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The first time I checked my website's SEO score, I had no idea what the number meant.
Was 60 good? Was 45 terrible? Was 80 something only big websites with huge teams could achieve? I had no reference point. I just stared at the number and wondered whether I should be worried or relieved.
After running audits on dozens of websites over the past few years — my own sites and others I have helped with — I now understand exactly what SEO scores mean, what ranges are realistic for different types of websites, and most importantly, what specific steps move a score from average to excellent.
If you have ever looked at your SEO score and felt confused about whether it is good enough, this guide will give you a clear, honest answer — and a practical path to reaching 80 and above.
What Is an SEO Score?
An SEO score is a number — usually between 0 and 100 — that summarises how well your website is optimised for search engines based on a set of technical and on-page factors.
It is not a score that Google assigns you directly. Google does not publish a number for your website. Instead, SEO tools calculate this score by checking your website against a list of known ranking factors and best practices — things like page speed, mobile usability, title tags, meta descriptions, internal links, SSL security, and technical health.
Think of it like a health score from a doctor's checkup. The doctor does not give you a single definitive number that determines your health. But by measuring specific indicators — blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, fitness — they can give you a clear picture of how healthy you are and what needs attention.
An SEO score works the same way. It measures specific indicators and translates them into a number that tells you how search-engine-ready your website is right now.
You can check your website's SEO score for free using the SEO Checker tool on Rankests — rankests.com. Enter your website address, run the check, and you get a detailed score with a breakdown of every factor being measured.
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What Do Different Score Ranges Mean?
Not all scores are equal, and understanding what each range means helps you set realistic goals and priorities.
0 to 40 — Poor. A score in this range means your website has serious technical and on-page problems that are actively preventing Google from crawling, indexing, and ranking your pages. Common causes include missing SSL, no meta descriptions, very slow page speed, mobile usability failures, and broken links across the site. Websites in this range are often invisible in search results or rank very poorly for even low-competition keywords. Immediate attention is needed.
41 to 60 — Below Average. This is the most common range for websites that have been built without much attention to SEO. The site works and loads, but many optimisation opportunities have been missed. Some pages may rank for easy keywords, but the site lacks the technical foundation to compete for anything meaningful. This is where I found most of my early websites sitting — functional but not optimised.
61 to 79 — Average to Good. A score in this range means your website has addressed the basics. SSL is active, speed is acceptable, most pages have title tags and meta descriptions, and technical issues are limited. You will see reasonable search visibility and some organic traffic. But there are still specific gaps — missing schema markup, some thin content, a few technical issues — that are holding the score and the rankings back.
80 to 100 — Good to Excellent. This is the target range. A score of 80 and above means your website has a strong technical foundation, well-optimised pages, fast load times, good mobile usability, and clean technical SEO across the board. Websites in this range compete well in search results and attract consistent organic traffic. Reaching and maintaining 80+ is achievable for any website with consistent attention to the right factors.
Why 80 Is the Right Target
I am often asked whether websites should aim for a perfect 100. The honest answer is no — and not just because it is difficult to achieve.
A score of 100 is almost impossible to maintain because websites are living things. You publish new content, add new pages, change your design, and install new plugins. Each change introduces the possibility of new issues. Chasing perfection is exhausting and not necessary for strong search performance.
A score of 80 and above puts your website in the top tier of technical optimisation. It means the major issues are resolved, the foundations are solid, and Google has everything it needs to crawl, understand, and rank your pages effectively. From 80 onwards, your rankings are determined much more by content quality and authority than by technical issues.
Set 80 as your milestone. Maintain it. Then focus your energy on creating content that builds authority in your niche.
Step One — Fix Your Page Speed
Page speed is one of the highest-weighted factors in most SEO scoring tools — and one of the most common reasons scores stay low.
The three most impactful speed fixes are compressing your images before uploading them, enabling caching on your website, and removing unused plugins and scripts. Together, these three changes can add 10 to 20 points to your SEO score on their own.
Aim for a page load time under three seconds. Every second over that threshold costs you both visitors and ranking positions.
Step Two — Complete Your On-Page SEO
On-page SEO refers to the elements on each individual page that help Google understand what that page is about. Missing or poorly written on-page elements are extremely common and consistently drag scores down.
Go through every important page on your website and check four things.
Every page needs a unique title tag of 50 to 60 characters that includes the main keyword for that page. Every page needs a meta description of 150 to 160 characters that clearly explains what the page offers. Every image needs descriptive alt text that tells Google what the image shows. And every page needs a clear H1 heading — the main title — with logical H2 and H3 subheadings organising the content below it.
These four elements are basic, but they are missing on a surprising number of pages across most websites. Completing them consistently across your site can push your score from the 50s into the 70s.
Step Three — Fix Your Technical SEO
Technical SEO covers the behind-the-scenes elements that affect how Google finds and reads your website. Use the Website Audit tool Auditest.online— to get a full technical health report.
The most common technical issues that pull scores down are a missing or unsubmitted XML sitemap, a robots.txt file with incorrect settings, redirect chains on old URLs, broken internal links, and missing SSL or mixed content warnings.
Work through each technical issue the audit report identifies. Most of them have straightforward fixes that do not require a developer. The technical SEO section alone can add significant points to your score once the major issues are cleared.
Step Four — Improve Your Mobile Usability
Since Google switched to mobile-first indexing, mobile usability has become a direct factor in how your website is evaluated. A website that works well on desktop but struggles on mobile will score lower and rank lower regardless of everything else.
Check your mobile usability score in your Rankests audit report. Look for text that is too small to read comfortably on a phone, buttons that are too close together to tap accurately, and content that overflows the screen and causes horizontal scrolling.
Fix each issue identified. In most cases, switching to a fully responsive theme or template resolves the majority of mobile usability problems without any custom coding.
Step Five — Add Schema Markup
Schema markup is the one improvement that most website owners in the 60 to 70 score range have not yet done — and it can make a meaningful difference both to your score and to how your website appears in search results.
Basic schema markup tells Google your website name, your organisation details, your logo, and what your site is about. A more specific schema tells Google about your individual articles, tools, reviews, and other content types.
If you use WordPress, your SEO plugin handles basic schema automatically. If not, generate your schema using a free online schema generator and add it to your pages. Verify it is working correctly using Google's Rich Results Test tool.
Putting It All Together
Reaching an SEO score of 80 and above is not about doing one big thing. It is about doing many small things correctly and consistently.
Fix your page speed. Complete your on-page SEO across every important page. Resolve your technical SEO issues. Improve your mobile usability. Add schema markup. Then run your audit again and work through whatever new issues the updated report surfaces.
Each round of fixes pushes your score higher. Each improvement makes your website easier for Google to crawl, understand, and rank.
Check your current SEO score right now for free at rankests.com. See exactly where your website stands today, identify the specific gaps holding your score back, and start working through them one step at a time.
A score of 80 is within reach for any website. The only difference between a website sitting at 50 and one sitting at 85 is knowing what to fix — and then fixing it.