How the SEO Readiness Score
Is Calculated
A complete breakdown of all 7 signals: what each one measures, how many points it contributes, and what you can do to improve your score.
Score Overview
5 Core Signals + 2 Bonus Multipliers
The raw score can exceed 100 when bonuses apply, but it is always clamped to a maximum of 100 in the popup.
SERP Discovery
Sitemap Freshness
Content Activity
Technical Health
Link Profile
Fast Indexer
Content Volume
Signals In Depth
Every Signal, Fully Explained
🔍 1. SERP DiscoveryUp to 30 pts
The most heavily weighted signal. Measures how recently Google indexed a page from this domain by reading the date stamp from a site:domain Google search filtered to the past year.
- ✓ Same day indexed → 30/30 pts (maximum)
- ✓ 1–3 days → 25–29 pts
- ✓ 4–7 days → 20–24 pts
- ✓ 8–30 days → 12–19 pts
- ✓ 31–90 days → 5–11 pts
- ✓ 90+ days or not found → 0–4 pts
How this signal is captured
site:example.com and filter results to "Past year"Sitemap score table
| Sitemap age | Points |
|---|---|
| Updated today | 25/25 |
| 1–7 days | 18–24 |
| 8–30 days | 10–17 |
| 31–90 days | 4–9 |
| No sitemap / 90d+ | 0 |
🗺️ 2. Sitemap FreshnessUp to 25 pts
Checks 15 candidate sitemap paths (sitemap.xml, sitemap_index.xml, news-sitemap.xml, etc.) and reads the Last-Modified HTTP header. The most recently modified sitemap wins.
- ✓ Extension checks 15 common sitemap paths automatically
- ✓ Reads
Last-Modifiedheader (no XML parsing delay) - ✓ Uses the most recently modified sitemap found
- ✓ No sitemap found → 0 pts (major red flag)
📰 3. Content ActivityUp to 15 pts
Detects RSS/Atom feeds and checks the pubDate or updated of the most recent entry. Active blogs and news sites score maximum points.
- ✓ Feed updated within 7 days → 12–15 pts
- ✓ Feed updated 8–30 days ago → 7–11 pts
- ✓ Feed stale 30–180 days → 1–6 pts
- ✓ No feed found or stale 180d+ → 0 pts (spam risk +1)
🛡️ 4. Technical HealthUp to 15 pts
Checks the most recently indexed page for crawl-blocking signals. Any noindex directive drops this score to near zero.
- ✓
robots.txtdoes not block all crawlers - ✓
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">absent - ✓
X-Robots-Tag: noindexheader absent - ✓ Canonical URL present and valid
- ✓ Title tag present (length 10–70 chars)
- ✓ Meta description present (length 50–160 chars)
🔗 5. Link ProfileUp to 15 pts
Fetches the most recently indexed page and counts all outbound links. Calculates the Follow vs. NoFollow ratio as a proxy for link-value generosity.
- ✓ >70% follow links → 12–15 pts
- ✓ 50–70% follow → 8–11 pts
- ✓ 20–49% follow → 4–7 pts
- ✓ 0–19% follow (nofollow-only) → 0–3 pts + spam risk flag
⚡ 6. Fast Indexer Bonus+3 or +5 pts
A bonus signal that rewards sites where Google is actively and quickly crawling new content. Shown as a teal ⚡ badge.
- ✓ Indexed within 1–3 days of publication → +5 pts
- ✓ Indexed within 4–7 days → +3 pts
- ✓ Indexed after 7 days → no bonus
- ✓ Badge also shows indexing speed:
2d · 3k pg
📄 7. Content Volume Bonus — Up to +8 pts
Based on total pages indexed by Google (from the SERP result count). A high page count is a proxy for editorial authority and reduces spam risk.
| Indexed pages | Bonus pts | Spam risk reduction |
|---|---|---|
| 1–10 pages | +0 pts | None |
| 11–50 pages | +2 pts | Minor |
| 51–199 pages | +4 pts | Moderate |
| 200–499 pages | +6 pts | Significant |
| 500+ pages | +8 pts | Major |
FAQ
Score Questions
What is the maximum SEO Readiness Score?
Why does SERP Discovery carry the most weight?
How do I improve my sitemap freshness score?
Does a noindex meta tag always kill my score?
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