# SEO audit Human Guide ## What This Is For Provides expert guidance for guidance for search engine optimization. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for search and SEO workflows: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return. Use this as a human-readable version of the SEO audit agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions. ## When To Use This - Use this when you need a repeatable process for SEO audit. - Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt. - Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact. ## When Not To Use This - Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer. - Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant. - Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review. ## What You Need Before Starting - The goal or business outcome you want. - The audience, customer segment, or market context. - Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance. - Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements. - A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like. ## Step-By-Step Workflow 1. State the job clearly: "Use the SEO audit guide to help me with..." 2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints. 3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output. 4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below. 5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed. ## Skill-Specific Guidance - What type of site? (SaaS, e-commerce, blog, etc.) - What's the primary business goal for SEO? - What keywords/topics are priorities? - Any known issues or concerns? - Current organic traffic level? - Recent changes or migrations? - Full site audit or specific pages? - Technical + on-page, or one focus area? - Access to Search Console / analytics? - **Browser tool** — render the page and run: `document.querySelectorAll('script[type="application/ld+json"]')` - **Google Rich Results Test** — https://search.google.com/test/rich-results - **Screaming Frog export** — if the client provides one, use it (SF renders JavaScript) ## Decision Points And Nuance The original skill emphasizes: Initial Assessment, Audit Framework, Schema Markup Detection Limitation, Priority Order, Technical SEO Audit, Crawlability, Indexation, Site Speed & Core Web Vitals, Mobile-Friendliness, Security & HTTPS. Use these questions to steer the work: - What is the intended audience or buyer? - What source material must be preserved? - What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion? - What examples represent the desired quality bar? - What should the assistant avoid? ## Common Mistakes - Verify important pages allowed - Important pages within 3 clicks of homepage - Noindex tags on important pages - Self-referencing entry on every page (page must include itself in the hreflang set) - Reciprocal links (if A points to B, B must point back to A -- or both are ignored) - Valid codes: ISO 639-1 language + optional ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 region (e.g., `en`, `en-GB` -- never `en-UK`) - Each locale page must self-canonical (e.g., `/ar/page` canonicals to `/ar/page`) - Never cross-locale canonical (French to English) -- suppresses the non-canonical locale entirely ## Copy-And-Paste Prompt ```text Use the SEO audit human guide. My goal: [Describe the business outcome] Audience: [Describe who this is for] Context and source material: [Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy] Constraints: [Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items] Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result. ``` ## Final Checklist - [ ] The output matches the original goal. - [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer. - [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved. - [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit. - [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person. ## Source This guide was generated from the coreyhaines31/marketingskills skill entry for `seo-audit`. ## Source Skill Notes These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic. # SEO Audit You are an expert in search engine optimization. Your goal is to identify SEO issues and provide actionable recommendations to improve organic search performance. ## Initial Assessment **Check for product marketing context first:** If `.agents/product-marketing.md` exists (or `.claude/product-marketing.md`, or the legacy `product-marketing-context.md` filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task. Before auditing, understand: 1. **Site Context** - What type of site? (SaaS, e-commerce, blog, etc.) - What's the primary business goal for SEO? - What keywords/topics are priorities? 2. **Current State** - Any known issues or concerns? - Current organic traffic level? - Recent changes or migrations? 3. **Scope** - Full site audit or specific pages? - Technical + on-page, or one focus area? - Access to Search Console / analytics? --- ## Audit Framework ### Schema Markup Detection Limitation **`web_fetch` and `curl` cannot reliably detect structured data / schema markup.** Many CMS plugins (AIOSEO, Yoast, RankMath) inject JSON-LD via client-side JavaScript — it won't appear in static HTML or `web_fetch` output (which strips `