optimise-seo

name	optimise-seo
description	Optimises SEO for Next.js App Router apps including sitemaps, meta tags, structured data, canonical URLs, Core Web Vitals, and programmatic SEO. Use when asked to improve SEO, add sitemap.xml, fix meta tags, add structured data, set canonical URLs, improve Core Web Vitals, audit SEO, or build SEO pages at scale. Performs no visual redesigns.

Optimise SEO

No visual redesigns or layout changes. Allowed: metadata, structured data, semantic HTML, internal links, alt text, sitemap/robots, performance tuning.

Workflow

Copy and track this checklist:

SEO progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Inventory routes and index intent
- [ ] Step 2: Fix crawl/index foundations
- [ ] Step 3: Implement metadata + structured data
- [ ] Step 4: Improve semantics, links, and CWV
- [ ] Step 5: Validate with seo-checklist.md and document changes

1. Inventory routes and index intent
2. Fix crawl/index foundations
3. Implement metadata + structured data
4. Improve semantics, links, and CWV
5. Validate with seo-checklist.md and document changes

Must-have

• Sitemap (app/sitemap.ts) and robots (app/robots.ts):

  // app/sitemap.ts
  import type { MetadataRoute } from "next";
  export default function sitemap(): MetadataRoute.Sitemap {
    return [{ url: "https://example.com", lastModified: new Date() }];
  }
  

• Canonicals consistent on every page
• Unique titles + descriptions via metadata or generateMetadata
• OpenGraph + Twitter Card tags
• JSON-LD: Organization, WebSite, BreadcrumbList (+ Article/Product/FAQ as needed):

  <script type="application/ld+json" dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: JSON.stringify({
    "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Organization",
    name: "Example", url: "https://example.com"
  }) }} />
  

• One h1 and logical heading hierarchy
• Alt text, internal links, CWV targets, mobile/desktop parity

Programmatic SEO (pages at scale)

• Validate demand for a repeatable pattern before generating pages
• Require unique value per page and defensible data
• Clean subfolder URLs, hubs/spokes, and breadcrumbs
• Index only strong pages; monitor indexation and cannibalization

SEO audit (triage order)

1. Crawl/index: robots, sitemap, noindex, canonicals, redirects, soft 404s
2. Technical: HTTPS, CWV, mobile parity
3. On-page/content: titles/H1, internal links, remove or noindex thin pages

Gotchas

• Don't over-generate thin or doorway pages — indexation drops and quality signals suffer.
• Don't omit canonicals or let them conflict across variants (trailing slash, www, uppercase) — search engines split ranking signal.
• Don't block crawlers unintentionally via robots.txt, noindex, or auth walls on routes meant to be indexed.
• Don't rely on JS-only rendering without SSR/SSG for indexable content.
• Don't change URLs without 301 redirects — link equity and crawl budget are lost.
• Don't add JSON-LD that doesn't match visible page content — Google treats this as spam and may demote the page.

Resources

• nextjs-implementation.md — implementation patterns for steps 2-4
• seo-checklist.md — pass/fail validation during step 5

Validation

• Check HTTP response headers for correct status codes and redirects
• Confirm robots.txt has correct crawl directives
• Confirm sitemap.xml lists all indexed routes with valid URLs
• Verify pages include canonical, OpenGraph, and Twitter Card tags in source HTML
• Run a Lighthouse audit and confirm performance scores meet targets
• Validate JSON-LD with Rich Results Test per URL
• Report remaining blockers with exact URLs and owner/action