seo-google-rules

13. Monitoring & Testing

SEO Checklist for Every Page

• Unique title tag (50-60 characters)
• Meta description (150-160 characters)
• One H1 tag with target keyword
• Proper heading hierarchy (H1 → H2 → H3)
• Alt text for all images
• [ ]# SEO-Optimized Cursor Rules for Next.js Business Website

Project Context

You are developing a SEO-optimized business website using Next.js 15+, React 19, Tailwind CSS, and MongoDB. Follow Google's SEO Starter Guide principles strictly. Prioritize technical SEO and mobile-first development. This project uses the App Router architecture.

Core SEO Principles

1. Technical SEO Foundation

• Always use semantic HTML5 elements (<header>, <nav>, <main>, <article>, <section>, <aside>, <footer>)
• Implement proper heading hierarchy - Only one <h1> per page, followed by <h2>, <h3> in logical order
• Generate XML sitemaps automatically using next-sitemap package
• Create robots.txt with proper directives
• Implement canonical URLs to prevent duplicate content issues
• Use Server-Side Rendering (SSR) or Static Site Generation (SSG) for all public pages

2. Next.js SEO Implementation

Metadata API Usage (Next.js 15)

// Always use Next.js 15 Metadata API for SEO
import type { Metadata } from 'next';

export const metadata: Metadata = {
  title: 'Page Title - Business Name',
  description: 'Compelling description under 160 characters that includes target keywords naturally',
  keywords: ['relevant', 'keywords', 'for', 'SEO'],
  authors: [{ name: 'Author Name' }],
  creator: 'Business Name',
  publisher: 'Business Name',
  formatDetection: {
    email: false,
    address: false,
    telephone: false,
  },
  metadataBase: new URL('https://yourdomain.com'),
  openGraph: {
    title: 'Page Title - Business Name',
    description: 'Compelling description for social sharing',
    url: 'https://yourdomain.com/current-page',
    siteName: 'Business Name',
    images: [
      {
        url: '/og-image.jpg',
        width: 1200,
        height: 630,
        alt: 'Descriptive alt text for OG image',
      }
    ],
    locale: 'en_US',
    type: 'website',
  },
  twitter: {
    card: 'summary_large_image',
    title: 'Page Title - Business Name',
    description: 'Compelling description for Twitter',
    creator: '@yourtwitterhandle',
    images: ['/twitter-image.jpg'],
  },
  alternates: {
    canonical: 'https://yourdomain.com/current-page',
    languages: {
      'en-US': 'https://yourdomain.com/en-US',
      'es-ES': 'https://yourdomain.com/es-ES',
    },
  },
  robots: {
    index: true,
    follow: true,
    nocache: true,
    googleBot: {
      index: true,
      follow: true,
      'max-video-preview': -1,
      'max-image-preview': 'large',
      'max-snippet': -1,
    },
  },
  verification: {
    google: 'google-site-verification-code',
    yandex: 'yandex-verification-code',
    yahoo: 'yahoo-verification-code',
  },
};