Technical SEO Audit — Pre-Engagement Diagnosis

Tour operator · Peru (English-speaking markets: US, UK, CA, AU)

Completed · Maia Del Basso · PeakCore · 2026

The result

Full technical diagnosis delivered before first meeting · Competitive intelligence across 3 domains · Critical issues identified and prioritized · Strategic roadmap defined

Context

A Peruvian tour operator with 17 years of experience and over 2,500 TripAdvisor reviews (Top 10% worldwide, 2025) was launching a brand-new WordPress website targeting English-speaking adventure travelers. The new domain had zero authority, no SEO foundation, and critical technical issues — while the parent brand had accumulated DA 33 over 15 years.

This case documents the pre-engagement audit methodology: how to diagnose a site, benchmark it against direct competitors, and define a prioritized action plan — before any implementation begins.

The audit methodology

Layer 1 — Stack & Architecture Detection

• CMS detection via WhatCMS: WordPress 6.8.2 confirmed — same stack as auditor's own sites
• Theme identified: Travel Content Kit v1.1.2 with ACF — custom travel theme with multiple JS-heavy components
• CDN and server: Amazon CloudFront + Apache 2.4.58 on Ubuntu
• Security plugins: none detected — critical gap for a site handling international traveler data

Layer 2 — Core Web Vitals & Performance

• PageSpeed Insights run on mobile and desktop — full metrics captured with datestamp
• Root cause analysis of TBT: travel-swiper.js and travel-components.js loading without defer on every page