Audit Dashboard

16 patent-grounded SEO audit frameworks from Bill Slawski's research. Each audit maps directly to specific Google patents and scoring methodologies.

Run Audits In This Order

For maximum impact, work through audits in priority sequence:

Priority	Audit	Why First
1	Panda Quality Score	Site-level gate — failing here makes all other work irrelevant
2	Duplicate Content Risk	Technical cleanup before optimization
3	Crawl Budget	Ensure important pages get crawled
4	Entity Extraction	Establish what your content is ABOUT
5	Phrase-Based Optimizer	Build topical completeness
6	Semantic Keyword Scorer	Refine keyword usage quality
7	Query Classification	Align content to intent
8	Featured Snippet Scorer	Capture SERP real estate
9	Click Feedback CTR	Optimize click-through from SERP
10	Historical Data Risk	Check temporal signals before link building
11+	Authority, social, local, sitelinks	Context-dependent

Content Quality Audits

Panda Quality Score Audit

Patent: US9135307B2 + US9031929B1 | Inventor: Navneet Panda

Runs the 8-signal decision tree from Google's Panda quality classifier. Evaluates content uniqueness, ad-to-content ratio, expert authorship, referral-to-page ratio, site-level quality score, bounce pad detection, user engagement, and content depth.

Use when: Organic traffic dropped across many pages simultaneously. Site feels "filtered." New site not gaining traction despite good content.

Content Freshness & Decay Monitor

Patents: US 7,346,839 + US 8,549,014 B2

Classifies content into 4 decay classes (Evergreen → Perishable) and audits 8 decay risk element types. Identifies which content is losing freshness signals and how fast.

Use when: Rankings declining on articles that haven't been updated. Targeting time-sensitive queries with stale content. "2025 Guide" performing worse than newer competitor pages.

Duplicate Content Risk Scanner

Patents: US7734627B1 (fingerprinting) + US8898296B2 (boilerplate detection)

8 scan dimensions: internal duplication, boilerplate ratio, canonical audit, thin content, parameter-based URL duplication, template overlap, syndicated content handling.

Use when: Large site with many category/tag pages. E-commerce with faceted navigation. Suspected canonicalization issues.

Phrase-Based Content Optimizer

Patent: US7536408 (Anna Patterson)

Identifies co-occurring phrase gaps. Maps primary (70%+), secondary (40-69%), and tertiary (15-39%) phrase coverage targets. Detects unnatural phrase use and context misalignment.

Use when: Content not ranking despite targeting the right keyword. Topic coverage feels shallow vs. competitors. "Why isn't this ranking?" — phrase gaps are often the answer.

Entity & Semantic Audits

Entity Extraction & Content Audit

Source: 82 Slawski articles on Entity SEO and Knowledge Graph

7-point audit: entity inventory, first-mention contextualization, attribute coverage, disambiguation, relationship mapping, structured data alignment, entity density/distribution.

Use when: Content not appearing in AI Overviews. Not generating Knowledge Panels. Entity disambiguation failures (Google ranking your content for the wrong meaning).

Semantic Relevance Keyword Scorer

Source: Slawski's NLP and Semantic Understanding patent analysis

Scores keyword usage 0-100 per term across: semantic weight, disambiguation quality, paraphrase equivalence, query rewriting alignment, topical depth, and opinion/sentiment context.

Use when: Keyword audit beyond density metrics. Content using keywords as frequency targets instead of semantic signals. Polysemous terms (bank, python, cloud) not ranking for the right meaning.

Query Classification & Content Mapper

Source: Query understanding, classification, and reformulation patents

Decision tree through 6 query classes: LOCAL → NAVIGATIONAL → TRANSACTIONAL → INFORMATIONAL → TIME-SENSITIVE → AMBIGUOUS. Outputs keyword intent clusters and content format recommendations.

Use when: Keyword strategy needs intent alignment. Page format doesn't match query intent. Ranking for wrong intent type (showing an article when searchers want a product page).

Featured Snippet Answer Scorer

Source: 56 Slawski articles on Search UI Features + NLP patents

8-dimension scoring (80 points total): content structure, answer conciseness, question-answer alignment, heading hierarchy, competing snippet format, supplementary depth, schema reinforcement, overall readiness.

Use when: Targeting question-based queries. Want to displace an existing featured snippet. Content answers questions but isn't getting the snippet position.

Authority & Trust Audits

Agent Rank Author Audit

Patent: Agent Rank (Author Authority)

8 dimensions: author identification signals, expertise indicators, Knowledge Graph entity status, cross-platform presence, author-topic alignment, author page quality, site-level author strategy, authority signal scoring.

Use when: Building E-E-A-T for YMYL content. Author entity not established in Knowledge Graph. Content quality high but authority signals weak.

Patents: Social TrustRank + viral scoring + user annotation signals

7 signal categories (weighted): social presence consistency (10%), trust propagation (25%), co-citation patterns (20%), UGC quality (15%), brand mention sentiment (15%), manipulation red flags (15%).

Use when: Brand authority weak despite decent content. Social signals not supporting domain authority. Suspect manipulation patterns in social amplification.

Historical Data Risk Analyzer

Patent: US 7,346,839 (Matt Cutts, Paul Haahr)

6 signal categories: document age signals, content change tracking, link velocity analysis, anchor text evolution, link lifetime/persistence, freshness/query context.

Use when: Before starting a link building campaign. Domain has suspicious history. Traffic dropped after algorithm update targeting link manipulation. Assessing acquired domain health.

Reasonable Surfer Link Audit

Patent: "Ranking Documents Based on User Behavior and/or Feature Data"

Scores every internal and external link by click-probability across: position zone, visual prominence, anchor text quality, context relevance, link type. Maps where link equity is wasted vs. concentrated.

Use when: Internal linking strategy audit. Footer link cleanup. Identifying pages not receiving editorial in-content link equity.

Technical & UX Audits

Click Feedback CTR Audit

Source: 24 Slawski articles on user behavior patents

7 dimensions: snippet magnetism (20%), SERP appeal (15%), pogo-stick risk (20%), engagement depth (15%), query-result alignment (15%), satisfaction signals (15%).

Use when: Rankings not converting to clicks. High impression / low CTR in Search Console. Pogo-stick bounce signals dragging rankings down.

Crawl Budget Optimizer

Patents: Crawl Rate Optimization + Web Decay Detection + URL Ownership

9-point audit: robots.txt waste, sitemap completeness, URL structure, redirect chains, orphan pages, thin/duplicate content, server response time, web decay, overall score.

Use when: Large site (1000+ pages). New pages slow to index. Crawl stats showing budget wasted on low-value pages.

Sitelink Optimization Audit

Source: 56 Slawski articles on Search UI Features patents

8-point readiness (100 points): site hierarchy, internal link distribution, title differentiation, URL structure, nav-content alignment, brand search readiness, sitelink search box, overall score.

Use when: Brand search results don't show sitelinks. Sitelinks showing wrong pages. Preparing brand for growing navigational search volume.

Local Geo-Relevance Audit

Source: 109 Slawski articles on local search and maps patents

9 signal categories: NAP consistency, geographic entity signals, locally prominent semantic features, LocalBusiness schema, geo-relevance content, geographic disambiguation, local citations/links, review signals, SAB vs. storefront.

Use when: Local pack rankings underperforming. GMB not appearing in map results. Multi-location business with inconsistent NAP data.

Audit Dashboard ​

Run Audits In This Order ​

Content Quality Audits ​

Entity & Semantic Audits ​