site-crawlability

Original：🇺🇸 English
Translated

When the user wants to improve crawlability, fix orphan pages, or optimize site structure for search engines. Also use when the user mentions "crawlability," "crawl budget," "orphan pages," "internal links," "site structure," "site crawlability," "infinite scroll," "pagination," "masonry SEO," or "content not indexed."

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Sourcekostja94/marketing-skills
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NPX Install

npx skill4agent add kostja94/marketing-skills site-crawlability

Tags

Translated version includes tags in frontmatter
technical-seocrawlability-auditsite-structure-optimizationpagination-seoorphan-pages-fix

SKILL.md Content

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SEO Technical: Crawlability

Guides crawlability improvements: robots, X-Robots-Tag, site structure, and internal linking.
When invoking: On first use, if helpful, open with 1–2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On subsequent use or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output.

Scope (Technical SEO)

  • Redirect chains & loops: Fix multi-hop redirects; point directly to final URL
  • Broken links (4xx): Fix broken internal/external links; 301 or remove
  • Site architecture: Logical hierarchy; pages within 3–4 clicks from homepage
  • Orphan pages: Add internal links to pages with no incoming links
  • Pagination: Prefer pagination over infinite scroll for crawlability

Initial Assessment

Check for product marketing context first: If 
.claude/product-marketing-context.md
or 
.cursor/product-marketing-context.md
exists, read it for site structure.
Identify:
  1. Site structure: Flat vs. deep hierarchy
  2. Framework: Next.js, static, SPA, etc.
  3. Key paths: Sitemap, robots.txt, API, static assets

Best Practices

Redirect Chains & Loops

  • Fix multi-hop redirects; point directly to final URL
  • Loops: URLs redirecting back to themselves; break the cycle

Broken Links (4xx)

  • Fix broken internal/external links; 301 or remove
  • Audit regularly; update or remove broken links

Site Architecture

PrincipleGuideline
DepthImportant pages within 3–4 clicks from homepage
Orphan pagesAdd internal links to pages with no incoming links; see internal-links for link strategy
HierarchyLogical structure; hub pages link to content

Pagination vs Infinite Scroll

Problem: With infinite scroll, crawlers cannot emulate user behavior (scroll, click "Load more"); content loaded after initial page load is not discoverable. Same applies to masonry + infinite scroll, lazy-loaded lists, and similar patterns.
Solution: Prefer pagination for key content. If keeping infinite scroll, make it search-friendly per Google's recommendations:
RequirementPractice
Component pagesChunk content into paginated pages accessible without JavaScript
Full URLsEach page has unique URL (e.g. 
?page=1
, 
?lastid=567
); avoid 
#1
No overlapEach item listed once in series; no duplication across pages
Direct accessURL works in new tab; no cookie/history dependency
pushState/replaceStateUpdate URL as user scrolls; enables back/forward, shareable links
404 for out-of-bounds
?page=999
returns 404 when only 998 pages exist
Reference: Infinite scroll search-friendly recommendations (Google Search Central, 2014)

Pagination (Traditional)

  • Reference links to next/previous pages; 
    rel="prev"
    / 
    rel="next"
    where applicable
  • Avoid dynamic-only loading; ensure links in HTML

Common Issues

IssueCheck
Redirect chainsUpdate links to point directly to final URL
Broken links301 or remove; audit internal and external
Orphan pagesAdd internal links from hub or navigation; see internal-links for strategy
Infinite scrollProvide paginated component pages; or replace with pagination for key content; see above

Output Format

  • Redirect audit: Chains and loops to fix
  • Broken link audit: 4xx links to fix
  • Site structure: Orphan pages, hierarchy
  • Pagination: Implementation for crawlable content

Related Skills

  • seo-strategy: SEO workflow; crawlability is Technical phase (P0)
  • website-structure: Plan which pages to build, page priority, structure planning; use before or alongside crawlability audit
  • robots-txt: robots.txt configuration
  • xml-sitemap: URL discovery
  • google-search-console: Index status, Coverage report
  • indexing: Fix indexing issues
  • internal-links: Internal linking best practices
  • masonry: Masonry + infinite scroll has same crawl issue; layout skill references this for SEO