# SEO fundamentals Human Guide

## What This Is For
Foundational principles for sustainable search visibility. 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 fundamentals 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 fundamentals.
- 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 fundamentals 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
- CWV rarely override poor content
- They matter most when content quality is comparable
- Failing CWV can _hold back_ otherwise good pages
- AI as a drafting or research assistant
- Human review for accuracy and clarity
- Original insights and synthesis
- Publishing unedited AI output
- Factual errors or hallucinations
- Keyword-driven text with no value
- Use this skill only when the task clearly matches the scope described above.
- Do not treat the output as a substitute for environment-specific validation, testing, or expert review.
- Stop and ask for clarification if required inputs, permissions, safety boundaries, or success criteria are missing.

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: E-E-A-T (Quality Evaluation Framework), Core Web Vitals (Page Experience Signals), Technical SEO Principles, Crawl & Index Control, Performance & Accessibility, Content SEO Principles, Page-Level Elements, Content Quality Signals, Structured Data (Schema), AI-Assisted Content Principles.

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
- Do not treat the output as a substitute for environment-specific validation, testing, or expert review.
- Stop and ask for clarification if required inputs, permissions, safety boundaries, or success criteria are missing.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the SEO fundamentals 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 sickn33/antigravity-awesome-skills skill entry for `seo-fundamentals`.

## 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 Fundamentals

> **Foundational principles for sustainable search visibility.**
> This skill explains _how search engines evaluate quality_, not tactical shortcuts.

---

## 1. E-E-A-T (Quality Evaluation Framework)

E-E-A-T is **not a direct ranking factor**.
It is a framework used by search engines to **evaluate content quality**, especially for sensitive or high-impact topics.

| Dimension             | What It Represents                 | Common Signals                                      |
| --------------------- | ---------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- |
| **Experience**        | First-hand, real-world involvement | Original examples, lived experience, demonstrations |
| **Expertise**         | Subject-matter competence          | Credentials, depth, accuracy                        |
| **Authoritativeness** | Recognition by others              | Mentions, citations, links                          |
| **Trustworthiness**   | Reliability and safety             | HTTPS, transparency, accuracy                       |

> Pages competing in the same space are often differentiated by **trust and experience**, not keywords.

---

## 2. Core Web Vitals (Page Experience Signals)

Core Web Vitals measure **how users experience a page**, not whether it deserves to rank.

| Metric  | Target  | What It Reflects    |
| ------- | ------- | ------------------- |
| **LCP** | < 2.5s  | Loading performance |
| **INP** | < 200ms | Interactivity       |
| **CLS** | < 0.1   | Visual stability    |

**Important context:**

- CWV rarely override poor content
- They matter most when content quality is comparable
- Failing CWV can _hold back_ otherwise good pages

---

## 3. Technical SEO Principles

Technical SEO ensures pages are **accessible, understandable, and stable**.

### Crawl & Index Control

| Element           | Purpose                |
| ----------------- | ---------------------- |
| XML sitemaps      | Help discovery         |
| robots.txt        | Control crawl access   |
| Canonical tags    | Consolidate duplicates |
| HTTP status codes | Communicate page state |
| HTTPS             | Security and trust     |

### Performance & Accessibility

| Factor                 | Why It Matters                |
| ---------------------- | ----------------------------- |
| Page speed             | User satisfaction             |
| Mobile-friendly design | Mobile-first indexing         |
| Clean URLs             | Crawl clarity                 |
| Semantic HTML          | Accessibility & understanding |

---

## 4. Content SEO Principles

### Page-Level Elements

| Element          | Principle                    |
| ---------------- | ---------------------------- |
| Title tag        | Clear topic + intent         |
| Meta description | Click relevance, not ranking |
| H1               | Page’s primary subject       |
| Headings         | Logical structure            |
| Alt text         | Accessibility and context    |

### Content Quality Signals