How we score
Every GrowthRatchet review scores a website from 0 to 100, against what the business wants its site to do. Here is what we look at, and what a score is and isn’t.
The seven areas
Each area gets its own score from 0 to 100, with one line to know at a glance and the detail behind it. Each has a page of its own: what we look at, why it matters, what each rating means, and what we can’t check.
- First impression
- Most visitors decide in a few seconds whether they are in the right place. If the first screen leaves them guessing, many leave before they read any further.
- Clear offer
- A visitor comparing a few businesses chooses the one that makes it easy to see what they will get.
- Trust
- Before getting in touch, a careful visitor looks for signs that you are real, current and good at what you do.
- Getting in touch or buying
- A visitor who is ready to act should never have to hunt for how. Every extra step loses some of them.
- Phone experience
- Most people find a local business on their phone. A site that is awkward there loses them, however good it looks on a computer.
- Speed
- A page that is slow to show on a phone loses visitors before they see anything.
- Found on Google
- Google can only show your site to people searching for what you do if your pages say clearly what you do and where.
What a rating means
Every score out of 100 is shown with a rating in words: Good (70 to 100), Needs work (50 to 69), Poor (0 to 49).
What we judge against
A site is judged against what the business wants it to do. When the owner hasn’t told us, we judge it against what most small businesses want from a website: more calls and enquiries from the right customers.
How a review is made
- We read the site’s own pages and take screenshots of it on a computer and on a phone. Nothing else goes in.
- Every point in a review comes from those pages and screenshots. Where we couldn’t check something, the review says so rather than guessing.
- The overall score is a judgement across the areas, weighed against the goal, not an average of them.
- The review lists what is holding the site back, most important first, and what is already working and worth keeping.
- An AI model writes each review, held to these rules.
What a score is not
- It is a judgement, not a measurement. Two careful people could score the same site a few points apart.
- It is not a promise of rankings, visitors, calls or sales, and no review counts or guesses customers lost.
- It says how well the site does its job today, as the pages show it. That is all.