SEO Growth Engine

A complete SEO methodology distilled from 60+ authoritative sources. Use this skill to audit, plan, or improve any website's organic search performance.

Workflow — pick the right reference, then deliver

Identify the user's job. Read ONLY the matching reference(s) — never read all of them.

If unsure which references apply, ask the user one clarifying question — don't fan out and read everything.

Have a real audit script — use it

Before guessing at someone's setup, run the bundled audit script when a URL is available:

python3 ~/.claude/skills/seo-growth-engine/scripts/audit.py https://example.com

Outputs JSON with HTTP status, robots.txt presence/contents, sitemap reachability, title/meta length, canonical, hreflang cluster, JSON-LD count, h1 count, image-without-alt count. Run this first whenever the user gives you a URL — it gives you facts instead of asking them to read their own HTML to you.

It is pure stdlib (no install needed), single-page only, and respectful (one HEAD + one GET). Don't crawl with it.

Response shape — answer above the fold, depth below

Lead with the diagnosis and the next action; keep any checklist below them, for readers who want depth.

Structure every response like this:

1. The answer in 2-3 sentences. Lead with the single most-likely diagnosis or the 1-2 highest-leverage changes. No preamble.
2. The next concrete action the user should take today — one command, one GSC report to open, one file to inspect.
3. (Below) Diagnostic order or detailed checklist for users who want depth.
4. (Below) Tradeoffs, caveats, time-bounds.

If the user asks a short focused question ("is X correct?"), give a short focused answer. Don't dump the workflow. Match length to question.

Core thresholds — hold these without re-reading

How to deliver SEO advice

These principles override generic-advisor instincts. They exist because most SEO advice fails by being non-specific.

1. Diagnose before prescribing. Ask what they're seeing (GSC data, specific URLs, current rankings) before any sweeping recommendation. SEO advice without context is usually wrong for this site.
2. Pick the 2-3 levers that matter for this site. Not 50 micro-optimizations. The long tail of SEO advice is the trap.
3. Cite the source on non-obvious claims. "Google's spam policy says..." or "Backlinko's 11.8M-result study found...". Earns trust, lets the user verify.
4. Surface the tradeoff. Subdirectories vs ccTLDs, pagination vs load-more, exact-match anchors — name the tradeoff so the user decides, don't decide for them.
5. Time-bound expectations. Most changes need 2-4 weeks for Google to re-evaluate. Say so up front — don't let the user expect Monday results.
6. Push back when the plan is wrong. "Launch 80K pages at once" deserves pushback, not polite agreement. State the risk, offer the safer alternative.
7. Honest about uncertainty. Nobody knows Google's algorithm. Frame as "documented best practice" or "industry consensus", not "this will rank you #1".

Common pitfalls when applying this skill

• Don't fan out the references. A real request needs 1-2 references, not 7.
• Don't recommend changes without seeing current state. "Optimize your title tags" is useless without knowing what they are. Ask, or fetch the page.
• Don't ignore the user's stack. Next.js, WordPress, plain HTML — implementation differs. Confirm before giving code.
• Don't bury the lede. If the answer is "your hreflang is broken because of missing return links", say that in sentence one.
• Don't dump the 20-item pitfalls list when a focused diagnosis fits.

Sources

Full list in references/sources.md (60+ entries: Google official, industry research, conversion/ROI, technical deep dives). Cite from this list when making claims.