page-metadata

SEO On-Page: Metadata (Other Meta Tags)

Guides optimization of meta tags beyond title, description, Open Graph, and Twitter Cards. Covers hreflang, robots, viewport, charset, and metadata completeness.

When invoking: On first use, if helpful, open with 1–2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On subsequent use or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output.

Scope (On-Page SEO)

• Hreflang: Language/region targeting for multilingual sites
• Meta robots: index/noindex, follow/nofollow (page-level)
• Viewport: Mobile responsiveness
• Charset: Character encoding
• Metadata completeness: All pages have title + meta description (see title-tag, meta-description)

Initial Assessment

Check for project context first: If .claude/project-context.md or .cursor/project-context.md exists, read it for language/locale and indexing goals.

Identify:

1. Multi-language: zh, en, x-default if applicable
2. Indexing: Full index, noindex for specific pages
3. Tech stack: Next.js, HTML, etc.

hreflang (Multi-language)

Three non-negotiables: (1) Self-referencing tags (each page links to itself), (2) Symmetric annotations (every version lists ALL others), (3) Valid ISO 639-1 or language-region codes (en, en-US, zh-CN).

Implementation methods: HTML <link> in head, XML sitemap (xhtml:link), or HTTP headers. For SPAs/JS-rendered pages, use sitemap-based hreflang as backup. See rendering-strategies for SSR/SSG/CSR.

Canonical alignment: Canonical URL must match the same regional version hreflang refers to. Misalignment causes Google to ignore hreflang.

x-default: Fallback for users whose language/location doesn't match any version. Point to default locale or language-selector page.

Next.js (App Router)

export const metadata = {
  alternates: {
    languages: {
      'en-US': '/en/page',
      'zh-CN': '/zh/page',
      'x-default': '/en/page',
    },
  },
};