ONLINE REPORT CARD
How The Letter Grades of the Online Report Card Have Been Calculated
We have run thousands of Online Report Card reports for Paychex customers, many have come back wanting to understand how these grades are created, and where we are pulling out information. Excellent question, here is our answer.
Overall Score
The overall score is calculated by averaging the primary grades you’ve received in each section of the report. These letter grades are then converted into numerical values (just like school):
- A = 4
- B = 3
- C = 2
- D = 1
- F = 0
The converted values are then added up and divided by a perfect score number of 24. When a section is disabled, the overall score will adjust accordingly.
For Example,
In the above Online Report Card, the score would be broken down as follows:
| Section | Grade | Score |
| Listings | A | 4 |
| Reviews | C | 2 |
| Social | C | 2 |
| Website | C | 2 |
| SEO | D | 1 |
| Advertising | F | 0 |
| Total | N/A | 11 |
Once we have the total score, 11 in the above case, we then divide it by the perfect score of 24, giving us the overall score for the Online Report Card.
11/24 = 0.458
This is then rounded to the nearest whole number. In the example provided, this would be the 46% shown in the screenshot.
Sections:
For each section in the Online Report Card, we use the following percentile grading system:
- A = 90 – 100th percentile
- B = 75 – 89th percentile
- C = 50 – 74th percentile
- D = 30 – 49th percentile
- F = 0 – 29th percentile
Website Performance Score
We use Google’s latest version of their Lighthouse data points to analyze websites. The Website section is comprised of three separate subsections. The grades from each of these subsections are added together and then divided by the total number of grades available.
For example: If we have a report with the following website subsection grades:
- Mobile – D
- Desktop – F
- Homepage Content – A
These convert to scores of 1, 0, and 4 respectively. Adding these together, we get a total of 5. If we divide this by 3 (the number of sections available), we receive a value of 1.67. This is rounded up to 2, which gives us the total website grade of C.
Note: PageSpeed scores can vary as they are estimates of the website’s performance and not exact numbers. Many factors can influence the performance such as internet traffic, the types of ads being served, the type of device being used, and antivirus software, but Google does as good a job as anyone, so these are the most trustworthy PageSpeed scores available to anyone online.
Business Listings Score
We calculate the Listing Score for each site and then we compare it to other businesses in your business category.
We consider any within the top 20% of any business category to be an A.
Online Reviews Score
We first calculate the scores for each subsection under the Reviews heading, namely Reviews Found, Reviews Found Per Month, Average Review Score, and Total # of Reviews. We then take these individual scores and divide them into the maximum possible score.
For Example, if a company had the following results:
- Reviews Found | Top 10% = A
- Reviews Found Per Month | Top 25% = B
- Average Review Score | Bottom 29% = F
- # of Review Sources | Top 45% = C
If we convert these to point values, we have 4, 3, 0, and 2. Adding these together gives a total point value of 9. Since there are 4 sub-grades, we would divide this by 4 which gives us a score of 2.25, resulting in an overall grade of C.
Social Media Score
We first calculate the scores for each subsection under the Reviews heading, namely Reviews Found, Reviews Found Per Month, Average Review Score, and Total # of Reviews. We then take these individual scores and divide them into the maximum possible score.
For example, if a company has both Facebook and Twitter and we are able to find them. Their subsections (Likes, Average Posts / Month, etc.) are calculated using the same method as other sections.
So if Facebook had ratings of B, F, F, and F. Converting these to numerical would give us 3, 0, 0, and 0:
Then lets say that Twitter had grades of B, B, and B, which is equal to scores of 3, 3, and 3:
If we add these together, we get four ‘3’s and three ‘0’s. Adding these together gives us a value of 12. There are seven sub-grades enabled (4 for Facebook and 3 for Twitter do to what each platform tracks. If we break these scores down we have:
- Total Score / Number of Grades
- (3 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 3 + 3 + 3) / 7
- 12 / 7
- = 1.7. Round up to 2 = C
We then round 1.7 up to 2. Using our grade conversion formula, 2 = C, thus making the overall Social Media grade a C.
Online Advertising Scores
The Advertising section analyzes and displays the top 5 paid keywords for your business based on location, business information, and the content on your website. Every month we run millions (yes I said millions) of new keywords searches, then take the top 2 pages of ads found in those searches and save those keywords to our database. From there, we use our data in the following formula to calculate the Advertising Scores.
Advertising: Estimated cost per click = Estimated monthly ad budget / Estimated monthly paid clicks
If you are not finding your keywords listed, then ads for your website were not found. If you are running ads that were not found, this is a good indication that whoever is running your ads needs to update the keywords they are targeting on your company’s behalf.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Scores
The SEO section is similar to the Advertising section in that it too analyzes and displays the top 5 keywords for your business based on location, business information, and the content on your website, but it is focused on organic, or earned spots on a search engine results page.
Using the keyword data we gather each month we then can calculate an SEO score using the following formula.
SEO: Estimated value per click = Estimated monthly value of clicks / Estimated monthly clicks
E-Commerce Analysis
This is the newest section of the Online Report Card. E-Commerce is growing rapidly and experts say that the COVID-19 pandemic pushed us five years ahead in developing online reliance. We simply had to go online to get anything done, including shopping.
This section includes 3 categories of e-commerce including:
- Online storefront – we check to see if a website has the capability to sell its products and service online through a recognized e-commerce provider.
- Online payments – We run a quick analysis to see if your website is properly set up to take credit card payments through a recognized and trusted provider.
- Lead engagement – We scan your website to see if it offers a clear path for your visitors to make a purchase from your site.
Due to the rapid growth of e-commerce, we are constantly updating our analysis to include new e-commerce solution providers. However, if you happen to use a provider we do not recognize, please let us know.
We see the Online Report Card as a valuable tool to give our customers a quick look at the health of their website and online image. We want everyone to see their business as Google sees it, so they can make the necessary adjustments to increase their online presence and ultimately their business.