Make =IF Function Output Numbers For "Scoring": Google Sheets

I'm am exploring methods of giving scores to different datapoints within a dataset. These points come from a mix of numbers and text string attributes looking for certain characteristics, e.g. if Col. A contains more than X number of "|", then give it a 1. If not, it gets a 0 for that category. I also have some that give the point when the value is >X.

I have been trying to do this with =IF, for example, =IF([sheet] = [Text], "1","0").

I can get it to give me 1 or 0, but I am unable to get a point total with sum.

I have tried changing the formatting of the text to both "number", "plain text", and have left it as automatic, but I can't get it to sum. Thoughts? Is there maybe a better way to do this?

FWIW - I'm trying to score based on about 12 factors.

Best,

Alex