What is a good SEO score for a website?

Aim for 90 or above on the Lighthouse SEO score. This indicates your technical SEO fundamentals are solid. Scores between 50-89 mean there are issues worth fixing. Below 50 indicates significant problems that need immediate attention.

Does SEO score affect Google rankings?

Not directly. Google does not use Lighthouse SEO scores in its ranking algorithm. However, the underlying issues that cause low SEO scores (missing meta tags, crawl problems, mobile usability issues) can indirectly affect how well Google understands and ranks your pages.

Is 100 SEO score possible?

Yes, but not always necessary or meaningful. Some checks might not apply to your page type. A score of 90-95 with all relevant issues addressed is functionally equivalent to 100 for most sites.

How often should I check my SEO score?

Check key pages monthly as part of regular site maintenance. Run a full audit quarterly or after major site changes. If you notice ranking drops or indexing issues, run an immediate audit to identify potential problems.

What is more important: SEO score or Performance score?

For rankings, Performance score matters more because it includes Core Web Vitals, which are confirmed Google ranking factors. For search engine crawling and indexing, SEO score matters. Ideally, optimize both — they address different aspects of site health.

What Is a Good SEO Score? Understanding Your Audit Results

Q: Why is my SEO score different in different tools?

Each SEO tool uses its own criteria and weighting. Lighthouse focuses on technical implementation. Other tools might include content analysis, keyword optimization, or backlink factors. Pick one tool and use it consistently rather than comparing scores across different tools.

The SEO Score Question Everyone Asks

You just ran an audit on your website. The tool spits out a number: 78. Or maybe 52. Or 91. Now what?

Is 78 good? Is 52 terrible? Should you panic or celebrate?

I get this question constantly, and the honest answer is frustrating: it depends. But let me break down exactly what these scores mean, what ranges you should aim for, and why obsessing over the number itself might be missing the point.

What Is an SEO Score?

An SEO score is a metric that rates how well your webpage follows SEO best practices. Different tools calculate it differently, but the most common one people refer to is the Lighthouse SEO score that appears in tools like PageSpeed Insights, Chrome DevTools, and BulkAudit.

The Lighthouse SEO score specifically measures:

Whether your page is indexable (not blocked by robots.txt or noindex)

Meta tags (title, description, viewport)

Document structure (valid HTML, proper heading hierarchy)

Link crawlability (links are accessible to search engines)

Mobile friendliness (tap targets, font sizes)

Structured data validity

HTTPS usage

Hreflang implementation (for multilingual sites)

What the Lighthouse SEO score does NOT measure:

Content quality

Keyword optimization

Backlink profile

Domain authority

Search rankings

User engagement

This is critical to understand. A page can score 100 on Lighthouse SEO and still rank nowhere because the content is thin or nobody links to it. The score measures technical implementation, not overall SEO success.

SEO Score Ranges: What They Mean

90-100: Good

Your page follows SEO best practices. The technical foundation is solid. Search engines can crawl and index your content without issues.

Does this guarantee rankings? No. But it means technical SEO is not holding you back.

50-89: Needs Improvement

There are issues that could affect how search engines understand and index your page. Common problems in this range:

Missing or poorly written meta descriptions

Missing alt text on images

Tap targets too small on mobile

Links not crawlable (JavaScript-rendered without proper handling)

Missing structured data

Most sites I audit land in this range. The good news is these issues are usually quick to fix.

0-49: Poor

Significant problems are preventing search engines from properly crawling or understanding your page. You might have:

Pages blocked from indexing accidentally

No meta viewport tag (breaking mobile usability)

Critical crawl errors

Completely missing meta tags

Invalid HTML structure

If you are in this range, fix these issues before worrying about anything else. A score this low means the basics are broken.

What Is Actually a "Good" SEO Score?

Here is my practical take based on auditing hundreds of sites:

Aim for 90+. Not because 90 is a magic number, but because getting to 90 means you have fixed all the major issues. The points between 90 and 100 are often diminishing returns or things outside your control.

Do not stress about 100. Some Lighthouse SEO checks are situational. If you do not have a multilingual site, hreflang does not apply. If you do not need structured data for your page type, that check might flag something that does not matter for you.

Context matters more than the number. A 75 on a complex web app with lots of JavaScript is different from a 75 on a simple blog post. The blog post has no excuse. The web app might have legitimate technical constraints.

Compare against your own pages, not random benchmarks. If your homepage scores 92 but a key landing page scores 64, that gap is what needs attention. Do not compare your scores against some blogger who claims their site scores 100.

Why Your SEO Score Might Be Misleading

The Score Is Not Rankings

I cannot stress this enough. Google does not use Lighthouse SEO scores in its ranking algorithm. These scores measure whether you have implemented technical best practices, but Google's actual ranking system considers hundreds of factors including content relevance, backlinks, user signals, and much more.

A page with a 70 SEO score and great content will outrank a page with a 100 SEO score and mediocre content every time.

Different Tools Give Different Scores

Run the same URL through different SEO audit tools and you will get different scores. SEMrush Site Audit, Ahrefs Site Audit, Moz, Screaming Frog — they all use different criteria and weighting.

Lighthouse SEO score measures a specific set of technical checks. Other tools might include content analysis, keyword optimization, or backlink factors. You are not comparing apples to apples.

Pick one tool and use it consistently. The absolute number matters less than tracking improvements over time.

Scores Vary Between Runs

Lighthouse scores can fluctuate between runs due to network conditions, server response times, and other environmental factors. A 3-5 point variation is normal.

If you ran an audit yesterday and scored 88, then today you score 84, that is not a real change. Run the audit multiple times and look at the average if you need precision.

The Scores That Actually Matter for Rankings

If you want to focus on metrics that correlate with actual search rankings, look at these instead:

Core Web Vitals

These are confirmed Google ranking factors:

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Under 2.5 seconds is good

CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Under 0.1 is good

INP (Interaction to Next Paint): Under 200ms is good

Core Web Vitals appear in both your Lighthouse Performance score and in Google Search Console as real user data. The Search Console data (field data) matters more because it reflects actual user experience, not lab tests.

Performance Score

The Lighthouse Performance score includes Core Web Vitals plus other speed metrics. A slow site frustrates users and can indirectly hurt rankings through increased bounce rates and reduced engagement.

Aim for 90+ on desktop and 70+ on mobile. Mobile is harder because the test simulates a mid-range device on a slower connection.

Accessibility Score

While not a direct ranking factor, accessibility issues often overlap with SEO issues. Missing alt text, improper heading structure, and poor mobile usability hurt both accessibility and SEO.

Plus, accessible sites serve more users. That is good for business regardless of rankings.

How to Improve Your SEO Score

Most SEO score issues fall into a few categories. Here is how to fix them:

Meta Tags

Add a unique title tag under 60 characters to every page

Add a unique meta description under 155 characters to every page

Include the viewport meta tag: meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"

Add lang attribute to your html tag

Images

Add descriptive alt text to every image

Make sure image file names are descriptive (not IMG_4532.jpg)

Use proper image formats and compression

Links

Use real anchor tags with href attributes, not JavaScript onclick handlers

Make sure important links are not hidden behind JavaScript that blocks crawlers

Fix any broken internal links

Mobile Usability

Ensure tap targets (buttons, links) are at least 48x48 pixels

Use readable font sizes (16px minimum for body text)

Avoid horizontal scrolling

Structured Data

Add relevant schema markup (Article, FAQ, Product, Organization)

Validate structured data using Google's Rich Results Test

Fix any validation errors flagged

Indexing

Make sure pages you want indexed are not blocked by robots.txt

Remove accidental noindex tags

Ensure canonical tags point to the correct URLs

Running a Proper SEO Audit

Checking one page tells you about that page. To understand your site's overall SEO health, you need to audit multiple pages.

Use BulkAudit to check your key pages in one shot: homepage, main service/product pages, top blog posts, and any pages you are actively trying to rank. This gives you a realistic picture of your site's technical SEO health rather than cherry-picking your best or worst page.

Look for patterns. If all your blog posts score 65-75 while your main pages score 90+, the blog template probably has an issue. If random pages have wildly different scores, you might have inconsistent implementation across your site.

When to Worry About Your SEO Score

Worry when:

Your score is below 50. Something fundamental is broken.

Key pages score significantly lower than others. Inconsistency suggests problems.

Your score dropped suddenly. Something changed, intentionally or not.

Specific critical issues are flagged, like pages being blocked from indexing.

Do not worry when:

You are at 85-95 and cannot seem to reach 100. Diminishing returns.

Scores fluctuate by a few points between runs. Normal variation.

A tool suggests improvements that do not apply to your situation.

Your scores are good but rankings are not. The score is not the problem.

The Bottom Line

A good SEO score is 90 or above. But the score is a diagnostic tool, not a goal. It tells you whether technical SEO best practices are implemented correctly. It does not tell you whether your content is good, your keywords are right, or your site will rank.

Use the score to find and fix technical issues. Then focus on the things that actually drive rankings: content quality, user experience, and earning links from relevant sites.

The sites that rank well in 2026 are not the ones obsessing over getting from 94 to 97. They are the ones with great content, fast pages, and a technical foundation solid enough that it never gets in the way.