Agent skill
seo
Optimize for search engine visibility and ranking. Use when asked to "improve SEO", "optimize for search", "fix meta tags", "add structured data", "sitemap optimization", or "search engine optimization". Do NOT use for accessibility (use web-accessibility), performance (use core-web-vitals), or comprehensive site audits covering multiple areas (use web-quality-audit).
Install this agent skill to your Project
npx add-skill https://github.com/tech-leads-club/agent-skills/tree/main/packages/skills-catalog/skills/(quality)/seo
Metadata
Additional technical details for this skill
- author
- web-quality-skills
- version
- 1.0
SKILL.md
SEO optimization
Search engine optimization based on Lighthouse SEO audits and Google Search guidelines. Focus on technical SEO, on-page optimization, and structured data.
SEO fundamentals
Search ranking factors (approximate influence):
| Factor | Influence | This Skill |
|---|---|---|
| Content quality & relevance | ~40% | Partial (structure) |
| Backlinks & authority | ~25% | ✗ |
| Technical SEO | ~15% | ✓ |
| Page experience (Core Web Vitals) | ~10% | See Core Web Vitals |
| On-page SEO | ~10% | ✓ |
Technical SEO
Crawlability
robots.txt:
# /robots.txt
User-agent: *
Allow: /
# Block admin/private areas
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /private/
# Don't block resources needed for rendering
# ❌ Disallow: /static/
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Meta robots:
<!-- Default: indexable, followable -->
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow" />
<!-- Noindex specific pages -->
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" />
<!-- Indexable but don't follow links -->
<meta name="robots" content="index, nofollow" />
<!-- Control snippets -->
<meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:150, max-image-preview:large" />
Canonical URLs:
<!-- Prevent duplicate content issues -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/page" />
<!-- Self-referencing canonical (recommended) -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/current-page" />
<!-- For paginated content -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/products" />
<!-- Or use rel="prev" / rel="next" for explicit pagination -->
XML sitemap
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2024-01-15</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>1.0</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/products</loc>
<lastmod>2024-01-14</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.8</priority>
</url>
</urlset>
Sitemap best practices:
- Maximum 50,000 URLs or 50MB per sitemap
- Use sitemap index for larger sites
- Include only canonical, indexable URLs
- Update
lastmodwhen content changes - Submit to Google Search Console
URL structure
✅ Good URLs:
https://example.com/products/blue-widget
https://example.com/blog/how-to-use-widgets
❌ Poor URLs:
https://example.com/p?id=12345
https://example.com/products/item/category/subcategory/blue-widget-2024-sale-discount
URL guidelines:
- Use hyphens, not underscores
- Lowercase only
- Keep short (< 75 characters)
- Include target keywords naturally
- Avoid parameters when possible
- Use HTTPS always
HTTPS & security
<!-- Ensure all resources use HTTPS -->
<img src="https://example.com/image.jpg" />
<!-- Not: -->
<img src="http://example.com/image.jpg" />
Security headers for SEO trust signals:
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: DENY
On-page SEO
Title tags
<!-- ❌ Missing or generic -->
<title>Page</title>
<title>Home</title>
<!-- ✅ Descriptive with primary keyword -->
<title>Blue Widgets for Sale | Premium Quality | Example Store</title>
Title tag guidelines:
- 50-60 characters (Google truncates ~60)
- Primary keyword near the beginning
- Unique for every page
- Brand name at end (unless homepage)
- Action-oriented when appropriate
Meta descriptions
<!-- ❌ Missing or duplicate -->
<meta name="description" content="" />
<!-- ✅ Compelling and unique -->
<meta
name="description"
content="Shop premium blue widgets with free shipping. 30-day returns. Rated 4.9/5 by 10,000+ customers. Order today and save 20%."
/>
Meta description guidelines:
- 150-160 characters
- Include primary keyword naturally
- Compelling call-to-action
- Unique for every page
- Matches page content
Heading structure
<!-- ❌ Poor structure -->
<h2>Welcome to Our Store</h2>
<h4>Products</h4>
<h1>Contact Us</h1>
<!-- ✅ Proper hierarchy -->
<h1>Blue Widgets - Premium Quality</h1>
<h2>Product Features</h2>
<h3>Durability</h3>
<h3>Design</h3>
<h2>Customer Reviews</h2>
<h2>Pricing</h2>
Heading guidelines:
- Single
<h1>per page (the main topic) - Logical hierarchy (don't skip levels)
- Include keywords naturally
- Descriptive, not generic
Image SEO
<!-- ❌ Poor image SEO -->
<img src="IMG_12345.jpg" />
<!-- ✅ Optimized image -->
<img
src="blue-widget-product-photo.webp"
alt="Blue widget with chrome finish, side view showing control panel"
width="800"
height="600"
loading="lazy"
/>
Image guidelines:
- Descriptive filenames with keywords
- Alt text describes the image content
- Compressed and properly sized
- WebP/AVIF with fallbacks
- Lazy load below-fold images
Internal linking
<!-- ❌ Non-descriptive -->
<a href="/products">Click here</a>
<a href="/widgets">Read more</a>
<!-- ✅ Descriptive anchor text -->
<a href="/products/blue-widgets">Browse our blue widget collection</a>
<a href="/guides/widget-maintenance">Learn how to maintain your widgets</a>
Linking guidelines:
- Descriptive anchor text with keywords
- Link to relevant internal pages
- Reasonable number of links per page
- Fix broken links promptly
- Use breadcrumbs for hierarchy
Structured data (JSON-LD)
Organization
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Example Company",
"url": "https://example.com",
"logo": "https://example.com/logo.png",
"sameAs": ["https://twitter.com/example", "https://linkedin.com/company/example"],
"contactPoint": {
"@type": "ContactPoint",
"telephone": "+1-555-123-4567",
"contactType": "customer service"
}
}
</script>
Article
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "How to Choose the Right Widget",
"description": "Complete guide to selecting widgets for your needs.",
"image": "https://example.com/article-image.jpg",
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Jane Smith",
"url": "https://example.com/authors/jane-smith"
},
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Example Blog",
"logo": {
"@type": "ImageObject",
"url": "https://example.com/logo.png"
}
},
"datePublished": "2024-01-15",
"dateModified": "2024-01-20"
}
</script>
Product
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Product",
"name": "Blue Widget Pro",
"image": "https://example.com/blue-widget.jpg",
"description": "Premium blue widget with advanced features.",
"brand": {
"@type": "Brand",
"name": "WidgetCo"
},
"offers": {
"@type": "Offer",
"price": "49.99",
"priceCurrency": "USD",
"availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
"url": "https://example.com/products/blue-widget"
},
"aggregateRating": {
"@type": "AggregateRating",
"ratingValue": "4.8",
"reviewCount": "1250"
}
}
</script>
FAQ
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "FAQPage",
"mainEntity": [
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "What colors are available?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Our widgets come in blue, red, and green."
}
},
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "What is the warranty?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "All widgets include a 2-year warranty."
}
}
]
}
</script>
Breadcrumbs
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "BreadcrumbList",
"itemListElement": [
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 1,
"name": "Home",
"item": "https://example.com"
},
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 2,
"name": "Products",
"item": "https://example.com/products"
},
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 3,
"name": "Blue Widgets",
"item": "https://example.com/products/blue-widgets"
}
]
}
</script>
Validation
Test structured data at:
Mobile SEO
Responsive design
<!-- ❌ Not mobile-friendly -->
<meta name="viewport" content="width=1024" />
<!-- ✅ Responsive viewport -->
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
Tap targets
/* ❌ Too small for mobile */
.small-link {
padding: 4px;
font-size: 12px;
}
/* ✅ Adequate tap target */
.mobile-friendly-link {
padding: 12px;
font-size: 16px;
min-height: 48px;
min-width: 48px;
}
Font sizes
/* ❌ Too small on mobile */
body {
font-size: 10px;
}
/* ✅ Readable without zooming */
body {
font-size: 16px;
line-height: 1.5;
}
International SEO
Hreflang tags
<!-- For multi-language sites -->
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/page" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="es" href="https://example.com/es/page" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.com/fr/page" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/page" />
Language declaration
<html lang="en">
<!-- or -->
<html lang="es-MX"></html>
</html>
SEO audit checklist
Critical
- HTTPS enabled
- robots.txt allows crawling
- No
noindexon important pages - Title tags present and unique
- Single
<h1>per page
High priority
- Meta descriptions present
- Sitemap submitted
- Canonical URLs set
- Mobile-responsive
- Core Web Vitals passing
Medium priority
- Structured data implemented
- Internal linking strategy
- Image alt text
- Descriptive URLs
- Breadcrumb navigation
Ongoing
- Fix crawl errors in Search Console
- Update sitemap when content changes
- Monitor ranking changes
- Check for broken links
- Review Search Console insights
Tools
| Tool | Use |
|---|---|
| Google Search Console | Monitor indexing, fix issues |
| Google PageSpeed Insights | Performance + Core Web Vitals |
| Rich Results Test | Validate structured data |
| Lighthouse | Full SEO audit |
| Screaming Frog | Crawl analysis |
References
- Google Search Central
- Schema.org
- Core Web Vitals
- Web Quality Audit
Recommended Agent Skills
Expand your agent's capabilities with these related and highly-rated skills.
web-quality-audit
Comprehensive web quality audit covering performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices in a single review. Use when asked to "audit my site", "review web quality", "run lighthouse audit", "check page quality", or "optimize my website" across multiple areas at once. Orchestrates specialized skills for depth. Do NOT use for single-area audits — prefer core-web-vitals, web-accessibility, seo, or web-best-practices for focused work.
accessibility
Audit and improve web accessibility following WCAG 2.1 guidelines. Use when asked to "improve accessibility", "a11y audit", "WCAG compliance", "screen reader support", "keyboard navigation", or "make accessible". Do NOT use for SEO (use seo), performance (use core-web-vitals), or comprehensive site audits covering multiple areas (use web-quality-audit).
react-best-practices
React and Next.js performance optimization guidelines from Vercel Engineering. Use when writing, reviewing, or refactoring React/Next.js code to ensure optimal performance patterns. Triggers on tasks involving React components, Next.js pages, data fetching, bundle optimization, or performance improvements. Do NOT use for component API architecture or composition patterns (use react-composition-patterns instead).
best-practices
Apply modern web development best practices for security, compatibility, and code quality. Use when asked to "apply best practices", "security audit", "modernize code", "code quality review", or "check for vulnerabilities". Do NOT use for accessibility (use web-accessibility), SEO (use seo), performance (use core-web-vitals), or comprehensive multi-area audits (use web-quality-audit).
perf-lighthouse
Run Lighthouse audits locally via CLI or Node API, parse and interpret reports, and set performance budgets. Use when measuring site performance, understanding Lighthouse scores, setting up budgets, or integrating audits into CI. Triggers on: lighthouse, run lighthouse, lighthouse score, performance audit, performance budget. Do NOT use for fixing specific performance issues (use perf-web-optimization or core-web-vitals) or Astro-specific optimization (use perf-astro).
perf-astro
Astro-specific performance optimizations for 95+ Lighthouse scores. Covers critical CSS inlining, compression, font loading, and LCP optimization. Use when optimizing Astro site performance, improving Astro Lighthouse scores, or configuring astro-critters. Do NOT use for non-Astro sites (use perf-web-optimization or core-web-vitals) or running Lighthouse audits (use perf-lighthouse).
Didn't find tool you were looking for?