Next.js SEO
Start from the page's task, production response and observed search behavior.
Read the installed Next.js version and relevant node_modules/next/dist/docs/
pages (bundled from 16.2); otherwise use matching official documentation.
Metadata, Viewport and MetadataRoute types are also in
node_modules/next/dist/lib/metadata/types/metadata-interface.d.ts. Keep
framework APIs, caching mode and deployment policy consistent with the project.
Useful, distinct content matters more than a longer page. Give titles, headings and descriptions separate jobs; add a FAQ, summary, badges or extra pages only when they help the reader. Publication dates must reflect meaningful changes. Verify authorship, credentials and factual claims.
Implementation and audit scope
- Verify public URLs, redirects, status codes, crawl rules, index directives and canonicals before adding markup. A sitemap supports discovery; it does not make a page indexable or guarantee indexing.
- Keep important public content available in the served HTML when practical.
A Client Component can be server-prerendered;
use clientalone does not remove content from HTML. - Use the App Router Metadata API and file conventions. Resolve relative
metadata URLs with the correct production
metadataBaseand verify emitted absolute URLs. Do not rely on missing-base behavior across versions/hosts. - Configure refresh/invalidation for data-backed pages, metadata and sitemaps.
A database query alone does not guarantee publication updates reach them.
Use
cache-componentswhen enabled; caching is a freshness decision rather than a required SEO directive. - Structured data must describe real visible content and a supported consumer. Check current rich-result eligibility instead of adding every schema type.
- Preserve the owner's crawler policy. Training, search and user-triggered retrieval have different controls; robots rules are not access control.
Read for the affected area
- Metadata [blocked]: inheritance, social images, icons and streaming.
- Sitemaps/robots [blocked]: discovery, localization and preview policy.
- Structured data [blocked]: current eligibility and safe serialization.
- AI search [blocked]: crawler purposes, policy and evidence.
- Audit checklist [blocked]: scoped production and Search Console checks.
- Troubleshooting [blocked]: indexing, HTML and hydration diagnosis.
Separate evidence in the report: a performance export shows queries/traffic; URL Inspection and indexing reports address crawl/index/canonical status; field measurements address Core Web Vitals. Lighthouse is a lab diagnostic and cannot establish field INP. Good field thresholds at the 75th percentile are LCP ≤ 2.5 s, INP ≤ 200 ms and CLS ≤ 0.1.
Verify status, headers and complete production HTML, including relevant bot responses, then open the route directly and test its interaction. A spoofed User-Agent tests response handling, not actual verified bot access. Report unavailable checks explicitly and avoid ranking, indexing or citation promises.
