seo-audit

/digital-marketing-pro:seo-audit

Script location. If your host does not set ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}, the scripts are in this plugin's scripts/ folder, next to skills/. Run them with Python 3.10 or newer: python, or python3 where python is not found (macOS, many Linux systems).

Purpose

Perform a comprehensive SEO audit that evaluates a website across all major ranking dimensions. Produces a prioritized action plan with estimated impact and effort for each recommendation.

Algorithm-update context (read before triaging volatility)

Status as of 2026-10-04 (time-boxed — re-check after ~2026-12): per the Google Search Status Dashboard, the most recent core update began 21 May 2026 (completed after ~12 days). Since then Google has run only spam updates: the August 2026 spam update (18–21 Aug) and the September 2026 spam update (started 24 Sep; not yet marked complete on 2026-10-04). There was no September 2026 core update — several SEO blogs reported one; the dashboard lists none. Attribute only to updates the dashboard lists. Separately, Google's site reputation abuse policy has split at the EEA border since 30 Aug 2026: outside the EEA a manual action demotes the affected section; inside the EEA the section is separated and ranks on its own instead (Search Central) — word audit findings on third-party/"parasite" sections per region.

When an audit runs inside a listed update's rollout window (or the 4 weeks after) and the brand shows ranking volatility:

Do not make reactive changes during a rollout. Wait for the dashboard to mark the update complete, plus 7–14 days of settling, before drawing conclusions.
Diagnose direction before scope. A site-wide drop vs a single-section drop vs a single-template drop have very different root causes. Compare pre-rollout (21 days before the start date) vs in-rollout vs post-rollout impressions and clicks, segmented by page-group.
Match the response to the update type. Core updates re-weight existing quality signals — the answer is deeper E-E-A-T, unique value, and pruning thin/duplicated/AI-spam pages, not chasing rumoured signals. Spam updates target policy violations — check the affected pages against Google's spam policies (scaled content abuse, site reputation abuse, expired-domain abuse) before touching anything else.
Flag in the executive summary whether ranking deltas pre-date a listed update (likely site-specific issues) or coincide with one — this decides between quick wins and a multi-quarter quality program.

Input Required

The user must provide (or will be prompted for):

Website URL: The domain or specific pages to audit
Target keywords: Primary keywords the site should rank for (optional — can be researched)
Competitors: 2-3 competitor URLs for benchmarking (optional)
Audit scope: Full site or specific area (technical, content, local, links)
Known issues: Any existing problems the user is aware of

Process

Load brand context: Read ~/.claude-marketing/brands/_active-brand.json for the active slug, then load ~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/profile.json. Apply brand voice, compliance rules for target markets (skills/context-engine/compliance-rules.md), and industry context. Also check for guidelines at ~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/guidelines/_manifest.json — if present, load restrictions and relevant category files. Check for custom templates at ~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/templates/. Check for agency SOPs at ~/.claude-marketing/sops/. If no brand exists, ask: "Set up a brand first (/digital-marketing-pro:brand-setup)?" — or proceed with defaults.
Technical audit: Crawlability, indexation, Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, structured data, HTTPS, XML sitemap, robots.txt, canonical tags, redirect chains
On-page audit: Title tags, meta descriptions, heading hierarchy, keyword usage, image alt text, internal linking structure, URL structure
Content audit: Thin content, duplicate content, content gaps, freshness, E-E-A-T signals (author pages, citations, credentials, first-hand experience)
Local SEO (if applicable): Google Business Profile, NAP consistency, local schema, reviews, local link profile
Link profile: Domain authority, backlink quality, toxic links, anchor text distribution, link velocity, competitor link gap. Score the own-domain profile with the analyzer (feeds 05-link-profile.md):
```
python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/link-profile-analyzer.py" \
    --file "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/{brand}/seo/seo-audit/{date}/links-export.json" \
    --brand-domain {brand-domain}
```
(--file is a JSON array of link objects [{"url","anchor_text","domain","da","follow"}], or pass --links '<json>' inline; --brand-domain excludes internal links.) For competitor link-gap prospecting, hand off to /digital-marketing-pro:backlink-gap.
Score each dimension on a 1-10 scale
Prioritize findings by impact (high/medium/low) and effort (quick win/medium/major project)
Generate the audit report with actionable recommendations

For the per-dimension checklists (incl. keyword research), the findings and action-plan table layouts, the after-audit follow-up menu, and the parallel-dispatch rules (independent dimensions concurrently; the action plan stays sequential), read dimension-checklists.md beside this file.

Output

A structured SEO audit report containing:

Executive summary with overall health score
Technical SEO scorecard with specific issues and fixes
On-page optimization findings per page/template
Content quality assessment with gap analysis
E-E-A-T evaluation and improvement recommendations
Local SEO assessment (if applicable)
Link profile analysis with opportunities
Prioritized action plan sorted by impact-to-effort ratio

Numbered output convention

All audit outputs go to ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/{brand}/seo/seo-audit/{YYYY-MM-DD}/:

00-input.md                    target URL, audit scope, brand context, Core Update window flag
01-crawl-inventory.md          discovered URLs, status codes, redirect chains
02-technical-scorecard.md      Core Web Vitals, crawlability, schema validity (1-10 per dimension)
03-onpage-findings.md          per-template issues with affected URL list
04-content-quality.md          E-E-A-T, thin/duplicate, topical coverage
05-link-profile.md             own backlink health (hand off to backlink-gap for prospect work)
06-eeat-evaluation.md          author signals, expertise indicators, trust elements
07-local-seo.md                only if business profile.target_markets has local intent
08-quality-scorecard.md        the gates below — must pass for status: ready
09-prioritised-actions.md      impact × effort matrix, top 20 actions
PLAN.md                        single-page deliverable

Downstream skills (seo-implement, seo-plan, content-engine) consume PLAN.md and the relevant numbered file rather than re-querying.

Quality scorecard

Gate	What it checks
crawl_coverage	≥ 90% of sitemap URLs successfully crawled (else input data is incomplete)
dimension_completeness	Scores filled for all 6 mandatory dimensions (technical, on-page, content, E-E-A-T, link, local-if-applicable)
finding_actionability	Every "high impact" finding has a named owner + effort estimate (else it's not actionable)
core_update_flag_set	If running inside a Core Update window, `00-input.md` flags it AND `PLAN.md` carries the "wait 7-14 days before reactive changes" callout

status: ready requires all four gates pass.

Chain handoffs

Upstream: brand profile + (optional) prior tech-seo-audit, aeo-audit outputs
Downstream:
- /digital-marketing-pro:seo-implement — applies the top-N findings to CMS / dev backlog
- /digital-marketing-pro:seo-plan — consumes via dispatcher pillar scoring
- /digital-marketing-pro:backlink-gap — for the link-prospect side that 05-link-profile.md only covers from the own-domain angle
- /digital-marketing-pro:seo-drift — next quarter, compare two audit snapshots

Tips & caveats

Run during a Core Update? Mark it loudly in 00-input.md and don't recommend reactive changes. The audit findings stay valid; the timing of action does not.
Don't audit at the URL level for sites > 10k pages. Sample template-typically (cluster by template, audit one representative URL per template, generalise).
E-E-A-T scoring is judgement, not measurement. Two senior SEOs will disagree by ~1 point per dimension on the same site. Calibrate against the brand's industry: a 7/10 author signal is excellent for SaaS but minimum-viable for a YMYL health publisher.
Local SEO dimension only applies if the brand profile has business_model: local or target_markets includes specific geographies with physical service. Otherwise skip.
The link-profile dimension here is own-domain health (broken links, redirect chains, anchor-text distribution on inbound links). For competitor link-gap analysis, hand off to /digital-marketing-pro:backlink-gap — don't try to do both in this audit.

Agents Used

seo-specialist — All audit dimensions, scoring, prioritization, and recommendations