The Free-Audit Before-and-After Test
Run a free SEO audit, pay to fix the list, then re-test to prove the lift.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 80%
Shukla's simplest SEO play for a business owner: take your URL, drop it into any free SEO analysis or audit tool, and get back a list of problems. You don't need to understand them — hand that list to a developer (from India, the UK, anywhere), pay to have the problems fixed, then run the audit again as a before-and-after test to see if your on-page SEO improved. The whole process can be that simple. His underlying message is: don't be afraid to hire, because you don't know what you don't know, and a diagnostic tool plus a developer closes that gap cheaply.
Origin
Shukla distilled his agency's own client process — the exact steps businesses come to Pearl Lemon for — into a self-serve loop any owner can run with free tools and a hired developer.
Core principles
- 01Free SEO audit tools surface your site's problems for you.
- 02You don't need to understand the fixes to hand them to a developer.
- 03A before/after test proves whether the work actually improved your SEO.
- 04Don't be afraid to hire — you don't know what you don't know.
How to run it
- 1
Run a free audit on your URL
Put your website into any free SEO analysis or audit tool to generate a list of problems.
- 2
Export the problem list
Capture the full list of issues the tool reports — this is your work order even if you don't understand the items.
- 3
Pay a developer to fix them
Hand the list to a developer and pay to have the problems fixed. Their location doesn't matter.
Pro tip Don't be afraid to hire — you don't know what you don't know, and that's fine.
- 4
Re-test to prove the lift
Run the audit again after the fixes to confirm your on-page SEO actually improved.
Pro tip The before/after comparison is what turns a guess into evidence.
In the wild
Shukla's illustration: if you're Frank's Coffee Shop, drop your URL into a free SEO audit tool, get the list of problems, present it to a developer to fix, then run another test.
→ The before-and-after test shows whether on-page SEO improved — a repeatable loop businesses hire agencies like his to run.
Common mistakes
Being afraid to hire
Owners stall because they think they must understand the fixes themselves, when handing a problem list to a developer is faster and cheaper.
Skipping the re-test
Fixing issues without running the after-audit leaves you guessing whether the work actually moved your SEO.
Is it for you?
Best for
Small-business owners who want measurable SEO improvement without becoming SEO experts.
Not ideal for
Complex sites needing strategic content and link work beyond technical on-page fixes.
From the transcript
“Park your Frank's coffee shop into any free SEO analysis or free SEO audit tool and present those list of problems to a developer... run…”
“Don't be afraid to hire someone... I could try and fix these issues but I don't know what I don't know.”
From the episode
Deepak Shukla: Ranking No.1 In Life & On Google
Deepak Shukla