Vector · 007 · The Operating Audit
Read your own operation. Then decide.
A paid diagnostic, not a sales call. Four diagnostics on your operation, delivered as a 15–30 page report plus a 60-minute walkthrough. You keep the report and the plan — whether or not you hire us.
Not a free audit. That is the point — a free audit’s job is to produce a proposal. This one’s job is to produce a decision you can act on without us.
Seven line items. All of them yours.
How the site is actually built — performance, structure, tech debt, and the places it quietly leaks visitors, speed, and trust.
Where you rank, where you are invisible, and where AI answer engines skip you entirely — as a prioritized map of terms and pages.
What your language is doing to conversion — where it builds trust and where it hedges — with concrete rewrites on the pages that carry the most weight.
WCAG gaps and missing basics, ranked by severity, with the quick wins called out and the exposure stated plainly.
All four diagnostics reconciled into one ordered plan: what to fix first, what to leave alone, and what is not worth doing at all.
A working hour with the operators who ran the diagnostics — not a handoff to a rep. Bring the questions the report did not answer.
The written report, dated and yours. Hand it to your team, your developer, or the next agency. No lock-in, no clawback.
A typical agency audit, compared.
| The usual free audit | The Operating Audit · $2,500 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, if you sit through the pitch | $2,500, published on this page |
| What it is | A sales call with slides | A paid diagnostic |
| Scope | One channel — usually the one they sell | Four diagnostics: build, search, voice, risk |
| Who runs it | A junior analyst, or a template scan | The senior operators who would run the work |
| Output | A deck, walked through once | 15–30pp report + prioritized plan + 60-min call |
| Who keeps it | Theirs until you sign | Yours, signed or not |
| Recommendation | Everything they happen to sell | Ranked, including what to leave alone |
| Next step | Annual retainer proposal | Month-to-month, or nothing |
| If you retain | Fee was priced into the retainer anyway | $2,500 credited toward month one |
The questions people actually ask about the fee.
Why pay for an audit when everyone else gives one away?
Because a free audit is a sales asset, and it behaves like one. Paying for it changes what it is allowed to say — including that you should fix three things yourself and call us in a year.
$2,500 is a lot for a report.
It buys four diagnostics run by senior operators, not a template scan with your logo on it. Move to a retainer and the fee is credited toward month one. Don’t, and you keep a plan you can hand to anyone.
What if I don’t hire you afterward?
You keep the report and the plan. No lock-in, no clawback, no follow-up sequence. We would rather be the firm that handed you the map.
Is this a pitch with a price tag on it?
The report is written, dated, and prioritized before any proposal exists. If the honest read is that you don’t need us, that is what it says — in writing, in your copy of the file.
What do you need from me?
Read access to your analytics and Search Console, five short intake answers at booking, and one hour for the walkthrough. Nothing else, and no homework.
How long until I have it?
You get a dated turnaround in writing on your booking confirmation — a commitment for your engagement, not a range on a web page.
Can I see retainer pricing before I commit to this?
It is published. Nothing about the money arrives after a discovery call, and nothing about it depends on how the audit goes.
Three steps, one hour of your time.
Tell us how to reach you. We come back with times from the operators’ own calendars, not a pool.
Enough to walk in knowing your operation. A sentence or two per field is plenty.
The written report lands first, then the 60 minutes to work through it.