SEO Audit Skill for Claude

/digital-marketing-pro:seo-audit

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.

May 2026 Core Update context (read before triaging volatility)

> Time-boxed guidance — valid until ~2026-08. This block is specific to the May 2026 Core Update window. After ~August 2026 it is stale: re-check the Google Search Status Dashboard for the current/most-recent core update and its dates before applying any of the timing advice below.

Google rolled out a broad core algorithm update starting 21 May 2026 with the usual ~2-week deployment window. If the audit is being run inside that window (or in the 4 weeks after) and the brand is showing ranking volatility:

• Do not make reactive changes during the rollout. Wait for the update to fully deploy (Google announces completion in the Search Status Dashboard) plus 7–14 days of post-deploy 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. Use Search Console to compare pre-rollout (21 days before May 21) vs in-rollout vs post-rollout impressions and clicks segmented by page-group.
• Core updates re-weight existing signals, they don't introduce new ones. The audit dimensions below remain authoritative; the right response to a Core Update hit is usually to deepen E-E-A-T, improve unique value, fix thin/duplicated content, and reduce low-quality affiliate or AI-spam pages — not to chase rumoured signals.
• Flag in the executive summary whether ranking deltas pre-date the rollout (likely site-specific issues) or coincide with it (likely Core Update reweighting). This determines whether quick wins are appropriate or whether the brand needs 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

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