Is an SEO score of 70 good?

A score of 70 is usable but not good. It normally means no single catastrophic problem, alongside a group of real disadvantages — commonly slow mobile loading or titles and descriptions missing across a template. Read the critical and warning findings; fixing two or three template-level issues often moves a score in the seventies into the eighties.

Why do different SEO tools give different scores?

Because each tool chooses its own weighting. One may treat page speed as half the score while another spends most of its weighting on on-page text, so the same page can score 45 in one and 85 in another with neither being wrong. Only compare scores from the same tool, and only over time, and ignore any comparison against a competitor's score from a different tool.

How is an SEO score calculated?

An SEO score is a weighted average of category scores. Our checker uses performance at 30 percent, SEO at 30 percent, accessibility at 15 percent and best practices at 15 percent, with the remaining 10 percent reserved for an AI-visibility category still in development. Categories that cannot be measured are excluded and the rest renormalized, so a failed measurement does not score as a failing page.

Should I try to get a perfect 100 SEO score?

No. The last ten points are usually the most expensive and the least valuable, consisting of refinements no visitor notices. Moving from 55 to 85 captures nearly all the available benefit. Performance scores also vary by a few points between runs on identical code, so a small drop is often measurement noise rather than a regression.

Does a high SEO score mean I will rank on Google?

No. The score measures whether your pages are technically capable of ranking, not whether they will. It cannot see search demand for your topic, the quality of your writing, or whether other sites link to you — and those largely determine where you place. A page can score 100 and rank for nothing if nobody searches for what it covers.

What is a good SEO score?

Realistic benchmarks, how the weighting works, and why no score is comparable across two different tools.

By Max6 min read

A good SEO score is usually 80 or above out of 100, with 90+ counting as strong and anything under 60 needing attention soon. But the score is only as meaningful as the tool that produced it: two checkers can rate the same page 45 and 85 without either being wrong, because they weight different things. What matters is the issue list underneath.

What the ranges actually mean

90 to 100 — strong. No critical problems, fast pages, metadata in place. Further gains cost real effort for small returns, and your time is usually better spent on content and links than on chasing the last few points.

80 to 89 — good. The normal resting state of a well-maintained site. There are findings, but they are refinements rather than obstacles. This is a fine place to stop.

60 to 79 — needs work. Something real is wrong, usually page speed or missing metadata across a group of pages. Not an emergency, but you are competing at a disadvantage.

Below 60 — urgent. Look for a critical finding before anything else. Scores this low usually mean pages cannot be indexed, the site is very slow on mobile, or a template is missing titles across the whole site.

Why the same page gets different scores

A score is a weighted average, and every tool picks its own weights. One checker might treat page speed as half the total; another might barely measure it and spend its weighting on on-page text instead. Neither is cheating — they are answering slightly different questions and reporting both answers as “SEO score”.

Three consequences follow, and they are the practical ones. A score is only comparable to another score from the same tool. A score is only comparable over time if the tool has not changed its method. And a competitor’s score from a different tool tells you nothing at all.

How our score is calculated

We publish the weighting rather than describing it vaguely, so you can judge whether it matches what you care about. Four categories:

Performance, 30%. Real Lighthouse measurements — loading speed, layout stability, responsiveness to input. SEO, 30%. Indexability, titles, descriptions, headings, structured data, internal links. Accessibility, 15%. Contrast, labels, keyboard and screen-reader usability. Best practices, 15%. HTTPS, console errors, deprecated APIs, image sizing.

Those four sum to 90%, not 100%. The remaining 10% is held back for an AI-visibility category we have not finished building. Until it exists we renormalize over the categories we actually measured, so a genuinely clean site scores 100 rather than being quietly capped at 90. We would rather explain a gap than pretend a category exists.

The same renormalizing applies when a measurement fails. If performance data cannot be collected for a page, that category is excluded from the average instead of being scored zero — a failed measurement is not the same as a failing page.

What the score does not include

No automated score can see whether anyone searches for your topic, whether your writing is worth reading, or whether any other site has linked to you. Those three decide most of your ranking, and none of them are in the number.

So a page can score 100 and rank for nothing. The score measures whether the page is capable of ranking — obstacles removed, nothing broken. Demand and authority are separate work.

Which numbers are worth watching instead

Two specifics beat the aggregate. First, critical issue count: it should be zero, and unlike a score it is unambiguous. Second, Core Web Vitals against Google’s documented thresholds — Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds, Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1. Those are published pass marks, not one tool’s opinion, which makes them the most portable numbers in any report.

A site with zero critical issues and passing Core Web Vitals is in good shape regardless of what any score says.

Should you aim for 100?

Usually not. The last ten points tend to be the most expensive and the least valuable — refinements that no visitor notices and no search engine rewards much. Getting from 55 to 85 is where the entire return lives.

There is also a measurement caveat worth knowing. Performance scores move by a few points between runs on identical code, because they depend on network conditions and on how busy the measuring machine is. Chasing a two-point drop is often chasing noise. Re-run before you investigate.

Find out where you stand

Run a free check and you will get the overall score, all four category scores, and every finding with the fix written out. About thirty seconds, no signup.

If it is only the search side you care about, the free website SEO check reports the same score against the SEO category alone and lists what each finding means for ranking. The page also sets out which signals feed the number, which is the fastest way to see whether our weighting matches what you care about.

If the score comes back low and you want a walkthrough rather than a list, how to check if your website is SEO optimized goes step by step. If it is low because your pages are not in Google at all, start with why your website is not showing up on Google.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good SEO score?: A good SEO score is generally 80 or above out of 100. Above 90 is strong, 60 to 79 means something real needs work, and below 60 usually indicates a critical problem such as pages that cannot be indexed. These ranges only hold within a single tool, because different checkers weight different factors and are not comparable to each other.
Is an SEO score of 70 good?: A score of 70 is usable but not good. It normally means no single catastrophic problem, alongside a group of real disadvantages — commonly slow mobile loading or titles and descriptions missing across a template. Read the critical and warning findings; fixing two or three template-level issues often moves a score in the seventies into the eighties.
Why do different SEO tools give different scores?: Because each tool chooses its own weighting. One may treat page speed as half the score while another spends most of its weighting on on-page text, so the same page can score 45 in one and 85 in another with neither being wrong. Only compare scores from the same tool, and only over time, and ignore any comparison against a competitor's score from a different tool.
How is an SEO score calculated?: An SEO score is a weighted average of category scores. Our checker uses performance at 30 percent, SEO at 30 percent, accessibility at 15 percent and best practices at 15 percent, with the remaining 10 percent reserved for an AI-visibility category still in development. Categories that cannot be measured are excluded and the rest renormalized, so a failed measurement does not score as a failing page.
Should I try to get a perfect 100 SEO score?: No. The last ten points are usually the most expensive and the least valuable, consisting of refinements no visitor notices. Moving from 55 to 85 captures nearly all the available benefit. Performance scores also vary by a few points between runs on identical code, so a small drop is often measurement noise rather than a regression.
Does a high SEO score mean I will rank on Google?: No. The score measures whether your pages are technically capable of ranking, not whether they will. It cannot see search demand for your topic, the quality of your writing, or whether other sites link to you — and those largely determine where you place. A page can score 100 and rank for nothing if nobody searches for what it covers.