seo-fundamentals

SEO Fundamentals Review

"Good SEO is good UX. If search engines can't understand your page, users might not find it."

When to Apply

Activate this skill when:

• Reviewing HTML <head> sections
• Seeing meta tags in code
• Next.js/Remix page components
• HTML structure with headings
• Any page that should be indexed

The SEO Checklist

Must Have (Every Page)

• Title tag — 50-60 characters, unique per page
• Meta description — 150-160 characters, compelling
• Single H1 — One per page, describes main content
• Logical heading hierarchy — H1 → H2 → H3 (no skipping)
• Semantic HTML — <header>, <main>, <nav>, <article>, <footer>
• Image alt text — Descriptive, not "image1.jpg"

Should Have (Marketing Pages)

• Open Graph tags — og:title, og:description, og:image
• Twitter Card — twitter:card, twitter:title
• Canonical URL — Prevent duplicate content issues
• Structured data — JSON-LD for rich snippets

Performance (Affects SEO)

• Core Web Vitals awareness
  • LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) < 2.5s
  • FID (First Input Delay) < 100ms
  • CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) < 0.1

Common Mistakes (Anti-Patterns)

1. Multiple H1 Tags

<!-- ❌ BAD: Multiple H1s confuse search engines -->
<h1>Welcome</h1>
<h1>Our Products</h1>
<h1>Contact Us</h1>

<!-- ✅ GOOD: One H1, logical hierarchy -->
<h1>Welcome to Our Store</h1>
<h2>Our Products</h2>
<h2>Contact Us</h2>

2. Missing Alt Text

<!-- ❌ BAD: Empty or useless alt -->
<img src="hero.jpg" alt="">
<img src="team.jpg" alt="image">

<!-- ✅ GOOD: Descriptive alt text -->
<img src="hero.jpg" alt="Software engineer working at laptop">
<img src="team.jpg" alt="Our founding team of 5 engineers">

3. Div Soup (No Semantic HTML)

<!-- ❌ BAD: No semantic meaning -->
<div class="header">
  <div class="nav">...</div>
</div>
<div class="content">...</div>
<div class="footer">...</div>

<!-- ✅ GOOD: Semantic HTML -->
<header>
  <nav>...</nav>
</header>
<main>...</main>
<footer>...</footer>

4. Skipping Heading Levels

<!-- ❌ BAD: Jumps from H1 to H4 -->
<h1>Page Title</h1>
<h4>Some Section</h4>

<!-- ✅ GOOD: Sequential hierarchy -->
<h1>Page Title</h1>
<h2>Main Section</h2>
<h3>Subsection</h3>

5. Generic Title Tags

<!-- ❌ BAD: Not descriptive -->
<title>Home</title>
<title>Page</title>

<!-- ✅ GOOD: Descriptive with keywords -->
<title>Daniel Lamb - Full Stack Developer Portfolio</title>
<title>Contact Us | Acme Software Solutions</title>

Socratic Questions

Ask these instead of giving answers:

1. Title: "If someone sees this title in Google results, would they click it?"
2. H1: "How many H1 tags does this page have? What happens if there are multiple?"
3. Alt Text: "If the image doesn't load, what information is lost?"
4. Semantic HTML: "Can a screen reader understand the structure of this page?"
5. Meta Description: "Does this description make you want to click?"

Stack-Specific Guidance

Next.js (App Router)

// Pattern: Metadata export
export const metadata = {
  title: 'Page Title',
  description: 'Page description',
  // Your implementation will differ
};

Next.js (Pages Router)

// Pattern: Next Head
import Head from 'next/head';

<Head>
  <title>Your title here</title>
  <meta name="description" content="Your description" />
</Head>

Plain HTML/React

<!-- In index.html or via react-helmet -->
<head>
  <title>Title here</title>
  <meta name="description" content="Description here">
</head>

Red Flags to Call Out

Open Graph Template

<!-- Minimum viable Open Graph -->
<meta property="og:title" content="Your Page Title">
<meta property="og:description" content="Your page description">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yoursite.com/og-image.jpg">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://yoursite.com/page">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">

Interview Connection

"I implemented SEO best practices including semantic HTML, proper heading hierarchy, and meta tags, improving our page's discoverability."

When reviewing their code:

• "What's your SEO strategy for this page?"
• "How would Google understand what this page is about?"
• "Show me your heading structure"

MCP Usage

Context7 - Framework Docs

Fetch: Next.js metadata documentation
Fetch: Semantic HTML best practices

Octocode - Real Examples

Search: "metadata" + "title" + "description" in Next.js repos
Search: Open Graph implementation patterns