Scoring methodology

AuditFlow scores are reproducible from publicly documented weights. We do not hide how the overall score is computed. This page is the source of truth for clients, agencies, and CI gates.

Overall score

The overall score is a weighted average of six dimension scores (each 0–100), then clamped to 0–100:

SEO × 22% + Performance × 20% + Accessibility × 15% + Security × 18% + Best practices × 10% + Conversion / UX × 15%

• SEO: 22%
• Performance: 20%
• Accessibility: 15%
• Security: 18%
• Best practices: 10%
• Conversion / UX: 15%

What each dimension measures

• SEO — title, meta description, H1, canonical, language, indexability, structured data, robots.txt, sitemap, plus AI visibility signals (llms.txt, crawler rules, FAQ/org schema).
• Performance — response time (TTFB), page weight, script loading patterns, lazy images, DOM size, and when available lab Core Web Vitals from PageSpeed Insights.
• Accessibility — viewport, language, image alt coverage, form labels, headings, skip link, landmarks, and findability penalties when key paths are hard to reach.
• Security — HTTPS, HSTS, CSP, frame/content-type/referrer/permissions policies, and avoiding exposed powered-by headers.
• Best practices — doctype, charset, favicon, HTTPS, structured data, and related hygiene checks.
• Conversion / UX — Open Graph / Twitter cards, CTAs, contact paths, social proof, plus findability and journey outcomes (Contact, Pricing, Signup, Checkout).

Findability & journeys

Beyond HTML SEO, we crawl a bounded set of pages (budgeted depth and page count) to measure how many clicks it takes to reach Contact, Pricing, Login, and other must-find targets. Impossible or buried items lower conversion (and sometimes accessibility) scores and appear as prioritized findings.

Nudges after the base score

After the weighted dimensions are computed, we apply documented nudges:

• Findability penalties for impossible contact paths and buried CTAs
• AI visibility penalties for missing llms.txt or blocked AI crawlers
• Optional blend of PageSpeed lab performance into the performance dimension

Creative media score (additive)

Website audits also compute a separate Media score (0–100) that does not change the six-dimension overall formula (so historical scores stay comparable). Media is the weighted blend of Logo 25%, Thumbnail 30%, Video 20%, and Copy form 25%.

• Logo — favicon, apple-touch-icon, header/SVG mark, schema logo, alt text
• Thumbnail — Open Graph / Twitter images, absolute URLs, size and ~1.91 aspect
• Video — HTML5/YouTube/Vimeo embeds, posters, captions, VideoObject schema
• Copy form — short/balanced/long classification, subheads, paragraph length, early CTA

Deeper upload scoring lives in Media Studio (1 credit per score).

Findings vs scores

Findings (insights) are prioritized by impact and severity. Clearing a finding on a re-audit can improve scores when the underlying signal changes; we also auto-mark verified-fixed items when an issue disappears between audits of the same host.

What we do not claim

• We are not a full-site crawler at Screaming Frog scale.
• We do not sell backlink or keyword indexes.
• We do not invent “ChatGPT ranking” scores — AI visibility is technical readiness only.

Reproduce in CI

Pro+ API users can gate deploys with POST /api/v1/audit. See the example workflow .github/workflows/auditflow-gate.example.yml in the product repository.

Run an audit · Contact