TL;DR
Prerender's SEO score evaluates the technical health of each cached page — checking for missing tags, improper meta content, and structural issues — and displays the result in your dashboard. Scores are calculated during the recache phase, not on the initial render. Use the score to triage pages that need attention, not to reach a target number.
What the SEO score measures
When Prerender recaches a page, it evaluates a set of on-page technical SEO elements: the presence and format of your title element, meta description, heading structure, Open Graph tags, and other structural signals.
Each check either adds to or subtracts from a starting score of zero. The result reflects how well your page meets technical SEO best practices at the point it was cached — not how it will perform in rankings. The score is diagnostic: it surfaces what may be broken or missing, not a prediction of how AI crawlers and search engines will treat the page.
ℹ️ The SEO score evaluates the rendered HTML Prerender serves to AI crawlers and search engines — the same content they receive when visiting your page.
How to read your score
You can view the SEO score for each cached page directly in your Prerender dashboard. Click on any score to see a full breakdown of which checks passed and which flagged an issue.
| Score | Color | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Positive | Blue | Page is technically healthy — checks are passing |
| Negative | Red | Issues detected — one or more checks are failing |
| N/A | — | Score not yet calculated — page hasn't been recached |
There's no target number to aim for. A page that addresses all flagged checks is better optimized than one that scores high with unresolved issues. Use the breakdown to understand what's contributing to a lower score, not to optimize the number itself.
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When scores are calculated
SEO scores are calculated during the recache phase — not on the initial on-demand render. This is intentional: Prerender serves the fastest possible response to AI crawlers and search engines on first request, then evaluates pages in the background when recaching.
If a page shows N/A, it hasn't been recached yet. You can trigger scoring by recaching the page manually using the Recache API or by initiating a recache from your dashboard.
How to use the SEO score
Triage by score. Sort your cached pages by SEO score to find the lowest-performing ones. Pages with a negative (red) score are the best candidates for investigation and fixes.
Click through for the breakdown. Every score links to a detailed list of which checks passed and which failed. Use this to identify exactly what needs fixing — a missing title tag, an absent meta description, malformed Open Graph markup, or other issues.
Focus on the issue, not the number. The score is a signal, not a target. Addressing flagged checks is more valuable than optimizing the score value itself.
Recache pages to refresh the score. Once you've fixed an issue, trigger a recache to recalculate the score and confirm the change has taken effect.
💬 Still need help?
If you have questions about your SEO scores or what a specific check means, our support team can help.
→ Contact us at support@prerender.io