THE RUBRIC
Content quality & helpfulness
Whether the page answers the thing it appears to be about.
Checks 18 14% of 129
Weight 20% of the overall score
Why it is weighted this way
The heaviest category at 20%, and the one with the most model-judged checks. Weighted highest because it is what everything else exists to deliver.
What this category covers
- Substance against the query the page targets
- Heading structure, and whether it matches the argument
- Whether the answer is stated plainly and early
- Duplicate body content across URLs
- Readability and formatting for scanning
- Freshness where the subject demands it
Representative checks
A sample of what sits in this category, with how each one is decided and who is allowed to fix it. The full list of 129 lives in the product.
| Check | Method | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Substantive content, not a stub Thin pages dilute a site rather than extending it. | Model | Human |
| Heading structure matches the argument Headings are how a machine finds the part of the page that answers a question. | Rule | Assist |
| Answers the query its title implies Model-judged and labelled as such, because it is a judgement. | Model | Human |
| No duplicated body content across URLs Two URLs with the same content compete with each other and neither wins. | Graph | Assist |
What usually goes wrong
- A page that takes four paragraphs to reach the answer its title promised
- Thin pages that dilute the site rather than extending it
- Headings that decorate rather than describe, so nothing can be skimmed or lifted
- The same body content served on two URLs
When these checks return unmeasured
A check in this category that cannot run is reported as unmeasured and counted in the denominator. It is never rounded up to a pass, which is the difference between a score that bounds its own claim and one that implies it examined everything.
- The model-judged checks could not run because the provider was unavailable
- The page returned no readable body content to assess
Where to start
- Put the direct answer in the first hundred words of your top twenty pages.
- Fix heading order before rewriting any prose.
- Consolidate or delete the thin pages rather than expanding them.