Technical SEO Audit · Muskegon, MI
Technical SEO audit for West Michigan sites
Free instant audit checks 60+ signals in under 30 seconds. Professional audit delivers a 40-item action plan in 10 business days. Core Web Vitals, crawl and indexation, structured data, AI-search readiness, broken links, and security, all checked.
Serving Muskegon · Norton Shores · Grand Haven · Holland · Grand Rapids
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Enter any URL. Get your score across SEO, performance, AI-readiness, security, accessibility, and local SEO in under 30 seconds. No sign-up required to see your score. It works on any site, whether you are in Muskegon, Grand Rapids, or anywhere else.
What is a technical SEO audit, and what does it cost?
A technical SEO audit is a systematic check of everything that affects whether search engines can crawl, index, understand, and rank your website. It is separate from content and backlinks. It is the plumbing: speed, crawlability, indexation, structured data, security, and the machine-readable signals that decide whether a page is even eligible to rank.
At Maxx Effect the free instant audit is $0 and runs in under 30 seconds. The professional audit is a $1,500 flat fee with a 40-item action plan delivered in 10 business days. Audit + Fix adds implementation on a monthly retainer, and the audit fee credits toward your first month if you continue.
We run these audits for businesses across Muskegon, Norton Shores, Grand Haven, Holland, and Grand Rapids. Most West Michigan sites we scan share the same three problems: failing Core Web Vitals on mobile, missing or broken structured data, and pages Google cannot index. All three are fixable once you can see them. Start with the free audit tool, or read the full SEO package the audit feeds into.
60+ signals across 6 categories
Performance
Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS), total page weight, render-blocking resources, image optimization, and DOM complexity. Scored against Google's real-user thresholds for mobile and desktop.
Crawl & Indexation
Title tags, meta descriptions, heading structure, URL structure, internal linking, robots rules, canonicals, sitemap, and whether each page is actually indexed. The basics most sites still get wrong.
AI-Search Readiness
Structured data, AI-discovery configuration, verified author signals, answer-first content patterns, and the citation-friendly formatting that AI search engines reward.
Security
SSL certificate (the lock icon) validity and expiry, plus security headers (browser protections most sites skip). A 'Not Secure' warning kills trust instantly.
Accessibility
Image alt text coverage, language declaration, heading hierarchy, and keyboard navigation indicators. Accessibility is the right thing to do, and Google rewards it.
Local SEO
Phone, email, and address detection across your site, footer placement, analytics detection, social links, and favicon. The basics that build local trust signals for West Michigan searches.
The three metrics Google scores every page on
Core Web Vitals are a confirmed ranking factor, measured from real visitors, not a lab. If they are red, you are handing rankings to a faster competitor. Here is what each one means in plain terms.
Largest Contentful Paint
Good ≤ 2.5s
How long until the biggest thing on screen (usually your hero image or headline) finishes loading. On slow West Michigan mobile connections this is where most local sites fail. A 4-second LCP tells Google the page feels slow before a visitor reads a word.
Interaction to Next Paint
Good ≤ 200ms
The 2024 replacement for First Input Delay. It measures how quickly the page responds to a tap or click across the whole visit, not just the first one. Heavy scripts, bloated page builders, and third-party widgets are the usual culprits when INP goes red.
Cumulative Layout Shift
Good ≤ 0.1
How much the layout jumps around while loading. Images without dimensions, late-loading ads, and injected banners shove content down the page and make people mis-tap. A high CLS is annoying to users and a direct ranking negative.
Crawl · Index · Schema
The signals that decide if a page can rank at all
Speed gets the attention, but the quieter failures are worse. A slow page still ranks. A page Google cannot crawl or index does not rank at all, and most owners never notice because the page looks fine to them in a browser.
Step 01: Crawl: can Googlebot reach the page
Crawlability is whether Googlebot can reach a page. Redirect chains, broken internal links, orphan pages with no link pointing to them, and overly aggressive robots rules all block the crawler. We map every URL and status code so nothing is stranded.
Step 02: Index: what Google keeps after the crawl
Indexation is whether Google stores the page after crawling it. A stray noindex tag left over from a redesign, a canonical pointing at the wrong URL, or thin duplicate pages can quietly exclude half a site. We compare what you have against what Google has actually indexed and find the gap.
Step 03: Schema: what the machines read
Structured data is the machine-readable markup that tells search and AI engines what your business is: LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage, Article, Breadcrumb. Done right, it earns rich results and AI citations. Done wrong, a single validation error silently disqualifies you. Most Muskegon competitors have none installed, which is an opening.
What a professional audit actually does, step by step
Not a scanner dump. A human works the site in this sequence and writes up what to fix, in what order.
Crawl the whole site
We crawl up to 500 pages the way Googlebot does, mapping every URL, redirect, status code, and orphan page. This surfaces 404s, redirect chains, and pages Google can reach but you forgot existed.
Check what is actually indexed
Crawlable is not the same as indexed. We compare your crawl against what Google has stored, find pages excluded by robots rules or noindex tags, and flag thin or duplicate pages diluting your site's relevance.
Measure Core Web Vitals in the field
We pull LCP, INP, and CLS from Google's real-user data plus a lab run for mobile and desktop, then trace each failing metric to its cause: an unoptimized image, a render-blocking script, or a layout that shifts.
Validate structured data
We check every schema type on the site (LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage, Article, Breadcrumb) against Google's requirements, catch the errors that silently disqualify rich results, and find the pages missing markup entirely.
Audit on-page and AI-search signals
Title tags, meta descriptions, heading hierarchy, internal linking, canonicals, and the answer-first formatting AI engines cite. We check whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews can even parse your pages.
Prioritize and deliver the playbook
Every finding gets ranked by impact versus effort so you make the two changes that move rankings before the twenty that do not. You receive a written report with a recommended fix sequence, not a raw 200-line scanner dump.
What fixing the technical layer looks like
Real numbers from a West Michigan law firm we rebuilt off a slow WordPress theme onto a modern stack. Same content, different foundation.
Largest Contentful Paint
WordPress + heavy theme rebuilt on Next.js. The mobile hero went from painful to instant.
Mobile speed score
Same content, modern architecture. Green Core Web Vitals across every template.
Pages indexed
Fixed canonical conflicts and a stray noindex that was hiding half the site from Google.
The five problems on almost every West Michigan site
We have run this audit across dozens of Muskegon, Grand Rapids, and Holland sites. The same failures show up again and again. None of them are exotic. All of them cost rankings.
A hero image that tanks LCP on mobile
An uncompressed 2 MB header photo loads in nine seconds on a phone. It is the single most common Core Web Vitals failure we see. The fix is a properly sized, modern-format image served responsively, and it usually moves the mobile score 40+ points on its own.
Zero structured data
Most local sites have no LocalBusiness or Service schema at all. Google and AI engines are guessing at what the business is and where it operates. Adding correct markup makes the site eligible for rich results and AI citations competitors cannot get.
A leftover noindex from the last redesign
A developer sets a site to noindex during a rebuild and forgets to remove it at launch. We have found live Muskegon businesses invisible to Google for months for this exact reason. The free audit catches it instantly.
Page-builder bloat killing INP
Drag-and-drop builders inject heavy scripts that make the page slow to respond to taps. INP goes red, and no amount of content fixes it. The real answer is usually a lighter foundation, which is where a rebuild pays for itself.
Inconsistent NAP feeding weak local signals
The address on the site, the GBP, and the directory listings do not match. That inconsistency undercuts both the technical audit score and local ranking. We flag every mismatch so the local SEO work can clean it up.
Broken internal links and orphan pages
Links to pages that 404, and pages no link points to at all. Both waste crawl budget and strand content Google would otherwise rank. A full crawl surfaces every one so nothing on the site is stuck in the dark.
Run the free instant audit now. Sixty-plus signals, your score in under 30 seconds, no sign-up to see it.
Get Your Free AuditWhat the fixes buy you, month by month
An audit is a map, not a destination. Once the technical layer is clean, rankings do not jump overnight. They build. Here is the realistic curve for a West Michigan business that fixes the foundation and then keeps publishing.
The first two months are foundation work: crawl and indexation fixes, Core Web Vitals, schema. Movement follows in months three and four, momentum builds through month six, and by month nine that build-up pushes page-two rankings onto page one.
Audits, fixes, GBP optimized, citations built, initial content live
Keywords climbing, traffic ticking up, data confirming strategy works
Content library growing, backlinks accumulating, authority rising
Page 2 rankings push to page 1. Traffic accelerates and the spend starts paying for itself.
Which audit do you actually need?
The free scan catches the obvious problems. The professional audit catches the expensive ones. Here is what separates them.
| Factor | Free InstantThe 30-second scanner | The deep auditProfessional ($1,500)Human-run deep audit |
|---|---|---|
| Core Web Vitals score | Yes | Yes, plus per-metric root cause |
| SEO fundamentals check | Homepage-level | Every page, up to 500 |
| Full-site crawl | No | Yes, up to 500 pages |
| Indexation + canonical review | No | Yes |
| Structured data validation | Detection only | Full validation + gaps |
| Keyword gap + competitor comparison | No | Yes, 3-5 rivals |
| Written 40-item action plan | No | Yes, prioritized by impact |
| Turnaround | Under 30 seconds | 10 business days |
The takeaway
Catches the obvious problems in under 30 seconds, with no sign-up.
Catches the expensive problems and tells you the fix order.
Professional ($1,500)
Human-run deep audit
Core Web Vitals score
Yes, plus per-metric root cause
SEO fundamentals check
Every page, up to 500
Full-site crawl
Yes, up to 500 pages
Indexation + canonical review
Yes
Structured data validation
Full validation + gaps
Keyword gap + competitor comparison
Yes, 3-5 rivals
Written 40-item action plan
Yes, prioritized by impact
Turnaround
10 business days
Catches the expensive problems and tells you the fix order.
The technical SEO terms, without the jargon
Every term your audit report uses, defined in one sentence so you can read the findings without a translator.
- Crawl budget
- How many pages Googlebot will fetch on your site in a given window. Redirect chains and broken links waste it.
- Indexation
- Whether Google has stored a page and can show it in results. Crawled does not mean indexed.
- Canonical tag
- A signal telling Google which URL is the master copy when similar pages exist, preventing duplicate-content dilution.
- Noindex
- A tag that tells search engines to keep a page out of results. Left on by accident, it hides pages you want ranked.
- Structured data (schema)
- Machine-readable markup describing your business, so search and AI engines understand it and can show rich results.
- Render-blocking resource
- A script or stylesheet the browser must load before showing content, which delays your LCP and hurts the speed score.
- Orphan page
- A page no internal link points to, so users and crawlers rarely find it and it struggles to rank.
- Field data vs lab data
- Field data is Core Web Vitals from real visitors. Lab data is a single simulated run. Google ranks on field data.
Audit pricing: from free to full-service
Start with the free scan. Upgrade to professional when you want the full picture plus a human-written action plan.
Instant Audit
60+ signals in under 30 seconds
Timeline: Under 30 seconds
Ideal for: Quick health check on any website
- Core Web Vitals: Google's LCP, INP, and CLS scores
- SEO fundamentals (title tags, descriptions, headings, URL structure)
- Search engine markup detection
- AI-search readiness score
- Security headers + SSL (the lock icon)
- Broken link detection
- NAP (name, address, phone) consistency check
- Instant results: no email required for score
Professional Audit
Full manual audit + 40-item action plan
Timeline: 10 business days
Ideal for: Businesses ready to invest in fixing what is broken
- Everything in Instant Audit
- Full Google speed analysis (mobile + desktop)
- Crawl analysis (up to 500 pages)
- Indexation + canonical review
- Content depth + keyword gap analysis
- Competitor comparison (3-5 rivals)
- Local SEO scorecard + GBP review
- Written playbook with prioritized action items
- Delivered in 10 business days
- Credits toward retainer within 60 days
Audit + Fix
Professional audit + we implement the fixes
Timeline: Audit in 10 days, fixes begin immediately
Ideal for: Businesses that want results, not just a report
- Full Professional Audit
- We implement the top-priority fixes
- Technical SEO cleanup (schema, meta tags, crawl issues)
- Core Web Vitals optimization
- Structured data installation
- Monthly retainer for ongoing SEO ($1,500+/mo)
- Audit fee credits toward first month
Frequently Asked Questions
Our audits check 60+ signals across 6 categories: SEO fundamentals (title tags, meta descriptions, headings, canonical URLs), performance (Core Web Vitals: LCP, INP, CLS, page weight, load time), security (SSL, headers), AI-search readiness (structured data, discovery files, author signals), local SEO (contact information, directory consistency), and accessibility (alt text, language, contrast).
Core Web Vitals are the three field metrics Google uses to score real-world page experience: LCP (Largest Contentful Paint, how fast the main content loads, good is under 2.5 seconds), INP (Interaction to Next Paint, how fast the page responds to taps, good is under 200 milliseconds), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift, how much the layout jumps, good is under 0.1). They are a confirmed ranking factor. INP replaced First Input Delay in March 2024, and many older Muskegon sites have never been tested against it.
Yes. Enter any URL and get your score plus top findings in under 30 seconds. No email required to see your score. We show the top 3 issues publicly. The full findings list is available after providing your email, but the score and category breakdown are completely free.
The free instant audit checks publicly accessible signals (HTML, headers, structured data, and performance via Google's API). The professional audit adds manual analysis: crawl depth across up to 500 pages, indexation review, content quality, keyword gap analysis, competitor comparison, and a written action plan with priorities. The professional audit takes 10 business days and is done by a human in Muskegon, not just a scanner.
10 business days from payment. You receive a written report with 40+ prioritized action items, competitor analysis, and a recommended fix sequence. If you move to a retainer within 60 days, the $1,500 audit fee credits toward your first month.
If Google cannot crawl a page, it cannot rank it. If it crawls but does not index it, same result. Common issues include a stray noindex tag left over from a redesign, canonical tags pointing to the wrong URL, redirect chains that waste crawl budget, and orphan pages no internal link reaches. We have seen West Michigan sites with half their pages invisible to Google for exactly these reasons, and the fix is often a single afternoon once the audit finds it.
Option 1: use the report as a roadmap and implement fixes yourself or with your existing developer. Option 2: hire us to implement. The Audit + Fix tier includes the professional audit plus we execute the top-priority fixes on a retainer. Most clients choose Option 2 because the fixes require technical SEO expertise most in-house teams do not keep on staff.
Run the free instant audit monthly as a health check. Commission a professional audit annually or after major site changes (redesign, migration, new content strategy). Core Web Vitals and structured data drift over time as you add plugins, content, and third-party scripts, so regular monitoring catches regressions before they hurt rankings.
Find out if your site is working for you or against you
Run the free audit. If the score is lower than you expected, we walk through every finding and tell you what to fix, in what order, and what it costs. Serving Muskegon and West Michigan.
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