Scope reference · published July 31, 2026
What a Website Cleanup Includes, Item by Item
Most people hear website cleanup and picture something cosmetic. Tidier fonts, fewer typos, a fresher look. The work is closer to plumbing than decorating, so here is the whole list, written the way it would be written for someone who has to approve it.
By Christopher Buchner, founder of PruneQ
The price for this is published, so the scope should be published too. Most of this category quotes on a call and describes the work in adjectives. That is convenient for the seller, because a vague scope can shrink after the invoice clears. A list you can hold someone to is harder to write and easier to buy.
Every item below has three parts. What gets inspected, what gets changed, and what you actually receive at the end. If a line is missing the third part, it is not a deliverable, it is a talking point.
The list
Item 01
Crawlability and indexability review
Inspected: Whether the pages that matter can actually be reached and stored by a search engine. Response codes, redirect chains, noindex directives, and anything a host or firewall rule is quietly blocking.
Changed: Blocked, broken, or redirected priority pages get repaired or pointed somewhere real. Directives that exclude a page you want found get removed.
You receive: A route-by-route list showing the response each page returned on the day it was checked.
Item 02
Sitemap, robots, canonical, and snippet settings
Inspected: The files and tags that tell search engines which version of a page is the real one and what they are allowed to show. Duplicate hostnames, stale campaign URLs, and missing or conflicting canonicals all get read.
Changed: One public URL per page, a sitemap that lists the pages you want found and nothing else, and snippet settings that do not accidentally suppress your own listing.
You receive: A before and after of each file and tag that changed.
Item 03
Homepage and top service-page cleanup
Inspected: Whether a stranger can tell in one screen who you serve, what you do, what it costs or how it is quoted, and what to do next. This is read as a buyer would read it, not scored by a tool.
Changed: Titles, descriptions, opening sections, and service copy get rewritten for specificity where they are vague. The number of pages depends on the site and is agreed before work starts.
You receive: The rewritten pages, with the previous version kept so you can compare.
Item 04
Headings and answer-ready sections
Inspected: Heading order, whether the H1 actually names the page, and whether the questions a buyer asks before hiring are answered anywhere on the page in plain language.
Changed: One clear H1 that names the page, headings that describe the section beneath them, and short direct answers placed where the question is asked.
You receive: The revised heading outline for each page that was touched.
Item 05
Entity and trust-signal cleanup
Inspected: Whether your name, business name, service description, service area, and contact details agree across the site and across the public profiles you already control.
Changed: Contradictions get resolved to one answer. The About page gets the real person, the real role, and a real way to reach you. Claims that cannot be supported get narrowed or removed.
You receive: A list of every inconsistency found and what it was changed to.
Item 06
Core structured data where it is useful
Inspected: The existing markup, if any, and whether every field in it matches something a visitor can actually see on the page.
Changed: A connected Organization, Person, Service, WebPage, and Breadcrumb graph, plus Article markup where there is a real article. Nothing is added that the visible page does not support.
You receive: The validated markup and a note on what each type is and is not doing.
Item 07
The buyer contact path
Inspected: The chain between wanting to contact you and doing it. Whether the route is visible, tappable on a phone, labelled, operable with a keyboard, and whether a submission actually arrives.
Changed: Broken or unreachable contact routes, missing labels, unusable tap targets, and confirmation messages that leave the sender guessing.
You receive: A record of each test, the device and viewport it was run on, and the result.
Item 08
Search Console and GA4 baseline, and the report
Inspected: What measurement already exists, and whether a successful inquiry is recorded anywhere at all.
Changed: Baseline review or setup guidance so there is something to compare against later. Measurement is set up to record that an inquiry happened, not to collect the contents of it.
You receive: A written before and after report with dated screenshots, and an optional walkthrough video. A follow-up check at day 30 to 45 repeats the same checks and reports what changed or stayed flat.
What is not included
Naming the exclusions is the part that makes the rest believable. A scope with no edges is not a scope.
- A redesign. If the layout itself is the problem, a cleanup will not fix it and this page says so below.
- Copywriting a site from scratch. Existing pages get clarified, not replaced wholesale.
- Ongoing content production. That is a separate monthly option, and it is optional.
- Ad account management or ad spend. Landing page readiness is a different, separate service.
- Anything that needs an account PruneQ does not have. Access is requested in writing or the item comes off the list.
- Link buying, guest post networks, or anything else that pays for placement.
- Any promise about rankings, citations, AI recommendations, inquiries, or revenue.
If the site turns out to need more than a cleanup
Sometimes the scan looks manageable and the site underneath is not. A platform that cannot be edited without a rebuild, a theme that breaks on phones at the layout level, or a site nobody has the login for. That happens, and it is not a reason to start the work anyway and hope.
In that case one of two things happens, and both happen before any work starts. The fixed quote changes and you see the new number, or the honest recommendation becomes a build rather than a cleanup, in which case the cleanup is not sold to you. If you are not sure which one you are looking at, the cleanup or rebuild comparison walks through the questions that decide it.
How it is delivered
- You send a URL and answer a few intake questions by email.
- The work happens without meetings. Questions go back and forth over email.
- You get a written before and after report with dated screenshots, plus an optional walkthrough video.
- A follow-up check at day 30 to 45 repeats the same checks with fresh screenshots.
The price, and what it does not buy
The Website Cleanup lists at $750, one time. The final fixed quote lands between $500 and $1,000 depending on the size of the site, and you get that one number before you pay anything. The full ladder, including the optional monthly plans that are never required, is on the pricing page.
What that money buys is the work in the list above and the evidence that it was done. It does not buy a ranking, a citation, a mention in an AI answer, an inquiry, or a sale. Google and AI assistants decide their own results, and anyone who tells you otherwise is describing something they do not control.
A cleanup is a precondition, not a cause. It removes reasons a search engine or a buyer would pass over the site. Whether they then choose it is a separate question, and it stays a separate question in every report.
If you want the full inspection list rather than the service scope, the website cleanup checklist for consultants is the same ground written as twelve checks you can run yourself.