SEO Guide
Turn your SEO Scan Lab report into a practical improvement plan. Learn what to fix first, who should fix it, what to send your hosting company or developer, and how to use future scans to measure progress.
Use severity, affected pages and the Fix first / Next / Later Action Plan to focus effort where it is likely to matter most.
Separate content/CMS work from developer tasks and server/hosting changes.
Use report history and Monitoring changes to see what was fixed, what is new and what still needs attention.
Don't try to fix everything at once
An SEO audit is most useful when it becomes a prioritised action plan. The goal is not to race through every finding or chase a perfect score. Start with the findings that have the greatest combination of severity, priority and reach.
Check SEO Health, Critical/High findings, weak pages and top priorities.
Read Why It Matters and Recommended Fix before changing anything.
Work out whether the problem is isolated or caused by one sitewide setting/template.
Decide whether it belongs with you, your SEO/content team, developer or hosting company.
Complete related changes together rather than making random isolated edits.
Use the next report or Monitoring comparison to confirm what improved.
Use each report view for a different job
Your starting point
Use SEO Health, severity totals, category scores, pages needing attention and top priorities to understand the overall condition of the scanned pages.
Find the weakest pages
Compare Page Health and issue counts. Search, filter and sort to find Poor or Needs Work pages and open Page Detail for a focused list of findings.
Build your task list
Search and filter findings by severity and category. Expand an issue to see what was found, why it matters, what to do, who is best placed to handle it, affected pages and optional technical details.
Know what to tackle first
Use the automatic Fix First, Next and Later groups to work through active findings in priority order. The plan suggests who should own each task and automatically excludes issues you have chosen to ignore.
Spot problem areas
See whether weaknesses are concentrated in areas such as technical SEO, content, performance, accessibility, links, media, structured data or security.
See whether work helped
Compare a completed scan with the previous scan. Look at SEO Health movement together with New Issues, Fixed Issues and issues that are Still Present.
Share the evidence
Use the downloadable Full Audit or Monitoring PDF when somebody else needs a record of the scan. For technical jobs, also send the specific issue details described below.
What should I fix first?
Use the report's severity together with the Fix first / Next / Later Action Plan. Then consider how many pages are affected and whether one change could solve the same issue across the whole site.
| Order | What to look for | Recommended approach |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Critical | Critical findings and serious sitewide problems. | Review first. If the issue can affect accessibility, security, crawling/indexing or core site behaviour, involve the appropriate technical person promptly. |
| 2 · High | High-severity findings and issues affecting several important pages. | Add these to the first round of planned fixes. |
| 3 · Medium | Meaningful quality or optimisation improvements. | Work through these after Critical and High tasks, grouping similar fixes together. |
| 4 · Low / Info | Lower-impact optimisation, best practice and informational findings. | Use these for ongoing refinement. Do not let low-impact tasks delay more important fixes. |
Often the best place to start because one root-cause fix may improve many pages.
Fix the individual important page, especially if it is a key service, category, product or landing page.
Review manually before making a major change. Confidence indicates how certain the scanner is based on the available data.
Who should fix each type of problem?
Not every SEO finding belongs with your hosting company. In many cases the hosting provider cannot change website content or templates. Use this guide to send each task to the right person.
You, your website editor or SEO team
- Page titles and meta descriptions
- Headings and page copy
- Image alt text and media content
- Internal links and anchor text
- Broken links where editable in the CMS
- Content duplication and thin content
- SEO plugin settings you control
Your developer or web agency
- Template-wide HTML problems
- Structured data/schema implementation
- JavaScript/rendering problems
- Theme or plugin code issues
- Accessibility markup
- Responsive/layout implementation
- Complex redirects/canonical logic
Your hosting company or server administrator
- Server response/performance configuration
- Server caching or compression
- SSL/TLS certificate or HTTPS server problems
- Server-level redirects
- Security headers configured at server level
- DNS/server availability issues
- Web-server errors or configuration
What to send your hosting company
Hosting support needs specific technical evidence. Avoid sending only “my SEO report says the website is bad”. Give them enough information to reproduce or investigate the exact server-side issue.
Hello, An SEO audit has identified a technical issue that may require a hosting/server-level change. Website: [DOMAIN] Audit / scan number: [SCAN NUMBER] Scan date: [DATE] Issue: [ISSUE TITLE] Severity: [SEVERITY] Action Plan group: [FIX FIRST / NEXT / LATER] Affected URL(s): [URL OR URLS] Why it matters: [PASTE “WHY IT MATTERS” FROM SEO SCAN LAB] Recommended fix: [PASTE “RECOMMENDED FIX” FROM SEO SCAN LAB] Please can you confirm whether this is controlled at server/hosting level and, if so, investigate and implement the appropriate fix without disrupting the live website? Please also let me know what was changed so I can verify it afterwards.
Useful information to include
- The exact domain and affected URL, not just the company name.
- The SEO Scan Lab scan number and date.
- The issue title, severity and Action Plan group.
- The report's Why It Matters and Recommended Fix text.
- Whether the issue affects one URL or several URLs.
- Any error code or behaviour you can reproduce.
What to send your web developer or agency
A developer benefits from knowing both the symptom and the scale. If the same finding appears on several pages, tell them that—it may point to a shared template, theme component or plugin rather than separate page edits.
Hello, Please can you review the following item from our SEO Scan Lab audit? Website: [DOMAIN] Audit / scan number: [SCAN NUMBER] Issue: [ISSUE TITLE] Category: [CATEGORY] Severity: [SEVERITY] Action Plan group: [FIX FIRST / NEXT / LATER] Confidence: [CONFIDENCE, IF SHOWN] Affected pages: [COUNT] Affected URL(s): [URL OR URLS] Why it matters: [PASTE “WHY IT MATTERS”] Recommended fix: [PASTE “RECOMMENDED FIX”] Please check whether this comes from a shared template/theme/plugin or is page-specific. If you make a change, please confirm what was changed and whether it applies sitewide so we can check it against the next scan.
Changes you may be able to make yourself
If you manage the website in WordPress or another CMS, many on-page findings can often be handled without contacting the host.
Review page titles and meta descriptions against the specific page's purpose. Avoid blindly making every title longer or adding keywords unnaturally.
Use clear page structure, useful headings and content that answers the visitor's intent. Check the affected URL before editing.
Add meaningful alt text where appropriate and review oversized or poorly optimised media if flagged.
Repair broken internal links and add useful contextual links between relevant pages where the report identifies an opportunity.
Canonical URLs, indexing controls, social metadata and schema may be manageable through your SEO plugin—but only change settings you understand.
Use the Pages view and Page Detail to make sure you are fixing the correct URL rather than applying a generic sitewide edit.
Sitewide issue or one-page issue?
This distinction can save a lot of time. If the same issue appears on many URLs, do not assume every page needs editing individually.
One or two pages affected
Open Page Detail and inspect those URLs. The fix may be content, a page setting, a single broken link or page-specific configuration.
Many pages affected
Look for a common source: header/footer template, theme, reusable block, SEO plugin setting, sitewide schema, server rule or shared component.
Use affected URLs as evidence. The Issues view gives you the affected-page count and URL list returned by the scan. This is one of the most useful pieces of information to give a developer.
What to do after changes are made
- 1Check the live page
Confirm the change is actually live and that the website still works correctly.
- 2Keep a short change note
Record what was changed, who changed it and the date. This makes future comparisons easier to interpret.
- 3Review the next eligible scan
Look for the finding under Fixed Issues or check whether it is Still Present.
- 4Look for side effects
A fix can occasionally create a different issue. Review New Issues as well as the score movement.
- 5Continue down the priority list
Once the highest-value fixes are stable, move to the next group of findings.
Use Monitoring to turn an audit into a process
A one-off audit tells you what the scanner found at that point in time. Monthly Monitoring is most useful when you use the history to understand whether the site is improving or drifting backwards.
The graph always shows the last 30 days and positions each completed scan on its actual date, making the trend and gaps between scans easier to understand.
Investigate newly introduced problems, particularly after website updates, theme/plugin changes or new content.
Use these as confirmation that work performed between scans is no longer being reported.
These are useful for chasing outstanding work or identifying fixes that did not resolve the root cause.
Use website slots to keep client reporting automatic
Agency plans turn SEO Scan Lab into a multi-website workflow. Add a website to an available slot, save the client name and email, and SEO Scan Lab can run the monthly scan and send the client report automatically.
Use the Agency Dashboard to see which websites need attention, open reports, manage client-report links and check how many website slots remain. Each active Agency website also includes one manual full scan every 7 days.
The public Agency packages page is generated by Manage multiple websites, monitor SEO health automatically and give clients polished branded reports — without adding another complicated workflow. Every plan includes the Agency Dashboard, automatic monthly monitoring and one manual full scan per website every 7 days. For freelancers and smaller agencies. For growing agencies managing more clients. For established agencies with larger portfolios. For high-volume agency operations. *Growth, Pro and Scale have no plan-level page allowance. A technical safety cap of 500,000 eligible pages applies to each individual website crawl. The core workflow stays the same. Higher plans give you more website capacity, white-label reporting and priority support. See which websites are improving, which need attention and which reports are ready — without opening every site individually. Simple answers to the questions agencies are most likely to have before upgrading. Monthly Monitoring covers one website. Agency gives one account a fixed number of website slots, an Agency Dashboard and client-reporting tools across all active Agency sites. When an existing Monthly Monitoring customer upgrades, SEO Scan Lab changes the existing recurring Stripe subscription rather than intentionally creating a second one. The monitored website becomes Agency slot 1 after Stripe confirms the upgrade. Each actively monitored Agency website uses one slot. You can add saved websites or new client websites until your plan limit is reached. Removing a site from a slot stops Agency monitoring but keeps its historical reports. Yes. Save a client name and email for a website and enable automatic client reporting. SEO Scan Lab can email the secure client-report link after the automatic monthly scan. Every Agency website receives an automatic monthly full scan and one manual full scan every 7 days. Starter supports up to 10,000 pages per website. Growth, Pro and Scale have no plan-level page allowance, with a technical safety cap of 500,000 eligible pages per website crawl. Yes. Upgrades use the existing recurring subscription, start a fresh billing month on the upgrade date and apply the full price of the plan you are leaving as a credit against the first upgraded month. Downgrades are scheduled for renewal and require your active website count to fit inside the lower plan first. All Agency plans include email support. Pro and Scale support messages are automatically marked Priority when the customer uses the portal support button. Yes. Starter can show your agency logo while retaining SEO Scan Lab attribution. Growth, Pro and Scale support white-label client-report pages. Choose an Agency plan, move your existing monitored site across automatically and add client websites as you need them. Manage multiple websites, monitor SEO health automatically and give clients polished branded reports — without adding another complicated workflow. Every plan includes the Agency Dashboard, automatic monthly monitoring and one manual full scan per website every 7 days. For freelancers and smaller agencies. For growing agencies managing more clients. For established agencies with larger portfolios. For high-volume agency operations. *Growth, Pro and Scale have no plan-level page allowance. A technical safety cap of 500,000 eligible pages applies to each individual website crawl. The core workflow stays the same. Higher plans give you more website capacity, white-label reporting and priority support. See which websites are improving, which need attention and which reports are ready — without opening every site individually. Simple answers to the questions agencies are most likely to have before upgrading. Monthly Monitoring covers one website. Agency gives one account a fixed number of website slots, an Agency Dashboard and client-reporting tools across all active Agency sites. When an existing Monthly Monitoring customer upgrades, SEO Scan Lab changes the existing recurring Stripe subscription rather than intentionally creating a second one. The monitored website becomes Agency slot 1 after Stripe confirms the upgrade. Each actively monitored Agency website uses one slot. You can add saved websites or new client websites until your plan limit is reached. Removing a site from a slot stops Agency monitoring but keeps its historical reports. Yes. Save a client name and email for a website and enable automatic client reporting. SEO Scan Lab can email the secure client-report link after the automatic monthly scan. Every Agency website receives an automatic monthly full scan and one manual full scan every 7 days. Starter supports up to 10,000 pages per website. Growth, Pro and Scale have no plan-level page allowance, with a technical safety cap of 500,000 eligible pages per website crawl. Yes. Upgrades use the existing recurring subscription, start a fresh billing month on the upgrade date and apply the full price of the plan you are leaving as a credit against the first upgraded month. Downgrades are scheduled for renewal and require your active website count to fit inside the lower plan first. All Agency plans include email support. Pro and Scale support messages are automatically marked Priority when the customer uses the portal support button. Yes. Starter can show your agency logo while retaining SEO Scan Lab attribution. Growth, Pro and Scale support white-label client-report pages. Choose an Agency plan, move your existing monitored site across automatically and add client websites as you need them. This client report link is invalid. This client report link is invalid. (alias Scale SEO scanning across all your client websites.
Simple plans that grow with your client list.
Agency Starter
Agency Growth
Agency Pro
Agency Scale
See exactly what changes as your agency grows.
Feature Agency Starter Agency GrowthMost popular Agency Pro Agency ScaleBest value/site Capacity & value Website slots 5 20 50 100 Monthly cost per site $31.80 $14.95 $10.98 $9.99 Page allowance 10,000/site Unlimited* (500k technical cap) Unlimited* (500k technical cap) Unlimited* (500k technical cap) Best suited to Smaller agencies Growing agencies Established portfolios High-volume agencies Client reporting Agency logo on client reports ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Secure client report links ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Automatic client report emails ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Downloadable PDF reports ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Full white-label client reports SEO Scan Lab attribution ✓ ✓ ✓ Remove SEO Scan Lab branding — ✓ ✓ ✓ Monitoring & workflow Agency Dashboard ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Automatic monthly full scans ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Manual full scan 1/week/site 1/week/site 1/week/site 1/week/site SEO Health history ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ New & fixed issue tracking ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Client details per website ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Support Email support Standard Standard Priority Priority Priority support routing — — ✓ ✓ Everything you need to manage client SEO in one place.
Frequently asked questions.
How is Agency different from Monthly Monitoring?
What happens to my current Monthly Monitoring website?
How do website slots work?
Can my clients receive branded reports automatically?
What are the scan limits?
Can I change Agency plan later?
What support is included?
Can I use my own logo?
Make multi-site SEO reporting much easier to manage.
). Secure client-facing reports use Scale SEO scanning across all your client websites.
Simple plans that grow with your client list.
Agency Starter
Agency Growth
Agency Pro
Agency Scale
See exactly what changes as your agency grows.
Feature Agency Starter Agency GrowthMost popular Agency Pro Agency ScaleBest value/site Capacity & value Website slots 5 20 50 100 Monthly cost per site $31.80 $14.95 $10.98 $9.99 Page allowance 10,000/site Unlimited* (500k technical cap) Unlimited* (500k technical cap) Unlimited* (500k technical cap) Best suited to Smaller agencies Growing agencies Established portfolios High-volume agencies Client reporting Agency logo on client reports ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Secure client report links ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Automatic client report emails ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Downloadable PDF reports ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Full white-label client reports SEO Scan Lab attribution ✓ ✓ ✓ Remove SEO Scan Lab branding — ✓ ✓ ✓ Monitoring & workflow Agency Dashboard ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Automatic monthly full scans ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Manual full scan 1/week/site 1/week/site 1/week/site 1/week/site SEO Health history ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ New & fixed issue tracking ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Client details per website ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Support Email support Standard Standard Priority Priority Priority support routing — — ✓ ✓ Everything you need to manage client SEO in one place.
Frequently asked questions.
How is Agency different from Monthly Monitoring?
What happens to my current Monthly Monitoring website?
How do website slots work?
Can my clients receive branded reports automatically?
What are the scan limits?
Can I change Agency plan later?
What support is included?
Can I use my own logo?
Make multi-site SEO reporting much easier to manage.
Common ways to get less value from an SEO audit
Fix meaningful problems first. A score is a diagnostic summary, not the objective by itself.
Hosts generally cannot rewrite titles, content, templates or CMS settings. Assign ownership first.
Always read Why This Matters, What To Do and the affected pages before making a change. Technical details such as scanner confidence are available when you need them.
Many affected URLs often indicate a shared template, plugin, setting or server rule.
Severity and the Action Plan grouping help you distinguish urgent work from lower-impact best-practice improvements.
The value comes from closing the loop: change, verify, compare and continue.
A simple audit workflow you can reuse
Open your report and start with the highest-priority finding.