How We Score
Your Website Health
Transparency is a core value. Here's exactly how our audit scores work, what industry standards we follow, and why your score here may differ from other tools.
Why Your Score May Differ From Other Tools
Important: Different tools measure different things in different ways. A score of 95 on Google Lighthouse and a score of 72 on CT Solutions doesn't mean one is wrong — it means they're measuring different aspects of your site with different methodologies.
Most tools focus on one category (Lighthouse = performance, WAVE = accessibility). Our audit is a holistic health score that weighs five categories together, because a fast website that's inaccessible and invisible to search engines isn't actually healthy.
| Tool | Focus | Methodology | Limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Lighthouse | Performance + basic A11y | Browser-based rendering audit | Varies per run, no SEO depth, no conversion analysis |
| WAVE | Accessibility only | DOM analysis for WCAG violations | Single category, no scoring system, no business context |
| GTmetrix | Performance only | Lighthouse + Web Vitals | Speed focused, ignores accessibility, security, conversion |
| Ahrefs / SEMrush | SEO only | Crawl-based technical SEO | $100+/mo, SEO only, no accessibility or security |
| CT Solutions | All 5 categories | Weighted holistic analysis | Server-side HTML analysis (no JS rendering) |
The Five Categories
Each category starts at 100 and deductions are applied for detected issues. The overall score is a weighted average.
Accessibility
Accessibility failures expose businesses to ADA lawsuits (10,000+ filed annually in the US) and exclude ~15% of the population from using your site. We weight this highest because it's both a legal risk and a moral imperative.
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- •Missing alt text on images (up to -25 points)
- •Form fields without associated labels (up to -20 points)
- •Missing skip navigation link (-5 points)
- •Heading hierarchy violations (-5 to -10 points)
- •Color contrast issues (-10 points)
- •Missing viewport meta tag (-15 points)
Performance
53% of mobile users abandon sites that take over 3 seconds to load. Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor. Every second of delay costs ~7% in conversions.
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- •Server response time / TTFB (up to -30 points)
- •Render-blocking scripts (-15 points)
- •Page size / HTML weight (-15 points)
- •Missing caching solution (-10 points)
- •Unoptimized images (-10 points)
- •Excessive plugins/scripts (-10 to -15 points)
SEO
Organic search drives 53% of all website traffic. Without proper SEO foundations, you're invisible to the primary way people find businesses online.
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- •Missing or inadequate title tag (up to -25 points)
- •Missing meta description (-20 points)
- •Missing canonical URL (-10 points)
- •Incomplete Open Graph / social tags (-10 points)
- •No structured data / JSON-LD (-10 points)
- •Missing H1 heading (-10 points)
- •No SEO plugin detected (WordPress) (-10 points)
Security
43% of cyberattacks target small businesses. Security headers are free to implement and prevent the most common attack vectors (XSS, clickjacking, MIME sniffing).
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- •No HTTPS (-30 points)
- •Missing security headers (up to -35 points total)
- •Mixed content (HTTP resources on HTTPS page) (-15 points)
- •Exposed CMS login page (-10 points)
- •XML-RPC enabled (WordPress) (-15 points)
- •CMS version disclosure (-5 points)
Conversion
The average website converts only 2.35% of visitors. Missing basic conversion elements means you're paying for traffic that never turns into revenue.
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- •No live chat or AI agent (-25 points)
- •No clear call-to-action buttons (-20 points)
- •No lead capture forms (-15 points)
- •No visible phone number (-10 points)
- •No trust signals (testimonials, reviews, logos) (-15 points)
- •No predictive search (Shopify) (-5 points)
How the Overall Score Works
Weighted Average Formula
Accessibility is weighted highest (25%) because it carries the greatest legal and ethical risk. Security is weighted lowest (15%) because while important, most modern sites have HTTPS by default and many security issues require deeper analysis than a surface scan can provide.
Grade Scale
What "100" Means
A score of 100 means no detectable issues across all five categories. It doesn't mean your site is perfect — no automated scan can catch everything. But it means you've addressed every item our scanner checks for, which puts you ahead of 95% of websites.
Platform-Specific Analysis
Our scanner detects your platform (WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, etc.) and runs additional checks specific to that ecosystem.
WordPress
- • Plugin count and performance impact
- • Caching solution detection
- • SEO plugin presence
- • Security plugin presence
- • Login page exposure
- • XML-RPC vulnerability
- • Version disclosure
- • REST API exposure
Shopify
- • Theme detection
- • Third-party app script count
- • Product schema markup
- • Image optimization (CDN params)
- • Lazy loading implementation
- • Predictive search feature
- • Custom checkout domain
Known Limitations
We believe in being upfront about what our scanner can and can't do.
Server-Side Analysis
Our scanner analyzes the HTML response from your server. It does not execute JavaScript, so issues that only appear after client-side rendering may not be detected. For full JS-rendered audits, use Google Lighthouse alongside our tool.
Estimated Color Contrast
True color contrast analysis requires rendering the page and computing pixel-level values. Our scanner checks for common low-contrast patterns in inline styles. For pixel-perfect contrast testing, use the WAVE browser extension.
Single-Page Analysis
Our free audit scans one page at a time (typically your homepage). A full site audit would need to crawl every page. Our paid audit and ongoing monitoring services cover your entire site.
Security Surface Only
We check headers, SSL, and common CMS vulnerabilities. We do not perform penetration testing, code analysis, or check for database vulnerabilities. For deep security audits, consult a specialized security firm.
See Your Score
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