The 2-Minute SEO Diagnostic

Nearly every SEO problem I have had to fix sorted into one of two piles. Either the targets were wrong, an Opportunity problem, or the targets were right and the site was not credible enough to win them, an Authority problem. The fix for one looks nothing like the fix for the other, and a year on the wrong side is the most expensive mistake in this work.

Six questions, about two minutes, answered honestly about your own site, because "I think so" is a no.

Part 1: Opportunity Check

1. Do you know, with actual data, what your audience searches for?

Not what your team assumes. Not what a competitor seems to rank for, but real keyword and topic research: search volumes, the intent behind each query, and which gaps are winnable at the size your site is now.

→ YES: The research exists. Question two. → NO: Opportunity problem, flying blind, so research gets done before anything else gets funded. See Keyword & Topic Research.

2. Does your existing content match the intent behind those searches?

Someone typing "best financial planner Auckland" wants a list to compare, someone typing "how to choose a financial planner" wants teaching, and someone typing "Smith Financial Planning reviews" wants proof from other people. Three queries, three jobs, and no single page does all three well.

→ YES: Content and intent line up. Question three. → NO: Opportunity problem. Your pages answer a question nobody asked, so audit the top ones against the intent behind their target queries. See Content Marketing.

3. Are you visible on the right surfaces, not just the standard Google results?

A search for a plumber often happens inside Maps, a search for a technique inside YouTube, and a fair share of the answering now seems to happen inside People Also Ask boxes and AI overviews before anyone clicks through. Opportunity is not only a keyword, it is also a place.

→ YES: The surfaces are covered. On to Part 2. → NO: Opportunity problem, wrong pond. Work out where your buyers go looking first, then go there. See Local SEO if your business is local.

Part 2: Authority Check

4. Do other credible sites in your industry link to you or mention you?

Not directories. Not paid placements, but editorial links and mentions from the places a buyer would actually recognise, which is a far shorter list than most backlink reports imply.

→ YES: Other sites vouch for you. Question five. → NO: Authority problem, on the Reputation pillar, and links like that get earned rather than bought. See Link Building.

5. Does your site load fast, work on a phone, use HTTPS, and sit on clean technical foundations?

Check Core Web Vitals, open your site on a phone instead of a laptop, and go looking for the broken pages, the crawl errors and the missing structured data. None of this creates credibility, but it is the part a crawler can measure, and a crawler that cannot read a site will not rank it.

→ YES: The plumbing is sound. Question six. → NO: Authority problem, on the Trust Signal pillar, so fix the plumbing before spending another dollar on content or links. See Technical SEO.

6. Can a visitor tell, within a few seconds, that a real expert wrote your pages?

Is there an author page, and are the credentials visible? Does the writing show first-hand experience, or could anyone with a subscription have produced it? That last one is the harshest question here, and the one I would ask first, because a page anyone could have written gives nobody a reason to trust it.

→ YES: Your expertise is visible. The Authority foundations are in place. → NO: Authority problem, on the Brand pillar. Add an author page and a byline, put the experience into the writing, and make the credentials easy to find. See The Trust Algorithm.

Your Diagnosis

Mostly no in Part 1: an Opportunity problem, so research, intent mapping and platform coverage all come first, before a single cent goes into building authority.

Mostly no in Part 2: an Authority problem. The targeting may be right, and the missing piece is credibility, built out of clean plumbing, visible expertise and links other people chose to give.

No in both parts: both problems, so fix Opportunity first, get the targets right, and then build Authority for those topics rather than for everything at once.

All yes: the basics hold, so the next move is depth: better content, stronger internal linking, adjacent topics. Or look at the other half of the equation, because traffic arriving at a weak Offer is an expensive way to lose.

What to Do with Your Diagnosis

The point of the formula is that it shortens the list, so instead of a sprawling audit ranked by nothing in particular, you are left with one question: are you building Opportunity, or are you building Authority? A small team can answer that on a Monday morning, which is more than most SEO audits manage.

→ The O+A Framework. Understand the full equation → Stop Guessing. Start Diagnosing.. The deeper version of this diagnostic → Back to the homepage