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 client alone does not remove content from HTML. Check the raw response for a visible phrase and a data value from each important section: hydration hides a missing section in the browser, and the build can still pass. See Troubleshooting.
• Use the App Router Metadata API and file conventions. Resolve relative metadata URLs with the correct production metadataBase and 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. With Cache Components enabled, follow the installed Next.js caching docs (node_modules/next/dist/docs/). No cache setting is an SEO directive, but a short cacheLife also decides whether content is in the prerendered HTML.
• 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: inheritance, social images, icons and streaming.
• Sitemaps/robots: discovery, localization and preview policy.
• Structured data: current eligibility and safe serialization.
• AI search: crawler purposes, policy and evidence.
• Audit checklist: scoped production and Search Console checks.
• Troubleshooting: indexing, missing HTML content 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.