A systematic technical SEO audit and remediation pass can bring client sites from industry-average health scores (~78) to near-perfect scores (99–100). This work is a prerequisite for content and traffic initiatives — a technically sound site ensures that subsequent SEO and ad investments are not undermined by crawl errors, broken links, or misconfigured metadata.
In March 2026, [1] completed this kind of optimization push across their full client portfolio, achieving scores of 99–100 on the majority of managed sites.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Industry average site health score | ~78 |
| Target after optimization | 99–100 |
| Tool used | Ahrefs (health score) + Surfer SEO (content) |
Sites brought to 99–100 health scores during this push:
Sites with complicating factors:
- PaperTube — Shopify site (platform constraints)
- Diddy — persistent issues, not yet resolved
A perfect health score is necessary but not sufficient. [2] illustrates this clearly: after reaching a 100 health score, the site had no organic keywords and no traffic. Technical optimization removes blockers; content and paid traffic are still required to generate results.
"The site's in really good shape now. It's at a hundred, but we don't have any keywords or traffic. We need to get some content on there." — Mark Hope
The recommended sequence after achieving a high health score:
1. Content creation — publish targeted blog posts and landing pages
2. Paid ads — run Google or LinkedIn campaigns to seed traffic while organic builds
3. Google Merchant Center (for e-commerce clients) — configure product feeds for free Shopping impressions
A separate but related issue surfaced during this work: Asymmetric's own site had experienced organic traffic decline because AI-generated blog posts were published without proper optimization and were subsequently de-indexed by Google.
Remediation approach:
1. Audit existing posts in Surfer SEO
2. Refresh and optimize each post to meet quality standards
3. Submit re-indexing requests via Google Search Console
This is a generalizable risk for any client or internal site that used bulk AI content generation without a human optimization layer. See [3] for more detail.
1. Run site audit (Ahrefs or equivalent)
2. Triage issues by severity — fix blockers first (broken links, redirect chains, missing meta)
3. Address remaining issues site-by-site until score reaches 99+
4. Log completion in project management tool (ClickUp / Slack update)
5. Transition to content + traffic phase