Content Optimization Score

How it works

What we check

• Term & topic coverage — Which words and phrases the top-ranking pages use for this keyword that your page is missing. This is the core of the score — content that covers the topic thoroughly tends to rank better than content that only mentions the keyword itself.
• Word-count depth — Your page's word count against the median of the pages currently ranking. Thin content isn't automatically bad, but if every top result runs 1,500+ words and yours runs 300, that's a real depth gap.
• Heading & structure depth — How many H2 sections your page has versus the ranking pages' average, plus whether you have a single clear H1. More sections usually means more sub-topics covered, not just more words.
• Unanswered reader questions — Specific questions pulled from the ranking pages' own headings and FAQ-style content that your page doesn't yet address. These are often exactly what searchers are looking for.
• Missing sections/subtopics — Whole sections the ranking pages cover that yours skips entirely — not just missing words, but missing chunks of the topic.
• Competitive baseline — Every score is relative to the current top-ranking pages for that exact keyword, refreshed at run time — not a static checklist that goes stale.

Common issues we catch

• Keyword-stuffed but topic-thin — A page can repeat the target keyword a dozen times and still miss the surrounding vocabulary the ranking pages use — the specific sub-terms, related concepts and phrasing that signal real topical depth.
• Under-length versus the field — Writing to an arbitrary word count (500 words, 1,000 words) instead of to what the topic actually needs. If the ranking pages are consistently longer, a short page is competing with one hand tied behind its back.
• Flat structure, no sub-topics — A single wall of text with one H1 and no H2 sections makes it hard for both readers and search engines to see that a page covers multiple angles of a topic — even when the words are technically there.
• Ignoring the questions searchers actually ask — Ranking pages often earn their position partly by directly answering the specific questions people have — not just describing the topic in general terms.
• Copying competitor structure without the substance — Mirroring a competitor's headings without actually answering what those headings promise doesn't close the gap — the score looks at whether the target's content plausibly addresses each question and section, not just whether a heading exists.
• Optimizing once and never revisiting — The pages that rank for a keyword change over time. A page graded 'A' six months ago can drift as competitors publish deeper content — re-running the check periodically catches that drift.

Where this matters

• Google organic results — The competitive set is pulled from the live Google organic results for the keyword you enter, so the comparison reflects who you're actually competing against today.
• Blog posts & long-form guides — Built for the kind of page that competes on topical depth — how-to guides, comparison posts, resource pages, and evergreen blog content.
• Product & service pages — Works for commercial pages too, though the terminology and structure gaps will reflect whatever mix of content (guides, FAQs, spec pages) currently ranks for that keyword.
• Any CMS — The check reads your live, published page — WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, a custom build, it doesn't matter. Nothing to install.