seo-audit

SEO Audit

When to invoke

• Before publishing landing page / blog post / product page
• After major content restructure
• Quarterly site-wide audit

Expert Operating Standard

Follow docs/references/skill-expert-operating-standard.md: start from source of truth, preserve retrieval evidence, apply scope safety, use real producers with runtime receipts for durable delegated outputs, verify before completion claims, and keep confidence below gate when evidence is partial.

Step 0 — Read source of truth (required)

1. Identify pages in scope (.supervibe/artifacts/prototypes/landing/ or live URLs)
2. Read sitemap, robots.txt
3. Invoke best-practices-researcher for current 2026 SEO patterns (via research-cache, TTL 30d)

Decision tree

Runnable local page or preview exists
  -> Run Lighthouse or equivalent browser audit plus metadata/schema checks.

Only live URLs are in scope
  -> Use current source evidence, crawlability checks, and documented fetch/browser evidence.

Only static files are available
  -> Run static metadata, heading, schema, canonical, and asset checks; label browser metrics unavailable.

User asks for latest, current, or 2026 SEO guidance
  -> Use current primary or reputable sources through the researcher path and cite the cache entry.

Research lookup cannot run
  -> Label the report baseline technical SEO and do not claim current best-practice completeness.

Procedure

1. Invoke seo-specialist agent for technical audit
2. Invoke best-practices-researcher for current pattern updates
3. Cross-check:
   • Meta titles ≤60 chars, descriptions ≤155
   • Schema.org per page type
   • Canonical URLs
   • hreflang (multi-locale)
   • Sitemap currency
   • Internal linking (no orphans, anchor variety)
4. Run Lighthouse SEO audit
5. Check Core Web Vitals impact
6. Score with confidence-scoring

Audit dimensions

Dimension	Checks
Crawlability	robots.txt, sitemap, canonical, status codes, no accidental noindex
Metadata	title, description, open graph, twitter cards, locale alternates
Structured data	Schema.org type, required fields, validation result
Content	search intent fit, headings, internal links, duplicate/thin content
Performance	Core Web Vitals, image weight, render blocking, mobile layout
Accessibility	semantic headings, alt text, meaningful link text
International	hreflang, canonical per locale, localized metadata
Freshness	lastmod, stale claims, publication/update dates

Current-research policy

SEO guidance changes. Use current primary or reputable sources when:

• the page targets search traffic,
• schema requirements are uncertain,
• Google or other search guidance may have changed,
• the user asks for "latest" or "2026" practice.

Record the source or research-cache entry used. If no current lookup is possible, label the audit as baseline technical SEO and do not claim current best-practice completeness.

Output severity

• CRITICAL: page may not be indexed or may point search engines to the wrong URL.
• MAJOR: ranking, snippet quality, schema eligibility, or Core Web Vitals likely harmed.
• MINOR: polish, consistency, or opportunity item.

Verification

• The scoped page list is explicit.
• Lighthouse or equivalent technical audit was run when a runnable page exists.
• Schema validation was run or blocked with reason.
• Sitemap, robots, canonical, and metadata were checked.
• Best-practice source or research-cache entry is cited.
• Core Web Vitals risk is stated.
• Indexing blockers are separated from ranking opportunities.
• Public-page scope is explicit.
• Recheck command or browser URL is included.

Output contract

Returns:

• Lighthouse SEO score
• Schema validation result
• Findings table (CRITICAL/MAJOR/MINOR)
• Best-practices delta (if researcher found changes since last verify)

Guard rails

• DO NOT: skip researcher consultation (SEO changes constantly)
• DO NOT: rubber-stamp Lighthouse 100 (manual checks still needed)
• ALWAYS: cite research-cache file used

Related

• agents/_product/seo-specialist — performs audit
• agents/_ops/best-practices-researcher — fetches current patterns