/32-seo-growth-global

name: 32-seo-growth-global
description: "Use when the user wants SEO growth, AI SEO, GEO/AEO, Google visibility, ChatGPT or Perplexity citations, schema, structured data, llms.txt, programmatic SEO, local SEO, comparison and alternative pages, directory submissions, Product Hunt, G2/Capterra, backlinks, or a site audit. Trigger on 'SEO audit', 'AI search visibility', 'AI citations', 'schema markup', 'pSEO', 'alternative page', 'submit to directories', or 'backlink plan'. Not for — first-time Google Business Profile setup, see `11-channel-setup-global`; writing the articles themselves, see `36-content-brief-global`."
metadata:
  version: 1.2.0
  category: performance
license: MIT
triggers:
  - "SEO audit"
  - "AI SEO"
  - "GEO"
  - "AEO"
  - "schema markup"
  - "local SEO"
  - "programmatic SEO"
  - "comparison page"
  - "directory submissions"
  - "backlinks"
related:
  - product-marketing-context-global
  - 08-competitor-research-global
  - 11-channel-setup-global
  - 12-landing-page-brief-global
  - 13-data-analysis-global
  - 15-social-listening-global

SEO Growth (Global)

> Operating rules: `skills/en/references/operating-rules-global.md` (esp. rules 2, 3, 7).

This skill covers 6 practical SEO layers: foundation audit, local SEO, search-intent content, AI search visibility, schema/machine-readable files, and backlink/distribution. The goal is qualified demand, not publishing volume.

Information gathering

Read `.agents/product-marketing-context-global.md` if available. Ask up to 4 questions: website URL, target market, main product/service, and 90-day SEO goal. Use Search Console, GA4, Ahrefs, Semrush or similar exports when available.

Three companion references:

• `references/seo-growth-playbook.md` — 90-day roadmap, pSEO, comparison and alternative pages, site architecture.
• `references/schema-json-ld.md` — 12 copy-paste JSON-LD blocks with current rich-result status.
• `references/ai-visibility-measurement.md` — prompt portfolio, answer audit, AI referral traffic, crawler log check, fix loop.

Pick the mode

| User says | Mode | |-----------|------| | "Traffic dropped", "site is not ranking" | SEO audit | | "We don't show up on Maps / in the local pack" | Local SEO | | "Get cited by ChatGPT/Perplexity" | AI SEO / GEO | | "Add schema", "rich results" | Schema | | "Create many SEO pages" | Programmatic SEO | | "Build alternative / vs pages" | Comparison pages | | "Submit to Product Hunt/G2/directories" | Directory + backlink |

Workflow

1. Audit the foundation

Run in order — a failure at a lower layer nullifies everything above it.

1.1 Crawl and index

| Check | Passing threshold | Tool | |-------|------------------|------| | robots.txt does not block money pages | 0 revenue pages disallowed | Search Console > robots.txt report | | XML sitemap exists, declared in robots.txt | Present, auto-updating | Search Console > Sitemaps | | Indexed pages / pages you want indexed | >90% | Search Console > Pages | | Redirect chains | 1 hop max, no loops | Screaming Frog, Ahrefs Site Audit | | Soft 404s | 0 | Search Console > Pages > "Soft 404" | | Canonicals point at the right page | 100% self-canonical or pointing at the true original | Any crawler | | Leftover `noindex` from staging | 0 pages | Grep `noindex` site-wide |

Two issues account for most "the site just won't rank" cases: **site-wide canonicals pointing at the homepage** (misconfigured theme or plugin) and **a `noindex` left over from staging** after go-live.

1.2 On-page

| Element | Threshold | Note | |---------|-----------|------| | Title | 50-60 characters | Longer gets truncated; primary term near the front | | Meta description | 150-160 characters | Not a ranking factor, but drives CTR | | H1 | Exactly one per page | Same topic as the title, not a copy of it | | H2/H3 | Phrased the way people type queries | This is the scaffolding AI engines extract passages from | | Images | Descriptive `alt`, meaningful filenames | WebP; no 4MB originals | | Internal links | Every page has at least one inbound link | See site architecture in the playbook |

1.3 Core Web Vitals

| Metric | Good | Needs improvement | Poor | |--------|------|-------------------|------| | LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | < 2.5s | 2.5-4.0s | > 4.0s | | INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | < 200ms | 200-500ms | > 500ms | | CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | < 0.1 | 0.1-0.25 | > 0.25 |

Read field data first (Search Console > Core Web Vitals, CrUX), lab data second (PageSpeed Insights). A 100 desktop score with a 5s mobile field LCP is common — mobile is what matters.

Usual LCP offenders: uncompressed hero images, auto-playing sliders above the fold, fonts loaded from multiple origins, and synchronous chat or popup scripts.

1.4 Cannibalization

When two of your own pages compete for the same query, both underperform. How to detect it:

1. Search Console > Performance > filter by query > check the Pages column. If one query rotates between 2+ pages, that is cannibalization. 2. Run `site:domain.com [keyword]` — several near-identical pages means consolidate.

Fix in this order: merge into the strongest page and 301 the rest → or split the search intent cleanly across pages → canonical only as a last resort.

1.5 Authority and conversion

• Authority: backlinks, brand mentions, real reviews, author pages with verifiable credentials.
• Conversion: every page has a clear CTA and a contact path that matches the market.

2. Local SEO

Applies to any business with a physical location or a defined service area: clinics, restaurants, gyms, studios, home services, multi-location retail.

> First-time Google Business Profile setup: see `11-channel-setup-global`. This section covers **optimization** once the profile exists.

2.1 NAP consistency

NAP = Name, Address, Phone. These must be **byte-identical** everywhere:

| Where it appears | Check | |------------------|-------| | Google Business Profile | The source of t