What each SEO category checks
What each SEO category checks: a plain-language guide to every SEO category we check, from metadata to performance.
The categories, in plain language
The SEO score is made up of several categories. Here's what each one looks at:
- Crawlability: can search engines reach and read your pages (robots rules, sitemap, no blocking errors)?
- Indexability: are your pages eligible to appear in results (canonical tags, no accidental "noindex")?
- Metadata: do your pages have clear, useful titles and descriptions?
- Heading structure: is each page organized with a sensible heading hierarchy?
- Content quality: is there enough clear, relevant content on the page?
- Content relevance: do your pages actually target the topics and keywords you track, and are they easy to read? See content recommendations.
- Images: do images have alt text and load efficiently?
- Internal linking: do your pages link to each other in a helpful way?
- Structured data: do you use markup that helps machines understand your content?
- OpenGraph: do pages have the tags that make shared links look right on social?
- Performance: do pages load quickly?
- Mobile: does the site work well on phones?
- Links: are outbound links healthy, without broken destinations?
How to use it
Each category contributes to the overall health score. Tackle the weakest categories first, and lean on the quick wins for the fastest gains.