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seo-traffic-diagnosis

Diagnose organic traffic changes (drops, stalls, or unexpected wins) using Ahrefs MCP plus Search Console data. Use this skill when traffic suddenly dropped, has been flat despite investment, after an algorithm update, after a migration or deploy, or when a competitor seems to be taking share. Triggers on traffic dropped, traffic decline, traffic stalled, organic decline, lost rankings, why is traffic down, algorithm update, post-migration traffic loss, traffic diagnosis. Also triggers when stakeholders are panicking about an organic traffic number they cannot explain. A panic about tracking, event, or dashboard setup is a measurement problem, not a traffic problem: route those to `analytics-strategy`.

Quality

86%

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SecuritybySnyk

Passed

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SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

78%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

A well-organized diagnostic skill: layer-based framework, concrete pattern-to-cause tables, explicit validation checkpoints, and a properly disclosed one-level-deep reference checklist. The main gaps are the missing example tool invocations (which Ahrefs MCP / Search Console call to make for each pull) and an explicit loop-back instruction when the root-cause hypothesis is refuted.

Suggestions

Add one example invocation per layer (or in the checklist reference), e.g., the specific Ahrefs MCP tool name and a sample Search Console query/filter for the Layer 3 position-history pull, to lift actionability to fully executable.

Make the refutation loop explicit in the Workflow: state what to do when step 8's hypothesis is refuted (e.g., 'return to the deepest layer that produced the hypothesis and re-segment with the next pattern from the Layer 2 table').

Trim the few near-tautological lines (e.g., 'A change in one segment requires different diagnosis than a change everywhere') and let the Workflow reference layers by what to do rather than restating their titles.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The body is dense with domain-specific diagnostic knowledge Claude does not already have (segmentation patterns, pattern-to-cause table, failure modes like 'premature reassurance'), with almost no padding or explanation of known concepts. It is not 5 because of minor trim opportunities, e.g. 'A change in one segment requires different diagnosis than a change everywhere' and the Workflow section restating the layer names already detailed above; not 3 because those instances are minor and every major section earns its tokens.

4 / 5

Actionability

As an instruction-only skill the absence of code is not penalized, and the guidance is concrete: exact segments to pull (country, device, branded vs non-branded), a pattern-to-likely-cause lookup table, specific technical checks (robots.txt, canonical tags, accidental noindex, hreflang, redirect chains), and a referenced per-layer checklist of pulls and checks. It is not 5 because the body (and checklist) name data sources but never show an example invocation — e.g., which Ahrefs MCP tool call or Search Console filter to use for a given pull; not 3 because the guidance is directly executable at the checklist level with only minor gaps.

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

The 10-step Workflow is clearly sequenced and mapped to the five layers, with explicit validation checkpoints ('Validate the data. Layer 1 checks. Rule out tracking and seasonality' and 'Validate the hypothesis. Find the evidence that confirms or refutes it') plus a Failure patterns section that serves as error-recovery guidance. It is not 5 because the refutation path is implicit — step 8 says the hypothesis may be refuted but never states where to loop back to (which layer to revisit); not 3 because this is a read-only diagnostic skill with no destructive/batch operations and multiple checkpoints are present.

4 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

The body is an overview/framework and the per-layer operational detail (specific data pulls and per-signal interpretation) is appropriately delegated to references/diagnosis-checklist.md, which exists, is one level deep, and is clearly signaled twice (Workflow step 8 with link, and a dedicated Reference files section with a one-line description). It is not 4 because the split is clean and navigation is easy — no content that clearly belongs in the reference is inlined, and there is no nesting beyond one level.

5 / 5

Total

17

/

20

Passed

Description

90%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

A strong description: third-person, explicit what-and-when structure, comprehensive natural trigger phrases, and an explicit routing boundary to a sibling skill. The only relative weakness is specificity — beyond "diagnose" and the named data sources, few concrete deliverable actions are stated.

Suggestions

List 2-3 more concrete actions in the description (e.g., 'produces a root-cause hypothesis, prioritized action plan, and recovery forecast') to lift specificity from domain-plus-one-action toward comprehensive coverage.

Consider trimming the near-duplicate trigger enumeration ('Use this skill when...' vs 'Triggers on...') by merging the two lists, since several scenario phrases repeat keywords already covered by the trigger list.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

"Diagnose organic traffic changes (drops, stalls, or unexpected wins) using Ahrefs MCP plus Search Console data" names the domain and the core action plus its three variants, but no further concrete actions (e.g., root-cause analysis, action plan, recovery forecast) appear in the description itself. This matches anchor 3 (domain plus 1-2 concrete actions); it is not 4 because several specific actions are not listed, and not 2 because the actions given are concrete rather than generic.

3 / 5

Completeness

Both halves are explicit: the what is "Diagnose organic traffic changes ... using Ahrefs MCP plus Search Console data" and the when is "Use this skill when traffic suddenly dropped, has been flat despite investment, after an algorithm update, after a migration or deploy, or when a competitor seems to be taking share" followed by concrete trigger phrases. This is the anchor-5 pattern; a 4 would require the when to be less explicit than this.

5 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

"Triggers on traffic dropped, traffic decline, traffic stalled, organic decline, lost rankings, why is traffic down, algorithm update, post-migration traffic loss, traffic diagnosis" plus "when a competitor seems to be taking share" and the stakeholder-panic framing provides comprehensive, natural coverage with synonyms (dropped/decline/stalled/down) and the question users actually ask ("why is traffic down"). It is not 4 because no meaningful natural variants of the symptom are missing for this domain.

5 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The description carves out a clear niche (organic traffic diagnosis) and actively reduces conflict risk with "A panic about tracking, event, or dashboard setup is a measurement problem, not a traffic problem: route those to `analytics-strategy`". It is not 4 because the routing boundary makes overlap with adjacent analytics skills minimal, not just minor.

5 / 5

Total

18

/

20

Passed

Validation

93%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation — 15 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

frontmatter_unknown_keys

Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata

Warning

Total

15

/

16

Passed

Repository

rampstackco/claude-skills

Path

skills/seo-traffic-diagnosis/SKILL.md

Reviewed

Table of Contents

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