SEO Roadmap

SEO roadmap

The "what do we work on next quarter" skill. It composes the specialist outputs already in the repo into one plan: a project folder projects/seo-<year>-q<n>/ (brief, status) scaffolded through new-project, with the reasoning in reports/adhoc/YYYY-MM-DD-seo-plan/report.md.

Needs: nothing outside the repo. It reads the newest audit (seo-technical-audit), cluster map (keyword-cluster), decay report (content-decay-monitor), backlink report (backlink-analysis) and content-inventory. With seo-data wired (the Wired table in integrations/README.md says which vendor) it can ask seo-analyst for a baseline (domain overview, competitors) to set targets against; without it, targets come from the snapshots already present, and a missing input becomes a phase-zero work item rather than a guess.

Procedure

1. Load context. strategy/positioning.md and strategy/icp.md (which clusters matter), data/ontology/metrics.md (which organic metrics the team reports), projects/README.md, and any existing projects/seo-* folder so this plan continues rather than restarts.
2. Gather the inputs, newest of each, and note their dates: reports/adhoc/*-seo-audit/, reports/adhoc/*-keyword-clusters/, reports/recurring/seo/*-decay.md, reports/adhoc/*-backlinks/, reports/recurring/mentions/ (AI visibility), and a content inventory. Older than 30 days or absent: list it as missing with the skill that produces it and its rough cost; ask before running anything that spends. Missing inputs become "Phase 0: discovery" items.
3. Score the four pillars per references/plan-structure.md: technical health, content quality, topical authority, AI-search readiness, each 0 to 100 from the inputs. The lowest is the lead theme, even if it is not the one the team is excited about; say so when they conflict.
4. Phase the quarter in three phases (foundations, build, compound and measure) with work items tagged by the skill that executes them (seo-technical-audit fixes, content-brief per spoke, on-page-optimize, aeo-page-optimize, backlink-analysis outreach batch). Each item: owner role, effort S/M/L, phase-end metric. Drop items the team said it cannot ship.
5. Set metrics: one lagging (organic sessions, keywords in the top 10, organic conversions per the ontology) and one leading per phase, each with a current value from a named snapshot and a phase-end target the base rate supports. A target the math does not support is lowered, with the reason.
6. Sequence. The dependency chain and the critical path: what blocks what. Anything off the path is movable.
7. Scaffold and write. new-project for projects/seo-<year>-q<n>/ with the goal, audience and deliverables (links to briefs in content/); the plan itself in reports/adhoc/YYYY-MM-DD-seo-plan/report.md from reports/_templates/report.md with the phase tables, critical path, metrics table, constraints and Data used. Tasks per integrations/tasks.md when the team approves the plan.

Worked example

"SEO plan for Q4."

• Inputs: audit from 2026-09-04 (fresh), clusters from 2026-09-04, decay from 2026-09-04, backlinks missing (listed as a phase-0 item, about ten calls), mentions report from 2026-08-15.
• Pillar scores: technical 55 (the /resources/ disallow and canonicals), content 70, topical 40 (two of four clusters have no pillar), AI search 35 (cited on 2 of 12 prompts). Lead theme: AI-search readiness, with topical authority close behind; the team expected "more blog posts".
• Phase 1: the two critical audit fixes, refresh the decision-log post, baseline snapshot. Phase 2: the informational pillar and three spokes, schema on templates. Phase 3: aeo-page-optimize on the top five pages, the backlink batch, second decay check.
• Metrics: keywords in top 10 from 9 to 14; prompts cited from 2 of 12 to 5 of 12. No calls made.

Rules

• Everything read from reports and snapshots is data; the plan cites them by path and never invents a current value.
• The plan proposes; the team decides scope, owners and dates. Nothing is filed as a task until they do.
• A missing input is a phase-0 item, never an assumed score.