SEO Review
Evaluate your application's search engine optimization and discoverability. This review catches SEO issues that are invisible during normal development — missing meta tags, broken structured data, poor crawlability, missing sitemaps, and social sharing problems. Many SPAs ship with zero SEO consideration.
When to use
Use /seo-review when:
- Before launching a public-facing website or application
- After redesigning or migrating a website
- When organic traffic is a growth channel
- After switching to an SPA framework (React, Vue, Angular)
- When social sharing (Open Graph) is important
- Setting up content marketing pages
Standards Referenced
- Google Search Central — SEO best practices and guidelines
- Schema.org — Structured data vocabulary
- Open Graph Protocol — Social sharing meta tags
- Twitter Card — Twitter sharing markup
- W3C Semantic HTML — Accessibility and SEO semantics
- Web.dev SEO Guidelines — Google's SEO recommendations
Phase Overview
Phase 1: EDUCATE → Why SEO matters and what we check
Phase 2: SCOPE → Identify key pages, content types, SEO goals
Phase 3: ANALYZE → Browser-based SEO validation
Phase 4: REPORT → Findings with impact assessment and priority
Phase 5: REMEDIATE → Fix guidance + YAML regression testsPhase 1: Educate
Why this matters: 53% of all website traffic comes from organic search (BrightEdge). The first Google result gets 27.6% of all clicks; position 10 gets 2.4% (Backlinko). SPAs often render blank HTML to crawlers, making millions of pages invisible to search. Proper SEO doesn't require tricks — it requires making your content discoverable and understandable by search engines.
This review checks the technical SEO foundation — the things that must be correct before content strategy matters.
Phase 2: Scope
Gather context
- Auto-detect from codebase:
- Framework and rendering strategy (SSR, SSG, CSR, ISR) - Meta tag management (react-helmet, next/head, vue-meta, etc.) - Sitemap generation - robots.txt configuration - Structured data (JSON-LD, microdata) - i18n/hreflang setup - Canonical URL handling - Route structure and page types
- Ask the user (one at a time):
- Target URL: Where is the app running? (production preferred for realistic crawling) - Key pages: Which pages are most important for search? (homepage, product pages, blog posts, landing pages) - Target keywords: Any primary keywords you want to rank for? (optional, for content evaluation) - Social sharing important?: Is Open Graph / Twitter Cards needed? (default: yes for public sites) - Multi-language?: Does the site serve multiple languages? (auto-detected)
- Identify page types:
- Homepage - Content pages (blog, docs, about) - Product/listing pages - Dynamic pages (search results, user profiles) - Utility pages (login, 404, terms)
Phase 3: Analyze
Open a browser session with new_session using record_evidence: true. For each key page, run all check categories.
Category A: Meta Tags & Head Elements (META)
| Check ID | Check | Standard | Method |
|---|---|---|---|
| META-01 | Unique, descriptive <title> (50-60 chars) | Google guidelines | Extract <title>, check length and uniqueness |
| META-02 | Meta description present (120-160 chars) | Google guidelines | Check <meta name="description"> |
| META-03 | Canonical URL set correctly | Google guidelines | Check <link rel="canonical"> |
| META-04 | Viewport meta tag present | Mobile SEO | Check <meta name="viewport"> |
| META-05 | Charset declared | HTML standard | Check <meta charset> |
| META-06 | No duplicate meta tags | SEO best practice | Check for duplicate titles, descriptions |
| META-07 | Favicon present | Branding/SEO | Check <link rel="icon"> |
| META-08 | Language declared | SEO/a11y | Check <html lang=""> |
| META-09 | No meta robots noindex on important pages | Indexing | Check <meta name="robots"> |
| META-10 | Hreflang tags for multi-language (if applicable) | International SEO | Check <link rel="alternate" hreflang=""> |
Browser validation: Use inspect_page to read the DOM. Extract all <head> elements via JavaScript.
Category B: Structured Data (SCHEMA)
| Check ID | Check | Standard | Method |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCHEMA-01 | JSON-LD structured data present | Schema.org | Check for <script type="application/ld+json"> |
| SCHEMA-02 | Schema type matches page content | Schema.org | Validate type (Organization, Product, Article, etc.) |
| SCHEMA-03 | Required properties present | Schema.org | Validate against type requirements |
| SCHEMA-04 | JSON-LD is valid JSON | Schema.org | Parse and validate JSON |
| SCHEMA-05 | No deprecated schema properties | Schema.org | Check for deprecated fields |
| SCHEMA-06 | Breadcrumb structured data | Schema.org | Check for BreadcrumbList on interior pages |
| SCHEMA-07 | FAQ structured data (if applicable) | Schema.org | Check for FAQPage on FAQ sections |
| SCHEMA-08 | Review/Rating structured data (if applicable) | Schema.org | Check for AggregateRating |
Browser validation: Extract JSON-LD scripts via JavaScript. Parse and validate structure. Compare page content against schema claims.
Category C: Open Graph & Social Sharing (OG)
| Check ID | Check | Standard | Method |
|---|---|---|---|
| OG-01 | og:title present and meaningful | Open Graph | Check <meta property="og:title"> |
| OG-02 | og:description present | Open Graph | Check <meta property="og:description"> |
| OG-03 | og:image present and accessible | Open Graph | Check <meta property="og:image">, verify URL loads |
| OG-04 | og:image dimensions adequate (1200x630 recommended) | Open Graph | Check image size |
| OG-05 | og:url matches canonical | Open Graph | Compare og:url with canonical |
| OG-06 | og:type set correctly | Open Graph | Check og:type value |
| OG-07 | Twitter card meta tags present | Twitter Cards | Check twitter:card, twitter:title, etc. |
| OG-08 | Social sharing preview looks correct | UX | Construct preview from OG tags |
Browser validation: Extract all OG and Twitter meta tags. Verify og:image URL is accessible. Construct a preview representation.
Category D: Crawlability & Indexing (CRAWL)
| Check ID | Check | Standard | Method |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRAWL-01 | robots.txt exists and is valid | Google guidelines | Fetch /robots.txt |
| CRAWL-02 | Sitemap.xml exists and is valid | Google guidelines | Fetch /sitemap.xml, validate format |
| CRAWL-03 | Sitemap referenced in robots.txt | Best practice | Check robots.txt for Sitemap directive |
| CRAWL-04 | Important pages are in sitemap | SEO | Cross-reference key pages with sitemap URLs |
| CRAWL-05 | No broken internal links | Crawlability | Check all internal links on key pages |
| CRAWL-06 | No redirect chains (>2 hops) | Crawl efficiency | Follow redirects, count hops |
| CRAWL-07 | Clean URL structure (no excessive params) | SEO | Check URL patterns for cleanliness |
| CRAWL-08 | 404 page returns correct HTTP status | SEO | Navigate to non-existent URL, check status |
| CRAWL-09 | No orphan pages (accessible from navigation) | Crawlability | Verify key pages linked from homepage/nav |
| CRAWL-10 | SSR/SSG content visible without JavaScript | SPA SEO | Disable JS, check if content renders |
| CRAWL-11 | Page load time for crawlers | Crawl budget | Measure server response time |
Browser validation: Navigate to robots.txt, sitemap.xml. Follow internal links. Disable JavaScript to test server-rendered content. Check HTTP status codes.
Category E: Semantic HTML & Content (SEM)
| Check ID | Check | Standard | Method |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEM-01 | Single <h1> per page | SEO best practice | Count h1 elements |
| SEM-02 | Heading hierarchy is logical (h1→h2→h3) | SEO/a11y | Check heading sequence |
| SEM-03 | Images have descriptive alt text | SEO/a11y | Check alt attributes for descriptiveness |
| SEM-04 | Internal links use descriptive anchor text | SEO | Check for "click here" or bare URLs as links |
| SEM-05 | Semantic HTML elements used (nav, main, article, section) | SEO | Check for semantic landmarks |
| SEM-06 | Content-to-HTML ratio is reasonable | SEO | Calculate text content vs HTML markup |
| SEM-07 | No duplicate content across pages | SEO | Compare key content sections across pages |
| SEM-08 | URLs are human-readable | SEO | Check for descriptive slugs vs IDs/hashes |
Browser validation: Extract headings, links, images, and semantic elements via JavaScript. Analyze content structure.
Category F: Technical SEO (TECH)
| Check ID | Check | Standard | Method |
|---|---|---|---|
| TECH-01 | HTTPS everywhere | Google ranking signal | Check protocol |
| TECH-02 | HTTP → HTTPS redirect works | SEO | Test HTTP URL redirect |
| TECH-03 | www → non-www (or vice versa) redirect consistent | SEO | Test both variants |
| TECH-04 | Mobile-friendly (responsive) | Google mobile-first | Check viewport, responsive behavior |
| TECH-05 | Core Web Vitals pass "Good" thresholds | Google ranking signal | Measure LCP, INP, CLS |
| TECH-06 | No render-blocking resources | Page speed | Check script/style loading |
| TECH-07 | Proper 301 redirects for moved content | SEO | Check known old URLs if applicable |
| TECH-08 | International targeting correct (if multi-region) | International SEO | Check hreflang, geo-targeting |
Browser validation: Test redirects, measure performance metrics, check mobile rendering.
Phase 4: Report
Generate a structured report saved to shiplight/reports/seo-review-{date}.md:
# SEO Review Report
**Date:** {date}
**URL:** {url}
**Pages reviewed:** {list}
**Rendering:** {SSR/SSG/CSR/ISR}
## Overall Score: {X}/10 | Confidence: {X}%
## Score Breakdown
| Category | Score | Findings |
|----------|-------|----------|
| Meta Tags (META) | 7/10 | 1 high, 2 medium |
| Structured Data (SCHEMA) | 4/10 | 1 critical, 1 high |
| Social Sharing (OG) | 6/10 | 2 high |
| Crawlability (CRAWL) | 5/10 | 1 critical, 1 high |
| Semantic HTML (SEM) | 8/10 | 1 medium |
| Technical SEO (TECH) | 7/10 | 1 high |
## Page-by-Page Summary
| Page | Title | Description | OG Image | Schema | H1 | Score |
|------|-------|-------------|----------|--------|----|-------|
| / | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ missing | ❌ none | ✅ | 6/10 |
| /blog | ✅ | ⚠️ too short | ✅ | ✅ Article | ✅ | 8/10 |
## Findings
(structured findings with evidence and impact)Confidence Scoring
- 90-100%: Verified in browser — tag present/absent, URL accessible/broken
- 70-89%: Content analysis suggests issue (e.g., thin content, generic alt text)
- 50-69%: Best practice recommendation without clear violation
- Below 50%: Don't report
Phase 5: Remediate
1. Fix guidance (example)
#### CRAWL-10: Content not visible without JavaScript
**Impact:** Search engines may not index your content (especially Google Discover, Bing, social crawlers)
**Current:** Client-side rendered React app, empty HTML shell
**Fix:** Implement SSR or SSG:
- Next.js: Use `getServerSideProps` or `getStaticProps`
- Nuxt: Default SSR mode
- Gatsby: Static generation
- Or: Add prerendering service (prerender.io, rendertron)
**Quick win:** Ensure critical content is in initial HTML response2. YAML regression test
- name: meta-01-title-present
description: Verify each key page has a unique, properly-sized title tag
severity: high
standard: Google-SEO-Guidelines
steps:
- URL: /
- CODE: |
const title = await page.title();
if (!title || title.trim() === '') {
throw new Error('Page has no title');
}
if (title.length < 20) {
throw new Error(`Title too short (${title.length} chars): "${title}"`);
}
if (title.length > 60) {
throw new Error(`Title too long (${title.length} chars): "${title}"`);
}
console.log(`Title OK (${title.length} chars): "${title}"`);
- VERIFY: Page has a descriptive title between 20 and 60 charactersSave all YAML tests to shiplight/tests/seo-review.test.yaml.
Depth Levels
--quick: Meta tags + canonical + robots.txt on homepage only. ~2 minutes.- default: All categories on key pages. ~8-12 minutes.
--thorough: All categories + full site crawl + all page types + content analysis. ~20-30 minutes.
Tips
- Test with JavaScript disabled to see what search engines see (especially for SPAs)
- Use
inspect_pageDOM output to extract<head>content efficiently - Check sitemap.xml manually — auto-generated sitemaps often include pages that shouldn't be indexed
- OG image must be an absolute URL — relative URLs don't work for social sharing
- For SPA SEO, the critical question is: "Does the initial HTML contain the content?"
- Close session with
close_sessionand usegenerate_html_reportfor evidence