Scoring Criteria
IndexReady scores web pages across 26 items — 15 for SEO and 11 for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Below are the detailed point allocations and judgment criteria for each item.
SEO
100ptsWe evaluate 15 technical factors that determine how well your pages are indexed and ranked in Google Search. Point allocations balance each factor's impact on rankings with the difficulty of implementation.
Title Tag (10 pts): Presence and length (30-60 characters recommended)
The title tag displayed in search results directly impacts CTR (click-through rate). A properly sized title tag with relevant keywords is the most fundamental and impactful SEO element.
How to improveKeep it 30–60 characters and lead with the keyword that describes the page. Article pages typically use the "Article title | Site name" format.
Read the related guideMeta Description (10 pts): Presence and length (70-160 characters recommended)
Used as the search result snippet, this helps users decide whether to click. Too short lacks information; too long gets truncated in search results.
How to improveSummarize the page's value in 120–160 characters. Search engines display this as the snippet, so it directly influences click-through.
Read the related guidePageSpeed Performance (8 pts): PageSpeed Insights score
Google uses page load speed as a ranking factor. A PageSpeed Insights score of 90+ earns full points, while below 50 results in significant deductions.
How to improveRun PageSpeed Insights and address the flagged items. Lazy-loading images, trimming unused JavaScript, and tuning fonts give the largest gains. Address Core Web Vitals together.
Read the related guideCore Web Vitals (8 pts): LCP, INP, CLS values
Google's official user experience metrics. Targets: LCP (loading speed) under 2.5s, CLS (layout shift) under 0.1, INP (responsiveness) under 200ms.
How to improveTrack LCP, INP, and CLS. Preload the hero image to improve LCP, and set explicit width and height on images and iframes to prevent CLS.
Read the related guideHeading Structure (6 pts): h1 presence/count, h2+ hierarchy
Proper heading hierarchy helps search engines understand page content structure. Pages should have exactly one h1, with h2 and below organized in a logical hierarchy.
How to improveUse exactly one h1 per page and follow the h2→h3 hierarchy. Skipping h2 to jump to h3 breaks the document outline.
Read the related guideOGP Tags (6 pts): og:title, og:description, og:image presence
Controls how your page appears when shared on social media. Proper OGP tags increase social traffic, which indirectly benefits SEO.
How to improveSet og:title, og:description, og:image at minimum. og:image should be 1200×630. Add Twitter Card meta as well.
Read the related guideHTTPS (6 pts): Whether the URL uses HTTPS
Google has used HTTPS as a ranking signal since 2014. HTTP pages show "Not Secure" browser warnings, driving users away.
How to improveGet a free Let's Encrypt certificate and 301-redirect HTTP to HTTPS. Always-HTTPS is the current default.
Read the related guideMeta Robots Noindex (8 pts): Whether noindex is misconfigured
An unintended noindex tag completely removes a page from Google's index. This carries high points because misconfiguration has catastrophic impact.
How to improveCheck that no <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> slipped onto live pages. Staging-only meta tags are a common source of leaks.
Read the related guideCanonical Tag (6 pts): Presence
Prevents duplicate content issues by telling search engines which URL is the authoritative version. Essential when the same content is accessible at multiple URLs.
How to improvePoint duplicates at the canonical URL. Setting a self-canonical on every page is the safe baseline.
Read the related guideImage Alt Attributes (6 pts): Ratio of images missing alt
Alt attributes describe image content to search engines and screen readers. This item affects both accessibility and SEO.
How to improveDescribe informative images concisely. Decorative images should use alt="" so screen readers skip them.
Read the related guiderobots.txt (6 pts): Presence and basic configuration
Communicates crawl directives to search engine bots. Without it, crawlers may not navigate your site efficiently.
How to improveUse Disallow to block paths you don't want crawled. Add a Sitemap: line so crawlers can find sitemap.xml.
Read the related guidesitemap.xml (6 pts): Presence and validity
Provides search engines with a list of all pages, accelerating discovery of new and updated content.
How to improveGenerate sitemap.xml and submit it to Search Console. In Next.js, app/sitemap.ts can build it dynamically. Exclude noindex pages.
Read the related guideHTML lang Attribute (4 pts): Presence and validity of lang on '<html>' tag
Declaring the page language helps search engines serve the page in the correct language-specific results.
How to improveAlways declare the language with <html lang="en"> (or matching). Multilingual sites should add hreflang for each version.
Read the related guideContent Length (6 pts): Body text word count (thin content check)
Pages with extremely little content may be flagged as "thin content" by Google. This checks whether there is sufficient information on the page.
How to improveMerge or expand thin pages instead of publishing them. There is no strict word-count quota, but pages under ~300 words tend to read as filler.
Read the related guideViewport Setting (4 pts): meta viewport presence and configuration
A foundational setting for mobile-friendly pages. Google uses mobile-first indexing, so missing viewport configuration disadvantages your page in mobile search.
How to improveInclude <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">. Next.js exposes generateViewport for type-safe configuration.
Read the related guideGEO
100ptsWe evaluate 11 factors that determine how likely your content is to be cited by AI search engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overview. This is a rapidly growing area of importance as AI search adoption accelerates in 2026.
llms.txt / llms-full.txt (12 pts): Presence and content quality
A file that communicates your site's overview and structure to AI models — think of it as robots.txt for AI. It helps AI accurately understand your content. As the most fundamental GEO item, it receives the highest point allocation.
How to improvePublish /llms.txt with a site overview and the URLs you want AI crawlers to prioritize. Add llms-full.txt as a long-form companion when needed.
Read the related guideAI Crawler Permissions (12 pts): GPTBot, ClaudeBot, etc. allow status
If your robots.txt blocks AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, etc.), AI search engines cannot access your content at all. A foundational GEO item alongside llms.txt.
How to improveIn robots.txt, explicitly allow or disallow GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and similar crawlers. The default is ambiguous to operators and crawlers alike.
Read the related guideStructured Data (10 pts): JSON-LD presence and schema types
JSON-LD structured data provides machine-readable context that helps AI understand content semantically. Using multiple schema types (Article, FAQ, HowTo) earns higher scores.
How to improveAdd JSON-LD that matches the content (Article, FAQPage, Organization, BreadcrumbList) inside <head>.
Read the related guideClear Answer Paragraphs (8 pts): Concise paragraphs and citable text structure
When generating answers, AI tends to cite concise paragraphs of 30–200 characters. Content with clear definition sentences ("X is...", "X refers to...") scores higher.
How to improvePlace a one- or two-sentence direct answer right after each heading. AI search engines extract those answer blocks first.
Read the related guideFAQ/List/Definition Patterns (8 pts): FAQ structure, lists, definition patterns
FAQ and list-formatted content makes it easy for AI to extract answers to specific questions. The presence of FAQPage schema is also evaluated.
How to improveWrap FAQ sections in FAQPage schema so AI clients recognize the question-and-answer structure.
Read the related guideQuestion-Format Headings (8 pts): Whether h2/h3 use question format
Headings phrased as questions ("What is...?", "How do you...?") align with user search intent, increasing the likelihood of being cited in AI search.
How to improvePhrase h2/h3 as questions ("What is X?", "How do I…?"). This helps AI extract them as FAQ candidates.
Read the related guideStatistics & Numeric Data (8 pts): Presence of specific numbers/statistics in content
Content with specific numbers and statistics tends to be cited by AI as a "reliable source of information."
How to improveQuote concrete numbers or percentages and link to the primary source (Google docs, government, peer-reviewed). Avoid uncited rounding.
Read the related guideContent Freshness (8 pts): Presence of publish/update date metadata
Metadata like datePublished and dateModified helps AI assess content recency. Newer content is more likely to be cited.
How to improveSet datePublished and dateModified in the Article schema and surface the updated date in the page itself. AI ranks fresh information higher.
Read the related guideE-E-A-T Signals (8 pts): Author info, citation links, dates
Signals of Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Higher scores for pages with author information and citations to authoritative external sources.
How to improvePublish author info, operator info, and an editorial policy in About or article footers. Add sameAs to Person JSON-LD to link SNS or Wikipedia profiles.
Read the related guideGoogle-Recommended Structured Data (8 pts): Recommended schema type usage
Evaluates usage of schema types recommended by Google for AI Overview and other features (Article, NewsArticle, BlogPosting, etc.).
How to improveUse the schemas Google parses for AI Overview (Article, NewsArticle, BlogPosting, Product, Recipe). Validate them under "Enhancements" in Search Console.
Read the related guideCitation Quality (10 pts): External links to authoritative sources (.gov, .edu, etc.)
Links to trusted external sources (government, educational, and public institutions) signal that your content itself is reliable — AI tends to rate such content higher.
How to improvePrefer official primary sources (developers.google.com, web.dev, MDN, w3.org, *.gov, *.edu). Mark advertising links with rel="nofollow sponsored".
Read the related guideWant to learn more about the scoring logic?
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