The 61 checks behind your website score
Wondering how well your website is doing? The Site Scorecard looks at your site the way a customer, a search engine and an AI assistant would, across 7 areas worth 100 points in total. Here is every check and why it matters for your business.
Updated
Conversion & trust (20 points)
Visitors can tell what you do and who it's for
People decide in a few seconds whether they're in the right place. If the first screen doesn't say what you offer and who it's for, many leave before they ever see your services or prices.
One clear call to action on the first screen
A visitor who's ready to buy needs an obvious next step without scrolling. A single, button-styled action (Call, Book, Get a quote) turns interest into enquiries; a wall of competing links splits attention.
Easy to call, book or send an enquiry
Every extra click between "I want this" and "I've asked for it" loses customers. A tap-to-call number, a booking link or a short form on the homepage captures people while they're motivated.
Reviews, credentials and other reasons to trust you
New customers are taking a risk on you. Reviews, years in business, licenses and memberships reassure them, and they're often the deciding factor between you and the next result on Google.
Contact details on every page
Many visitors land on an inner page from Google, not your homepage. If your phone number or booking link isn't on that page, the ones ready to buy have to go looking.
Tap-to-call on the first screen of a phone(plumbers, electricians, HVAC, landscapers, roofers and agronomists)
Most people who need a tradesperson are on their phone and want to call now. If the number isn't a tap-to-call button they can see straight away, they go back to Google and call the next company.
Emergency or 24/7 service is obvious(plumbers, electricians, HVAC, landscapers, roofers and agronomists)
A burst pipe or a dead furnace at 9pm is your most valuable call. People in a hurry pick the first company that clearly says it answers now.
Short quote form or online booking(plumbers, electricians, HVAC, landscapers, roofers and agronomists)
Not everyone wants to call. A short "get a quote" form or online booking catches the people browsing at night or on a break, but every extra required box loses some of them.
A page for each main service(plumbers, electricians, HVAC, landscapers, roofers and agronomists)
People search for the job, not the trade: "water heater repair", not "plumber". A page for each service gives Google and AI assistants something specific to send them to.
Pages for the towns you serve(plumbers, electricians, HVAC, landscapers, roofers and agronomists)
When someone searches "plumber in Bettendorf", Google looks for a page about Bettendorf. A page for each town you serve helps you show up beyond the town your shop is in.
Licenses, insurance and trade badges(plumbers, electricians, HVAC, landscapers, roofers and agronomists)
Letting a stranger into your home is a leap of faith. "Licensed and insured", a license number and the badges your trade is known for are proof you're the real thing.
Real photos of your work, not stock(plumbers, electricians, HVAC, landscapers, roofers and agronomists)
Customers can spot a stock photo. Pictures of your own trucks, crew and finished jobs show you're a real local company, and they're the closest thing to a reference.
Reviews on the site, linked to Google(plumbers, electricians, HVAC, landscapers, roofers and agronomists)
Reviews on your own site reassure people who found you some other way, and a link to your Google reviews lets them check for themselves, which makes your reviews more believable.
Financing for big jobs(plumbers, electricians, HVAC, landscapers, roofers and agronomists)
A new furnace or roof is a big, often unplanned bill. Showing monthly payments turns "we can't afford it right now" into "when can you start?".
Local presence (20 points)
Google Business Profile is complete
Your Google profile is often the first thing a customer sees, before your website. A complete, open profile shows up in the map results where most local calls start.
Google category matches your trade
Google mostly decides which searches you show up for from your main category. A plumber listed as a "Contractor" can miss "plumber near me" searches.
Enough good reviews
Customers compare star ratings and review counts before they call. Profiles with more reviews and a higher rating get more calls, and rank higher in the map results.
Recent reviews
A review from last month tells customers you're busy and still doing good work. If your newest review is a year old, they wonder whether you're still around.
Hours are listed
Customers want to know whether you'll pick up right now. Google shows "Open now" in the map results only when your hours are set.
Profile links to this website
The website button on your Google profile sends ready-to-buy customers to you. If it's missing or points somewhere else, they land on a Facebook page or an old site instead.
Name, address and phone match Google
Google and AI assistants check that your name, address and phone agree between your site and your profile. When they differ, they trust both less and show you less often.
Site says where you work
Customers and Google both want to know you serve their town. If your site never names it, you're less likely to show up for "[trade] in [town]" searches.
Answer engines (AEO) (15 points)
Headings answer real customer questions
Google's answer boxes, voice assistants and AI tools look for a question followed by a direct answer. Headings phrased as the questions customers actually ask ("How much does a roof repair cost?") make your answers easy to pick up and quote.
An FAQ section answers common questions
An FAQ is the simplest way to show up when people ask Google, Siri or ChatGPT a question about your service. It also handles objections (price, timing, guarantees) before a customer calls.
Pages open with a short, direct summary
Answer engines and AI tools usually quote the first clear sentence on a page. A short summary right under the main heading ("We repair and replace roofs across Denver, usually within 48 hours") is what gets picked up.
Business details are marked up for search engines
Structured data (Schema.org LocalBusiness or Organization) hands Google and AI tools your name, address, phone and hours in a format they can't misread. It feeds the map pack, knowledge panels and AI answers about your business.
FAQ answers are marked up (FAQPage)
FAQPage structured data labels each question and answer so AI assistants and search engines can lift them accurately, with your site as the source.
Services or products are marked up
Marking up what you sell (services, products, menu, prices) helps AI tools and search engines answer "who offers X near me" with you, and can show prices or availability in results.
Reviews or ratings are marked up
Review and rating markup lets AI tools and product search see your reputation at a glance. Note: Google doesn't show stars for reviews a business publishes about itself, but the data is still read.
Inner pages have breadcrumb markup
Breadcrumbs (Home › Services › Drain Cleaning) show search engines how your pages fit together and can replace the plain web address in Google results with a cleaner path.
Name, address and phone are consistent
Search engines and AI tools cross-check your name, address and phone (NAP) across your site and the web. Mismatches make them less confident you're the right answer for local searches.
Generative AI engines (GEO) (15 points)
AI assistants are allowed to read your site
When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude or Gemini for a recommendation, those tools can only mention and link to sites they're allowed to read. Blocking them in robots.txt (sometimes done by a security plugin or default setting) quietly removes you from those answers.
An llms.txt file summarizes your site for AI
llms.txt is a new, optional plain-text file that gives AI tools a short guide to your business and key pages. It's cheap to add, but there's no evidence yet that the big AI engines rely on it, so it's worth little on its own.
AI tools can tell who you are, where and what you do
AI assistants build a picture of each business as an "entity": a name, a category, a location and what it's known for. If any of those are vague, they're less likely to mention you for "best [service] in [town]" questions.
Specific, quotable facts about your business
AI tools prefer to cite sources that state concrete facts: years in business, number of customers, response times, prices, guarantees. Specific claims get quoted; vague marketing language gets skipped.
Real people and expertise behind the business
Google and AI tools weigh experience, expertise and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). Named owners or staff with their credentials show there's real, qualified expertise behind the advice, which makes your content more likely to be trusted and cited.
Content shows it's been updated recently
AI tools and search engines prefer current information, especially for prices, hours and services. Visible, recent dates tell them (and customers) your details are up to date.
Links to your profiles on trusted sites
AI tools confirm who you are by matching your website with profiles elsewhere: Google Business Profile, Yelp, BBB, LinkedIn, industry directories. Linking to them (and listing them in structured data as sameAs) ties your reputation back to your site.
Technical SEO (10 points)
Page titles are present, the right length and unique
Your page title is the blue headline people click in Google. A clear, specific title (service + location + business name) earns more clicks from the same ranking.
Pages have a search-result description
The meta description is the short blurb under your link in Google. Without one, Google picks random text from the page; a good one works like a mini ad and lifts clicks.
One main heading per page, in a logical order
Headings tell Google and AI tools what each page is about. One clear main heading (H1) per page, with sub-headings in order, helps the right page rank for the right search.
Canonical tags point to the right page
A canonical tag tells Google which address is the "real" version of a page. Without it, duplicate addresses (with and without www, tracking codes) can split your ranking power.
Search engines are allowed to index your pages
If a page is marked "noindex" or blocked in robots.txt, Google won't show it at all — no matter how good it is. This is often left on by accident after a site redesign.
An XML sitemap lists your pages
A sitemap is a list of your pages for search engines. It helps new or updated pages get found and shown sooner.
The site is secure (HTTPS)
Browsers label sites without HTTPS as "Not secure", which scares off customers, especially on contact and payment forms. Google also favors secure sites.
No broken internal links
A link that leads to an error page is a dead end for a customer who was about to act, and it wastes the attention search engines give your site.
Your homepage links to your key pages
Search engines find and rank pages by following links. Pages your homepage doesn't link to are harder for both Google and customers to discover.
Performance & mobile (10 points)
Main content loads quickly on phones (LCP)
Largest Contentful Paint is how long a phone visitor waits to see your main content. Every extra second loses visitors before they read a word, and Google uses it as a ranking signal.
Pages respond quickly to taps (INP)
Interaction to Next Paint measures the lag between a tap and the page reacting. Laggy menus and buttons feel broken, and frustrated visitors leave.
Pages don't jump around while loading (CLS)
Cumulative Layout Shift measures how much the page jumps as it loads. Jumping content makes people tap the wrong thing and feels untrustworthy.
Pages fit phone screens
Most local searches happen on phones. A page that needs pinching or scrolling sideways feels broken, and Google ranks mobile-unfriendly pages lower.
Buttons and links are big enough to tap
Tiny links and buttons make phone visitors mis-tap or give up, especially on menus and contact links.
The homepage isn't too heavy to download
Every megabyte is extra waiting on a phone connection and eats into visitors' data plans. Heavy pages are the most common cause of slow small-business sites.
Accessibility (10 points)
Text has enough color contrast
Light grey text or text on busy backgrounds is hard to read for older customers, people with low vision, and anyone looking at a phone in sunlight. If they can't read your offer, they can't act on it.
Images have text descriptions (alt text)
Alt text describes an image to blind visitors using screen readers, and to search engines and AI tools, which can't see pictures. Missing alt text on photos of your work means lost context for all of them.
Form fields are labelled
Your forms are where enquiries happen. Fields without labels can't be understood by screen readers, and fields that rely on placeholder text alone confuse everyone once they start typing.
Links and buttons say what they do
Icon-only links and buttons (social icons, menus, arrows) are announced as just "link" or "button" to screen-reader users, who then can't tell how to call, book or navigate.
Pages declare their language
Declaring the page language lets screen readers pronounce your content correctly and helps browsers offer translation.
Headings make sense to screen readers
Screen-reader users jump between headings to skim a page, the way sighted visitors scan. Empty or out-of-order headings make that impossible.
Keyboard users can see where they are
People who can't use a mouse move through a page with the Tab key. If links and buttons don't show a visible outline when focused, they can't tell where they are or reach your contact form.
No other serious accessibility barriers
Beyond the basics, automated testing catches other barriers that stop people using assistive technology from browsing, booking or buying. In the US, inaccessible sites are also a growing source of legal demand letters.
Get your free scorecard and see which of these your site already does well.