SEO Audit vs. Website Audit: Which One Is Crucial for a New Site?

Congratulations on your new website! It’s a huge milestone that represents a significant investment in your business’s future. The sleek design, improved user experience, and shiny new features are a testament to the hard work of your web development team.

But here’s a critical question: what happens after the launch?

Many businesses assume that a “website audit” conducted by their developers covers all the bases. While valuable, a developer-led audit and a specialized post-migration SEO audit are two fundamentally different things. The former is a technical check-up for a well-functioning site; the latter is a strategic deep dive to ensure your new site doesn’t silently lose years of valuable search engine visibility.

This article will clarify the crucial difference, why a dedicated SEO audit is non-negotiable for new launches, and what to look for in a specialist who can provide one.

What Your Web Developer’s “Website Audit” Covers

To be clear, a quality web developer’s audit is an essential part of the launch process. It’s designed to ensure the new site is technically sound from a user and functionality perspective. These audits typically focus on:

Broken Links: Identifying and fixing any 404 errors that lead to a dead end for users.
Page Speed & Performance: Ensuring pages load quickly on both desktop and mobile devices.
User Experience (UX): Checking for seamless navigation, responsive design, and correct form functionality.
Core Functionality: Making sure that all features, from a contact form to an e-commerce checkout, are working as intended.

This type of audit is vital for a positive user experience. But it doesn’t measure the impact of the migration on your site’s relationship with Google. The most common oversights following a new launch are invisible to the naked eye—they’re only detectable through the lens of a trained SEO professional.

The Essential Post-Migration SEO Audit

This is where our expertise comes in. The post-migration SEO audit is not a typical checkup—it’s a specialised, forensic analysis with a single, crucial goal: to protect and grow your organic visibility. It answers the question: “How has this migration impacted your site’s performance in search engines?”

Our tailored audit, which we perform after every major website build, focuses on these critical areas:

Indexing and Crawlability: We check for potential indexing issues using Google Search Console (GSC). Has Google successfully discovered and indexed all your new pages? Are there any unexpected errors or warnings that could prevent your content from being seen?
Redirect Strategy: An improper redirect plan is the single biggest cause of traffic loss after a migration. We meticulously verify that old URLs are properly redirecting to their new counterparts using a 301 (permanent) redirect. This preserves the authority and link equity your old pages had.
Keyword Visibility Shifts: A new site can cause unexpected changes in keyword rankings. We use tools like Semrush and Ahrefs to conduct a side-by-side analysis, comparing your pre- and post-launch keyword rankings to identify any significant drops or gains.
Meta Data & On-Page Optimization: We ensure all crucial on-page elements—including titles, meta descriptions, and header tags—have been migrated correctly. We also check for duplicate content issues that may arise from new page structures.
Backlink Profile Integrity: The links pointing to your site from other reputable websites are a huge source of authority. We analyze if these backlinks are still pointing to live pages and haven’t been lost in the migration, a common problem with poorly executed redirects.
Technical Health: Beyond the basics, we check for SEO-specific technical elements like XML sitemaps, robots.txt file configurations, and correct canonical tag implementation.

The Critical Importance of Timing

The advice to “let the site settle” is where things often go wrong. It’s during this critical post-launch period that a specialised SEO audit is most vital. Waiting can lead to long-term damage before issues have a chance to be found and fixed.

Small oversights—a few broken redirects, an incorrect canonical tag—can go unnoticed for months, quietly eroding your rankings and traffic. If left unmonitored, your new website could become the very reason years of hard-earned SEO work disappear. Your site might just vanish from Google’s search results, making it virtually impossible for new customers to find you.

By the time the issue is discovered, you may have already lost significant ground to competitors. An immediate post-migration SEO audit acts as a crucial safety net, identifying and fixing these problems before they can cause lasting harm.

This isn’t a theoretical risk; it’s a reality we’ve seen play out. We worked with a client who was told to wait and “let their site settle.” Three months passed, and their organic traffic tanked from 3,000 monthly users to less than 250. You can read the full story and our process for recovery in our case study: SEO Case Study: The Danger of “Letting It Settle”.

Protecting Your Investment

A new website is a significant financial investment, and it’s a powerful asset. But what you deem a beautiful new website could also be the very reason you disappear from SERP. Its success is defined not by its design, but by how it performs where it matters most: in the search results.

Don’t leave the health of your organic presence to chance. A comprehensive post-migration SEO audit is the single most effective way to ensure your new site is not only a beautiful new home for your business but a powerful engine for sustainable, long-term growth. To discuss how a post-migration SEO audit can secure your new site’s future, get in touch with a specialist.