Web seo

Web SEO

Purpose

Plan search visibility for the surfaces that need it: metadata and social cards per page, crawlability (sitemap, robots, canonicals), structured data, and a rendering strategy that serves real HTML to crawlers. SEO effort is scoped to the apps where it matters — a marketing site, yes; an internal dashboard, no.

When to Use

• For public web / marketing / indexable content surfaces (per ../../application-selection and web-stack-selection).
• When an existing public app underperforms in search or unfurls badly when shared.
• Not for authenticated SPAs or admin dashboards — record "SEO: not applicable" and move on.

Inputs

• Which pages/routes are public and should rank; content/keyword intent per page.
• Rendering strategy from nextjs-foundation (SEO-relevant apps normally chose Next.js — content must be server-rendered or static).
• Domain/URL structure plans (web-deployment).

Discovery Questions

• Which pages carry the search value (home, product/landing pages, blog, docs), and what should each rank for?
• What social-share behavior is expected (OG/Twitter cards per page type)?
• Which structured-data types fit (Organization, Product, Article, FAQ, Breadcrumb)?
• Are there duplicate-content risks needing canonicals (params, pagination, staging)? Multiple locales (hreflang)?

Responsibilities

• Plan per-page metadata: unique title/description per indexable page, templated by page type; Open Graph/Twitter card fields with correctly sized images.
• Plan crawlability: XML sitemap generation (kept current), robots rules (block staging/preview and non-indexable areas, never block what should rank), canonical URLs for parameterized/duplicate views.
• Plan structured data (JSON-LD) per page type where it earns rich results — valid and truthful, not markup spam.
• Confirm the rendering strategy serves complete HTML for indexable content (static/ISR/SSR per nextjs-foundation) — client-only rendering for content that must rank is a finding to escalate to web-stack-selection.
• Align with Core Web Vitals (web-performance) and semantic heading structure (web-accessibility) — both feed ranking.
• Define URL conventions: stable, readable, lowercase paths; redirects for moved content.

Required Workflow

1. Scope: list indexable pages; explicitly exempt non-SEO surfaces.
2. Define metadata + social-card templates per page type.
3. Plan sitemap/robots/canonical mechanics.
4. Select structured-data types per page and their data sources.
5. Verify rendering serves indexable HTML; record the plan and validation approach (Lighthouse SEO, rich-results test — run or mark "unverified until run").

Decision Rules

• SEO scope follows the application decision — spend nothing on surfaces that will never be indexed.
• Content that must rank is rendered server-side/static; no exceptions built on "Google runs JS."
• One canonical URL per piece of content; parameters/variants point at it.
• Structured data only where the page genuinely is that thing.

Rules

• Staging/preview environments are never indexable (robots + auth, both).
• Metadata is data-driven per page — no site-wide duplicate titles.
• No cloaking, keyword stuffing, or markup describing content that isn't on the page.

Anti-Patterns

• Retrofitting SEO onto a client-only SPA that should have escalated the framework decision.
• Same title/description on every page.
• Sitemap listing 404s/redirects; robots.txt blocking the whole site in production (or staging left indexable).
• JSON-LD claiming reviews/ratings the page doesn't show.

Validation Checklist

• Indexable pages scoped; non-SEO surfaces exempted explicitly.
• Per-page metadata + social cards planned by page type.
• Sitemap, robots, and canonical mechanics planned (staging blocked).
• Structured data planned per page type, truthfully.
• Rendering verified to serve indexable HTML (or escalated).
• Validation runs planned or executed (marked if unrun).

Definition of Done

A recorded SEO plan scoped to the surfaces that need it — metadata templates, crawlability mechanics, structured data, and confirmed indexable rendering — with validation steps run or explicitly marked unverified.

Related Skills

web-stack-selection, nextjs-foundation, web-performance, web-accessibility, web-routing, web-deployment.

Related Knowledge

../../../knowledge/ (content strategy, target queries).

Related References

../../../references/web/seo/ (metadata templates, schema examples — when populated).

Context Loading Guidance

• Requires: indexable-page list, rendering strategy, URL/domain plans.
• Does not require: dashboard skills, state/data internals.
• May load: web-performance for Core Web Vitals; web-deployment for domain/redirect mechanics.
• Stop when: the SEO plan and validation status are recorded.

Token Efficiency Guidance

Template metadata by page type instead of enumerating every page. Keep schema examples in references; the plan lists types and sources only.