SEO Agent Readiness

seo-agent-readiness (M22 — Agent-readiness)

Google's Optimizing your website for generative AI features guide points to "agent-friendly website best practices" (web.dev Build agent-friendly websites): agents drive a page through its accessibility tree, so unnamed, non-semantic, or script-only controls are invisible to them. This module checks the statically checkable subset and names the rest. Alt text is M9, anchor-text quality is M10, rendering is M4 — reference them, never re-emit them.

Inputs

Work from the PageSnapshot named in your dispatch envelope: read parsed (anchors[], forms, iframes, scripts[], landmarks) from <run_dir>/pages/<slug>.json, preferring parsed_rendered when render.used is not none; Grep pages/<slug>.html (or .rendered.html) for the offending elements as verbatim evidence. Deterministic findings already emitted by audit.mjs are listed in <run_dir>/findings.deterministic.json — do not re-emit those ids; add model-judged findings only. If invoked directly with a URL/path and no snapshot exists, first run node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/snapshot.mjs" <target> --out "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/runs" and use the printed snapshot path.

Audits

1. Semantic controls — interactive behavior on div/span (onclick, role="button", tabindex + handler) instead of <button> / <a href>; count against total controls.
2. Named buttons — <button>, role="button", input[type=button|submit] with no text content, aria-label, aria-labelledby, title, or value.
3. Named links — <a href> whose accessible name is empty (icon-only, image without alt inside). Generic-vs-descriptive anchor wording stays in M10.
4. Labeled form controls — input/select/textarea without <label for>, a wrapping <label>, aria-label, or aria-labelledby (a placeholder alone does not count).
5. href="javascript:" (and href="#" carrying handlers) — navigation that only works through script.
6. Primary content in an iframe — the main article/product content lives inside <iframe>; agents and crawlers see only the shell.
7. WebMCP — navigator.modelContext in inline/linked scripts: report presence as informational. It is a W3C Community Group draft (2026-04-23) in a Chrome origin trial — never a recommendation.
8. Not checkable statically — cursor: pointer, target size (web.dev's > 8px² guidance), ghost overlays / off-screen click blockers. List them explicitly as not_checkable_static; Tier 1 covers them through Lighthouse's "Agentic browsing" category (M150+).

Fixes

• PROPOSED (fixable: proposed): swap a div[onclick] for <button type="button">, add aria-label/visible text to an unnamed control, add <label for> to a form control, replace href="javascript:" with a real URL or a <button> — per-item diffs because they touch templates and event wiring.
• ADVISORY (fixable: advisory): moving primary content out of an iframe, framework component changes, overlay/target-size work, WebMCP adoption.
• Never fabricate labels or link text the surrounding content does not support — leave a clearly-marked TODO placeholder or ask.

Verification

• node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/agent-readiness.mjs" --snapshot <pages/<slug>.json> — counts per check with the offending elements (method dom_assert).
• Tier 1, consent-gated (ask first — it downloads and launches a browser): npx lighthouse <url> --output=json --output-path <run_dir>/lighthouse.json and read the agentic-browsing category (category id TO-VERIFY against the installed Lighthouse version). Run only when the user agrees and Chrome is available; otherwise M22.lighthouse.agentic_browsing stays needs_api.
• When the page is client-rendered and not rendered (render.needed && render.used === "none"), control checks run on the shell only: state that limit and keep needs_api where the shell is empty.

Findings

Conform to schema/finding.schema.json; axis ai; confidence directional for every id; severity ≤3. Severity policy: 5 is reserved for catastrophic, eligibility-killing facts at site/template scope; 4 major · 3 moderate · 2 minor · 1 cosmetic · 0 informational — and only an established severity-5 fail in an active category can cap a score (references/scoring-model.md). Nothing in M22 is established, so nothing here ever caps. evidence.observed quotes the element(s) verbatim (selector + outer tag), verification.reproduce is the command above, expected_impact is banded (no naked %).

• M22.controls.non_semantic_interactive — div/span click handlers act as controls (warn 3; fail 3 when they are the majority of controls or gate the primary action; fixable: proposed).
• M22.controls.button_without_name (warn 2, fixable: proposed) · M22.links.empty_name (warn 2, fixable: proposed) · M22.links.href_javascript (warn 2, fixable: proposed).
• M22.forms.unlabeled_controls (warn 3, fixable: proposed) · M22.content.iframe_primary (warn 2, fixable: advisory).
• M22.lighthouse.agentic_browsing (severity 3; needs_api unless the consent-gated run happened, then pass/warn/fail from its score).
• M22.static.not_checkable (not_applicable, severity 0 — lists the cursor/target-size/overlay items and the Tier 1 path) · M22.semantics.ok (pass 3 — controls, names, and labels all clean).
• M22.webmcp.present (pass, severity 0, informational — presence only).

Honesty

• Agent-readiness is directional: Google recommends agent-friendly practices; no vendor documents a ranking or citation effect. Never established, never severity 4–5, never a score cap.
• These are largely accessibility fundamentals (name / role / value) with a new consumer; frame fixes as removing a barrier for assistive tech and agents alike, not as "AI SEO".
• Lighthouse's agentic category is lab tooling; a green score does not prove an agent completed a task on the page. WebMCP is an origin-trial draft — report presence, recommend nothing.