Scoring Methodology

The NanoSights SEO scanner uses a comprehensive scoring system to help you understand the overall SEO quality of your website and prioritize the most important issues to fix.

How Scores Are Calculated

The SEO score is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 represents perfect SEO with no detected issues. The score starts at 100 and points are deducted based on the number and severity of issues found.

Impact Levels and Deductions

Each SEO issue is assigned an impact level based on how severely it affects search engine rankings:

Impact Level	Description	Points Deducted Per Issue	Example Issues
Critical	Severely impacts SEO	-10 points	Missing title, Noindex directive
Serious	Significantly impacts SEO	-5 points	Poor meta description, No canonical URL
Moderate	Moderately impacts SEO	-2 points	Missing structured data, No social tags
Minor	Slightly impacts SEO	-1 point	Minor content issues

Score Calculation Formula

The score is calculated using the following formula:

Score = Max(0, 100 - (Critical × 10) - (Serious × 5) - (Moderate × 2) - (Minor × 1))

Visual Representation of Deductions

Quality Thresholds

We use the following thresholds to determine SEO quality:

Score Range	Quality Level	Ranking Potential
90-100	Excellent	High ranking potential
80-89	Good	Good ranking potential
70-79	Needs Improvement	Limited ranking potential
0-69	Poor	Very limited ranking potential

Example Scoring Scenarios

Scenario 1: Well-Optimized Website

A well-optimized website with few SEO issues:

0 Critical issues
1 Serious issue (missing meta description)
2 Moderate issues (no structured data, missing social tags)
3 Minor issues

Score calculation:

100 - (0 × 10) - (1 × 5) - (2 × 2) - (3 × 1) = 100 - 0 - 5 - 4 - 3 = 88

Scenario 2: Partially-Optimized Website

A website with several SEO issues:

1 Critical issue (noindex directive)
2 Serious issues (missing meta description, no canonical URL)
4 Moderate issues
5 Minor issues

Score calculation:

100 - (1 × 10) - (2 × 5) - (4 × 2) - (5 × 1) = 100 - 10 - 10 - 8 - 5 = 67

Best Practices for Improving Your Score

Fix Critical issues first - These have the biggest impact on your search visibility
Address Serious issues next - These significantly affect how search engines interpret your pages
Tackle Moderate issues - These provide additional context to search engines
Finally, address Minor issues - These provide the finishing touches for excellent SEO

Remember that the automated scanner checks many technical SEO aspects, but content quality, relevance, and external factors like backlinks also play a crucial role in your overall search engine rankings.

Scoring Methodology

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