How to Install seo-audit: Rank Your SEO Problems by the Clicks They Cost You

You run an SEO audit. It hands you 412 "issues." Missing alt text on a page nobody visits sits right next to a broken page that used to bring in half your leads. Same red dot. Same panic.

That's the problem seo-audit fixes. It pulls your real Google Search Console clicks, crawls your site, and joins the two. Every problem comes with the traffic at stake, ranked from "fix this now" to "meh."

We installed it on Oct 31, 2026. Here's the setup, including the two gotchas that will trip you.

Quick words (one line each):

• MCP server: a plug-in that gives an AI assistant like Claude new tools it can run for you.

• Crawl: a program visiting every page of your site, like Google does.

• Search Console: Google's free dashboard showing which searches bring people to your site.

• Service account: a robot Google login that a tool uses instead of your personal account.

• npx: a command that downloads and runs a Node.js tool in one go.

Step 1: Do a 60-second safety check

Here's what seo-audit looked like when we checked it on Oct 31, 2026:

1. Licence: Apache-2.0. Free to use, including for client work. Keep the licence and notice files if you ship its code.

2. Last commit: Oct 31, 2026. Over 100 commits since Aug 1. Very active.

3. Stars: 88, with 7 forks (as of Oct 31, 2026).

4. Age: created Jul 20, 2026. Young and changing fast, so pin a version that works (we tested v0.17.0).

5. Costs: the core is free. The CRUX_API_KEY (real-user speed data) is free. DataForSEO and Majestic are optional paid add-ons. Leave them empty and those tools simply switch off.

Step 2: Make the free Google robot login

The audit needs a free Google Cloud service account with a JSON key file. The repo's manual/getting-started.md walks a completely fresh computer through it.

The step everybody misses (the README calls it out): copy the service account's email address and add it as a user on your Search Console property (Settings > Users and permissions). Skip this and the tool sees nothing.

Treat the JSON key like a password. Don't paste it in chats or save it in shared notes.

Step 3: Install it

Nothing to clone. You need Node.js 20 or newer.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add seo-audit-console --env GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/path/key.json -- npx -y @houtini/seo-audit-console

Claude Desktop: in the config file, add a server with the command npx -y @houtini/seo-audit-console and set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS to the path of your key file.

Step 4: Know the two gotchas

We hit both on Oct 31, 2026:

1. It's big. About 1.1 GB of packages, because it ships local machine-learning libraries. Install it on a machine with room.

2. npm 11 blocks install scripts by default. The SQLite part (better-sqlite3) didn't build. We fixed it by fetching the ready-made version by hand with prebuild-install inside the better-sqlite3 folder.

With no Google key connected, it still started, said "GSC disabled" (no credentials) and listed 64 tools. So you can poke around before Step 2 is done.

Step 5: Run the audit and work top-down

In Claude, ask for a full audit of your site. The README says it runs "a hundred and eleven checks." The magic is the order: problems ranked by how much traffic they affect.

1. Start at the top of the list.

2. Fix one problem at a time.

3. Ask it to draft the fix. It writes redirects, schema code and internal link suggestions.

4. Stop when you hit problems with almost no clicks at stake. Those can wait.

Step 6: Run the AI readiness check

Run check_agent_readiness on https://yoursite.com

This scores how easy your site is for AI tools to read. A live small-business site we tested on Oct 31, 2026 scored 31/100:

1. Discoverability: 3/3 (robots.txt found, sitemap found).

2. Content: 1/3.

3. Bot access control: 0/3. The robots.txt had no lines for AI bots at all.

4. Capabilities: 0/4.

Use the robots.txt and bot-access parts. Those are real. Ignore the points for llms.txt and agents.md. Google said in its Oct 1, 2026 Search Central video that it doesn't use llms.txt. Don't chase a score with a file nobody reads.

Step 7: Make it a monthly habit

1. Run the audit on the first of the month.

2. Fix the top 3 problems by clicks at stake.

3. Re-run the next month and watch the list shrink.

What it costs

Nothing for the core audit. The paid add-ons are optional, so don't switch them on until you know you need competitor keyword or link data.

Do this today

1. Create the free service account and add its email to Search Console.

2. Install with the npx -y @houtini/seo-audit-console command.

3. Run the full audit and fix the top 3 problems by clicks.

4. Run check_agent_readiness and fix your robots.txt bot lines.

5. Skip the llms.txt points.

Related reading

• Install search-console-mcp and ask AI about your traffic

• robots.txt rules for AI bots that actually work

• Install seo-monster for free schema and AI quote checks

Sources

• GitHub: houtini-ai/seo-audit

• Google Search Central (Martin Splitt and John Mueller) - Do sitemaps still matter? (2026-10-01)

Don't worry if this seems like it's a pain in the ass for someone who doesn't build websites. That's because it is. The good news: just click the link below, pull the trigger, and we'll take care of the rest.