Case study · our own site · 30–31 October 2026
Semrush case study: 641 errors to 1 in five fix passes.
You cannot grade your own homework. So we pointed Semrush at guidedsuccessacademy.com, fixed what mattered over five passes, and published the before and after. Semrush is the referee. Our report is the playbook.
- Pages crawled491
- Warnings1,002
- Broken pages41
- Site health75%
- Pages crawled324
- Warnings491
- Broken pages0
- Site health94%
Semrush site audit before: 491 pages, 641 errors, 1,002 warnings, 41 broken pages, 75% site health
Semrush site audit after: 324 pages, 1 error, 491 warnings, 0 broken pages, 94% site healthWhat changed
Five fix passes removed the defects that were blocking discovery and delivery. That took the error count from 641 to 1, broken pages from 41 to 0, and site health from 75% to 94%.
| Signal | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Errors | 641 | 1 |
| Warnings | 1,002 | 491 |
| Broken pages | 41 | 0 |
| Site health | 75% | 94% |
Why we stopped at 1 error and 491 warnings
Because the remaining list was not the same kind of work. Most of it was not a growth decision. We did not strip legitimate links, hide pages or add filler copy just to make a score look clean.
We do not sell audits by the issue count. We sell the order that moves growth. The remaining warnings stay in the fix log; they are not the first decision.
Why we used a competitor’s tool
If we used our own audit, you could rightly ask whether we tuned it. A competitor’s tool has no reason to flatter us. It is the referee. Our report is the playbook: the page to fix first, what it is worth, and the order.
The referee does not coach the team. The playbook does.
What this proves — and what it does not
We can find, publish and fix real defects at scale. The same standard runs your report.
We cannot guarantee rankings, traffic, leads or revenue. The report is evidence and a decision, not an outcome promise.
This is not a client result. It is our own site, audited with a third-party tool. The page count fell from 491 to 324 as the crawl followed the current live set; the comparison is reported as observed, not as a guarantee.
What the numbers mean
A 641-to-1 error drop is not a vanity score. It means the site stopped sending visitors into dead ends. Broken pages, missing signals and delivery failures are the floor. A site cannot compound if the basics are still leaking.
The 75-to-94 health move is the same story from the other direction: fewer pages are failing the basics, and more of the site is in a state where a search visitor can actually arrive, read and act.
What we did not do
- We did not hide pages to make the error count look better.
- We did not strip legitimate links or remove useful outbound references.
- We did not add filler text just to lift a ratio.
- We did not sell a 491-item cleanup as the first decision.
That is the discipline behind the report. The first job is not to make an audit score perfect. The first job is to remove what blocks growth, then rank what remains.
What this means for your report
You get the pages that are already visible but not being chosen. Not every technical warning on the site.
You get the first three moves, the evidence behind them and the measurement window. The rest waits for its turn.
The page count fell from 491 to 324 because the second scan followed the current live set. That is a scope change, not a claim that 167 pages were “fixed.” We publish that distinction because a clean-looking number is not the same as a clean site.
The one question to ask any audit
Does it name the page to fix first? If the answer is a dashboard, a 120-item list or a score, it has not made the decision. A useful audit leaves you with one page, one action and one measurement.
What happens next
Grant read-only Search Console access. No password, no site access.
See the first leak and the report shape before you pay.
03 · Choose the depth. X-Ray gives you the list. Blueprint gives you the decision. Command gives you the long window and the re-check. The report is the product; the score is only the entrance.
Want the same discipline on your site?
Start with the Revenue-Leak Audit. One read-only connection, seven signals, one fix order.