Jesse Templeton

Writing good website content isn’t easy. Writing something that’s fun to read, informative and which pleases capricious search engine algorithms is like playing the content game on hard mode.

But search engine optimization (SEO) is important, and once you get familiar with how it works, you may find that keywords and SEO-friendly structures actually help you craft your content, not hinder you.

What Is an SEO Score?

An SEO score is a rating of how likely a webpage is to appear high on a search engine results page (SERP). The higher your SEO score, the more prominent it will feature on a SERP. This is because the search engine — Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, etc. — determines your page to be highly relevant to the search term, or keyword.

If you manage a business that sells sunglasses, you’ll want your website to show up in one of the first few results when somebody searches “sunglasses” or “shades” so they’ll visit your site first. This can also be true of the various brands you carry and for your locality. Local SEO helps people in your area find your business, so if you’re located in Boston, you want your site to appear atop SERPs for “sunglasses Boston.”

What Makes Up an SEO Score?

The paragraph above focuses on keywords, but these are not the only factors that determine a page’s SEO score. Keywords are perhaps the easiest concept to understand regarding SEO ranking, but search engines are mercurial in their ways; we may not know precisely why Page A ranks above Page B.

What we do know is that the SEO score comprises three categories:

  • Technical SEO: SEO isn’t just words. Technical SEO covers the “under the hood” factors that affect a page’s SEO ranking. These are the attributes that affect search engines’ ability to crawl your website, understand its content and index pages in search results. These SEO issues include URLs, mobile friendliness, site speed and HTTPS encryption. 
  • On-page SEO: Common on-page elements that affect SEO include meta descriptions, title tags, image alt text and headers. And, of course, on-page SEO also covers the content itself, including copy, images and videos.
  • Off-page SEO: Search engine crawlers consider factors such as visibility, domain rating and relevance. Off-page SEO refers to optimization activities that can boost a website’s search engine ranking, such as social media marketing, earning positive online reviews and promoting your business in forums such as Google Business Profile.

Why Is SEO Important?

Perhaps the best way to illustrate the importance of SEO ranking is to ask you a simple question: When was the last time you ventured to Page 2 on a search engine?

If you’re like most people, the answer is somewhere between earlier this year and never. 

How often do you even scroll down past the first few results? Probably not very often. And the stats back this up. Except for the Google ads atop a SERP, the first organic result has a typical click-through rate (CTR) of 39.8%. This means over a third of all people just click on the link in the first position.

This percentage drops to 18.7% for search position 2. So, nearly 1 in 5 people click on the second result — very strong, but a significant drop from the first position. Positions 3 through 6 are 10.2%, 7.2% and 5.1%, respectively. 

So, why is SEO important? Because fewer than 1 in 20 searches result in a hit for any result beyond the 5th position. If your page isn’t in the top 5, you’re out of sight, out of mind. And position 1 has a significant advantage over position 5, so SEO is what gets your web content in front of people’s eyeballs. The higher the SEO rating, the higher the visibility. Working to improve SEO can also have other benefits, such as a better user experience (UX) and more focused writing.

What is a Good SEO Score? What Is a Bad SEO Score?

Here comes everybody’s least favorite answer: It depends.

The target SEO rating for a page depends on several factors, including:

  • What the keyword is: Not all terms have the same volume. A term like “weather today” is going to have a higher search volume than “catalytic converter for 1988 Buick Skylark” by orders of magnitude. How often people search for a keyword affects the target score that an SEO checker will provide. 
  • How much competition there is: This correlates with search volume. The more people search for a keyword, the more competition there’s likely to be. There’s probably not a lot of competition for specific parts of old, not particularly popular automobiles. But if your business is a restaurant, grocery store or even a digital marketing agency, there’s going to be a lot more competition for the keywords that matter to you.
  • What tool you use to check your score: There’s no universal SEO score checker. Different SEO tools have different methods for determining what an ideal score is for a page. The rank math isn’t always clear, especially as it applies to different search engines. However, if you hit or exceed the target on your SEO checker of choice, you’re probably in a decent position.

Tools To Check Your SEO Score

A ranking platform can give you insight into how good your SEO is. Some options include:

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is an SEO tool that offers a keyword explorer, site explorer, rank tracker and a content explorer. Ahrefs can also perform a site audit to identify technical issues that might hinder your content optimization efforts.

Google Search Console

While it may be of limited value in determining your ranking on other search engines, Google Search Console (GSC) can provide valuable insights into how your site fares on Google searches. And given that Google is by far the most popular search engine, it’s a pretty handy tool. You can use it for keyword research, to assess your site’s CTR and to evaluate your site’s visibility.

Ryte

Ryte provides SEO analysis software to help businesses and agencies improve their website UX. Ryte offers content optimization tools to augment your SEO efforts.

Semrush

A popular SEO analyzer, Semrush can analyze a target SEO keyword, help you research your competitors’ SEO rankings and evaluate your content marketing strategy. Semrush has a Keyword Magic Tool that’s great for exploring keywords, allowing you to analyze and filter keywords relevant to your market.

MarketMuse

This is a great SEO scoring tool. MarketMuse can perform an SEO audit on your pages and blogs based on a given keyword. It then supplies several related topics and gives you a content score. It’s a favored tool of content marketing professionals.

How To Improve Your SEO Score

Here are some steps you can take to boost your SEO performance.

Learn SEO Principles

Good news: You’re already doing this step! It’s important to learn about what you want to do before doing it. Learning how SEO works will help you improve your content quality and technical SEO.

Conduct a Website Audit

You need to know how much you need to improve your website’s performance. Hey, for all you know, you may already have a high SEO score. You use an SEO audit tool already mentioned in this article, or work with a digital marketing agency to help you audit your website.

Improve Domain Authority

Writing pages and blogs with all the relevant keywords is great, as is improving page speed and your mobile website. But don’t neglect steps to improve your domain authority. You can do this by backlinking — getting links from other sites — and with a good social media marketing strategy.

Consider Your Paid Search Options

While you work on boosting your SEO performance organically, it might make sense to pay for some SERP results. This can increase page views quickly and establish an online presence.

SEO FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions about SEO scores:

Does User Experience Matter for SEO Scoring?

Yes, it does. Search engine crawlers consider UX factors, such as page loading speeds, as part of technical SEO.

How Does Mobile Usability Affect SEO Scoring?

It wasn’t long ago that mobile versions of websites were only a “nice to have.” Now, they’re essential. If you don’t optimize your site for mobile, you’ll have poor UX and suboptimal technical SEO.

Can I Achieve SEO Perfection?

Nope! But there’s value in trying. The standard of “perfection” is ever changing, so it’s important to periodically audit your website and adapt your SEO strategy as keyword search volumes fluctuate.

Score Big With Your SEO

SEO isn’t a hard science. It requires trial and error — and creativity.

Use basic SEO principles to guide you, but don’t be afraid to get out there and try new things. And if you want a helping hand from someone who’s been there before, assistance isn’t hard to find.