UX & Conversion audit
AI/LLM Visibility audit
Ecommerce auditFrom 15 to 90+ Organic Clicks a Day
A web development agency in the Netherlands had been running for years with a solid client portfolio - but organic traffic was stuck at 15-20 clicks a day. The site existed, ranked for almost nothing, and was invisible to anyone searching for their services. No robots.txt, no sitemap, meta tags either empty or one word, 95 images without alt attributes, and a content check that found most service pages were near-copies of each other.
We started in April 2025 with a full technical and on-page SEO audit, then moved into implementation. Content rewrites, schema markup, backlink building, page speed fixes. By December the site was hitting 90+ organic clicks per day and 1.55M total impressions over the period.
organic clicks per day at peak
growth in daily organic traffic
total impressions in Google Search
Project Overview
Services provided
- Technical SEO Audit
- On-Page SEO Audit
- Content Uniqueness Audit
- Backlink Analysis & Building
- Schema / Microdata
- Audit Implementation
What Was Holding the Site Back
The site had been around for years with real projects and real clients - but search traffic was going nowhere. When we ran the audit, the reason was clear: the foundation was broken at almost every level.
The basics weren't there. No robots.txt, no sitemap.xml - Google was crawling the site without access rules and without a clear list of pages to index. Meta titles across the whole site were either one word or completely empty. 95 images had no alt attributes. Three service pages had no H1. The site was also accessible at two different URL formats without a redirect, creating duplicate versions of every page in the index.
Content was a serious problem. A uniqueness check came back badly: most service pages were near-identical - same structure, same phrasing, in some cases identical blocks across different URLs. Google doesn't rank pages it can't distinguish from each other. On top of that, one key page had its primary keyword stuffed in over 60 times - well past the point where it reads as relevance.
Schema was missing on the pages that needed it most. Service pages had FAQ sections that could have been showing directly in search results - but none of them had structured data markup. Competitor snippets looked richer and more useful.
Then the backlinks. Primary service pages had zero referring domains. Competitors ranking for the same keywords had Authority Scores of 40-80 and hundreds of backlinks. Without link equity on those pages, getting into the top 10 wasn't possible regardless of on-page work.
Key Issues Found
- No robots.txt - crawl access not properly configured
- No sitemap.xml - key pages had no reliable discovery path
- Meta titles empty or one word across 10+ pages
- Meta descriptions missing on almost all pages
- 95 images with no alt attributes
- 3 service pages with no H1, incorrect H2/H3 nesting throughout
- Duplicate pages - same content accessible at two URL formats
- Content uniqueness fail - service pages near-identical to each other
- Primary keyword used 60+ times on one page - over-optimisation
- Schema markup missing - FAQ sections not structured for rich results
- No internal links to key service pages - invisible to Google
- Page speed: mobile 35, desktop 68 - well below threshold
- Business contact data inconsistent across site and Google My Business
- 0 backlinks on primary service pages - competitors at DA 40-80+
How We Fixed It
We worked through issues in order of impact - crawling and indexing first, then content, schema, and authority.
Technical Foundation
Created robots.txt and sitemap.xml, fixed URL duplicates with 301 redirects, added missing canonical tags. Resolved 404 errors and rebuilt internal linking so all key service pages had a clear path from the homepage.
On-Page SEO
Wrote meta titles and descriptions with target keywords across all pages. Fixed H1/H2/H3 structure site-wide, added alt attributes to 95 images, corrected semantic HTML errors. Added breadcrumbs and a sticky header with contact CTA.
Content & Uniqueness
Rewrote service pages so each one had a distinct angle, unique phrasing, and its own keyword focus. Reduced keyword density on over-optimised pages, added unique FAQ sections per service. Aligned contact data across the site and Google My Business.
Schema & Backlinks
Added FAQ schema to service pages for rich result eligibility, Article markup to Resources posts, Organisation markup to the homepage. Built quality backlinks targeting primary market keywords on service pages - starting from zero referring domains.
The Results
Traffic data is from Google Search Console. Keyword and authority data from Semrush. The period tracked is April-December 2025.
Google Search Console - organic clicks & impressions, Apr-Nov 2025
Semrush - Authority Score, organic keywords & traffic trend
"The audit was well-structured and covered things we hadn't considered. Implementation was handled properly and on time. Organic traffic grew significantly after - we went from a handful of daily clicks to 90+ and it's stayed there ever since."
Key Findings from the Audit
The main issues found and documented during the technical, on-page, and content review.
The site had neither a robots.txt file nor a sitemap.xml. Googlebot was crawling without access rules and without a structured list of URLs to follow. Several service pages also had no internal links pointing to them - meaning Google had no reliable way to find them, let alone index them.
Meta titles on most pages were one word or completely missing. Meta descriptions were absent on almost all pages. For a web agency competing on high-volume local keywords, these empty tags meant Google was generating its own snippets - and showing the wrong text to potential clients in search results.
A content uniqueness check flagged most service pages as near-identical - same phrasing, same structure, copy-pasted blocks across different URLs. Google doesn't rank pages it can't distinguish from each other. One page also had its target keyword repeated over 60 times - past the threshold where it reads as keyword spam rather than relevance.
Every key service page had an FAQ section. None of them had structured data markup. FAQ schema lets Google display questions and answers directly in search results - expanding the snippet and increasing CTR without needing a higher ranking. Competitors were already using this; the site's snippets looked bare by comparison.
The site was accessible at two URL formats without a redirect - creating duplicate versions of every page in Google's index. H2 tags were used for navigation and footer text that wasn't heading content. 95 images had no alt attributes, and three pages had no H1 at all. These affect how search engines read and rank the page, not just how it looks.
Mobile PageSpeed score was 35 - one of the lowest we've seen for a service business. Desktop was at 68. For a web development agency, a slow website directly undermines credibility - clients are choosing a partner to build their own site. Speed is a direct Google ranking factor, and the gap to the 90+ threshold was significant on both platforms.
The primary service pages had zero referring domains. Competitors ranking for the same keywords had Authority Scores of 40-80 with hundreds of backlinks behind them. Without any link equity to these pages, ranking on competitive market keywords wasn't realistic - regardless of how clean the on-page work was.
From the Audit Report
Real screenshots from the audit delivered to the client - issues identified, documented, and ranked by priority.
Services Used in This Project
Technical SEO Audit
Full crawl of the site - broken links, indexing issues, sitemap errors, canonical problems, HTML/CSS validation, and page speed analysis.
SEO Audit
On-page analysis covering meta tags, heading structure, keyword usage, content uniqueness, internal linking, and schema markup opportunities.
Website Audit
Full-site review covering UX, conversion flow, content structure, and technical health - with prioritised fixes and implementation support.
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