A good SEO company does not treat a site audit as a single event. It schedules audits at three distinct moments: once at the start of the engagement, on a regular recurring cycle, and again whenever a specific event makes the site’s search performance unreliable. Knowing which of these applies helps you judge whether a company’s audit plan is thorough or just a one-time checkbox.
The initial audit at the start of the engagement
The first audit should happen before any optimization work begins. An SEO company cannot recommend changes responsibly without first understanding the current state of the site, including its crawlability, indexation, technical errors, content gaps, and existing rankings. This baseline audit also gives both sides a shared reference point. When you later ask whether the work is producing results, the initial audit is the measurement you compare against.
Expect this audit early in the relationship, typically in the first few weeks. If a company proposes content or link work before auditing the site, ask why. Acting without a baseline risks spending effort on the wrong problems.
Periodic re-audits on a regular cycle
After the initial audit, audits should continue on a schedule rather than being done once and forgotten. Search engines change their ranking systems frequently, websites accumulate new pages and technical debt over time, and competitors keep adjusting their own sites. A periodic re-audit catches issues that appear gradually, such as broken links, slow pages, duplicate content, or pages that have fallen out of the index.
A common practice is a full re-audit every three to six months for most sites. The right interval depends on the size and activity of the site. A small site that rarely changes can be reviewed less often, perhaps annually, while a large site or an active e-commerce store that publishes frequently benefits from quarterly deep reviews supported by lighter monthly checks on a few key signals such as indexation and page speed. There is no single correct number, so a reasonable SEO company will tie the schedule to how often your site actually changes and explain that reasoning to you.
Event-triggered audits
Some situations call for an audit regardless of where you are in the regular cycle. These are the moments when a site’s search performance is most at risk, and a careful SEO company will treat them as automatic triggers.
A site migration is one. Moving to a new domain, a new content management system, or a new URL structure can break redirects, lose page signals, or create indexing problems. An audit should follow the migration promptly, within days of going live, so any errors are caught before rankings erode further.
A redesign is another. Even when the domain stays the same, a redesign can change page structure, internal links, and technical elements in ways that affect search visibility. An audit after launch confirms the new site is still crawlable and indexed correctly.
A noticeable traffic drop also warrants an audit. If organic traffic falls sharply and the cause is not obvious, an audit helps separate a technical problem on your site from a broader change in search results.
A major search engine algorithm update is the last common trigger. When a search provider confirms a significant ranking change, an audit helps determine whether your site was affected and what, if anything, needs to be adjusted in response.
What to expect from an SEO company
When you evaluate an SEO company, ask how it handles all three timings. It should commit to an initial audit before optimization work, propose a recurring audit schedule suited to your site, and explain which events would prompt an extra audit outside that schedule. A company that audits only once, or only when you ask, is likely to miss problems until they have already cost you visibility. Consistent, well-timed audits are how an SEO company keeps a site healthy rather than only reacting after something goes wrong.