Low/Zero]
- Knowledge Panel: [Present / Partial / None]
- GBP claimed: [Yes / No / Unknown]

## Phase Flags (Pre-set from Intake)
- [ ] Phase 2 (Technical): [any technical flags]
- [ ] Phase 10 (Speed): [TTFB or speed flags]
- [ ] Phase 12 (Backlinks): [DR level, domain age]
- [ ] Phase 9 (Entity): [Knowledge Panel status]

## Project Context
- PROJECT_SLUG: [slug]
- PROJECT_DIR: projects/[slug]
- AUDIT_DIR: projects/[slug]/audit
- REPORTS_DIR: projects/[slug]/reports
- DATA_DIR: projects/[slug]/data

---

Step 7: Confirm and Launch

Display confirmation:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
AUDIT INTAKE COMPLETE — Phase 0
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Business:    [Name]
Website:     [URL]
Location:    [City, State]
Services:    [count] services
Project:     projects/[slug]/
Competitors: [count] identified

URL Status:  ✅ HTTP 200 / ⚠️ [issue]
SSL:         ✅ Valid / ❌ Issue
TTFB:        [Xms] — [Good/Slow/Critical]
Indexation:  [X pages indexed]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Pre-flagged Issues: [X]
  🔴 [Critical flag if any]
  🟠 [High flag if any]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Next: /audit-competitors (Phase 1)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

---

Priority Matrix

Task	Impact (1–5)	Feasibility (1–5)	Priority	Effort
Collect all required fields (1–6)	5	5	25	5–10 min
Run URL validation script	5	5	25	2 min
Identify 3+ competitors	5	5	25	10–15 min
Collect GA4/GSC access	4	5	20	5 min
Record competitor DR/ratings	3	4	12	5 min
Detect tech stack	3	5	15	2 min

---

Handoff

After intake completes, {AUDIT_DIR}/intake-data.md is the single source of truth for:

• Business name, URL, location — read by all 21 phases
• Project paths (PROJECT_DIR, AUDIT_DIR, REPORTS_DIR) — used by all file operations
• Competitor list — consumed by competitor-analysis and all gap phases
• Goals — inform priority weighting throughout the audit
• Pre-flagged issues — fast-track critical findings in early phases

Key consumers:

• research/competitor-analysis — reads competitor list, begins profiling
• All 21 phases — read business name, URL, location, project paths
• cross-cutting/local-impact-auditor — reads goal context for weight adjustment
• audit/penalty-check — reads previous SEO history for penalty risk flags
• output/report-generation — reads project metadata for master report cover page

---

Recommendations Checklist

After completing Phase 0, ensure the following are noted in {AUDIT_DIR}/intake-data.md as recommendations for downstream phases:

Flag	Condition	Downstream Phase	Recommended Action	Effort
🔴 TTFB >800ms	check_url.py result	Phase 10 Speed	Server-level optimization, CDN, caching	High (1–3 days)
🔴 No GBP URL	Item 8 not provided	Phase 11 Local	Create or claim GBP listing immediately	Medium (1–3 days)
🔴 SSL error / no HTTPS	check_url.py result	Phase 2 Technical	Install SSL certificate, 301 HTTP→HTTPS	Medium (1 day)
🟠 Domain <6 months	WHOIS check	Phase 12 Backlinks	Focus on link building vs. penalty recovery	Low (30 min note)
🟠 No GSC access	Item 10 not provided	Phases 6, 7, 20	Request GSC access; Ahrefs estimates as substitute	Low (10 min)
🟠 Wix / Squarespace CMS	BuiltWith result	Phase 2 Technical	Note schema/speed limitations upfront	Low (15 min note)
🟡 No GA4	check_url.py / manual	Phase 17 CRO	Install GA4 before Phase 17; no baseline = CRO score capped at 60	Medium (2–4 hrs)
🟡 Review count <10	Google Maps check	Phase 15 Reputation	Launch review velocity campaign immediately	Low (30 min plan)
🟡 INP >200ms on homepage	check_url.py / PSI	Phase 10 Speed	INP replaced FID March 2024 — flag for urgent fix	Medium (2–8 hrs)

INP Intake Note (March 2024 Update)

INP (Interaction to Next Paint) replaced FID as a Core Web Vital. If python3 scripts/check_url.py --url [URL] --full returns INP >200ms, pre-flag Phase 10 as critical priority in intake-data.md. INP >500ms = Poor (ranking suppression confirmed across competitive keywords).

Output files:

• {AUDIT_DIR}/intake-data.md — primary output, source of truth for all phases
• {REPORTS_DIR}/phase-0-intake.pdf — auto-generated summary PDF after intake completes
• {DATA_DIR}/crawl/ — populated later by site_crawler.py (Phase 2)

2025 intake quality gate: Before launching Phase 1, confirm all 5 items are complete:

• Items 1–6 collected (required fields)
• URL validated (HTTP 200, SSL valid, TTFB recorded)
• Project directory created (projects/[slug]/ exists with all subdirs)
• 3+ competitors identified with name, URL, rating, DR
• intake-data.md written with YAML frontmatter and all fields populated