How We Score Your SEO
SEO Snapshot runs 76 individual checks across 10 categories. Each category has a weight in the final score. Here's exactly what we check and why.
Score Formula
Your SEO score (0-100) is a weighted average of 7 category scores:
Penalties are applied for critical issues (broken links, no HTTPS, noindex). Impact scores show how many points each fix would add to your score.
Score Scale
76 Checks in Detail
Title tag
What we check: Checks if your page has a <title> tag and whether it's between 30-60 characters.
Why it matters: Title is the #1 on-page SEO factor. Google uses it as the clickable headline in search results. Too short = missed keyword opportunity. Too long = gets truncated.
Title pixel width
What we check: Measures the visual width of your title in Google search results (max ~580px).
Why it matters: Google truncates titles by pixel width, not character count. "WWWW" takes more space than "iiii" at the same character count.
Meta description
What we check: Checks for a meta description between 120-160 characters.
Why it matters: The description appears below your title in search results. A compelling description increases click-through rate (CTR).
Description pixel width
What we check: Measures visual width of description in SERP (max ~920px mobile).
Why it matters: Prevents truncation in search results. Truncated descriptions look unprofessional and lose information.
Canonical URL
What we check: Checks for <link rel="canonical"> and validates it matches the page URL.
Why it matters: Canonical tells Google which version of a page is the "original." Without it, duplicate content can split your ranking power.
Canonical analysis
What we check: Deep check: protocol mismatch (HTTP vs HTTPS), og:url mismatch, self-referencing.
Why it matters: Mismatched canonicals confuse Google and can cause indexing issues.
Viewport meta
What we check: Checks for <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">.
Why it matters: Required for mobile-friendly pages. Without it, Google may not rank you in mobile search results.
Language attribute
What we check: Checks for lang="xx" on the <html> tag.
Why it matters: Helps search engines understand your content's language. Important for international SEO and screen readers.
Charset
What we check: Checks for <meta charset="UTF-8">.
Why it matters: Ensures characters display correctly. Missing charset can cause encoding issues and broken text.
Favicon
What we check: Checks for a favicon (<link rel="icon">).
Why it matters: Favicons appear in browser tabs, bookmarks, and Google search results. Missing favicon looks unprofessional.
DOCTYPE
What we check: Checks for <!DOCTYPE html> declaration.
Why it matters: Without DOCTYPE, browsers enter "quirks mode" which can cause rendering issues.
Duplicate tags
What we check: Checks for multiple <title> or <meta description> tags.
Why it matters: Multiple title/description tags confuse search engines. Google may pick the wrong one.
What We Don't Check
Some SEO factors require data we can't access from a single page analysis:
- Backlink profile (requires crawl index like Ahrefs/Moz)
- Keyword rankings (requires SERP tracking)
- Domain authority (requires link database)
- JavaScript-rendered content (we analyze raw HTML, not browser-rendered DOM)
- Core Web Vitals field data (requires Chrome UX Report API key)
- Cross-page duplicate content (requires full-site crawl)