Free SEO checker — what your score means and exactly how it is calculated

This free SEO checker scores any website from 0 to 100 using live data from Google’s own APIs. The score is calculated fresh from real measurements every time you enter a URL — not estimated from historical data, not cached from a previous run.

How the five scoring components are weighted

Page speed contributes 30% of the total score. Google formally incorporated Core Web Vitals as ranking factors in June 2021. The mobile field score is what Google uses directly for ranking decisions.

On-page SEO contributes 30%. This covers title tag, meta description, H1 count, word count, image alt text coverage, internal link density, Open Graph tags (og:title, og:image, og:description) and Twitter Card completeness. Open Graph tags are included because missing social share tags represent a direct, measurable loss of referral traffic — every share without them is a wasted click opportunity.

Technical health contributes 25%. HTTPS, mobile rendering, canonical tags, redirect chains, robots.txt, XML sitemap, noindex tag detection on indexable pages, favicon presence, broken outgoing links and orphan pages. The technical score now reflects the full picture of what Googlebot encounters when it crawls your site.

Schema markup contributes 15%. Each schema type present increases your score proportionally. A page with no schema scores zero in this category.

Note: scores are based on server-rendered HTML. JavaScript-rendered sites (React, Vue, SPAs) may show lower on-page and technical scores than a fully rendered audit would produce — the score reflects what Googlebot sees on first crawl before JavaScript execution.

Free backlink checker — understanding domain authority, link quality and how backlinks determine rankings

Backlinks are hyperlinks from other websites pointing to yours. Google’s PageRank algorithm treats each backlink as a vote of confidence from the linking site. A single dofollow backlink from a site with Domain Authority 70 or above is typically worth more than one hundred backlinks from sites with Domain Authority below 10.

Total backlinks versus referring domains — which number matters more

Google weights unique referring domains more heavily than raw link count. One hundred backlinks from ten different domains is significantly more valuable than one hundred backlinks from a single domain, regardless of how high-quality that single domain is.

Free page speed checker — why the score Google uses for ranking differs from your own tests

Most free page speed tools show you a single Lighthouse score from a controlled test. This checker shows you both: your lab score (what you see when you run Lighthouse yourself) and your field score (the real-user data Google collects through the Chrome User Experience Report over 28 days). The field score is the one that determines your ranking positions.

Speed data comes directly from Google’s PageSpeed Insights API v5 — the same source Google uses for its own ranking signals. On-page and technical checks are based on server-rendered HTML. Sites that render content via JavaScript may see scores that differ from a fully browser-rendered audit.

Core Web Vitals — the three metrics that are official Google ranking factors

LCP (target under 2.5s) measures when the largest visible content element becomes fully visible. The vast majority of LCP failures on small business websites are caused by a single uncompressed hero image.

CLS (target under 0.1) measures how much the page visually shifts while loading. High CLS is common on pages using Google AdSense or embedded social media widgets.

INP (target under 200ms) replaced FID in March 2024. It measures the time between a user interaction and the next visual update. High INP is most commonly caused by excessive JavaScript on the main thread.

SEO for beginners — the complete plain-English guide

Search engine optimisation is the process of making your website easier for Google to find, understand and recommend. You do not need to understand how Google evaluates any of these factors to improve them. The free audit finds every problem and generates a repair list that an AI website builder implements automatically.

The copy-paste method — complete SEO improvement in under 10 minutes

What the audit now checks — and why each one matters in plain English

Meta description — 5 minutes, up to 30% more clicks

The two-line summary that appears under your page title in Google results. Without one, Google generates its own from random page text — usually badly. Adding a good meta description costs nothing and can significantly increase how many people click your result even without improving your ranking position.

Open Graph and Twitter Card tags — your social shares look blank without them

When anyone shares a link to your site on LinkedIn, Facebook or X, those platforms look for Open Graph tags in your HTML to build the preview card. Missing tags mean every share shows a blank image, a raw page title and random text. Three lines of HTML added to your page head fixes this permanently — the AI fix instructions include the exact code. Every future share then shows a proper branded card with your image and description.

Image alt text — makes your images visible to Google

Alt text is a short description added to each image tag. Google cannot see images — it reads the alt text to understand what each image shows. Without alt text, your images are invisible to Google Image Search and to screen readers used by people with visual impairments. Adding alt text to all images is one of the fastest complete fixes available.

Page speed and Core Web Vitals — Google’s direct ranking signal

Google has used page speed as a ranking factor since 2018. The specific measurements it uses — LCP (how long the main content takes to appear), CLS (how much the page jumps while loading) and INP (how fast it responds to taps) — are called Core Web Vitals. The most common cause of slow mobile speed on small business sites is a single large uncompressed hero image. The AI fix instructions identify the exact file and compression target. Your builder implements the fix in seconds.

Noindex tags — the most common way a site accidentally becomes invisible

A noindex tag tells Google not to show a page in search results. Developers sometimes add one to the entire site during development and forget to remove it before launch. The result is a site that looks completely normal to visitors but is entirely absent from Google. WordPress has a setting called “Discourage search engines” that does exactly this. The audit checks every page for accidental noindex tags and flags them as a critical issue — a check that could save weeks of wondering why a site refuses to rank.

Broken outgoing links — a quiet page quality signal

Every link on your pages pointing to an external URL that no longer works (returns a 404 error) is a broken outgoing link. Google treats the presence of broken links as a page quality signal. Visitors who click them bounce immediately. The audit finds every broken outgoing link and the AI instructions tell your builder exactly which URLs to update or remove.

Orphan pages — pages Google can’t pass authority to

An orphan page exists in your sitemap — so Google knows it exists — but no other page on your site links to it. Because Google passes ranking authority through internal links, orphaned pages receive none of it and rank poorly regardless of content quality. The fix is simple: add an internal link from a relevant existing page to each orphan. The AI instructions tell your builder exactly which pages need links and suggests appropriate anchor text.

Schema markup — why competitors show star ratings and you don’t

Schema markup is hidden code that tells Google exactly what type of business you are, what your opening hours and address are, and what questions your page answers. Without it, Google infers all of this from visible text — slowly and imprecisely. With the correct schema, your listing can show star ratings, expandable FAQ answers and business hours directly in search results — more space, more information, more clicks at the same ranking position. The Rank Math plugin for WordPress adds all necessary schema in minutes with no coding.

seo.free industry directory — why opt-in rankings beat automatic listings

Every site listed in this directory chose to be here. After running a free audit on seo.free, the site owner selected their business category and actively published their results. This is the foundational editorial distinction: the directory reflects deliberate intent to be evaluated and compared, not an automatic consequence of having a URL checked.

Why improvement trajectory matters more than a single score

A site at 60 that started at 30 and improved across six audits has demonstrated something a static 75 has not: that someone is actively working on their SEO, responding to what the audits surface, and making real changes to their site over time. Ranking by improvement trajectory rather than raw score means the directory genuinely rewards active maintenance — which is the behaviour that leads to sustainable ranking improvements in Google, not a one-time optimisation pass.

For anyone browsing the directory to evaluate businesses, suppliers or service providers, a consistent improvement trend is meaningful due-diligence information. It signals that a site is maintained, that problems get addressed, and that the business owner cares about their digital presence. A static score tells you nothing about whether the site is being cared for or left to decay.

How rankings create a genuine SEO return loop

The directory mechanic creates a direct, visible connection between running an audit, implementing fixes, re-auditing, and moving up the category rankings. A site at #4 in Food & Hospitality can see precisely what #3 is doing — their schema types, their improvement history, the specific gaps. The “what to do to move up” prompt beneath the ranking shows which fixes are most likely to close the gap, and which affiliate tools are most relevant if the gap requires data or capability that goes beyond what the free audit provides. The ranking is the motivation; the audit is the mechanism; the affiliate recommendation is the natural next step when the free tool reaches its limit.

What “verified improvement” means

Sites with a “verified improvement” badge have run at least three audits and shown a net score gain of 10 points or more. This badge is applied automatically when the audit history data meets the threshold. No payment, no manual review, no conditions. It is a factual description of what the audit data shows — and it is genuinely useful information to anyone browsing the directory, because it identifies the sites where someone is actively and successfully improving their SEO rather than listing and forgetting.

The editorial basis for citation links

Citation links in this directory are given to sites that voluntarily chose to publish their audit results, in a curated, categorised index where the ordering reflects verifiable improvement data. The links exist because this is a genuine public resource about site performance — and linking to the sites being discussed is the natural behaviour of any editorial index. The opt-in nature, the transparent ranking methodology, the category curation, and the clear utility to human browsers all distinguish this from a link scheme. A person searching for the best-ranked bakeries in Bristol and landing on this page is getting real, useful, verifiable information.