The Digital Marketing Guide — 34-point audit framework

The foundation. If Google can't crawl, render, and understand your site, nothing else you do in marketing matters.

• HTTPS on every URL and no mixed content
• Unique title tag on every page (50-60 characters)
• Unique meta description on every page (140-160 characters)
• One H1 per page that matches search intent
• Canonical URL declared on every indexable page
• robots.txt present and does not block critical routes
• XML sitemap present, current, and submitted to Search Console
• Open Graph tags on every shareable page
• Twitter card tags on every shareable page
• Descriptive alt text on every content image
• Internal linking connects pillar pages to supporting pages
• Content depth — every important page has 600+ words of unique value
• Core Web Vitals passing (LCP, INP, CLS) on mobile
• Overall performance score above 80 on mobile
• Favicon, apple-touch-icon, and web manifest configured

How well AI answer engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini) can understand and quote your content.

• Schema.org structured data on every template (Organization, WebSite, plus Article/Product/FAQPage/LocalBusiness as fits)
• llms.txt file present at the root and describes your site clearly
• FAQ / Q&A structure on service and pillar pages
• Entity clarity — brand, people, products, and locations named consistently and linked to authoritative sources
• E-E-A-T signals — visible author bios, credentials, sources, and dates
• AI crawler allowlist in robots.txt (GPTBot, Google-Extended, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot)
• Answer extractability — short, standalone answers under each heading

The Salem Digital questionnaire. Technical fixes only pay off when strategy is clear.

• Audience clarity — one sentence describing the exact customer you serve
• Unique value proposition — why a buyer picks you over the next three options
• Conversion goals — one primary call-to-action per page, measured
• Content cadence — publishing schedule you actually hit (weekly minimum)
• Content creation setup — briefs, writers, editors, review loop
• CRM / lead capture — every form goes to a system you follow up from
• Email marketing — welcome sequence, monthly newsletter, list hygiene
• Google Business Profile — claimed, complete, posts current, categories accurate
• Review generation — process to request reviews after every sale
• Social cadence — one platform done well beats five done poorly
• Marketing budget — clear monthly spend across SEO, content, ads, tools
• Competitor differentiation — you can name three competitors and how you differ