paulund/marketing-seo-audit

Core Workflow

1. Gather site context — type, goals, known issues
2. Determine scope — full, page-level, or targeted
3. Check technical foundations
4. Review on-page elements
5. Assess content quality
6. Load references/seo-audit-checklist.md
7. Output prioritised findings by impact

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Audit Priority Order

Work in this order — fixing low-priority issues while critical ones exist is a waste of time:

1. Crawlability and indexation — if Google cannot crawl or index pages, nothing else matters
2. Technical foundations — Core Web Vitals, HTTPS, canonical tags, redirects
3. On-page optimisation — title tags, meta descriptions, heading structure, internal links
4. Content quality — depth, E-E-A-T signals, keyword alignment
5. Authority and links — backlink profile, internal link equity distribution

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Technical Checks

Crawlability

• Does robots.txt block any important pages or directories?
• Is the XML sitemap present, correctly formatted, and submitted to Search Console?
• Are there any noindex tags on pages that should be indexed?
• Are important pages reachable within 3 clicks from the homepage?

Indexation

• Check for duplicate content (multiple URLs serving the same page)
• Check canonical tags — do they point to the correct preferred URL?
• Check for redirect chains (A → B → C, should be A → C)
• Check for 404 errors on pages that previously ranked

Core Web Vitals targets

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): < 2.5 seconds (good), < 4 seconds (needs improvement)
• INP (Interaction to Next Paint): < 200ms (good), < 500ms (needs improvement)
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): < 0.1 (good), < 0.25 (needs improvement)

Security and structure

• All pages served over HTTPS
• HTTP → HTTPS redirect in place
• URL structure is clean, readable, and consistent (avoid query strings in URLs where possible)
• No mixed content warnings (HTTP resources on HTTPS pages)

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On-Page Checks

Title tags

• 50-60 characters (longer gets truncated in SERPs)
• Unique across all pages
• Primary keyword near the front
• Describes the page content accurately — not keyword-stuffed

Meta descriptions

• 150-160 characters
• Unique across all pages
• Contains primary keyword naturally
• Reads as a genuine description, not a keyword list
• Includes a soft CTA or value statement

Heading structure

• One <h1> per page containing the primary keyword
• <h2> and <h3> create a logical hierarchy
• Subheadings reflect what users and search engines would look for on the page

Content quality

• Does the page answer the search intent for its target keyword?
• Is the content more comprehensive or more useful than the current top-ranking pages?
• Does the page demonstrate first-hand experience, expertise, or unique insight?
• Is content updated when information changes?

Internal linking

• Important pages receive links from other relevant pages on the site
• Anchor text is descriptive, not "click here" or "read more"
• No orphaned pages (pages with no internal links pointing to them)

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Important Limitation

web_fetch and browser-based fetching cannot reliably detect structured data (schema markup) because CMS plugins inject JSON-LD via JavaScript after page load. To verify structured data:

• Use Google's Rich Results Test (search.google.com/test/rich-results)
• Use Screaming Frog with JavaScript rendering enabled
• Use browser DevTools → Sources to inspect the rendered DOM

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Reference Guide

| Topic | Reference | Load When | | ----- | --------- | --------- | | SEO Audit Checklist | references/seo-audit-checklist.md | Always |

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Constraints

MUST DO

• Ask about site type, current issues, and scope before auditing
• Work through priority order — critical issues first
• Provide specific fix instructions for each finding, not just "fix your title tags"
• Group findings by impact level: critical / important / minor
• Note the structured data limitation when relevant

MUST NOT DO

• Audit without knowing what the site does and who it serves
• Recommend fixes for low-priority issues before covering critical ones
• Claim to verify structured data via web_fetch — always recommend the Rich Results Test
• Provide keyword rankings or traffic estimates without access to Search Console data
• Recommend keyword stuffing or any black-hat technique