valyra.ai SEO Audit

01Summary

We ran our own survey on our own site before offering it to anyone else. The good news: the site was secure, Lighthouse rated its SEO basics 100, it already had FAQ and business structured data and an llms.txt, and it was fast on desktop (99). The bad news was serious and invisible: every page told Google that its original was our home page, on an address the site doesn't even load from. That means none of our nine case studies could rank on its own.

The sitemap listed addresses that redirect, so all twelve pages looked missing to crawlers, every case study shared the home page's meta description, no page declared its language, and the decorative 3D lines in the hero dragged mobile speed down to 64. All of it was fixable in an afternoon. We've published this report unedited, from before the fixes, as our sample.

What matters most

1. Every page pointed Google at the home page

The canonical tag on all twelve pages said https://valyra.ai/, while the site serves from www.valyra.ai. Google is asked to treat every case study as a copy of the home page. Fix: a self-referencing canonical on every page.

2. The sitemap didn't match the live site

It listed valyra.ai/… addresses that all redirect to www, so crawlers saw twelve sitemap URLs that don't exist and twelve live pages missing from it. Fix: generate the sitemap from the www domain.

3. Slow on phones because of decoration

The animated WebGL lines behind the hero loaded a 3D library on every phone. Mobile performance scored 64, with the main content taking 3.7s. Fix: skip the effect on phones and for reduced motion.

02Scorecard

Each area is scored 0–10 against the same rubric every time, so progress can be measured at months 3 and 6.

1. Indexing & crawling

2. Technical health

3. On-page basics

4. Content

5. Structured data

6. AI search readiness

7. Links & authority

–

Not assessed in this self-survey

8. Local & where to buy

–

Not relevant: no physical premises

9. Competitors

–

Not assessed in this self-survey

10. Measurement

–

Not assessed from outside

11. Conversion

12. Platform

–

Next.js on Vercel: no platform issues

9–10 best practice · 7–8 sound · 5–6 gaps · 3–4 significant problems · 0–2 broken.

03At a glance

Platform

Next.js

server Vercel · Vercel

Lab speed (Lighthouse)

/ mobile: performance 64, LCP 3.7 s, SEO 100, accessibility 92

/ desktop: performance 99, LCP 0.9 s, SEO 100, accessibility 92

/work/ak-secure mobile: performance 90, LCP 3.5 s, SEO 100, accessibility 91

Real-user speed (Chrome UX data)

Not measured in this audit.

Crawling & AI access

robots.txt: present · sitemap: 12 URLs · llms.txt: present

AI crawlers: all allowed

How the key pages look on a phone

Mobile screenshot of /work/ak-secure — /work/ak-secure

Mobile screenshot of /work/decision-architect — /work/decision-architect

04Indexing & crawling 2/10

HTTPS is enforced and missing pages return a real 404. The problems are all in what the site tells crawlers.

criticalEvery page tells Google its original is the home page, on a different address

Why it matters: A canonical tag says 'credit that URL, not this one'. Pointing every page at the home page asks Google to ignore the case studies entirely, and pointing at the non-www address adds a redirect to every signal.

/ → https://valyra.ai/

/work/ak-secure → https://valyra.ai/

/work/hndld → https://valyra.ai/

/work/equianalytix → https://valyra.ai/

/work/gallopr → https://valyra.ai/

/work/ono-collective → https://valyra.ai/

/work/kenricks → https://valyra.ai/

/work/qs-consultancy → https://valyra.ai/

/work/decision-architect → https://valyra.ai/

/work/tote-equianalytix → https://valyra.ai/

/privacy → https://valyra.ai/

/terms → https://valyra.ai/

Fix: Make each canonical self-referencing on the primary domain.

Effort: small (hours) · Owner: Valyra

medium12 live pages missing from the sitemap

Why it matters: Pages outside the sitemap are found later, or not at all.

/privacy

/terms

/work/ak-secure

/work/decision-architect

/work/equianalytix

/work/gallopr

/work/hndld

/work/kenricks

/work/ono-collective

/work/qs-consultancy

/work/tote-equianalytix

Fix: Regenerate the sitemap so it includes every indexable page.

Effort: small (hours) · Owner: Valyra

medium12 sitemap pages not linked from the site

Why it matters: Orphan pages get little authority and look unimportant to Google.

https://valyra.ai

https://valyra.ai/privacy

https://valyra.ai/terms

https://valyra.ai/work/ak-secure

https://valyra.ai/work/decision-architect

https://valyra.ai/work/equianalytix

https://valyra.ai/work/gallopr

https://valyra.ai/work/hndld

https://valyra.ai/work/kenricks

https://valyra.ai/work/ono-collective

https://valyra.ai/work/qs-consultancy

https://valyra.ai/work/tote-equianalytix

Fix: Link to them from relevant pages, or remove them if they are obsolete.

Effort: small (hours) · Owner: Valyra

lowRedirect chain on http://valyra.ai/

Why it matters: Each extra hop wastes crawl time and a little link credit.

308 http://valyra.ai/ → 307 https://valyra.ai/ → https://www.valyra.ai/

Fix: Redirect straight to the final URL in one hop.

Effort: small (hours) · Owner: Valyra

05Technical health 6/10

Desktop performance 99 and best practices 100. The mobile score is held back by a decorative effect, not by the build.

mediumSlow main content on mobile: /

Why it matters: Core Web Vitals are a ranking signal, and slow pages lose visitors before they load.

Largest Contentful Paint 3.7s (target under 2.5s)

Performance score 64

Fix: Optimise the largest image or text block above the fold; preload it; trim scripts.

Effort: medium (days) · Owner: Valyra

mediumSlow main content on mobile: /work/ak-secure

Why it matters: Core Web Vitals are a ranking signal, and slow pages lose visitors before they load.

Largest Contentful Paint 3.51s (target under 2.5s)

Performance score 90

Fix: Optimise the largest image or text block above the fold; preload it; trim scripts.

Effort: medium (days) · Owner: Valyra

lowPage language is not declared

Why it matters: Helps search engines serve the page to the right region, and screen readers pronounce it correctly.

12 of 12 pages lack <html lang>

Fix: Set lang="en-GB" (or the right language) on the html element.

Effort: small (hours) · Owner: Valyra

low26 images are not cached by browsers

Why it matters: Repeat visitors re-download them.

/valyra_logo_long.svg

/_next/image?url=%2Fclients%2Fequianalytix.png&w=384&q=75

/_next/image?url=%2Fclients%2Fgallopr.png&w=384&q=75

/_next/image?url=%2Fclients%2Fhndld.png&w=384&q=75

/_next/image?url=%2Fclients%2Fak-secure.png&w=384&q=75

/_next/image?url=%2Fclients%2Fono.png&w=384&q=75

Fix: Set long cache lifetimes on static assets.

Effort: small (hours) · Owner: Valyra

lowRecommended security headers missing

Why it matters: Not a ranking factor, but part of a trustworthy, well-run site and checked by security-minded buyers.

x-content-type-options

referrer-policy

content-security-policy

Fix: Add the headers at the host or CDN.

Effort: small (hours) · Owner: Valyra

06On-page basics 6/10

low1 meta descriptions are duplicated

Why it matters: Duplicates read as low-effort and often get rewritten by Google.

/, /work/ak-secure, /work/hndld, /work/equianalytix

Fix: Make each description unique.

Effort: small (hours) · Owner: Valyra

lowMeta descriptions too long or too short

Why it matters: Over ~160 characters gets truncated; under ~70 wastes the space.

/ (190)

/work/ak-secure (190)

/work/hndld (190)

/work/equianalytix (190)

/work/gallopr (190)

/work/ono-collective (190)

/work/kenricks (190)

/work/qs-consultancy (190)

/work/decision-architect (190)

/work/tote-equianalytix (190)

/privacy (190)

/terms (190)

Fix: Rewrite to 140–160 characters.

Effort: small (hours) · Owner: Valyra

07Content 5/10

Case studies average about 140 words. They describe what was built but rarely the result, because we had too few verified numbers to quote. The fix is more depth and real outcomes, not filler.

medium9 key pages have under 300 words

Why it matters: Thin pages rarely rank for competitive searches and give AI tools little to quote.

/work/ak-secure (155 words)

/work/hndld (137 words)

/work/equianalytix (132 words)

/work/gallopr (137 words)

/work/ono-collective (120 words)

/work/kenricks (162 words)

/work/qs-consultancy (122 words)

/work/decision-architect (117 words)

/work/tote-equianalytix (197 words)

Fix: Expand with specifics buyers need: who it's for, how it works, proof, FAQs.

Effort: medium (days) · Owner: Valyra + client review

08Structured data 7/10

mediumCore structured data types missing

Why it matters: These are the baseline types that define who the business is and how the site is organised.

Found: {'ProfessionalService': 1, 'PostalAddress': 1, 'Country': 2, 'Person': 1, 'FAQPage': 1, 'Question': 8, 'Answer': 8}

Missing: Organization, WebSite, BreadcrumbList

Fix: Add the missing types site-wide.

Effort: small (hours) · Owner: Valyra

09AI search readiness 7/10

Good foundations already: FAQ structured data, an llms.txt, and AI crawlers allowed. The canonical problem undermined all of it.

10Links & authority

Needs analyst review. This area can't be judged by the automated checks alone.

11Local & where to buy

Needs analyst review. This area can't be judged by the automated checks alone.

12Competitors

Needs analyst review. This area can't be judged by the automated checks alone.

13Measurement

Needs analyst review. This area can't be judged by the automated checks alone.

14Conversion 6/10

A working enquiry form and clear calls to action, but no free survey or check for visitors with an existing site, which is where most enquiries now start.

mediumNo route in for visitors who already have a website

Why it matters: Most businesses already have a site. Telling WordPress owners we don't do WordPress turns away the work they actually need.

Every call to action asks visitors to start a new project

FAQ: 'Do you use templates or WordPress? No.'

Fix: Add a free survey offer and say plainly that we improve existing sites, WordPress included.

Effort: medium (days) · Owner: Valyra

15Platform

No issues found in this area.

16Fix list

Every issue, most serious first. Quick wins are marked ★.

#	Issue	Area	Severity	Effort	Owner
1 ★	Every page tells Google its original is the home page, on a different address	1	critical	S	Valyra
2 ★	12 live pages missing from the sitemap	1	medium	S	Valyra
3 ★	12 sitemap pages not linked from the site	1	medium	S	Valyra
4 ★	Slow main content on mobile: /	2	medium	M	Valyra
5	Slow main content on mobile: /work/ak-secure	2	medium	M	Valyra
6	9 key pages have under 300 words	4	medium	M	Valyra + client review
7 ★	Core structured data types missing	5	medium	S	Valyra
8	No route in for visitors who already have a website	11	medium	M	Valyra
9	Redirect chain on http://valyra.ai/	1	low	S	Valyra
10 ★	Page language is not declared	2	low	S	Valyra
11	26 images are not cached by browsers	2	low	S	Valyra
12	Recommended security headers missing	2	low	S	Valyra
13 ★	1 meta descriptions are duplicated	3	low	S	Valyra
14	Meta descriptions too long or too short	3	low	S	Valyra

17The plan

When	Focus
Same day	Self-referencing www canonicals, a www sitemap, page language, one description per page, WebSite, Organization and breadcrumb structured data, and the hero effect skipped on phones.
Next	A rebuilt site around what we now offer: SEO and AI search for existing sites including WordPress, a free survey, a live condition check, and deeper case studies with real results.
Month 3	Re-survey against this report and publish the comparison.

19Next steps

The same-day fixes are done. Mobile performance on the corrected build measured 90.
This report is published as-is so you can see exactly what a Valyra survey looks like.

20Method & limits

Measured: passive crawl of 12 pages and 35 linked files; domain, redirect, robots.txt, sitemap and llms.txt checks; browser rendering and screenshots of 3 key pages (mobile and desktop); Lighthouse lab tests on 3 page/device combinations; structured data extraction; technology and platform detection.

Not measured in this audit: real-user speed data (needs a PageSpeed API key); Google Search Console (indexed pages, real queries, clicks); analytics and conversion data; CMS admin and server checks; keyword search volumes (needs a keyword data source); full backlink profile (needs Search Console or a backlink tool); links and authority, competitors and measurement were not assessed in this self-survey.

Page inventory

Page	Status	Title	Words (HTML)	H1s	Schema
/	200	Valyra \| Bespoke websites and web apps, UAE & UK	1685	1	Answer, Country, FAQPage, Person, PostalAddress, ProfessionalService, Question
/work/ak-secure	200	Case Study: AK Touch Secure \| Valyra	155	1	—
/work/hndld	200	Case Study: HNDLD \| Valyra	137	1	—
/work/equianalytix	200	Case Study: EquiAnalytix \| Valyra	132	1	—
/work/gallopr	200	Case Study: Gallopr \| Valyra	137	1	—
/work/ono-collective	200	Case Study: ONO Collective \| Valyra	120	1	—
/work/kenricks	200	Case Study: Kenrick \| Valyra	162	1	—
/work/qs-consultancy	200	Case Study: Dylan Evans QS Consultancy \| Valyra	122	1	—
/work/decision-architect	200	Case Study: Decision Architect Framework \| Valyra	117	1	—
/work/tote-equianalytix	200	Case Study: Tote × EquiAnalytix \| Valyra	197	1	—
/privacy	200	Privacy Policy \| Valyra FZ-LLC	402	1	—
/terms	200	Terms of Use \| Valyra FZ-LLC	312	1	—