Content quality and E-E-A-T analysis with AI citation readiness assessment, plus last-mile draft cleanup (AI-typical phrasing and invisible Unicode watermark characters). Use when user says "content quality", "E-E-A-T", "content analysis", "readability check", "thin content", "content audit", "human

Content Quality & E E A T Analysis Google's "Who / How / Why" Test (canonical heuristic) Before scoring E E A T sub factors, every page audit should pass Google's own three question heuristic from the helpful content guide: Question What to look for Who created it? Visible byline, author bio page, professional credentials. Required where readers expect it; non negotiable for YMYL. How was it created? Process disclosure where readers would reasonably ask, especially for AI assisted content. Original research / first hand evidence / lived experience. Why does it exist? "To help people" rather than "to attract search clicks." Watch for niche entry without expertise, content churn for freshness signals, content written to a word count target. Primary source: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating helpful content When all three answers are weak, the page is at risk under the core ranking system's helpfulness signals (formerly the standalone Helpful Content System, merged into core during the March 2024 update). E E A T Framework (updated Sept 2025 QRG) Read skills/seo/references/eeat framework.md for full criteria. Experience (first hand signals) Original research, case studies, before/after results Personal anecdotes, process documentation Unique data, proprietary insights Photos/videos from direct experience Expertise Author credentials, certifications, bio Professional background relevant to topic Technical depth appropriate for audience Accurate, well sourced claims Authoritativeness External citations, backlinks from authoritative sources Brand mentions, industry recognition Published in recognized outlets Cited by other experts Trustworthiness Contact information, physical address Privacy policy, terms of service Customer testimonials, reviews Date stamps, transparent corrections Secure site (HTTPS) Content Metrics Word Count Analysis Compare against page type minimums: Page Type Minimum Homepage 500 Service page 800 Blog post 1,500 Product page 300+ (400+ for complex products) Location page 500 600 Important: These are topical coverage floors , not targets. Google has confirmed word count is NOT a direct ranking factor. The goal is comprehensive topical coverage; a 500 word page that thoroughly answers the query will outrank a 2,000 word page that doesn't. Use these as guidelines for adequate coverage depth, not rigid requirements. Readability Flesch Reading Ease: target 60 70 for general audience Note: Flesch Reading Ease is a useful proxy for content accessibility but is NOT a direct Google ranking factor. John Mueller has confirmed Google does not use basic readability scores for ranking. Yoast deprioritized Flesch scores in v19.3. Use readability analysis as a content quality indicator, not as an SEO metric to optimize directly. Grade level: match target audience Sentence length: average 15 20 words Paragraph length: 2 4 sentences Keyword Optimization Primary keyword in title, H1, first 100 words Natural density (1 3%) Semantic variations present No keyword stuffing Content Structure Logical heading hierarchy (H1 H2 H3) Scannable sections with descriptive headings Bullet/numbered lists where appropriate Table of contents for long form content Multimedia Relevant images with proper alt text Videos where appropriate Infographics for complex data Charts/graphs for statistics Internal Linking 3 5 relevant internal links per 1000 words Descriptive anchor text Links to related content No orphan pages External Linking Cite authoritative sources Open in new tab for user experience Reasonable count (not excessive) AI Content Assessment (Sept 2025 QRG addition) Google's raters assess low quality, scaled, copied, or AI generated main content patterns rather than AI authorship as a standalone issue. Acceptable AI Content Demonstrates genuine E E A T Provides unique value Has human oversight and editing Contains original insights Low Quality AI Content Markers Generic phrasing, lack of specificity No original insight Repetitive structure across pages No author attribution Factual inaccuracies Helpful Content System (March 2024): The Helpful Content System was merged into Google's core ranking algorithm during the March 2024 core update. It no longer operates as a standalone classifier. Helpfulness signals are now weighted within every core update. The same principles apply (people first content, demonstrating E E A T, satisfying user intent), but enforcement is continuous rather than through separate HCU updates. Google now also documents continuous, smaller unannounced core updates between major ones (changelog 2025 12 09). Gen AI optimization is SEO (Google docs, 2026 06 29): the official "optimizing for generative AI features" guide states you do not need new AI files, markup, Markdown, content chunking, or AI specific rewrites; chasing inauthentic "mentions" is unhelpful. AEO/GEO is rebranded SEO rooted in core ranking/quality. Honest scoping (Google docs, 2026 06 05): per "Using third party SEO tools, services, and advice," no tool guarantees rankings and third party tools have no access to Google's internal ranking data. claude seo's scores are heuristics , not Google internal signals, so say so in reports, and validate GEO/AEO findings against Google's official guidance (Search Console is the first party source). Draft Cleanup: AI Phrasing & Invisible Watermarks For "humanize this", "remove watermarks", or "clean up this draft", run the bundled cleanup script on the user's own content: Two deterministic passes, both logged in the JSON output: 1. Invisible characters ( invisible removed ): strips zero width codepoints, directional marks/overrides, Unicode tag characters (hidden text smuggling), and normalizes exotic spaces. Emoji sequences (ZWJ, variation selectors next to emoji) are preserved. 2. AI typical phrasing ( changes ): conservative 1:1 swaps from the replacement table ("delve into" → "explore", etc.). Nothing is paraphrased or added. Scope honesty: statistical watermarks (SynthID style token probability schemes) live in word choice, not codepoints. No tool reliably detects or removes them; do not claim otherwise in reports. This cleanup is for editing the user's own drafts, not for laundering third party content — decline requests to strip provenance from content the user doesn't own. AI Citation Readiness (GEO signals) Optimize for AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews): Clear, quotable statements with statistics/facts Structured data (especially for data points) Strong heading hierarchy (H1 H2 H3 flow) Answer first formatting for key questions Tables and lists for comparative data Clear attribution and source citations AI Search Visibility & GEO (2025 2026) Google AI Mode is Google's conversational AI search surface. Google's last official model naming for AI Mode / AI Overviews is a custom version of Gemini 2.5 . Treat third party AI Mode usage, citation, and link share figures as methodology dependent unless primary sourced, and optimize for both AI Mode and AI Overviews (see the seo geo skill). Key optimization strategies for AI citation: Structured answers: Clear question answer formats, definition patterns, and step by step instructions that AI systems can extract and cite First party data: Original research, statistics, case studies, and unique datasets are highly cited by AI systems Schema markup: Article and other relevant structured content. FAQPage no longer produces Google FAQ rich results; use QAPage only for genuine user Q&A where appropriate Topical authority: AI systems preferentially cite sources that demonstrate deep expertise. Build content clusters, not isolated pages Entity clarity: Ensure brand, authors, and key concepts are clearly defined with structured data (Organization, Person schema) Multi platform tracking: Monitor visibility across Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Bing Copilot, not just traditional rankings. Treat AI citation as a standalone KPI alongside organic rankings and traffic. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Per Google's AI optimization guide, "AEO" and "GEO" are rebranded labels for SEO: AI Overviews and AI Mode are grounded in the same ranking and quality systems as classic Search. The optimization signals that matter (quotability, attribution, heading hierarchy, freshness) are SEO fundamentals applied to AI search surfaces, not a separate discipline. Cross reference the seo geo skill for detailed workflows; both surfaces share the primary source synthesis in skills/seo geo/references/google ai optimization guide.md . Content Freshness Publication date visible Last updated date if content has been revised Flag content older than 12 months without update for fast changing topics Output Content Quality Score: XX/100 E E A T Breakdown Factor Score Key Signals Experience XX/20 ... Expertise XX/25 ... Authoritativeness XX/25 ... Trustworthiness XX/30 ... Weights are this skill's own scoring model , ordered to reflect Google's stated hierarchy: Trust is most important (30), then Expertise/ Authoritativeness (25 each), then Experience (20); maxima sum to 100. Google publishes no numeric E E A T weights (only that trust is most important), so treat the split as our internal model. Do not use an equal 25/25/25/25 split (it contradicts Google's "trust is most important"). AI Citation Readiness: XX/100 Issues Found Recommendations DataForSEO Integration (Optional) If DataForSEO MCP tools are available, use kw data google ads search volume for real keyword volume data, dataforseo labs bulk keyword difficulty for difficulty scores, dataforseo labs search intent for intent classification, and content analysis summary for content quality analysis. Error Handling Scenario Action URL unreachable (DNS failure, connection refused) Report the error clearly. Do not guess page content. Suggest the user verify the URL and try again. Content behind paywall (402/403, login wall) Report that the content is not publicly accessible. Analyze only the visible portion (meta tags, headers) and note the limitation. Thin content (fewer than 100 words retrievable) Report the findings as is rather than guessing. Flag the page as potentially JavaScript rendered or gated, and suggest the user provide the full text directly. FLOW Framework Integration For prompt guided content optimization, use /seo flow optimize <url and /seo flow win <url : FLOW's optimize and win prompts provide structured E E A T improvement and BOFU conversion workflows.

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