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Absolute SEO

Comprehensive search engine optimization covering technical foundations, content quality, structured data, performance, local search, link building, international targeting, e-commerce, programmatic scale, and AI search surfaces. This skill is a senior SEO consultant - it provides frameworks for decisions, current data for benchmarks, and actionable checklists for execution.

When to use this skill

Trigger when the user:

• Asks about improving search rankings, indexing, or crawlability
• Needs to implement or audit schema markup / structured data
• Wants to optimize Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS)
• Works on local SEO, Google Business Profile, or maps rankings
• Needs link building strategy or backlink audit
• Implements hreflang or multi-language/region targeting
• Optimizes e-commerce pages (products, categories, faceted navigation)
• Plans programmatic SEO at scale (location pages, comparison pages)
• Wants to optimize for AI search (Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity)
• Needs a comprehensive SEO audit or health check
• Asks about featured snippets, People Also Ask, or voice search
• Needs to configure robots.txt, sitemaps, or canonical tags

Do NOT trigger for:

• Keyword research workflows, difficulty scoring, gap analysis - use keyword-research skill
• Paid advertising (Google Ads, PPC campaigns)
• Social media marketing strategy
• General content writing without SEO focus

Key Principles

1. Crawlable before rankable - If search engines cannot crawl and index your pages, nothing else matters. Fix technical foundations first.
2. E-E-A-T is demonstrated, not declared - Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness come from first-hand evidence, credentials, citations, and transparency - not claims.
3. Match user intent - Every page must satisfy the search intent behind target queries. Mismatched intent means zero chance of ranking regardless of optimization.
4. One canonical URL per content - Every piece of content should have exactly one authoritative URL. Duplicate and near-duplicate content wastes crawl budget and splits signals.
5. Measure, iterate, re-audit - SEO is not set-and-forget. Track rankings, traffic, and indexation. Re-audit quarterly. Expect 90-day windows before results stabilize.
6. GEO supplements SEO, does not replace it - AI search optimization builds on traditional SEO foundations. 92% of AI Overview citations come from pages already ranking in the top 10.

Industry Detection

Detect site type to tailor recommendations: SaaS (/features, /pricing, /docs), E-commerce (/products, /cart, product schema), Local (phone, address, Maps embed, LocalBusiness schema), Publisher (/blog, article schema, author pages), Agency (/case-studies, /portfolio).

Technical SEO

The crawl-index-rank pipeline: Googlebot discovers URLs (sitemaps, links) -> crawls HTML -> renders JavaScript -> indexes content -> ranks against queries.

Crawlability Essentials

• robots.txt: Allow CSS/JS (required for rendering). Include Sitemap: directive. Never Disallow: / on production.
• XML sitemaps: Max 50,000 URLs or 50MB per file. Use sitemap index for larger sites. <lastmod> must reflect actual content change dates.
• Canonical tags: Self-referencing canonicals on every page. Point URL variants (www/non-www, http/https, trailing slash) to the chosen canonical.
• Redirects: Use 301 for permanent moves. Single-hop only - chains waste crawl budget and leak PageRank. Audit redirect chains quarterly.
• Meta robots: noindex prevents indexing. nofollow prevents link equity flow. Can combine: noindex, nofollow. HTTP header X-Robots-Tag works for non-HTML.
• IndexNow: Instant indexing protocol for Bing, Yandex, Naver (not Google). Push URL changes immediately instead of waiting for crawl.

Rendering Strategy

SSG (lowest risk) > SSR > ISR > CSR (highest risk - content invisible until JS executes). Serve canonical, meta robots, title, description, and structured data in initial server-rendered HTML. Never rely on JavaScript injection for SEO-critical elements.

AI Crawler Management

Key crawlers: GPTBot (OpenAI training), ChatGPT-User (real-time browsing), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot (search + training), Google-Extended (Gemini training only), Bytespider (ByteDance). Blocking Google-Extended does NOT affect Google Search or AI Overviews (those use Googlebot).

Load references/technical-seo-deep.md for crawl budget optimization, rendering implementations, redirect audit patterns, and JavaScript SEO details.

On-Page & Content Quality

On-Page Hierarchy

E-E-A-T Framework (Updated Dec 2025)

As of December 2025, E-E-A-T applies to ALL competitive queries, not just YMYL. Anonymous/generic authorship is penalized even for non-YMYL content.

AI content: Acceptable if it demonstrates genuine E-E-A-T. Penalized if generic, no unique value, no experience signals, or contains factual errors.

Content Quality Gates

Word count is NOT a ranking factor (John Mueller confirmed) - these are topical coverage floors.

Image Size Targets

Thumbnails <50KB, content images <100KB, hero/banner <200KB. Format priority: AVIF (93.8% support) > WebP (95.3%) > JPEG > PNG.

Load references/eeat-content-quality.md for full E-E-A-T scoring framework, content freshness signals, and framework-specific implementations.

Schema Markup

Always use JSON-LD format (Google's explicit recommendation). Schema earns rich results but does not directly boost rankings. However, pages with structured data have 2.5x higher chance of appearing in AI-generated answers (Google & Microsoft, March 2025).

Active Types (Most Used)

Deprecated / Restricted - NEVER Recommend

FAQPage exception: While Google no longer shows rich results for most sites, FAQPage schema still improves AI/LLM citation visibility on non-Google platforms.

E-commerce update: returnPolicyCountry in MerchantReturnPolicy is required since March 2025. Product Certification markup available since April 2025.

Validation

Test with Google Rich Results Test before deploy. Ensure: all required properties present, @context uses https://, all URLs absolute, dates in ISO 8601, no deprecated types, prices include ISO 4217 currency, content marked up is visible on page.

Load references/schema-types-full.md for complete type catalog, JSON-LD examples, and industry-specific implementations.

Core Web Vitals

INP replaced FID on March 12, 2024. FID fully removed September 9, 2024. INP = Input Delay + Processing Time + Presentation Delay.

• Evaluation: 75th percentile of real user data (CrUX). Field data (CrUX) determines ranking, not lab data (Lighthouse). CWV is a tiebreaker signal.
• December 2025 update: Mobile CWV weighted more heavily than desktop.

Top Bottlenecks

• LCP: Unoptimized hero images (no fetchpriority="high", lazy-loaded above fold), render-blocking CSS/JS, slow TTFB (>200ms)
• INP: Long JavaScript tasks (>50ms). Break with scheduler.yield(). Excessive DOM size (>1,500 elements).
• CLS: Images/iframes without width/height attributes. Web font FOUT/FOIT. Dynamically injected content above viewport.

Load references/cwv-performance.md for CrUX API queries, LCP subparts breakdown, and framework-specific fixes (Next.js, Nuxt, Astro).

Local SEO

Ranking Factors (Whitespark 2026)

GBP Optimization Priority

1. Primary category - Most specific subtype (e.g., "Cosmetic Dentist" not "Dentist")
2. Additional categories - Optimal: 4 additional
3. Complete business info - Name, address, phone, hours, website (NAP must match everywhere)
4. Photos - 10+ photos (logo, cover, interior, exterior, team, products). Refresh within 30 days.
5. Reviews - The 18-day rule: rankings cliff if no new reviews for 3 weeks. The magic 10: significant boost at 10 reviews. Never incentivize reviews.
6. Google Posts - 1+ per week (update, offer, event)
7. Services/Products - List all with descriptions
8. Note: GBP Q&A deprecated Dec 3, 2025 (replaced by Ask Maps Gemini AI). GBP messaging removed July 2025.

GBP Platform Changes (2025-2026)

• Diversity Update (2025): Harder to rank in BOTH map pack AND organic. Do NOT link GBP to your strongest organic page.
• Bing Places overhauled (Oct 2025) - now powers ChatGPT, Copilot, Alexa. Critical for AI visibility.
• Dedicated service pages = #1 local organic factor AND #2 AI visibility factor (Whitespark 2026).

Multi-Location

• Subdirectory structure: domain.com/locations/city-name/ (50%+ traffic lift vs subdomain)
• Each location page needs >60-70% unique content (doorway page risk below this)
• Doorway page test: If you can swap the city name and content still makes sense, it is a doorway page
• Individual LocalBusiness schema per location with unique @id + branchOf Organization

AI Impact on Local (2026)

• 45% of users now use ChatGPT/AI for local recommendations
• ChatGPT conversion rate: 15.9% vs Google organic: 1.76%
• ChatGPT sources: Bing web index, Yelp, TripAdvisor, BBB, Reddit (NOT GBP directly)
• 3 of top 5 AI visibility factors are citation-related (Whitespark 2026)

Load references/local-seo-signals.md for full ranking factors, citation tiers, GBP audit checklist, and industry-specific weights.

Link Building & Off-Page

Acquisition Priority

1. Digital PR - Original research, data studies, expert commentary -> editorial links from publications
2. Resource/link pages - Find curated lists in your niche, pitch inclusion
3. Broken link building - Find broken outbound links on relevant sites, offer your content as replacement
4. Guest posting - Contribute to relevant sites with editorial standards (vet: organic traffic, relevance, editorial links)
5. Unlinked mentions - Find brand mentions without links, request link addition

Link Quality Evaluation

A link is valuable when: Domain Rating is strong AND topically relevant AND editorially placed AND the linking page has real organic traffic. Missing any of these significantly reduces value.

Anchor Text Benchmarks

Exact-match keyword anchor >15% = Penguin penalty risk.

Toxic Link Indicators (Auto-Flag)

• 10K+ outbound links per page
• Domain not indexed in Google
• Known link networks / PBNs
• Exact-match anchors from 5+ unrelated domains
• Hacked sites with pharma/casino injections

Load references/link-building-offpage.md for all 30 toxic patterns, velocity red flags, disavow file format, and detailed acquisition workflows.

International SEO

• hreflang is bidirectional: If page A lists page B as alternate, page B MUST list page A. Missing return tags invalidate the signal.
• Always include x-default: Fallback for users whose language/region does not match any variant.
• URL structure: ccTLD (strongest geo signal, separate domain authority) vs subdomain (moderate signal, shared authority) vs subfolder (weakest signal, consolidated authority). Most sites should use subfolder.
• Localize, do not just translate: Currency, date formats, phone numbers, cultural references, legal requirements.
• Implementation: HTML <link rel="alternate" hreflang="xx">, HTTP headers (PDFs/non-HTML), or XML sitemap (best for large sites).

E-commerce SEO

Faceted Navigation

The #1 crawl budget killer in e-commerce. Control spectrum (least to most aggressive):

1. Canonical to base category - Faceted URLs point canonical to unfaceted version
2. robots.txt Disallow - Block crawling of facet parameters
3. noindex, follow - Allow link discovery but prevent indexing
4. AJAX/dynamic filtering - No URL change, no crawl waste

Selectively index high-value facets (e.g., brand + category) that have search volume.

Product Lifecycle

Key Patterns

• Category taxonomy: 3 levels max (Department > Category > Subcategory)
• Pagination: Each page self-canonicalizes (NOT to page 1). rel=next/prev is deprecated but harmless.
• Product variants: Use ProductGroup schema with hasVariant to consolidate
• Breadcrumbs: BreadcrumbList schema on every product and category page

Programmatic SEO

Quality Gates

Safe vs Penalty Risk Patterns

Safe: Integration/tool pages with real docs, glossary (200+ word definitions), product pages with unique specs/images/reviews, data-driven pages with unique statistics per record.

Penalty Risk Patterns

• Location pages with only city name swapped (doorway pages)
• "[Competitor] alternative" without real comparison data
• AI-generated content without human review (5-10% sample human review minimum)
• Site reputation abuse: pSEO content under high-authority domain triggers penalties (Nov 2024 escalation). Scaled content abuse enforcement intensified June-Aug 2025.

Launch Strategy

1. Seed: Publish 50-100 pages first
2. Observe: Monitor for 4-6 weeks (indexation rate, rankings, GSC coverage)
3. Scale: If quality signals positive, publish in batches of 100/day (not thousands at once)
4. Monitor: Search Console API for cluster-level metrics

AI Search Optimization (GEO + AEO)

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

• Brand mentions correlate 3x stronger with AI visibility than backlinks (Ahrefs, Dec 2025). YouTube mentions show 0.737 correlation (strongest single signal).
• AI Overviews reach 1.5B users/month across 200+ countries. Google AI Mode (May 2025) has zero organic blue links - AI citation is the only visibility mechanism.
• 92% of AI Overview citations come from top-10 ranking pages, but 47% from below position 5
• Only 11% domain overlap between ChatGPT citations and Google AI Overviews - platform-specific optimization needed
• Optimal citation passage length: 134-167 words
• Multi-modal content sees 156% higher selection rates in AI answers

Citability Scoring

Princeton GEO research: Statistics +40% citation, cited sources +30%, expert quotes +25%.

llms.txt Standard

Emerging guidance file at /llms.txt (domain root). Structured content guidance for AI crawlers: key page highlights, content areas, authority info.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

Featured snippet formats:

• Paragraph: 40-60 words, question in heading, answer immediately after
• List: 5-8 items, self-contained, use <ol> or <ul>
• Table: 3-5 columns, semantic HTML with <thead>/<tbody>

People Also Ask: Dynamic, auto-populated. Research via AlsoAsked.com. Target question-based H2/H3 headings with concise 40-60 word answers.

Voice search: Conversational queries (7-10 words), local bias. Optimize with FAQ schema, concise answers, LocalBusiness schema.

Load references/geo-aeo-ai-search.md for platform-specific optimization, AI crawler directives, RSL 1.0, and detailed AEO strategies.

SEO Audit Methodology

35-Check Scorecard (5 Categories)

Scoring: PASS (meets standard) / WARN (partially meets) / FAIL (does not meet)

Priority Matrix

Cadence: Full audit quarterly. Quick health check (top 10 items) monthly.

Web Analysis Patterns

Fetch and inspect any page's SEO elements:

curl -sL -A "Mozilla/5.0" -o /tmp/seo-page.html "URL"  # Fetch HTML
curl -sL "https://domain.com/robots.txt"                 # Check robots.txt
curl -sI -L "URL"                                        # Headers & redirects
curl -sL "https://domain.com/llms.txt"                   # Check llms.txt
curl -sL "https://domain.com/sitemap.xml" | head -50     # Check sitemap
grep -iE '<title|<meta name="(robots|description)|rel="canonical"' /tmp/seo-page.html
grep -oP '<script type="application/ld\+json">.*?</script>' /tmp/seo-page.html

Anti-Patterns

Gotchas

1. robots.txt blocks crawling, not indexing - URLs can appear in results (without snippet) via inbound links. Use noindex to prevent indexing.
2. Canonical is a hint, not a directive - Google may ignore it. Ensure canonical target is clearly the better version.
3. Redirect chains leak PageRank - Each hop loses ~15% equity in practice. Single-hop 301s only.
4. Staging site indexed - Password-protect staging, do not rely solely on meta robots.
5. hreflang without return tags - Missing bidirectional tags invalidate the entire hreflang cluster.

References

Load these on demand when the task requires deep data:

• references/technical-seo-deep.md - Crawl budget, rendering implementations, redirect audit, robots.txt advanced, JS SEO
• references/eeat-content-quality.md - Full E-E-A-T scoring, content freshness, framework-specific SEO implementations
• references/schema-types-full.md - Complete type catalog, JSON-LD examples, industry-specific schemas, validation
• references/local-seo-signals.md - Whitespark 2026 factors, review benchmarks, citation tiers, GBP audit, multi-location
• references/link-building-offpage.md - 30 toxic indicators, anchor text analysis, disavow format, acquisition workflows
• references/geo-aeo-ai-search.md - AI crawler directives, llms.txt spec, Princeton research, featured snippets, voice search

Companion Check

On first activation, check if the user has keyword-research installed. If not, suggest installing it for keyword discovery, difficulty scoring, and gap analysis.