seobuild-onpage/references/quality-checklist.md

Content Quality Checklist

SEO-AGI validates every page against this checklist before final output. Each item is scored pass/fail. Pages scoring below 80% get flagged with specific items to fix.

Title Tag (10 points)

• Contains target keyword (or close variant)
• Under 60 characters
• Unique and compelling (not just "[Keyword] | [Brand]")
• Includes a differentiating element (year, number, qualifier)
• Not duplicating another page's title on the same site

Meta Description (10 points)

• Under 155 characters
• Contains target keyword naturally
• Includes a call-to-action or value proposition
• Not a copy of the first paragraph
• Would make someone click vs competitors in the SERP

Heading Structure (15 points)

• Exactly one H1
• H1 closely matches or mirrors title tag
• Logical H2 > H3 hierarchy (no skipped levels)
• H2 count within competitive range (see analysis)
• Headings are descriptive (not "Section 1" or "More Info")

Content Depth (25 points)

• Word count within competitive range (not arbitrarily long or short)
• Answers at least 3 People Also Ask questions
• Includes specific data, statistics, or concrete examples
• Covers topics that appear in 2+ competitor pages
• No thin sections (every H2 has 150+ words of substance)

Search Intent Match (15 points)

• Page type matches detected intent (informational/commercial/transactional)
• Content format matches SERP expectations (list vs guide vs comparison)
• Addresses the primary user need within the first 200 words
• If commercial intent: includes pricing or comparison elements
• If informational intent: includes step-by-step or explanatory depth

Technical SEO (15 points)

• JSON-LD schema markup included and matches page type
• Schema uses correct types (see schema-patterns.md)
• Image alt text suggestions included
• At least 2 internal link suggestions with context
• No orphaned sections (every section connects to the page's topic)

Readability (10 points)

• No keyword stuffing (target keyword appears naturally, not forced)
• Paragraphs are scannable (no walls of text)
• Uses formatting aids where appropriate (bold key terms, tables for comparisons)
• Transitions between sections are logical
• Reads like it was written by a subject matter expert, not a content mill

Scoring

Score	Rating	Action
90-100	Exceptional	Ship it
80-89	Strong	Minor tweaks optional
70-79	Acceptable	Fix flagged items before publishing
60-69	Below standard	Significant revision needed
<60	Rewrite	Start over with revised brief

Red Flags (automatic fail)

These issues override the score and require fixing regardless:

• Duplicate title tag matching another page on the site
• Missing H1 or multiple H1 tags
• Zero data/statistics in the entire page
• Word count more than 50% below competitive median
• No FAQ or PAA coverage
• Missing schema markup entirely
• Keyword density above 3% (stuffing)

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v1.7.1 -- 45-Point Pass/Fail Checklist

In addition to the rubric above, every page must pass the SKILL.md 51-point YES/NO checklist (Section 14). Pages scoring below 42/51 require revision before delivery. The four checks added in v1.7.1:

• #42 -- Meta Entity Isolation Check. The entity set used in the brief was sourced from the bolded query-matched terms inside competitor SERP descriptions (research.meta_entities), not from generic body-content entity extraction. Snippet entities are the tokens Google's own snippet generator already validated as relevant.
• #43 -- N-Gram AI Alignment Check. The AI Summary Nugget at the top of the page contains 2 or more bigrams or trigrams pulled verbatim from the top 3 ranking competitors' body text (research.target_ngrams). LLM retrieval scoring rewards token-window overlap with consensus phrasing.
• #44 -- Dual-Intent Check. Primary intent (research.primary_intent) is satisfied within the first 500 tokens AND a Secondary action funnel (research.secondary_intent) is present in the next two chunks. Single-intent pages fail this check.
• #45 -- Status Code Governance. For rewrites only. Every legacy URL evaluated has an explicit 301 (preserve equity, topic survives) or 410 (prune, thin/cannibalizing/out-of-circle) recommendation. Silent leave-as-is is a fail.

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v1.8.0 -- Gemini 3.5 Flash RAG + Off-Page Trust (48-Point)

Three new checks for the AI-Overview era. Pages scoring below 39/48 require revision before delivery.

• #46 -- Trust Pilot Entity Profiling. A Trust Pilot profile (or scheduled draft for one) exists for the target brand, with the page's exact service target bigrams (from research.target_ngrams) seeded into the profile description. See SKILL.md Section 11A for why Trustpilot now counts as Tier 1.
• #47 -- Off-Page Schema Mapping. Companion content on Tier 1 properties (Cloud Pages, PRs, Medium, etc.) carries Organization and Person JSON-LD with explicit links back to the brand's GBP CID. This is the NavBoost-shuffle defense.
• #48 -- DOM-Visible Critical Data. Pricing tables, capacity figures, schedules, and other primary data points appear in front-facing <table> markup or inline RDFa spans -- not buried solely in a JSON-LD block. Google's RAG pipeline (Gemini 3.5 Flash) extracts shards from the rendered DOM, not from <head> script tags.

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v1.9.1 -- Decision Fit, Brand Voice, Missing Spokes (51-Point)

Three new checks for buyer-stage alignment, brand identity preservation, and topical silo completeness. Pages scoring below 42/51 require revision before delivery.

• #49 -- Decision Fit Check. Does the heading structure map directly to the user's psychological buying stage (Research, Compare, or Buy) instead of just copying competitor H2s? A "best CRM 2026" page (Compare stage) needs comparison-shaped H2s. A "how to choose a CRM" page (Research stage) needs framework-shaped H2s. A "Salesforce pricing" page (Buy stage) needs decision-shaped H2s. Copy-paste of competitor headings is a fail -- the page must serve the searcher's job, not mirror the SERP.
• #50 -- Brand Identity Check. Are the client's specific differentiators (provided via --differentiators= on research.py or in the brief) explicitly woven verbatim into the 500-token chunks to prevent generic AI homogenization? Each differentiator must appear at least once in body content, and the AI Summary Nugget at the top must surface at least one of them. Paraphrasing into marketing-flavored synonyms is a fail -- the exact phrase the client gave is the test.
• #51 -- Topical Silo Check. Did the agent append a ## Recommended Spoke Pages block at the bottom using the missing_spokes data extracted from competitor analysis? See research.missing_spokes in the research output. The list is the client's build-order priority for filling the topical silo gap, not link stubs to be written today. Tag uncertain slugs with {{MANUAL CHECK: slug needed}}.