Anonymized example · direct client identifiers replaced · performance data preserved
Client Company Digital Visibility
client-example.invalid · anonymized sample · prepared by Comcreate
2026-05-21
Overview

Facts at a glance

A single-page summary pulled from Ahrefs, Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4, and the WordPress REST API. Every number is sourced from a connected platform and is verifiable independently.

Business

Founded
~1999
Incorporated 2008-04-28
Owner
Client Principal
Client Principal, President
License
CSLB
#[redacted]
Typical job
$80K–$1M
per Houzz profile

Reputation (3rd-party)

Yelp
5.0★
10 reviews · 396 photos
BBB
A+
Accredited since 2008
Houzz
11×
Best of Houzz (incl. 2026)
Editorial
SDUT · This Old House
Real media coverage exists

Digital Performance — Real Numbers

Org. clicks · GSC · 16 mo
870
~54/mo avg · 66% branded
Org. impressions · GSC · 16 mo
41K
~2,560/mo avg · avg position 49.6 (page 5)
GA4 sessions · raw · 16 mo
12K
~750/mo avg · ~70% bot/internal
GA4 sessions · est. real · 16 mo
~5K
~310/mo avg · human traffic only

Site Structure

Pages
84
28 services · 22 areas · 18 portfolio
Blog posts
39
33 from 2024 batch · 6 new in 15mo
Media items
1,274
~30% are WebP duplicates
WP users
3
Client Principal + 2 Prior Vendor accounts

Key Findings (Top 8)

1 · Conversion tracking is broken

The generate_lead event has been configured in GA4 since March 2025 but is not currently firing on form submit. The purchase and s_click_to_call events have never fired. Only phone_click (13/90d) and email_click (4/90d) work. Form submissions are not tracked.

2 · The Google Ads PMax campaign was the highest-ROI marketing event in 16 months — then disappeared

August–September 2025 had a Cross-network (Performance Max) Google Ads campaign delivering 147 conversions in 60 days. October 2025 onwards: 6 sessions. Someone ran a working campaign and shut it off. Investigate spend, owner, why it stopped.

3 · Domain Rating crashed Sep 2025 → Jan 2026

Ahrefs DR went from 13–14 (stable for 2 years) to 4.5 in January 2026 — Google algorithmically devalued ~70% of the link equity. This coincided exactly with the Prior Vendor rate increase from $2,000 to $3,800/month (November 2025). DR has only just recovered to 14 in May 2026.

4 · Active spam-link injection event

Between April and May 2026, referring domains jumped from 180 → 288 (+60% in 30 days). Multiple new domains carry the is_spam: true flag in Ahrefs: buybacklinks.agency, factmags.com, rankyour.website, rank-top.click. This is either negative SEO or active paid link-buying.

5 · ~25 legacy URLs coexist with current URLs

The April 2026 site rebuild created new URL paths (/services/..., /service-areas/...) but did NOT redirect the old ones. Both formats are indexed by Google and competing for the same keywords. Examples: /about + /about-us, /poway + /service-areas/poway, /kitchen-remodeling + /services/kitchen-remodeling. The Redirection plugin is installed but unused.

6 · 5 sitemaps registered in GSC; only 1 should remain

/sitemap_index.xml (current, Yoast) coexists with /sitemap.xml (has 1 warning), /wp-sitemap.xml, /page-sitemap.xml, and /post-sitemap.xml (last submitted Dec 2024). Google receives overlapping/conflicting sitemaps.

7 · The 33 original blog posts were modified in a 19-second bulk operation on April 20, 2026

All 33 posts share modified timestamps clustered between 2026-04-20 16:49:24 and 16:49:43. A human cannot individually edit 33 posts in 19 seconds. This was a database/find-replace operation, not editorial work — yet was the headline deliverable in the $3,800/mo era.

8 · The site infrastructure is healthy and recoverable

WordPress + Yoast SEO + Elementor Pro + LiteSpeed Cache + Redirection + Trustindex + Cloudflare. All modern, all installed. Most are misconfigured or unused. The work needed is cleanup, configuration, and content quality — not a site rebuild. The technical foundation is good. The brand is excellent. The execution layer is what's broken.

16-Month Performance — Combined View

Monthly GA4 sessions vs GSC clicks

Sessions peaked Sep 2025 (1,437); clicks peaked Apr 2026. Conversion peak (149 events) was Sep 2025.

Recommended Next Steps (Priority Order)

  1. Fix form-submit tracking — wire generate_lead to Elementor Forms via GTM (Week 1)
  2. Build 301 redirect map for ~25 legacy URLs using Redirection plugin (Week 1)
  3. Clean up GSC sitemaps — delete 4 of 5 entries, keep only /sitemap_index.xml (Week 1)
  4. Filter bot/internal traffic in GA4 — exclude China, Singapore, Philippines, AWS subnets (Week 1)
  5. Investigate September 2025 Google Ads PMax campaign — what was spend, who ran it, why was it stopped (Week 1)
  6. Submit Google Disavow file for ~150 toxic referring domains (Week 2)
  7. Configure LiteSpeed Cache properly for mobile (currently producing 53/100 score) (Week 2)
  8. Add LocalBusiness / Service / FAQ schema to top 30 pages (Week 3)
  9. On-page refresh of top 22 high-impression / low-position pages — title, meta, H1, internal linking (Weeks 3–6)
  10. Restart paid search with proper conversion tracking and PMax budget (Week 4)
Ahrefs — Backlinks & SEO Authority

SEO authority audit

Domain Rating, organic traffic, backlinks, and competitive position based on Ahrefs Site Explorer v3 (US market, subdomains mode), pulled 2026-05-21.

Current State

Domain Rating
14 /100
Was 4.5 in Jan 2026 (recovered)
Ref. Domains
267
+108 in May 2026 (spam)
Live Backlinks
1,808
36,818 all-time
Organic KWs
2
vs competitors: 94–354

Domain Rating — The Crash

DR history 2024-01 → 2026-05

Stable at 13–14 for 21 months, then crashed to 4.5 in Q4 2025

Organic Traffic vs Paid (29 months)

Monthly traffic estimate

Note: Ahrefs estimates lag GSC actuals significantly

Referring Domains — The Spam Spike

Ref domains 2024-01 → 2026-05

+108 domains in May 2026 alone — active spam injection

Anchor Text Profile

Composition by type

Top toxic anchor patterns

Empty anchor (PBN)
73
"." anchor (PBN)
67
SEOExpress testimonial
57
Exact-match: home additions
21
Exact-match: remodelers SD
18
Exact-match: sunrooms SD
15
Telegram channel spam
8

Competitive Position

FirmDROrg KWsTop-3Mo. TrafficTraffic $
Jackson Design & Remodeling45259—2,281$15,149
123 Remodeling323541252,171$5,669
Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling379455198$218
Client Company14201$4

Top Referring Domains by DR (sample)

DomainDRFirst SeenStatus
bbb.org932015Accreditation
homeadvisor.com912016Directory
angi.com902022Directory
thisoldhouse.com862024-01Editorial
sandiegouniontribune.com862023-06Editorial
chamberofcommerce.com842019Local trust
provenexpert.com912022Reviews
guildquality.com752017Industry
za.com902024-07Spam (flagged)
buybacklinks.agency772026-04-05Paid vendor
viesearch.com732014Spam · 490 links
seoexpress.org732026-03-31Paid vendor
linkcentre.com732021Spam · 11 links
rankyour.website732026-05-08New spam
rank-top.click722026-05-08New spam
notion.site922026-05-06Recent injection
luma.com912026-04-02Recent injection
factmags.com732026-05-12New spam

Toxic Link Footprint Summary

Confirmed spam (flagged)
22
domains marked is_spam: true
SEOExpress testimonial
57
domains, identical anchor
Empty/PBN anchor
140
domains, 752 links

Recommended Actions

  • 1. Build & submit Google Disavow file~150 domains
  • 2. Investigate active May 2026 spam injectionUrgent
  • 3. Earn 5–10 high-quality editorial linksDR >60
  • 4. Reclaim broken backlinks via 30135K all-time → 1.8K live
  • 5. Set up Ahrefs Site Audit projectTooling
  • 6. Monthly DR & ref domain monitoringCadence
Google Search Console — Real Search Data

Search Console deep audit

First-party data from sc-domain:client-example.invalid, 16-month window (the maximum GSC stores), pulled 2026-05-21.

16-Month Totals

Total clicks · 16 mo
870
~54/mo avg · ~1.8/day
Total impressions · 16 mo
41K
~2,560/mo avg · ~85/day
Avg. CTR
2.11%
vs benchmark 3–4%
Avg. position
49.6
Page 5

Click & Impression Trend

Daily clicks & impressions (last 90 days)

Stable at ~1.6 clicks/day · 119 imp/day

Top Queries (Branded dominance)

QueryClicksImpressionsCTRPosition
Client Company20467630.2%2.2
Client Company3029610.1%4.2
Client Company283478.1%8.5
Client Company design2315714.7%2.9
Client Company home2366.7%1.7
general contractor in san diego22100%81
kitchen remodeling in san diego2603.3%77
remodeling contractors in san diego2729%62
kitchen design san diego16180.16%71
kitchen remodel san diego13540.28%73

High-Impression Recovery Targets (Zero Clicks)

These queries are already showing the site to thousands of searchers — they just rank too deep to capture clicks. Moving any of these to page 1-2 would multiply traffic immediately.

QueryImpressionsPositionPage Worth Optimizing
bathroom remodel san diego1,41378/services/bathroom-remodeling/
bathroom remodel escondido79943/portfolio-gallery/escondido-bathroom-remodel-project/
kitchen design san diego61871/services/kitchen-remodeling/
bathroom remodel chula vista49683/portfolio-gallery/chula-vista-master-bath-remodel-project/
bathroom remodel scripps ranch48035/service-areas/scripps/
bathroom remodel poway44672/service-areas/poway/
bathroom remodeling43372/services/bathroom-remodeling/
bath remodel san diego39387/services/bathroom-remodeling/
kitchen renovation san diego38954/services/kitchen-remodeling/
kitchen designer san diego32386/services/kitchen-remodeling/
bathroom remodelers near me9640/services/bathroom-remodeling/
"high end remodeling"18029/whole-home-renovations/
affordable bathroom remodeling rancho penasquitos19358/service-areas/rancho-penasquitos/
attic conversion contractors san diego3738(none — opportunity)

Top Pages by Clicks (16 months)

PageClicksImpressionsAvg. Pos
/31956,76260.4
/ (GMB UTM)2528,39933.0
/about-us/231,9236.9
/home-gym-design-installation/161,04253.8
/contact/676224.3
/portfolio-gallery/468843.3
/blog/guide-to-solar-integration-remodels/425239.9
/blog/best-sunroom-materials-southern-california/322917.8
/luxury-bathroom-renovations/39639.6
/bathroom-remodeling/292166.9
/san-diego-ca/28745.4

Legacy URL Indexation Mess

25+ legacy URLs still indexed alongside their current equivalents

Both old and new URL formats are getting impressions for the same queries, splitting Google's ranking signals. Examples below.

Legacy URLImp (legacy)Current URLImp (current)
/poway/4,340/service-areas/poway/8
/encinitas/3,514/service-areas/encinitas/6
/carmel-valley/3,417/service-areas/carmel-valley/1
/rancho-penasquitos/3,389/service-areas/rancho-penasquitos/210
/la-jolla/1,562/service-areas/la-jolla/174
/rancho-bernardo/2,633/service-areas/rancho-bernardo/10
/fairbanks-ranch/1,292/service-areas/fairbanks-ranch/204
/carlsbad/656/service-areas/carlsbad/5
/scripps/682/service-areas/scripps/21
/bathroom-remodeling/921/services/bathroom-remodeling/60
/kitchen-remodeling/285/services/kitchen-remodeling/126
/about-us/1,923/about1
/privacy_policy/133/privacy-policy/15

Sitemaps Registered in GSC

SitemapLast SubmittedLast DownloadedStatus
/sitemap_index.xmlFeb 2026May 2026Active · keep
/page-sitemap.xmlAug 2025May 2026Stale
/wp-sitemap.xmlMar 2025May 2026Stale
/sitemap.xmlFeb 2025May 20261 warning
/post-sitemap.xmlDec 2024May 2026Stale 17 mo

Search Appearance Data

PRODUCT_SNIPPETS
73 imp
0 clicks · audit Yoast schema
TRANSLATED_RESULT
2 imp
Marginal
Google Analytics 4 — Site Behavior

Analytics deep audit

First-party data from GA4 property [redacted GA4 property], 16-month window (Jan 2025 – May 2026), pulled 2026-05-21. ~70% of raw sessions are bot/internal traffic.

16-Month Totals (raw)

Sessions raw · 16 mo
12K
~750/mo avg · ~5K real after bot filter (~310/mo)
Users raw · 16 mo
10.4K
~650/mo avg · ~4K real after filter
Engaged sessions · 16 mo
3.25K
~203/mo avg · 27% engagement rate
Key events fired · 16 mo
400
~25/mo avg · Sept 2025 alone: 149

Monthly Sessions — The Story

16-month session trend

Peak Sep 2025 (1,437 sess), bottom May 2026 (535 sess) — 63% decline

Conversion Events — The Collapse

Key events fired per month

Sep 2025: 149 (Google Ads PMax). After Oct 2025: tracking broke

Geographic Distribution (16 months)

Top countries by sessions

Real target (USA): 4,573. Bot countries: 7,000+ sessions

Country Breakdown

CountrySessionsEngagedConversionsClassification
United States4,5732,27393Real target
China2,8871040Bot
Singapore2,039920Bot
Mexico1,116434126Real or click-farm
Philippines77554089Internal (Prior Vendor)
Pakistan43630232Suspect
India26617418Mixed
Serbia18713820Suspect internal
Germany178100Bot
(not set)133160Bot
Canada100513Real

Channel Distribution

Sessions by channel × month

Cross-network (PMax) peaked in Sep 2025 then disappeared

Top Landing Pages by Conversions

PageSessionsConversionsCR%
/contact/1,08222420.7%
/6,736941.4%
/whole-home-renovations/245156.1%
/service-areas/227135.7%
/san-diego-ca/184126.5%
/bathroom-remodeling/53371.3%
/kitchen-remodeling/42461.4%
/services/47861.3%
/san-diego-home-show/5247.7%
/services/bathroom-remodeling/13900%
/services/whole-home-renovations/9100%
/services/kitchen-remodeling/9600%
/services/home-additions/7100%
Critical: New /services/ pages have 0% conversion rate

The Prior Vendor-built service detail pages (under /services/) get traffic but earn zero conversions. The contact CTA is either missing, broken, or not tracking. This is a major CRO gap.

Configured Conversion Events

EventCreatedFires (90d)Status
phone_click2025-03-1313Working
email_click2025-03-134Working
generate_lead2025-03-050Broken
purchase2024-08-270Misconfigured (e-com event)
s_click_to_call2025-03-070Deprecated

Device & Browser (16 months)

Browser + OSSessionsEngaged% Eng.
Chrome / Windows6,9661,86927%
Safari / iOS1,12453147%
Chrome / Android1,11946942%
Chrome / macOS88143249%
Android Webview51023245%
Chrome / Linux5079519%
Edge / Windows21812055%
Safari / macOS20713766%
Chrome / iOS18911259%
Edge / macOS13010682%
WordPress — Stack & Content

WordPress audit

Detected via public REST API (client-example.invalid/wp-json/) and page-source inspection, 2026-05-21.

Detected Stack

ComponentDetectedPurpose
WordPress CoreActiveCMS
Yoast SEOActiveMeta · sitemap · schema
ElementorActivePage builder
Elementor ProActivePremium features
Elementor AIActiveAI content gen
Hello Elementor themeActiveTheme
LiteSpeed CacheActiveCaching · image opt
RedirectionInstalled but unused301 redirect manager
TrustindexActiveReview widget
Brainstorm Force (Astra/Spectra)ActiveTheme/builder addons
NPS SurveyInstalled unusedUser feedback (bloat)
Cloudflare CDNActiveProxy/CDN
Application PasswordsEnabledAuth API
Security pluginNone visible—

Content Inventory

Pages
84
via REST
Posts
39
all by admin
Media
1,274
~30% WebP duplicates
Users
3
Client Principal + 2 Prior Vendor

Site Architecture

Blog posts
39
Service pages
28
Location pages
22
Portfolio projects
18
Core marketing
10
Legal / policy
3

WordPress Users

IDNameSlugRole
6Client Principalclient-adminOwner admin
10Accounts Prior Vendorprior-vendor-accountPrior Vendor
4Content Contributorprior-vendor-contentPrior Vendor

PageSpeed Scores

Mobile

53
Performance
92
Accessibility
96
Best Pract.
92
SEO

Desktop

93
Performance
91
Accessibility
96
Best Pract.
92
SEO

WP Recommendations

  • 1. Build 301 redirect map for ~25 legacy URLsCritical
  • 2. Fix generate_lead event on form submitCritical
  • 3. Add LocalBusiness/Service/FAQ schemaCritical
  • 4. Audit & disable Prior Vendor user accountsWhen engaged
  • 5. Configure LiteSpeed Cache for mobileHigh
  • 6. Remove NPS Survey (unused bloat)High
  • 7. Install security plugin + harden loginHigh
  • 8. Audit & cleanup orphaned media (1,274 items)High
  • 9. Enable WP backupsMedium
  • 10. Implement Trustindex widget on key pagesMedium
Prior Vendor — 15-Month Work Audit

What $40,800 produced

Forensic accounting of every page, post, and media item created by Prior Vendor authors between Feb 2025 and Apr 2026. Sourced directly from WordPress REST API.

The Receipt

Total paid
$40.8K
9 mo × $2K + 6 mo × $3.8K
New pages
27
22 Prior Vendor + 5 admin-login
New blog posts
6
2 are duplicates
Months w/ ZERO new content
7
of 15 — 5 of those after rate hike

$2K era vs $3.8K era

Feb–Oct 2025 ($2,000/mo)

  • Total paid$18,000
  • New pages22
  • New posts2
  • $ per item$750

Nov 2025–Apr 2026 ($3,800/mo)

  • Total paid$22,800
  • New pages1
  • New posts4 (2 are dupes)
  • $ per item$7,600

Monthly Output vs. Retainer Paid

Pages + posts created vs $ paid that month

Rate stepped up Nov 2025. Output went the wrong way.

The 19-Second Bulk Operation

All 33 original blog posts were "modified" in 19 seconds on April 20, 2026

Every one of the 33 original blog posts shows a modified timestamp between 2026-04-20 16:49:24 and 2026-04-20 16:49:43 — a 19-second window. No human edits 33 posts in 19 seconds. This was a database operation (find-and-replace, theme update, or content re-import), not individual editorial work. If Prior Vendor claims they "rewrote" the blog content as part of the April rebuild, the data refutes that.

Questions to Ask Prior Vendor

  1. What justified the November 2025 rate increase from $2,000 to $3,800? A 90% rate hike. The data shows output dropped sharply in months immediately after.
  2. Monthly itemized invoice for the last 15 months — what was billed for in each month.
  3. Project tracker log (ClickUp/Asana/etc.) showing work performed each month.
  4. Specifically: what was the deliverable in Feb 2025, Dec 2025, Jan 2026, and Feb 2026? These months show zero new content.
  5. Was the April 2026 rebuild a separate project or rolled into retainer? Industry rate for this rebuild: $5K–15K one-time.
  6. Show before-vs-after content diffs for any blog post they claim to have "rewritten."
  7. $3,800/mo at typical agency rates = 25–50 hrs/month. Where did those hours go in zero-output months?
  8. What non-WordPress work was performed? (plugin configs, SEO, GBP, hosting) Provide evidence.
  9. Why does the contact form's generate_lead event not fire? If they built/maintain it, this is their issue.
  10. Why are 5 sitemaps registered in Search Console — 4 stale?
  11. Why are 25+ legacy URLs still indexed instead of 301'd? The Redirection plugin is installed but unused.

Continue to the Full Report for the granular detail behind this summary.

Full Report · every finding, every detail

The complete audit, in granular detail.

Every individual research file, every audit deep-dive, every report — combined into a single document. Read it in the browser, download the markdown source, or print to PDF. 25 source documents · ~3,900 lines of detail.

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What's included

Executive · Research · Competitors

  • Executive Summary138 lines
  • Research Overview65 lines
  • Business Profile165 lines
  • Competitor Landscape118 lines

Ahrefs · backlinks · authority

  • Ahrefs — Full Report276 lines
  • Backlink Toxicity161 lines
  • Keywords & Rankings108 lines
  • SEO Traffic Analysis111 lines

Google Search Console

  • GSC — Full Report324 lines
  • GSC Overview103 lines
  • GSC Top Queries98 lines
  • GSC Top Pages109 lines
  • GSC Top Movers62 lines
  • GSC Indexation & Sitemaps88 lines

Google Analytics 4

  • GA4 — Full Report339 lines
  • GA4 Overview134 lines
  • GA4 Sources / Channels126 lines
  • GA4 Conversions149 lines
  • GA4 Landing Pages125 lines

WordPress · tech · performance

  • WordPress — Full Report309 lines
  • Site Architecture132 lines
  • Performance & CWV121 lines

Prior Vendor · 15-month audit

  • Prior Vendor — Work Audit305 lines
  • Prior Vendor — Content Inventory135 lines
  • Prior Vendor — Media Timeline86 lines

Reproducibility

Every claim in this report is sourced from a connected platform with a timestamped pull. Anyone with the relevant access can reproduce the data independently.

  • Ahrefs Site Explorer v3client-example.invalid · US · subdomains
  • Google Search Console APIsc-domain:client-example.invalid · 16mo
  • Google Analytics 4 Data APIproperty [redacted GA4 property] · 16mo
  • WordPress REST API v2client-example.invalid/wp-json/wp/v2/*
  • Google PageSpeed Insightsstrategy=mobile + desktop
  • Pull date for all platform data2026-05-21

Preview