Grades recalibrated: "Good" now means around the median, not the 9th percentile
The five grade bands were set before we had data. On 178 audited sites the old scale called a 46 "Good" although 90% of sites score higher, and nobody ever got "Poor". New bands: Poor below 50, Fair 50–64, Good 65–74, Great 75–84, Excellent 85+. Scores are unchanged; every stored grade was re-labelled.
A score needs a label, and the labels were wrong. The original bands (Poor 0–20, Fair 21–45, Good 46–65, Great 66–85, Excellent 86+) were set before the first hundred audits existed. With 178 sites on the board the picture is clear: the median Growth Score is 67, the worst site we have ever scored sits at 28, and half of all sites landed in "Great". A site at 46 was called "Good" while 90% of sites scored higher, and "Poor" was never awarded to anyone.
The new bands
- Excellent 85 and above — the top 7%.
- Great 75–84 — roughly the top quarter.
- Good 65–74 — around the median.
- Fair 50–64 — below the median, nothing is on fire.
- Poor below 50 — the bottom 13%.
Scores themselves did not change: the eight categories, the weights per site type and the checks are exactly as before. Only the word next to the number moved. Every stored audit, monitored site and leaderboard entry was re-labelled on the new scale, so an old report and a new one read the same way. The grade is now derived from the rounded score you see, so 84.6 shows as 85 and reads Excellent.
If your site dropped from Great to Good overnight: nothing happened to the site, the label just became honest. The action plan tells you what would move the number.
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