Quick answer
The NOTABIS audit score is a directional diagnostic based on the density of measured FAIL and WARNING findings in the scored categories. It is a way to compare the evidence in one audit, or changes between audits of the same site; it is not a Google score, a ranking prediction, or a promise that a particular number will improve traffic.
What the issue means
A score compresses several kinds of crawl evidence into one number. NOTABIS also shows category scores for technical, crawlability, metadata, content, images, links, and structured data, plus the underlying issue groups and affected pages. Those details are the part to use when deciding what to do.
The score is calculated from pages measured in the audit. For each scored category, eligible failed and warning findings create a bounded penalty based on issue density. The category score cannot fall below zero, and the overall score is the average of the available category scores. The score is labelled directional so the calculation is not mistaken for a universal SEO health measure.
Performance and site-health diagnostics are reported separately. They do not change this directional score. Duplicate metadata findings are counted in the score only when the duplicate analysis classifies them as a true duplicate.
Why it matters for SEO
A compact signal can make a long report easier to scan, but a single number hides page purpose, severity, implementation context, and what the crawler could not measure. Two sites can have the same score for very different reasons. A small site with one serious issue can also move more than a large site with the same number of affected URLs.
Search engines do not receive or use a NOTABIS score. Use the score to locate changes in the report, then use the evidence, response status, rendered details, and page context to choose a fix. Addressing a finding can improve access or clarity, but no score or fix guarantees rankings.
How NOTABIS detects it
After the crawl completes, NOTABIS counts score-eligible FAIL and WARNING findings against the measured page count for each scored category. It applies the current directional calculation, stores the category scores and overall average, and records the method as directional_issue_density_v1. Findings marked REVIEW, INFO, INTENTIONAL, or EXPECTED are excluded from that calculation.
The score is therefore limited by the crawl itself. Blocked pages, skipped URLs, failed requests, and an incomplete page sample can leave important evidence outside the denominator or outside the measured categories. Read the confidence and coverage panels alongside the number.
How to check it yourself
- Open the report and note the overall score, score state, and coverage confidence together.
- Compare the category overview to the issue groups and their affected-page counts.
- Open the highest-priority groups and inspect the listed pages and evidence.
- Check whether the audit is complete, partial, limited, or blocked before comparing it with an earlier audit.
- If you need a trend, compare audits of the same origin with similar crawl settings and page coverage.
You can reproduce the broad idea with a spreadsheet: group measured FAIL and WARNING findings by category, divide by the measured-page denominator, and keep the resulting penalty bounded. That will not reproduce every product detail, so treat it as a sense check rather than a replacement for the report.
How to fix it
Do not try to raise the number directly. Fix the highest-impact, well-supported findings first: restore important pages, correct crawl and index signals, repair broken internal paths, and improve page metadata or markup where the evidence shows a problem. Re-run the audit after the changes and check whether coverage and confidence stayed comparable.
Keep a short change log with the audit date, affected URLs, response status, and the finding you intended to address. If the score changes but the evidence does not, investigate crawl coverage or classification before drawing a conclusion.
When this is intentional or does not need fixing
A lower score can include a real issue that is deliberate, such as a protected route returning 401 or 403, or a page intentionally excluded from indexing. A high score does not prove that every page is useful, fast, or eligible for search. In both cases, the underlying evidence and the site owner's intent take priority over the number.
Related issues
Read crawl coverage and audit limitations, how to read a NOTABIS audit, and when an audit finding does not need fixing. For the underlying work queue, see SEO audit remediation checklist.
Run a NOTABIS audit
Run a NOTABIS SEO audit to calculate the directional diagnostic and inspect the category, coverage, and page-level evidence behind it.