SEO LvL Score methodology
The SEO LvL Score is our own 0–100 metric for the overall SEO health of a site. Unlike a backlink-only score (Moz DA, Ahrefs DR), it blends the things that actually make a site rank — and that a founder can actually improve — into one number you can monitor over time.
Why a composite instead of a backlink-only number? Because a backlink score is a black box, moves only over months, and reads 0 for a brand-new site no matter how well it's built. The SEO LvL Score moves the week you fix your meta tags, speed up a page, or renew an SSL cert — and it drops the moment something breaks. A score you can actually act on is a score worth monitoring. We publish the exact recipe below because every other authority-style metric in the SEO space is a black box, and that's not the right posture for a number we ask people to make decisions on.
The four components
Each component is normalised 0–100, then averaged by weight. If a signal is missing for a domain (e.g. no field traffic data yet), its weight is re-normalised across the others — a missing signal never drags the score down.
| Component | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| On-page SEO health | 30% | Our own live audit of the homepage: title, meta, headings, canonical, indexability, structured data, HTTPS, image alt coverage, and more. |
| Authority | 30% | Off-page backlink strength, from the open OpenPageRank graph + the Common Crawl web graph. The DA/DR-style signal — but only one quarter of the picture. |
| Performance | 25% | Page speed, from Google Lighthouse (and Chrome UX Report field data where available). |
| Trust | 15% | SSL validity + freshness, and domain age. |
score = Σ(component · weight, for present components) ÷ Σ(weight, for present).
So a brand-new, well-built site with zero backlinks still earns a real, respectable number — its on-page health, speed and trust carry it — and climbs further as it earns authority over time. An established, authoritative site with a fast, clean page lands in the 80s–90s.
Where the data comes from
No paid third-party APIs. The Authority component blends the public OpenPageRank score with the domain-level Common Crawl web graph (both public, both independent of Ahrefs / Semrush / Moz). On-page health comes from our own live HTTP fetch + parse of the homepage. Performance comes from Google Lighthouse / Chrome UX Report. Trust comes from a direct TLS handshake + RDAP registration lookup. We do not run a proprietary deep crawler, we do not resell Ahrefs or Moz data, and the only thing we send to a paid third party is your Stripe payment if you upgrade.
Properties
- Transparent. Every component and its contribution is shown on your domain page — no black box.
- Deterministic. Same inputs → same score. We don't tune scores per-domain, per-user, or per-tier.
- Actionable. Fix a component, watch the number move. The weights live in config and are re-evaluated only when the methodology materially changes (documented in the changelog).
- Not calibrated to Ahrefs DR or Moz DA. It's a broader, different metric by design — those measure backlinks only; this measures the whole site.
How often it updates
- SEO LvL Score: recomputed daily at 02:00 UTC, and again the moment any component changes (a fresh audit, a Lighthouse run, an SSL renewal).
- Free score checker: live on-demand estimate for any domain.
- Live backlink verification: rolling weekly per credible link (dofollow + DR ≥ 20). Independent of any crawl ingest cadence, so losses are detected within ~9 days max regardless of when the open-web graph last refreshed.
- Common Crawl link graph ingest: quarterly, matching Common Crawl's publication cadence. This is the discovery layer (finding new referrers). Loss detection does not depend on it.
How to read the score
| Range | Reading |
|---|---|
| 0 | Unscored |
| 1–19 | Weak |
| 20–39 | Needs work |
| 40–59 | Developing |
| 60–79 | Strong |
| 80–100 | Excellent |
The trend is the signal. Don't compare a SEO LvL Score against an Ahrefs DR or a Moz DA — those measure backlinks only; this measures the whole site. Compare a domain against itself over time: is it compounding, flat, or quietly slipping? And when it moves, the component breakdown tells you exactly which part changed.
What it is not
It's a site-health signal, not a ranking guarantee and not a traffic estimate. A high score means a site is well-built, fast, trusted and has earned authority — necessary inputs to organic ranking, not a promise of it. Ranking depends on dozens of signals only Google has direct access to.
It is also intentionally not a deep backlink-prospecting tool. If you need fresh 24/7 outreach discovery, pair us with Ahrefs or Semrush — they're built for that. We're built to give a portfolio of 10–100 sites a consistent, transparent, actionable health reading on a $1.20-per-site budget.