Understanding Your Website Baseline

Your Website Baseline is the set of pages MarketingStride uses to measure your website over time.

Every Website Audit creates a Website Baseline. Future Website Rescans compare those same pages to track changes, update page results, and calculate your website score.

Think of your Website Baseline as your website's point of reference. It stays consistent until you decide to expand it.

Why does MarketingStride use a Website Baseline?

Websites are constantly changing. Pages are updated, added, removed, or reorganized over time.

To measure meaningful progress, MarketingStride needs a consistent set of pages to compare from one review to the next. Your Website Baseline provides that consistency.

Using the same baseline allows MarketingStride to:

• Track changes over time
• Compare previous and current results
• Calculate your website score consistently
• Show meaningful trends across multiple Website Rescans

How is my Website Baseline created?

Your first Website Audit establishes your Website Baseline.

For example:

• Initial Website Audit
• Pages 1-15 evaluated
• Website Baseline = Pages 1-15

Future Website Rescans will continue measuring those same pages unless you choose to expand your Website Baseline.

What does a Website Rescan do?

A Website Rescan refreshes your existing Website Baseline.

MarketingStride revisits every page currently included in your Website Baseline, compares the latest results with previous results, and updates your website score.

A Website Rescan does not automatically add new pages to your Website Baseline.

What is an Expansion Audit?

An Expansion Audit analyzes pages that are not currently part of your Website Baseline.

For example:

• Website Baseline: Pages 1-15
• Expansion Audit: Pages 16-30

These pages receive their own audit results, but they do not affect your website score or future Website Rescans until you choose to expand your Website Baseline.

When does my Website Baseline change?

Your Website Baseline changes only when you choose to expand it.

Expanding your Website Baseline:

• includes the newly selected pages
• updates future Website Rescans
• updates future website scores
• creates a larger Website Baseline for all future comparisons

This change is permanent.

What happens when I expand my Website Baseline?

When you choose Expand Website Baseline, MarketingStride runs a Flexible Website Rescan across the entire expanded page set.

If the Flexible Website Rescan completes successfully, the expanded page set becomes your new Website Baseline.

Future Website Rescans and website scores will use the expanded Website Baseline.

See how Website Audits, Website Rescans, and Expansion Audits work together.

Why doesn't MarketingStride automatically add new pages?

Expansion Audits let you review additional pages before deciding whether they should become part of your ongoing measurements.

This gives you control over when your Website Baseline grows while ensuring future comparisons remain consistent.

Examples

Example 1

Your Website Baseline contains Pages 1-15.

You run a Website Rescan.

MarketingStride re-evaluates those same 15 pages and refreshes your website score.

Nothing is added to your Website Baseline.

Example 2

Your Website Baseline contains Pages 1-15.

You run an Expansion Audit for Pages 16-30.

Those pages receive audit results, but they do not affect your website score because they are not yet part of your Website Baseline.

Example 3

After reviewing the Expansion Audit, you choose Expand Website Baseline.

MarketingStride runs a Flexible Website Rescan across Pages 1-30.

When it completes successfully, Pages 1-30 become your new Website Baseline.

Future Website Rescans and website scores are based on all 30 pages.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why didn't my website score fully change after a targeted Website Rescan?

A targeted Website Rescan updates only the pages included in that rescan. The remaining pages continue using their previous results until they are rescanned.

Why don't my Expansion Audit pages affect my website score?

Expansion Audit pages remain outside your Website Baseline until you choose to expand it. Only pages included in your Website Baseline contribute to your website score.

What happens when I expand my Website Baseline?

MarketingStride runs a Flexible Website Rescan across the expanded page set. If it completes successfully, the expanded page set becomes your new Website Baseline.

Can I remove pages from my Website Baseline?

No. Expanding your Website Baseline is permanent. Once the Flexible Website Rescan completes successfully, those pages become part of all future Website Rescans and website scores.

Can I skip an Expansion Audit?

You can choose not to expand your Website Baseline. Expansion Audit results remain available to review, but they will not be included in future Website Rescans or website scores until you decide to expand your Website Baseline.

Can I skip directly to a later Expansion Audit?

No. Website Baseline expansions must remain contiguous. If your Website Baseline ends at Pages 1-15, the next available expansion begins with Pages 16-30. Multiple Expansion Audits can be added together, provided they form one continuous page range.

Why does expanding my Website Baseline run a Flexible Website Rescan?

The Flexible Website Rescan verifies the complete expanded page set before it becomes your new Website Baseline. This ensures future comparisons and website scores are based on one consistent set of pages.