What Is a Strategic SEO Audit? (And Why Scores Don't Matter)
The Problem With SEO Scores
You've seen them everywhere: "Your SEO score is 73/100." These scores feel satisfying. They give you a number to improve. But here's the uncomfortable truth: SEO scores don't correlate with traffic or revenue.
A site scoring 95/100 can get zero organic traffic. A site scoring 60/100 can dominate its niche. The score measures compliance with a checklist — not strategic positioning.
What a Strategic SEO Audit Actually Does
A strategic audit borrows from Richard Rumelt's Good Strategy Bad Strategy. Instead of running through a checklist, it applies the Strategy Kernel:
- Diagnosis — What's actually happening? What are the root causes of your current position?
- Guiding Policy — Given this diagnosis, what's the focused approach? What will you say no to?
- Coherent Actions — What specific, sequenced steps reinforce each other?
Example: Score-Based vs. Strategic
Score-based audit says: "Missing alt text on 12 images. Score: -5 points."
Strategic audit says: "Your top 3 landing pages account for 80% of traffic but have declining CTR. Competitors have added FAQ schema and are winning featured snippets for your exact queries. The image alt text on your About page is irrelevant — focus on defending your revenue pages."
See the difference? One counts issues. The other identifies what actually matters.
The Three Categories That Matter
Every finding in a strategic audit falls into one of three categories:
Threats
Things that actively block functionality or risk ranking loss. Examples:
- Core Web Vitals failing on key landing pages
- Canonical issues causing index bloat
- Competitors outranking you for brand queries
Gaps
Structural weaknesses that limit growth. Examples:
- No content covering high-intent queries your competitors rank for
- Missing internal link architecture between topic clusters
- No schema markup on product pages
Opportunities
Growth potential waiting to be captured. Examples:
- 15 queries in positions 4-8 with high impressions — quick wins
- Featured snippet potential for 20+ queries
- Untapped topic clusters with low competition
The Impact Formula
Not all findings are equal. A strategic audit scores each one:
Impact = Severity × Scale × Page Importance
- Severity (1-5): How bad is it? Cosmetic → Blocks functionality
- Scale (1-5): How widespread? One page → Site-wide
- Page Importance (1-3): Does it affect your money pages?
A missing H1 on your terms page (1 × 1 × 1 = 1) is not the same as broken canonical tags on your product pages (4 × 4 × 3 = 48).
How to Get a Strategic Audit
Traditional SEO tools can't do this. They're built to count issues, not to think strategically. That's exactly why we built DadSEO.
DadSEO connects to your Google Search Console, analyzes up to 16 months of data, and applies the Strategy Kernel framework to produce a real diagnosis — not a score.
Every finding comes with:
- Category (Threat / Gap / Opportunity)
- Impact score
- Specific recommendation
- Priority ranking