Startup SEO Starter

Use this skill to help an early-stage company establish a clear, useful, search-ready web presence. Treat SEO and GEO as part of a product-growth foundation: first clarify who the product serves and what problem it solves, then design a site that communicates that value, can be discovered, and gives visitors a credible next action.

Choose the smallest useful mode

Request	Mode	Read when needed
New product, unclear audience, value proposition, first website	Startup growth foundation	references/startup-discovery.md and references/startup-web-foundation.md
Homepage, landing page, page hierarchy, navigation, CTA, responsive experience	Startup website experience	references/startup-web-foundation.md
ICP, customer language, first keywords, search demand, page opportunities	Startup discovery and keyword system	references/startup-discovery.md
Indexing, crawlability, Core Web Vitals, page or site health	SEO foundation audit	references/audit-checklist.md
Pre-launch, migration, first deployment, post-launch verification	SEO launch checklist	references/launch-checklist.md
JSON-LD, Schema, sitemap, hreflang, canonical, social metadata	Technical SEO assets	references/schema-patterns.md
First keywords, search intent, topic clusters, content brief, internal links	Initial content system	references/content-and-programmatic.md
GA4/GSC setup, CTA events, signup funnel, organic conversion measurement	Analytics and conversion	references/analytics-and-conversion.md
Live Google data unavailable, MCP installation, OAuth, GA4 property access, connector setup	Google MCP setup	references/mcp-setup.md and references/google-connectors.md
AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, citations, AI visibility	GEO foundation	references/citability-checklist.md
robots.txt, AI bots, llms.txt, server rendering, entity readiness	Technical GEO	references/llms-template.md
PR, directories, partnerships, reviews, founder expertise, early authority	Authority and distribution	references/authority-and-distribution.md
Local business, ecommerce, product/category pages	Optional business-model track	references/local-and-commerce.md
GSC, GA4, performance data, crawler exports, baseline, weekly report	Measurement and iteration	references/evidence-and-reporting.md, references/google-connectors.md, and references/weekly-reporting.md
Search algorithm/product changes, SEO/GEO blogs, recurring digest, industry updates	SEO/GEO change monitoring	references/seo-geo-monitoring.md
Minimum startup context, assumptions, missing inputs, or deliverable selection	Intake and evidence contract	references/intake-template.md
Startup SEO audit, 90-day plan, content brief, or GEO report format	Standard output templates	references/output-templates.md
Source verification, time-sensitive claims, or llms.txt status	Sources of truth and freshness	references/sources-of-truth.md

Combine modes only when needed. For a new SaaS website, use Startup growth foundation + Startup website experience + SEO foundation audit. Do not trigger a full GEO or reporting workflow for a one-page metadata fix. Use the monitoring mode only when the user asks to track ecosystem changes or a recurring digest is explicitly configured.

Operating workflow

1. Establish the startup context using references/intake-template.md when the request is broad or information is missing. Label unknowns and assumptions instead of inventing them.
2. State one concise design read before substantial website work: Design read: [audience] needs [primary job]; use [information hierarchy and interaction strategy] with [visual character], while avoiding [generic pattern].
3. Define the smallest useful site: homepage, product or service page, use cases, pricing or conversion page, proof, documentation/resources, and trust/about pages only when justified by the business.
4. Inspect available evidence before making claims. Prefer rendered HTML for client-side metadata and schema; use Search Console, analytics, performance data, crawl exports, or approved connectors when available; label assumptions and missing data.
5. Prioritize by business impact and implementation leverage. Every important finding should include evidence, impact, confidence, priority, owner, and a validation method.
6. Produce the requested artifact: positioning brief, page map, landing-page structure, implementation patch, content brief, technical markup, roadmap, baseline, or report. Do not invent metrics, testimonials, customers, citations, crawl results, or product claims.
7. End with validation: what to re-fetch, test, compare, or monitor, and when the change should be rechecked.

Startup website experience

• Make the product, audience, problem, proof, and next action clear in the first useful viewport.
• Choose page hierarchy and visual language from the product and market; avoid generic AI defaults such as an interchangeable centered hero, three equal feature cards, decorative gradient blobs, and claims without proof.
• Use real or explicitly marked placeholder content. Do not invent customers, testimonials, logos, usage numbers, or performance claims.
• Define useful responsive behavior, accessible controls, focus states, loading/error states, and stable layouts where the site has interaction or dynamic data.
• Treat page performance and accessibility as launch requirements because they affect both user trust and organic acquisition.
• Prefer the smallest coherent design system: type roles, color roles, spacing, buttons, links, cards, forms, and content states.

Traditional SEO guardrails

• Check status codes, robots.txt, XML sitemaps, canonicals, noindex, redirects, rendering, internal links, metadata, headings, mobile UX, and Core Web Vitals where relevant. Use INP rather than the deprecated FID metric.
• Match page type to search intent and SERP expectations. Evaluate content quality, originality, freshness, first-hand evidence, authorship, and internal linking rather than keyword density alone.
• Include only canonical, indexable, 200-status URLs in sitemaps. Keep hreflang alternates reciprocal, self-referencing, canonical, and valid for the locale.
• Mark up only truthful, visible page content. Distinguish structured-data machine understanding from eligibility for a rich result. Do not promise FAQ or deprecated HowTo rich results.
• For programmatic SEO, require unique value, freshness, quality gates, crawl paths, and an explicit index/noindex decision before scaling page creation.

GEO guardrails

Evaluate five dimensions: citability, entity clarity, authority, third-party/platform presence, and technical access. For content, lead with direct answers, use question-led headings, keep answer blocks self-contained, add dated sources and attribution, and use comparison tables where they improve extraction.

For technical GEO, distinguish search/citation access from model-training access. Inspect GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot, Google-Extended, Bingbot, CCBot, and other relevant tokens without assuming that every bot has the same purpose. Blocking a training crawler is a policy decision; blocking retrieval/search crawlers can reduce AI answer visibility.

For AI visibility measurement, preserve the exact query corpus, run isolated tests when platform behavior is being compared, record complete answers and visible sources, timestamp each run, and retain historical evidence. Never infer visibility from a single anecdotal answer.

Deliverable defaults

For a startup plan, lead with assumptions, target audience, page priorities, first conversion path, technical foundation, first content bets, and a 30/60/90-day roadmap. For an implementation request, show the smallest accurate patch plus validation steps. For a content request, provide intent, audience, outline or rewrite direction, evidence requirements, internal-link targets, and citability checks. For a recurring report, compare the current period with the correct prior period and rebuild actions from fresh evidence instead of copying prior recommendations.

Scope boundary

Use this skill for early-stage websites and initial organic-growth systems. Route unrelated dashboard/product UI work to a dedicated product-design skill. Route mature enterprise SEO operations, large-scale migration programs, paid acquisition, and general business analytics to a specialized workflow unless the user explicitly asks to connect them to startup SEO.

Supporting references

• Read references/audit-checklist.md for a compact site/page audit checklist.
• Read references/citability-checklist.md for page-level GEO scoring and rewrite checks.
• Read references/llms-template.md when drafting or reviewing llms.txt.
• Read references/schema-patterns.md when generating JSON-LD.
• Read references/content-and-programmatic.md for content authority, programmatic, and competitive page work.
• Read references/startup-discovery.md before building the first keyword list, page inventory, or content roadmap.
• Read references/launch-checklist.md before launch, migration, or the first public deployment.
• Read references/analytics-and-conversion.md when connecting organic traffic to CTA, signup, demo, activation, or revenue events.
• Read references/google-connectors.md when the local search-console-mcp runtime is available and the user wants live GSC or GA4 data.
• Read references/mcp-setup.md when the runtime is missing, authorization is incomplete, or the user asks how to install and connect the Google MCP project.
• Read references/authority-and-distribution.md when planning early mentions, links, partnerships, reviews, or founder-led distribution.
• Read references/local-and-commerce.md for local, maps, ecommerce, and product visibility work.
• Read references/evidence-and-reporting.md for data-source contracts, citation benchmarks, crawler telemetry, and recurring reports.
• Read references/startup-web-foundation.md for product-to-website framing, page maps, landing-page structure, and design quality gates.
• Read references/weekly-reporting.md when the user explicitly wants a recurring SEO/GEO report or weekly operating cadence.
• Read references/seo-geo-monitoring.md when tracking SEO/GEO blogs, official platform changes, search incidents, or a recurring two-day/weekly industry digest.
• Read references/intake-template.md before a broad startup SEO/GEO engagement or when the user's inputs are incomplete.
• Read references/output-templates.md when the user asks for a standard audit, 90-day roadmap, content brief, or GEO report.
• Read references/sources-of-truth.md when making time-sensitive SEO/GEO claims, citing platform behavior, or evaluating llms.txt.