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The 20-Minute C-Level SEO Check: Having a Clue About Your Site’s SEO
You don’t need to be THE SEO for your company. But in 20 minutes, with Google, a few free tools and your brain, you can know how good, bad or ugly things really are.
A simple, repeatable process for assessing your own site. No technical expertise needed: a keen eye, a checklist and some free (and free-ish) tools. Useful today, and again at the next milestone your team or agency puts in front of you.
Goals
- Give you a quick, easy way to assess your site’s search health.
- Show you the basic strengths and weaknesses to look for.
- Let you talk to your team or agency from evidence, not instinct.
You’ll walk away able to
- Evaluate the key aspects of your site in one sitting.
- Spot the main indicators of good and poor practice.
- Walk into the next SEO conversation with your own findings.
We’ll be leveraging the most useful free tools out there, Google and your brain, and the most expensive resource in moderation: your time.
This isn’t a one-off. It’s a diagnostic you can rerun every quarter. And taste your own dog food: do the mobile checks on your actual phone, not a desktop simulator.
Run the check
The original check stopped at Google’s results page. Three more minutes now go to asking the machines directly. Open ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI Mode and ask “What is [your company]?” and “What’s the best [your category] for [your customer’s need]?” You are looking for two things: whether you’re mentioned, and whether what’s said is accurate.
The check maps neatly onto MAPS. Brand search and AI descriptions test Meaning. Backlinks and third-party mentions test Authority. Rankings and AI citations test Presence. Speed, mobile and page basics test Signals. For a deeper version, run the MAPS self-assessment.
- The printable checklist (back of book)
- Which free and free-ish tools are worth your time
- How to read each result: good, bad or ugly
- Competitor comparison in five minutes
- Turning findings into three questions for your team
In the book.
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