You can buy a website audit for 50.
It will tell you that your page speed is 3.2 seconds and that you have 47 broken links.
It will not tell you why your 400k marketing budget is generating the same pipeline it did three years ago. It will not explain why your CRM contains 18,000 contacts that have never received a relevant message. It will not reveal that your attribution model is crediting the wrong channels, or that your agency is optimising for metrics that do not connect to revenue.
A website audit is a starting point. It is not an assessment.
The problem with website audits
Most website audits examine the visible surface of a digital presence. They measure page speed, count broken links, check meta descriptions. These are symptoms. They are not causes.
The businesses we work with do not have simple technical problems. They have commercial system problems that manifest as technical symptoms:
An ecommerce site with slow page speed often has a content governance problem: too many plugins, no approval process, conflicting stakeholder demands.
A B2B site with poor conversion often has a sales alignment problem: marketing generates leads that sales rejects, because the criteria were never agreed.
A corporate site with declining traffic often has an ownership problem: multiple teams make changes, no one owns outcomes, decisions are made by whoever shouts loudest.
A 50 audit will identify the symptoms. It will not assess the system.
Symptoms versus systems
Here is what we have learned from two decades of assessing commercial systems: the symptom you see is almost never the problem you have.
Visible symptom
Low organic traffic
Surface-level fix
SEO audit, keyword optimisation, content refresh
Actual problem
The business has been publishing content for three years without a documented strategy. No one owns organic performance. The agency sends monthly reports that no one reads. Content decisions are made by whoever has time, not whoever has data.
Real fix
Content governance, ownership assignment, strategy documentation, measurement framework that someone actually uses.
Visible symptom
Poor conversion rate
Surface-level fix
CRO audit, A/B testing, UX improvements
Actual problem
Marketing and sales have different definitions of a qualified lead. Marketing celebrates form fills. Sales complains about lead quality. Neither has ever sat in the same room to agree criteria. The 2% conversion rate is not a website problem. It is an alignment problem.
Real fix
Lead definition alignment, qualification criteria documentation, feedback loops between marketing and sales.
Visible symptom
High bounce rate
Surface-level fix
Page speed optimisation, content improvements, better headlines
Actual problem
The paid media agency is optimising for click volume because that is how their contract is structured. They are driving traffic that has no intent to convert. The bounce rate is not a website problem. It is an incentive problem.
Real fix
Media contract restructure, KPI alignment with commercial outcomes, traffic quality measurement.
Visible symptom
Declining revenue attribution
Surface-level fix
Attribution model upgrade, analytics implementation
Actual problem
Three teams are claiming credit for the same conversions using different measurement systems. The CFO does not trust any of the numbers. Investment decisions are made politically, not analytically. Attribution is not a technical problem. It is a governance problem.
Real fix
Single source of truth, agreed measurement methodology, depoliticised reporting.
A website audit addresses the left column. A Commercial Assessment addresses the right column. Both are valid. They solve different problems.
What a real assessment examines
When we conduct a Commercial Assessment, the technical audit is one element of a much wider examination. We look at six interconnected domains:
Channels and Reporting
What channels exist, what they cost, what they produce, and whether anyone actually knows. Most businesses cannot accurately state their cost per qualified opportunity.
Attribution Architecture
How value is assigned to touchpoints, whether that assignment is accurate, and who benefits from the current model. Attribution is often a political problem disguised as a technical one.
Sales and Marketing Handoff
Where marketing ends and sales begins, what qualifies as a lead, and what happens to the 90% that are rejected. This gap destroys more revenue than any technical issue.
User Experience and Friction
Not just page speed scores, but actual user journeys: where people drop off, why they drop off, and what commercial value is lost at each friction point.
Team Capability and Structure
Who owns what, whether they have the skills to own it, and whether the structure supports or undermines commercial outcomes. Many problems are people problems.
Technology and Technical Debt
The stack, its integrations, its limitations, and the accumulation of shortcuts that now constrain what is possible. This is where the website audit fits.
The technical audit is one-sixth of the assessment. Important, but not sufficient.
AI in marketing: governance, not just tools
Every business is now using AI in some form. Most have no governance around it. This is not a future risk. It is a current exposure.
In 2024, we found AI tools in every client engagement. In most cases, the CMO did not know which tools were being used, by whom, or for what purposes. Content was being generated without review. Customer communications were being drafted by systems trained on competitor data. Decisions were being delegated to algorithms that no one could explain.
What we examine
- What AI tools are actually in use across the organisation, official and unofficial, including browser extensions, personal subscriptions, and embedded features in existing software
- What decisions are being delegated to AI systems: content creation, audience targeting, budget allocation, creative testing, customer service responses
- What training data is being used and whether it creates legal exposure through copyright, privacy, or confidentiality violations
- What processes exist for reviewing AI outputs before they reach customers, and whether those processes are actually followed
- What happens when AI recommendations conflict with human judgment: who decides, how is it documented, what is the escalation path
- What audit trail exists for AI-influenced decisions, particularly those affecting customer experience or financial outcomes
The risks of ungoverned AI
Brand voice dilution
AI-generated content that sounds generic erodes differentiation. If your content sounds like everyone else, you become commodity.
Legal exposure
AI trained on copyrighted material creates liability. AI using customer data without consent creates GDPR exposure. The legal landscape is still forming, which means current practices may become retroactively problematic.
Strategic opacity
When algorithms make decisions that humans cannot explain, accountability disappears. The board asks why conversion dropped. No one knows. The AI changed something.
Dependency risk
Teams that cannot function without AI tools have created single points of failure. What happens when the API goes down? What happens when pricing changes?
This is not about whether you should use AI. Every business should. It is about whether your AI usage is governable, auditable, and commercially defensible. An assessment reveals the current state and identifies the governance gaps.
Who this is for
A Commercial Assessment is not for everyone. It is specifically designed for businesses where the problem is systemic, not symptomatic.
This is designed for:
Businesses where marketing spend is increasing but results are not
You are spending more every year but pipeline quality is flat or declining. The agencies say it is working. The sales team disagrees. You suspect the problem is structural, not tactical.
Businesses preparing for transaction
You are 12-24 months from a sale, IPO, or major funding round. Marketing needs to demonstrate commercial contribution, not just activity. The current reporting will not survive due diligence.
Businesses with new marketing leadership
A new CMO or marketing director has inherited a system they did not build. They need to understand what they have before they can change it. An independent assessment accelerates the learning curve.
Businesses where the board has lost confidence
Marketing investment is being questioned. There have been too many strategy changes, too many agency switches, too little visible progress. The board needs an independent assessment.
Businesses entering new markets
What worked domestically may not translate. An assessment identifies the assumptions in the current system and tests them against the new market context.
This is not for:
Businesses that just need a technical fix
If you know the problem is page speed and you just need someone to fix it, a technical specialist is more appropriate and less expensive.
Businesses looking for quick wins
An assessment is comprehensive. It takes 6-8 weeks. If you need results in two weeks, this is not the right engagement.
Businesses that want validation, not truth
If you need someone to confirm that the current strategy is working, we are not the right choice. Our job is to find what is actually happening, even when that is uncomfortable.
People, tools, and process
A website audit examines technology. A Commercial Assessment examines the humans who operate that technology:
Capability Assessment
Does the team have the skills to execute the strategy? If not, is that a training problem or a hiring problem? Many digital strategies fail not because they are wrong, but because no one can implement them.
Tool Utilisation
Most businesses pay for tools they do not use, use tools incorrectly, or use multiple tools that do the same thing. An assessment reveals the actual tool utilisation rate, typically 20-40% of licensed features.
Process Maturity
Does a content calendar exist? Who approves campaigns? What happens when performance drops? Many businesses have no documented processes, meaning knowledge lives in individual heads and leaves when they do.
Innovation Capacity
How does the organisation evaluate and adopt new approaches? Is there a process for testing, or does innovation happen ad-hoc? Stagnation is often a process problem, not a creativity problem.
Onsite, online, or hybrid
Some situations require presence. Others do not. We determine the right model based on complexity:
Remote-first
Clear scope, strong documentation, mature stakeholders, straightforward technical landscape
Regular video calls, asynchronous working, shared documentation. Most efficient for well-defined engagements.
Hybrid
Political complexity, multiple stakeholders, need for workshop-style sessions
Initial onsite discovery, remote analysis, onsite presentation. Balances depth with efficiency.
Onsite-intensive
Crisis situations, cultural assessment needs, highly sensitive contexts
Extended onsite presence during critical phases. Appropriate for emergency assessments or organisational transformation.
The model is determined during scoping, not assumed in advance.
The technical elements
Within the broader assessment, the technical website audit examines specific dimensions. Each affects the others. A technical problem creates a user experience problem. A user experience problem creates a conversion problem. A conversion problem creates a commercial problem.
These are the components that a standalone website audit would examine. In a Commercial Assessment, they are one layer of a multi-layer analysis.
Technical Audit
Crawlability, indexation, site architecture, Core Web Vitals, mobile optimisation, server configuration. The foundation layer.
Technical issues suppress visibility and create friction. Each millisecond of delay costs conversion.
SEO Audit
On-page optimisation, content quality, keyword positioning, backlink profile, search authority.
Search visibility determines how much you pay for the same traffic. Poor SEO means paying media costs for traffic you could have earned.
Performance Audit
Page speed, loading behaviour, render-blocking resources, image optimisation, caching strategy.
Performance directly affects bounce rates, conversions, and search rankings. A 1-second delay can reduce conversions by 7%.
Conversion Audit
User journeys, form completion, checkout friction, calls-to-action, analytics accuracy.
Small improvements in conversion rate compound across all traffic. This is often the highest-ROI fix.
Ecommerce Audit
Product pages, category structure, search functionality, checkout flow, payment integration.
Ecommerce friction is directly measurable in abandoned revenue. The gap between add-to-cart and purchase is money.
Accessibility Audit
WCAG compliance, screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, inclusive design.
Beyond compliance risk, 15% of global users have accessibility needs. Exclusion is a market limitation.
Security Audit
SSL configuration, vulnerability scanning, privacy compliance, data protection.
Security breaches destroy trust. GDPR fines are material. This is a non-negotiable foundation.
Content Audit
Content quality, topical coverage, duplication issues, editorial governance.
Content is an asset. Most businesses do not know what content they have, what it costs, or what it produces.
What you will not get from us
A PDF of observations
Observations without context are noise. We provide structured assessments with commercial framing.
AI-generated checklists
Automated tools find symptoms. They cannot assess systems. Every finding is reviewed by senior operators.
Recommendations without priorities
When everything is urgent, nothing gets done. We sequence by commercial impact, not technical severity.
Generic best practices
Best practices are averages. Your business is not average. Recommendations are contextual to your situation.
Upsells disguised as findings
We do not sell implementation services. Our findings are commercially honest, even when they do not benefit us.
What this costs
Transparency on pricing (approximate ranges vary by region):
| Type | Price Range | What You Get | When Appropriate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automated AI audit | 50 – 500 | Symptom list, no context, no priorities, no commercial framing | Quick technical scan, internal reference |
| Agency audit | 2,000 – 8,000 | Templated analysis, junior execution, senior review (maybe) | Known scope, limited complexity |
| Specialist consultant | 5,000 – 15,000 | Focused expertise in one domain (SEO, CRO, etc.) | Clear single-domain problem |
| Commercial Assessment | 22,500 | Senior operator-led, multi-domain, commercially framed, decision-ready | When the problem is systemic, not symptomatic |
The right choice depends on the problem. If you know exactly what is wrong and just need confirmation, a 500 audit may suffice. If you need to understand why your commercial system is underperforming, that is an assessment.
The difference
A typical website audit
- Automated crawl of technical issues
- Generic SEO checklist
- AI-generated recommendations
- Delivered as a PDF, no context
- No understanding of your business model
- No commercial framing
- No priority sequence
- No one to ask questions
A Commercial Assessment
- Senior operators interview leadership
- Review of commercial reality, not just technical signals
- Attribution, reporting, and measurement logic examined
- Team capability and decision-making friction assessed
- Delivered in a working session, not a document
- Priority sequence based on commercial impact
- Recommendations you can actually act on
- Two senior operators available for follow-up
The question
Do you need to check some boxes, or do you need to understand what is actually broken? The first is a website audit. The second is a Commercial Assessment.
Read more about how the Marketing MRI works, the situations we address, how we work or see how similar situations have played out.