seo-audit

name	seo-audit
description	Use when performing a read-only audit of an existing website's crawl, indexation, metadata, content, internal links, schema, local search, or measurement defects; use seo for authorised implementation.
metadata	{"portable":true,"compatible_with":["claude-code","codex"]}

Seo Audit

Acknowledgement: Shared by Peter Bamuhigire, techguypeter.com, [phone].

Diagnose search defects and prioritise corrections from reproducible evidence without changing the site by default.

Use When

• An existing site has traffic or indexing concerns
• pre-release search signals need independent review
• remediation priorities need evidence.

Do Not Use When

• Use seo to implement fixes or google-ai-search for official AI Overviews and AI Mode guidance.

Required Inputs

Artefact	Source or provider	Required?	Purpose	If absent
Target URLs or build, route inventory, intended markets and queries, available crawler and search performance data	Site owner, repository, analytics, and Search Console export	yes	Compare intended and observed search state	Stop or qualify scope if the target cannot be crawled

Workflow

1. Confirm read-only scope, target, markets, and available evidence
2. Inspect crawl, index, metadata, content, links, schema, local, performance, and measurement signals
3. Prioritise findings by impact and confidence and stop release on conflicting critical signals
4. After authorised remediation, rerun only affected checks and a regression sample.

Outputs

Artefact	Consumer	Acceptance condition
SEO audit report and remediation register	SEO implementer, content owner, and release owner	Each finding cites URL/evidence, impact, confidence, owner, correction, and retest

Evidence Produced

Evidence	Consumer	Acceptance condition
Crawl export, rendered-source samples, schema results, and data-source register	Decision owner	Separates observed facts, inference, and unassessed checks

Capability Contract

Read, search, crawling, and safe validation are required for full assessment. Default to read-only. Search Console changes, code or content edits, production mutation, and publication require separate authority.

Degraded Mode

Without network, crawler, rendered source, or performance data, return the narrowest qualified audit and mark affected checks not assessed; do not infer an indexation pass.

Decision Rules

Choice	Action	Failure or risk avoided
Observed index conflict affects priority routes	Block release and correct signals	Lost or duplicate indexation
Traffic decline lacks comparable data	Report hypotheses and request evidence	False causal diagnosis

Quality Standards

• Cite URLs and data periods, distinguish correlation from cause, prioritise by business impact and confidence, and keep audit separate from remediation.

Anti-Patterns

• Editing metadata while auditing. Fix: preserve read-only evidence until remediation is authorised.
• Calling a ranking change a penalty without evidence. Fix: state competing hypotheses and needed data.
• Auditing only the homepage. Fix: sample every route and intent family.
• Treating inaccessible Search Console as clean. Fix: mark performance evidence not assessed.
• Listing hundreds of equal-priority issues. Fix: rank by impact, confidence, effort, and dependency.

Worked Example

If product pages are absent from the sitemap but indexed through links, cite affected URLs, classify the signal mismatch, assign the sitemap owner, and define the post-fix crawl check.

References

• Website Skills authoring standard

Preserved Domain Use Guidance

• The task matches this domain: Comprehensive SEO audit for static websites. Analyses 14 categories — technical SEO, on-page, content quality, structured data, pagespeed & performance, mobile usability, local SEO, internal linking, security & trust, accessibility, competitive positioning, voice search readiness, off-page signals, and SEO measurement. Produces a scored audit report with prioritised action items. Works with any Astro static site. Run after deploy or on demand to identify SEO gaps and improvement opportunities.
• The user needs evaluation, findings, prioritization, or remediation guidance.

Preserved Domain Exclusions

• The user needs direct implementation instead of an audit.
• There is no target artifact or change set to inspect.

Preserved Domain Inputs

• The site, page, skill, or workflow being audited.
• Any business goals, constraints, or supporting evidence available for prioritization.

Preserved Domain Workflow

1. Define the audit scope and what success or risk means in context.
2. Inspect the target using the relevant checklist and preserved guidance.
3. Summarize the highest-value findings with clear reasoning.
4. Prioritize remediation so the next actions are obvious.

Preserved Domain Quality Guidance

• Findings must be evidence-based and ordered by impact.
• Recommendations should be specific enough to implement.
• The audit should reduce risk or ambiguity for the next person acting on it.

Preserved Domain Anti-Patterns

• Do not provide generic checklist output with no prioritization.
• Do not hide high-severity issues in vague language.
• Do not imply certainty when evidence is missing.

Preserved Domain Outputs

• Audit report, prioritized findings, remediation notes, or approval status.