Free Brand Authority Signal Builder

How this tool computes its result

Presents 26 yes/no authority signals split across four categories — Content, Social Proof, Data & Research, and Recognition — each with a hand-assigned weight from 10 to 25 reflecting relative importance (e.g. "publish original research" is weighted 20-25, the highest tier). The overall score is checkedWeight / totalWeight × 100, rounded; each category score is computed the same way using only that category's signals. A letter grade is assigned from fixed bands (A ≥85, B ≥70, C ≥55, D ≥40, else F). Strength callouts fire when a category score is ≥75, improvement callouts fire when a category score is <50, and "next steps" picks the single lowest-scoring category and appends two hardcoded suggestions specific to it.

Worked example

Checking only two of the six Data & Research signals — "publish original data, statistics, or benchmarks" (weight 25) and "conduct and publish industry surveys" (weight 20) — against that category's total weight of 100 yields a Data & Research score of round(45/100 × 100) = 45. Because 45 is still below the 50 threshold, the tool displays the improvement message "Create original data - publish research, surveys, or industry benchmarks" even though two of those exact actions are already checked — the threshold logic doesn't distinguish partial progress from no progress.

When not to use this tool

The score is entirely self-reported via checkboxes — the tool never crawls or verifies your site actually has the schema, case studies, or press mentions you check off, so treat it as a self-assessment prompt, not an automated audit of real page content.

Common mistakes

• - Reading a below-50 category score as "nothing done" — a partially-checked category can still fall under the 50-point improvement threshold and repeat generic advice for signals you've already completed, since weights aren't adjusted for how many boxes are checked within the band.
• - Comparing scores across companies of very different sizes or types as if they mean the same thing — all 26 signals carry fixed weights regardless of business model, so a B2C brand missing "conference presence" is penalized the same as a B2B company missing it.
• - Switching between evaluating different brands without clicking "Reset All" — state lives only in memory (no save/load), so signals checked for one brand silently carry over into the next evaluation.

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