What Is DNA Match?
DNA Match is a measure of how much of the winning on-page signature your page already carries — not a prediction of your rank. It scores your page against the signals the pages ranking above you share and the trailing pages lack, with partial credit.
What This Pillar Reads
The on-page signals the pages ranking above you share and the trailing pages lack — structured data, titles, headings, content depth, local cues, proof, images, links — scored on your page against the top-cohort norm, with partial credit.
How to Read the Score
The score runs 0–100 — higher means more of the measured thing is present, read as a ladder of named bands rather than a raw percentage.
A Worked Example From the Sample Market
Real measurements from the anonymized public sample — the numbers are the business’s own; only the identity is masked.
In the sample market, the instrument resolved 28 separating signals — the on-page signals where the pages ranking above genuinely pulled away from the rest of the field. The subject site already carried 19 of the 28 outright, and on several of those it ran well beyond the top-cohort norm — which is why partial credit lifts the reading above a raw tally.
Real measurements from the published sample market — the business and its city are masked, the numbers are its own. The same figures read on the live sample report.
Why This Measurement Is Hard
The separating set is not a stored list. For every run, the cohort is resolved live from your own category and city — the specific pages actually ranking above you — and the differential is computed fresh, never carried over from another market. Your page is then measured against that signature with partial credit for how close it runs on each signal. Where a page refuses a compliant read, the refusal is reported as a measured fact, never quietly filled with a guess, and every signal it scores carries its coverage grade. A template tool holds one checklist for everyone and marks you against it; this measures your page against the market itself, resolved the day the scan runs.
When It Moves
It rises when your page carries more of the separating signature — confirmed only on a fresh scan, never projected as a certainty.
What It Is Not
Naming what a measurement does not claim is how it stays a measurement.
- a rank prediction
- proof your business is better than a competitor's
- the search engine's real algorithm
- a claim your page is identical to the winners
The Questions People Ask
What is DNA Match in Rank DNA?
DNA Match is how much of the winning on-page signature your page already carries — measured against the pages that rank above you, not a prediction of your position.
How is DNA Match measured?
We measure the same 58 on-page signals on the top and the trailing organic pages, keep only the signals where the top cohort clearly separates from the bottom, and compare your page to the top-cohort average across that separating set. Every score carries a coverage grade.
Does a high DNA Match guarantee a higher ranking?
No. DNA Match reports correlation — how much of the winners' shared signature your page matches — never a promised ranking. It is measured, and it is labelled as measurement.
The Rank Codex reads this same signature at depth — the differential decomposed and sequenced into the order of work, not a single number.
Derive Your Own Rank DNA
This is measured for your category and your city — the cohort resolved from the pages actually ranking above you, the differential computed fresh. Rank DNA is the free account that runs it on your site.