The brief
Before opening a reporting dashboard or a large crawler, I find it useful to look at the website itself. An initial browser review helps frame the questions the deeper audit should answer.
How I approach the project
Inspect the actual page
Begin with the visible experience and browser tools. Check the page structure, important content, links, basic metadata and usability across screen sizes.
Identify questions for deeper checks
A first pass is not a complete SEO audit. It helps determine what to verify next with dedicated tooling, such as indexing, crawl behaviour, content relevance and measured performance.
Document the next steps
I prefer a concise list of observations, open questions and priorities instead of claiming a website is optimised after one inspection. The original walkthrough shows how I start that process.
What matters most
The point of the first audit pass is to avoid assumptions. A good investigation starts with the site and becomes more specific as the evidence improves.