SEO Content Optimizer

When to use

Triggers:

• "Optimise this page for SEO" / "Improve this article's SEO"
• "What's missing for SEO on [URL]?"
• "I want to rank for [keyword] — rewrite this"
• "Should this be a page, a blog, or a landing page?"
• Pasting a draft article / landing page for review

Don't fire for:

• Site-wide SEO audits (use seo-audit — broader)
• Local SEO (use au-local-seo-small-business — different signals)
• Building pages at scale for programmatic SEO (different skill; often requires tooling)
• Sitewide technical issues (crawlability, JS rendering — site-level work)

The 5 things Google actually rewards on-page (2026)

1. Search intent match

If someone searches "how to fix a leaking tap", Google shows how-to articles. If they search "plumber near me", Google shows businesses. The page's format must match the intent of the query.

Common intent buckets:

• Informational — "how to", "what is", "best way" — blog / guide / article
• Navigational — "[brand] login" — specific page
• Commercial investigation — "best [thing]", "[thing] vs [thing]" — comparison / review
• Transactional — "buy [thing]", "hire [service]" — product / service page

If your "service page" reads like a generic how-to blog, Google won't rank it for transactional queries. And vice versa.

2. Topical coverage (semantic breadth)

A page that says "we do plumbing" ranks worse than one that covers — within the relevant context — blockages, leaks, hot-water systems, emergency callouts, pricing signals, service areas, typical turnaround. Google's learned models evaluate how comprehensively you cover the topic.

Tools to identify semantic entities to cover:

• Your top-ranking competitors — what H2s do they use?
• Google's "People also ask" section for your target query
• Google's related searches at the bottom
• Ahrefs / SEMrush topic clusters (paid)
• Thruuu, Frase, SurferSEO (paid topic analysers)

For free coverage: take your target keyword, search it, read the top 5 results, note the topics they all cover and the topics only some cover. Cover what's common + one or two that are differentiating.

3. E-E-A-T signals (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)

Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines explicitly weight these. On-page signals:

• Author byline with credentials + photo + link to their profile/bio
• Publication date + last updated date (fresh content ranks better for most queries)
• Citations to authoritative sources (ATO, ABS, government, reputable industry publications)
• First-person experience where genuine — "I ran this on 12 client accounts" beats "many businesses find"
• Original data / quotes — surveys, interviews, your own case studies
• Business credentials on the page or linked (ABN, industry certifications, association memberships)

4. Reader engagement signals

Google watches what users do after clicking:

• Time on page
• Whether they bounce back to search results (pogo-sticking)
• Whether they scroll through

Signals worth optimising:

• Opening paragraph — answer the implied question in the first 2–3 sentences
• Clear structure — descriptive H2s that show the page's scope
• Scannable formatting — bullet points, tables, callouts where appropriate
• Internal links — to keep them on your site
• One clear CTA — where their next step is if the page did its job

5. Technical quality

Often forgotten in a content skill:

• Page speed — LCP <2.5s, INP <200ms, CLS <0.1 (Core Web Vitals)
• Mobile usability — 60%+ of AU SME traffic is mobile
• Accessible markup — alt text, semantic HTML, logical heading order
• Structured data — Article / Product / FAQ / HowTo / LocalBusiness as appropriate

The optimisation checklist (for any page)

## Page: [URL or draft name]
## Target: [primary keyword] + [secondary keywords]
## Intent: [informational / navigational / commercial / transactional]

### Head
☐ Title tag: [primary keyword near start, 50–60 chars, click-worthy]
☐ Meta description: [150–160 chars, includes primary keyword, has value + CTA]
☐ Canonical URL: [self-referencing for unique pages]
☐ OpenGraph + Twitter Card: [title, description, image all set]
☐ Structured data: [appropriate schema — Article / FAQPage / HowTo / Product]

### Content structure
☐ H1: exactly one, includes primary keyword, reads naturally
☐ H2s: cover the semantic topic map
☐ Opening paragraph: answers the implied question in 2–3 sentences
☐ Primary keyword in first 100 words
☐ Secondary keywords distributed naturally (not stuffed)
☐ Word count appropriate for the intent (informational 800–2500; transactional 300–800 usually)

### E-E-A-T
☐ Author visible with credentials + link
☐ Publication date + last-updated
☐ Citations to authoritative sources
☐ Original experience / data / quotes where possible
☐ Business credentials (for commercial pages)

### Engagement
☐ Scannable structure (bullets, tables, callouts)
☐ Internal links to 2–4 related pages
☐ Single clear CTA appropriate for the intent
☐ Images with descriptive alt text

### Technical (flag for developer if not in your control)
☐ Page loads quickly (LCP <2.5s)
☐ Mobile-friendly (tap targets, viewport, no horizontal scroll)
☐ No mixed content warnings (HTTPS throughout)
☐ Accessible heading hierarchy (H1 > H2 > H3, no skipping)
☐ Images have alt text

### Linking
☐ Linked from other relevant pages on your site (internal link from pillar / category pages)
☐ External backlinks (not under your control, but note outreach opportunity)

Common on-page mistakes

• Keyword stuffing — using the target keyword 20 times in 500 words. Google penalises this.
• Exact-match anchor text spam — internal links all saying "plumber brisbane" looks spammy
• Thin content — 200 words on a topic competitors covered in 2000. Doesn't rank.
• Duplicate / near-duplicate pages — two pages targeting the same keyword compete with each other
• Generic title tags — "Home" or "Services" — wasted real estate
• No H1 or multiple H1s — structural mistake
• Over-optimised meta descriptions — reads like SEO copy, not like a human inviting a click
• JavaScript-rendered content — Google can render it eventually, but the first pass sees blank HTML. Prefer SSR or pre-rendering for critical pages. (See thl-react-spa-seo-remediation if relevant.)
• No internal links in / out — orphan pages don't rank

Page-by-type advice

Blog post / article

• 800–2500 words typical
• Narrative, with clear "why you should read this" up front
• Author byline + date
• Related articles at the bottom
• Comments / discussion optional

Service / landing page

• 300–800 words usually
• Clear value proposition in first fold
• Scannable bullet points for benefits
• Social proof (testimonials, logos, reviews)
• Single clear CTA
• FAQ section with FAQPage structured data

Product page

• Short description + detailed spec
• Images + video
• Reviews + ratings (AggregateRating structured data if you own the reviews)
• Related products
• Clear buy/hire CTA
• Trust signals (delivery, returns, contact)

Comparison / "best of" page

• Clear methodology (how did you pick these)
• Fair comparison — don't just shill your own option
• Specific criteria (price, feature, use case)
• Your own experience or citation for each claim
• Final recommendation that names who each option is for

FAQ / support page

• FAQPage structured data
• One question = one section
• Short, direct answers
• Link to deeper articles for complex topics

AU-specific considerations

• Australian English — "organisation", "colour" — consistent throughout
• Currency in AUD where relevant
• Service-area specificity for local business pages (see au-local-seo-small-business)
• Compliance references (ATO, Fair Work, NDIS, ACCC) where relevant — these are trust signals for AU audiences

Workflow

Step 1 — Define target

• Primary keyword
• 2–3 secondary keywords
• Search intent
• Competitor pages currently ranking top-5 for this query

Step 2 — Draft or review

For new drafts, follow the checklist. For existing content, run through the checklist marking what's there and what's missing.

Step 3 — Prioritise fixes

Not all fixes are equal. Usually:

• High impact, low effort: title tag, meta description, H1, opening paragraph
• Medium impact: semantic coverage, internal links, structured data
• High impact, high effort: full rewrite, new sections, link-earning
• Often overrated: keyword density, LSI keywords (older SEO thinking), word count obsession

Step 4 — Ship + measure

Don't optimise, deploy, and forget. Track:

• Does the page rank better 60/90 days later?
• Does time-on-page improve?
• Does it drive the intended action (signup, call, purchase)?

Pair with ai-roi-measurement-for-sme — baseline → intervention → measurement → decision.

Output format

Per page:

1. Optimisation checklist — filled-in, with specific recommendations per item
2. Before / after title tag + meta description (showing the change)
3. Content additions — specific paragraphs / sections to add (or drafts if requested)
4. Internal link suggestions — 2–4 other pages on your site this should link to, with proposed anchor text
5. Structured data JSON-LD — ready to paste
6. Priority list — 3–5 things to do first, ordered by impact

What this skill does NOT do

• Get you backlinks. Link-earning is separate (content-first or outreach-first).
• Fix site-wide technical SEO. Use seo-audit or thl-react-spa-seo-remediation.
• Guarantee rankings. Rankings depend on algorithm state, domain authority, competition, etc.
• Validate JS-rendered schema. web_fetch can't see JS-injected JSON-LD. Use Google Rich Results Test.

Tier access

Base. Page-level optimisation is the most frequent SEO task. Pro-tier adds a quarterly page-performance review + recommendations.

Related skills

• seo-audit — broader site-wide diagnostic
• au-local-seo-small-business — local-specific signals
• thl-react-spa-seo-remediation (internal) — JS-rendering issues
• linkedin-content-creator + email-campaign-writer — content promotion channels
• ai-roi-measurement-for-sme — measure whether the optimisation worked

References

• Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines (2024 update)
• Google — Search Central docs
• Schema.org
• Core Web Vitals