How audit and authority scores are calculated

SEO Roger reports several scores to summarize complex data. This article explains how the main ones, your audit health score and authority, are derived and how to use them.

Audit health score

After a Full Site Audit, SEO Roger produces a health score that summarizes the issues found across all 11 audit modules. It's calculated from:

• Issue count — how many problems were detected.
• Severity weighting — critical issues count more than warnings, which count more than notices.
• Category coverage — technical SEO, crawlability, on-page, security, and performance all contribute.

Because severity is weighted, resolving a few critical issues typically raises your score more than clearing many minor ones. Higher scores indicate a healthier site.

Authority

The Authority tool estimates a site's overall strength and trust as a search entity. Authority-style metrics are generally influenced by signals such as:

• The quantity and quality of backlinks pointing to a domain.
• The linking domains' own strength.
• Overall domain profile signals from the underlying data.

SEO Roger uses DataForSEO for the backlink and competitive data behind these estimates, so they reflect real market data rather than guesses. Authority is a relative, comparative measure, most useful for benchmarking against competitors rather than as an absolute grade.

Using scores wisely

• Track trends, not single numbers. Compare dated runs in your Analysis History to see whether you're improving.
• Prioritize by severity. For audits, fix critical issues first for the biggest gains.
• Benchmark authority. Compare your authority to competitors to gauge where you stand.
• Some flagged items may not apply to your business, and a perfect score isn't the goal.

Why scores can change

Scores shift as your site changes, as you fix issues, and as market data updates. A drop isn't necessarily a mistake; it may reflect new issues, lost links, or a more competitive landscape. Use the underlying issue lists and data to understand any movement.

The bottom line

Scores are a fast, directional summary. The detailed issue lists and metrics behind them are where you'll find the specific actions that move the needle.