Three kinds of website audit, three different questions
Published prices for a one-off website or SEO audit from Irish providers, checked in October 2026, run from about €150 to €1,500 and beyond. The spread makes sense once you see what sits in each band. Most audits fall into one of three kinds:
- The automated technical check. Software examines the live site from outside and reports what is broken or at risk.
- The agency health check, with a call. A person runs much the same tools, looks over the site, and talks you through it.
- The full SEO and UX audit. A specialist studies your keywords, rankings, competitors, content and customer journey, usually with access to your accounts.
None of these is the "real" audit. Each is the right buy for a particular question and poor value for the others.
The automated technical check: is something broken?
This is the cheapest kind and the most repeatable. It looks at the things a machine can measure from outside: whether the site answers, whether the SSL certificate is valid and when it runs out, how long a phone waits for the page, whether your email records are set up, which links and forms lead nowhere, and whether anything is telling Google to stay away.
What it is good for: settling whether the site is technically sound, getting a fix list you can hand to your web person, and checking the same things again after the work is done. Because nobody interprets the results by hand, the same site gets the same answer every time.
What it cannot do: tell you why a competitor outranks you, whether your copy persuades anyone, or whether the design suits your customers. A machine reading the site from outside has no view on those.
The agency website health check, with a call
In Ireland this is typically priced in the low hundreds of euro. A person runs a set of tools, often similar to the automated checks, reviews the site by eye, and walks you through the findings on a call or in a short written summary.
What it is good for: when you want a professional to look at the site and talk it over, including the things software misses, such as a confusing menu or an out-of-date services page. The call is the product.
What to expect: the call usually ends with a quote for the fixes. That is not a trick; it is how the price stays low. Go in knowing it, and ask for the findings in writing so you can get a second quote.
The full SEO audit in Ireland: why are we not winning search traffic?
A full SEO audit in Ireland starts at around €500 and published prices reach €1,500 and more. This is days of specialist work: keyword research, ranking and competitor analysis, a content review, the technical checks above, and often a UX review of how visitors move through the site. It usually needs access to your Google Search Console and analytics accounts.
What it is good for: a business where search traffic is a real source of work and the question is strategic. Which searches should we appear for? Who is beating us, and why? What should we write next? A good one ends with a plan, not just a list of faults.
What it is poor value for: finding out whether your contact form works or your certificate is about to expire. You would be paying specialist rates for the cheapest part of the job.
Which website audit answers your question?
- "Is anything broken, and what should I fix first?" The automated technical check.
- "I want someone to look at it with me and tell me what they think." The agency health check with a call.
- "Why are we not showing for the searches that matter, and what is the plan?" The full SEO audit.
- "Does the site look right for our customers?" A design review from a web designer. That is a judgement call, and it needs a person with an eye for it.
- "Is my web provider actually doing the maintenance I pay for?" The automated check, run before and after, gives you evidence either way.
If you are not sure which question you have, start with the cheapest one that could answer it. A technical check that comes back clean tells you the problem lies elsewhere, which is worth knowing before you pay for the larger audit.
Where the €79 Website Health Report sits, and what it leaves out
The Website Health Report is an automated technical audit. It runs about twenty-five checks across six questions: was the site awake, does the browser trust it, how long does a phone wait, do your emails arrive, can people get through, and what is Google told. Every finding comes with the evidence behind it, a plain-English explanation and the specific change to make.
Said plainly, it does not cover:
- Keyword or ranking analysis. It checks whether Google can read the site, not where you rank or for what.
- Design review. It does not judge how the site looks or whether the copy persuades. If that is your question, a designer's review is the right buy, and the report's fix list is useful background for that conversation.
- Anything behind a login. It never asks for access to your site, Search Console or analytics. Every check reads the site from outside, the way a customer or a search engine sees it.
What you get in exchange for those limits: a fixed price, a verdict within the hour, and no follow-on pitch. Wellkept does not sell fixes, builds or marketing, so the report has no reason to find more wrong than there is.
Free website audits in Ireland: what the catch usually is
Free website audits are easy to find, and some are genuinely useful. Most are the opening step of a sale. A free audit costs an agency real time, and that time is paid back by the proposal that follows. That is a fair arrangement if you know it going in and want the proposal. It is a poor one if you wanted a neutral answer.
Two things to ask before accepting one: will I get the findings in writing to keep, and is there an obligation to talk to anyone afterwards? A free audit that arrives only as a sales call is a sales call.
Run the free checks yourself first
Several of the report's checks run on their own, free, with no email address asked for. They use the report's own code and wording.
- Website down checker: is the site answering right now?
- SSL certificate checker: is the certificate valid, and when does it run out?
- Website security check: which browser protections are switched on, graded A+ to F?
- Domain and SSL expiry checker: when do the domain and certificate run out?
- Website speed test: how long does a phone wait?
- Mobile-friendly test: does the page work on a phone screen?
- SPF and DMARC checker: are your email records set up?
- Broken link checker: which links lead nowhere?
- SEO and meta tag checker: what does a search engine read on a page?
They all live on the website checker. If one turns up a problem, or you would rather have the whole examination on one page, the report runs all of them and more.