Nuxt SEO Audit

Nuxt SEO Audit

Full SEO audit for a Nuxt site. Check live responses, not just source code — what Google sees is what matters.

When to Use

• Setting up SEO for a new Nuxt site
• After adding i18n / multiple languages
• After switching rendering mode (SSR / static / hybrid)
• When Google Search Console reports issues
• Before submitting site to search engines

Audit Checklist

Run each check against the live deployed site using curl.

1. Page Titles

# Check every page type
for url in "/" "/about" "/blog" "/projects" "/cv"; do
  title=$(curl -sL "https://example.com${url}" | grep -oP '(?<=<title>).*(?=</title>)')
  echo "$url — $title"
done

What to check:

• Every page has a unique <title>
• titleTemplate set in nuxt.config.ts (e.g., %s · Site Name)
• Homepage overrides template (no "undefined · Site Name")
• Titles include target keywords (location, tech stack, role)
• SEO titles can differ from display titles — Google gets keywords, social gets voice

2. Meta Descriptions

curl -sL "https://example.com/about" | grep -oP '(?<=name="description" content=")[^"]*'

What to check:

• Every page has useSeoMeta({ description })
• Descriptions are 150-160 characters
• Include target keywords naturally
• Different per page (no duplicates)
• Localized — use t('seo.pageDesc') not hardcoded English
• Check each locale: /de/about, /ru/blog, etc.

3. Open Graph Tags

curl -sL "https://example.com/about" | grep -oE '<meta property="og:[^"]*" content="[^"]*"'

What to check:

• og:title — can differ from <title> (voice-first for social sharing)
• og:description — short, punchy version
• og:image — set on every page (avatar for static, hero for blog posts)
• twitter:card — summary for static pages, summary_large_image for posts with images

4. Structured Data (JSON-LD)

curl -sL "https://example.com/" | grep -oP '(?<=<script type="application/ld\+json">).*?(?=</script>)' | python3 -m json.tool

Required schema per page type:

Nuxt implementation: Use useSchemaOrg() with defineArticle, definePerson, defineBreadcrumb, defineSoftwareApp, defineWebSite, defineWebPage from nuxt-schema-org.

Validate at: Google Rich Results Test (search.google.com/test/rich-results)

5. Sitemap

curl -sL "https://example.com/sitemap_index.xml" | head -30
curl -sL "https://example.com/__sitemap__/en.xml" | grep -c "<url>"

What to check:

• Sitemap exists and is linked from robots.txt
• Includes ALL pages (blog posts, project pages, not just static routes)
• Per-locale sitemaps with hreflang alternates
• If content pages are missing, add a server API route:

// server/api/__sitemap__/urls.ts
import { serverQueryContent } from "#content/server";
import { defineSitemapEventHandler, asSitemapUrl } from "#imports";

export default defineSitemapEventHandler(async (e) => {
  const content = await serverQueryContent(e).find();
  return content
    .filter((c) => c._path && !c._path.startsWith("/data/"))
    .map((c) => asSitemapUrl({ loc: c._path, lastmod: c.date }));
});

6. Robots.txt

curl -sL "https://example.com/robots.txt"

What to check:

• Not blocking important pages
• AI crawlers — check for Disallow on ClaudeBot, GPTBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended. If blocked, content is invisible to AI search (Perplexity, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews)
• Cloudflare may inject AI crawler blocks automatically — check Cloudflare dashboard
• Sitemap URL is referenced

7. Hreflang and Canonical

for url in "/" "/about" "/de/about" "/blog"; do
  echo "=== $url ==="
  curl -sL "https://example.com${url}" | grep -oE '<link[^>]*(canonical|hreflang)[^>]*>'
  echo
done

What to check:

• Every page has <link rel="canonical">
• Canonical URL matches the actual served URL (no trailing slash mismatch)
• Every page has hreflang alternates for all languages + x-default
• Alternates point to correct locale-specific URLs
• No redirect loops (canonical → 301 → different URL → canonical)

Nuxt i18n setup:

• Set baseUrl in i18n config (required for hreflang generation)
• Add language property to each locale definition
• If useLocaleHead doesn't work in app.vue during SSR, generate links manually based on route.path

8. Prerendering

for url in "/" "/about" "/blog"; do
  cache=$(curl -sI "https://example.com${url}" | grep -i "cache-control" | head -1)
  code=$(curl -sI "https://example.com${url}" | head -1 | awk '{print $2}')
  echo "$code  $url  —  $cache"
done

What to check:

• Static content sites should be prerendered, not SSR
• nuxt generate (not nuxt build) for full static
• nitro.preset: "static" to prevent hosting platform SSR override
• cache-control: public indicates static file serving
• No cache-control or SSR-style headers means server-rendered

Nuxt config for static:

nitro: {
  preset: "static",
  prerender: {
    crawlLinks: true,
    routes: ["/", "/about", "/blog", "/projects"],
    failOnError: false,
  },
}

9. Trailing Slash Consistency

curl -sI "https://example.com/about" | grep -i "HTTP\|location"

What to check:

• No 301 redirects adding/removing trailing slashes
• If redirects exist, canonical must match the final URL (not the pre-redirect URL)
• Netlify: set pretty_urls = false in netlify.toml to prevent trailing slash redirects
• Check _redirects file for legacy rules that conflict with current pages

10. Legacy Redirects

cat public/_redirects

What to check:

• No redirects that conflict with actual pages (e.g., /about / when /about is a real page)
• Old slug redirects still point to valid destinations
• No redirect chains (A → B → C)

Report Format

## SEO Audit: [site URL]

| Check | Status | Issues |
|---|---|---|
| Page titles | Pass/Fail | ... |
| Meta descriptions | Pass/Fail | ... |
| OG tags | Pass/Fail | ... |
| Structured data | Pass/Fail | ... |
| Sitemap | Pass/Fail | ... |
| Robots.txt | Pass/Fail | ... |
| Hreflang/canonical | Pass/Fail | ... |
| Prerendering | Pass/Fail | ... |
| Trailing slashes | Pass/Fail | ... |
| Legacy redirects | Pass/Fail | ... |

### Issues Found
...

### Fixes Applied
...

Common Mistakes

• Hardcoding meta descriptions in English instead of using i18n t() keys
• Missing baseUrl in i18n config — hreflang tags won't generate without it
• useLocaleHead in app.vue not reactive to route during SSR — may need manual link generation
• Netlify auto-detecting Nuxt and deploying as SSR even with nuxt generate
• Cloudflare injecting AI crawler blocks without your knowledge
• _redirects containing legacy rules that 301 away from real pages
• Prerender failOnError: true (default) failing build on broken internal links