Claude SEO: The Complete Guide to the Open-Source SEO Toolkit for Claude Code

Last updated: February 24, 2026

TL;DR

Claude SEO is a free, open-source skill package with twelve specialized SEO modules for Claude Code. It analyzes websites in two to five minutes using parallel AI agents, covering everything from Technical SEO and Schema Markup to optimization for AI search engines (GEO). The tool itself is free (MIT license), but running it requires a Claude subscription starting at $20/month or API access. Depending on usage intensity, real-world costs range from approximately $20 to $200 per month.

What is Claude SEO and how does it work?

Claude SEO is an open-source skill package for the Claude Code CLI, developed by Daniel Agrici and published on GitHub under the MIT license (github.com/AgriciDaniel/claude-seo). It is not a single tool but twelve specialized SEO modules integrated into the Claude Code command line as so-called “Skills.” Each module focuses on a specific aspect of search engine optimization and operates with its own system prompts and analysis logic.

The repository has over 1,000 stars on GitHub and is actively maintained. The current version 1.2.0 was released in February 2026.

What makes Claude SEO unique: it uses Claude Code as its AI engine and can run up to six subagents in parallel. A complete website audit analyzes all pages simultaneously rather than sequentially, reducing analysis time to two to five minutes even for large websites.

What do I need to install Claude SEO?

Before you can use Claude SEO, the following prerequisites must be met:

Claude Code CLI is the command-line version of Claude that runs in the terminal. Python 3.8+ is required for various analysis scripts. You also need a Claude subscription or API access (more on costs below). Optionally, Playwright can be installed for visual screenshots and mobile analysis.

Installation itself is straightforward. On Unix, macOS, or Linux, a single command is enough:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AgriciDaniel/claude-seo/main/install.sh | bash

For Windows, there is a PowerShell script:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AgriciDaniel/claude-seo/main/install.ps1 | iex

Alternatively, you can clone the repository manually and run the installation script. The skill package is installed to ~/.claude/skills/seo/, along with six subagents in ~/.claude/agents/.

What does Claude SEO actually cost?

The Claude SEO repository itself is genuinely free and open source under the MIT license. Installation costs nothing. However, Claude SEO is only a skill package built on top of Claude Code, and Claude Code consumes tokens with every interaction.

Which Claude subscription do I need?

There are several ways to use Claude Code, each with its own pricing model.

Subscription plans (flat rate with usage limits):

Claude Pro costs $20/month (or $17 with annual billing) and includes access to Claude Code with moderate usage limits. For occasional SEO audits of individual pages, this is sufficient. With intensive use (multiple full website audits per day), you will hit rate limits quickly.

Claude Max 5x costs $100/month and offers five times the quota compared to Pro. For regular SEO work, this is the more practical option.

Claude Max 20x costs $200/month with twenty times the quota. This tier is suited for agencies or power users who run multiple extensive audits daily.

API usage (pay-per-token):

Those using Claude Code via the API pay per token consumed. Current prices (as of February 2026, source: Anthropic Pricing Page):

Model	Input (per 1M tokens)	Output (per 1M tokens)	Recommended use
Claude Haiku 4.5	$1.00	$5.00	Simple subagent tasks
Claude Sonnet 4.5/4.6	$3.00	$15.00	Recommended for SEO audits
Claude Opus 4.5/4.6	$5.00	$25.00	Complex strategic planning

Table: Claude API token prices by model (as of February 2026). For requests exceeding 200,000 input tokens, prices double at standard speed.

What does a typical SEO audit cost in practice?

According to Anthropic’s documentation, the average consumption is around $6 per developer day, with 90% of users staying under $12 per day. For SEO audits, consumption tends to be higher since Claude Code crawls many pages, analyzes them, and generates extensive reports.

The following figures are estimates based on typical token consumption with the Sonnet model. Actual consumption depends heavily on the number of pages and their complexity:

Analysis type	Estimated token cost
Single page audit (/seo page)	approx. $0.50 to $1.50
Full website audit (/seo audit)	approx. $2 to $8
Schema analysis (/seo schema)	approx. $0.30 to $1.00
GEO analysis (/seo geo)	approx. $0.50 to $2.00

Table: Estimated costs per analysis type with Claude Sonnet. Own estimates, not official Anthropic figures.

With intensive use (multiple audits daily), monthly costs can reach $100 to $300. That is still considerably less than professional SEO tools like Ahrefs (from $99/month) or Semrush (from $139/month), though the comparison has limits: Claude SEO does not fully replace these tools but complements them with AI-powered analysis and optimization.

How can I optimize costs?

Use Sonnet instead of Opus: For most SEO analyses, Sonnet 4.5/4.6 is more than sufficient. Opus only makes sense for particularly complex decisions, such as strategic SEO planning across multiple domains.

Use /compact: This command compresses the context and saves tokens during long sessions.

Use the Batch API (with API access): 50% discount on all models for non-urgent tasks.

Prompt Caching: Automatically used by Claude Code and can save up to 90% of input costs for repeated requests (for example, when analyzing multiple pages of the same website in sequence).

Which twelve SEO skills are included?

1. Full Website Audit (/seo audit <url>)

Quick answer: The flagship feature runs a parallel, fully automated website audit and delivers an SEO Health Score (0 to 100) with a detailed action plan in two to five minutes.

The process in detail: First, the homepage is loaded to identify the niche and business type (SaaS, local business, e-commerce, etc.). Then the sitemap and robots.txt are read. Up to six parallel subagents then analyze each individual page (Technical SEO, Content, Schema, Performance, Images, Visual Rendering). Playwright optionally creates visual screenshots for mobile analysis. Finally, an SEO Health Score is calculated and a complete report with action plan is generated.

The result is a detailed report with scores across the categories Technical SEO, Content Quality, On-Page SEO, Schema/Structured Data, Performance, Images, and AI Search Readiness.

Particularly useful: you can then ask Claude to generate a prompt for another AI agent that automatically implements the fixes. Or you can have the entire report exported as a PDF.

Quality Gates: For websites with more than 100 pages, the system issues a warning to prevent uncontrolled token costs and ensure analysis quality.

2. Deep Single-Page Analysis (/seo page <url>)

Quick answer: Analyzes a single URL in depth rather than providing an overview of the entire website. Ideal for examining the most problematic pages in detail after an audit.

While /seo audit provides the overview, /seo page goes into detail on a specific URL. It checks meta tags, heading structure, keyword density, internal and external links, load times, and content quality. Each optimization opportunity is named concretely and prioritized.

3. Sitemap Analysis (/seo sitemap <url>)

Quick answer: Checks your existing XML sitemap for completeness, formatting, and common errors such as duplicate URLs or pages with a noindex tag.

The analysis detects whether all important pages are included and whether lastmod dates are kept current. Particularly useful after website relaunches or major content changes, when sitemaps are often outdated or incomplete.

4. Sitemap Generation (/seo sitemap generate)

Quick answer: Generates a new XML sitemap based on the actual page structure, tailored to your business type.

Industry-specific templates are used to create the optimal sitemap structure. An e-commerce shop gets a different sitemap architecture than a SaaS company or a local service provider.

5. Schema Markup Analysis and Generation (/seo schema <url>)

Quick answer: Detects existing Schema Markup (JSON-LD, Microdata, RDFa), validates it against current Google guidelines, and generates ready-to-use JSON-LD.

This module knows the current deprecation status: HowTo Rich Results were completely deprecated in September 2023, FAQ Rich Results have been restricted to authoritative government and health websites since August 2023. According to the Claude SEO repository, SpecialAnnouncement was also deprecated as of July 2025.

New schema types for video content are also supported: VideoObject, BroadcastEvent, Clip, SeekToAction, and SoftwareSourceCode. The generated JSON-LD can be embedded directly into the website.

6. Image Optimization (/seo images <url>)

Quick answer: Analyzes all images on a page for file size, format, alt texts, lazy loading, and their impact on Core Web Vitals.

Checks whether modern formats like WebP or AVIF are used, whether responsive image sizes (srcset) are present, and whether alt texts are meaningful enough for accessibility and search engines.

7. Technical SEO Audit (/seo technical <url>)

Quick answer: Checks the technical SEO foundation across eight categories, including crawlability, indexing, HTTPS, Core Web Vitals, URL structure, canonical tags, redirects, and rendering.

For Core Web Vitals, Claude SEO uses the current metrics: LCP (Largest Contentful Paint, target under 2.5 seconds), INP (Interaction to Next Paint, target under 200ms), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift, target under 0.1). The outdated FID metric (First Input Delay) has been correctly replaced by INP. For context: INP replaced FID as a Core Web Vital on March 12, 2024, and FID was completely removed from all Chrome tools in September 2024.

8. Content Quality and E-E-A-T (/seo content <url>)

Quick answer: Evaluates the content quality of a page based on the four E-E-A-T factors from the Google Quality Rater Guidelines (updated to the September 2025 version).

The four evaluation dimensions in detail:

Experience: Are there signals of first-hand experience? For example, personal usage reports, original photos, detailed process descriptions.

Expertise: Are author qualifications verifiable? Does the depth of the content match?

Authoritativeness: Is the page or author recognized as a reference in the industry? Are there external mentions and links?

Trustworthiness: Are contact information, legal notice, privacy policy, and security certificates present?

9. Generative Engine Optimization (/seo geo <url>)

Quick answer: GEO optimizes your content not for traditional search engines but to be cited by AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. This is the most forward-looking feature in the entire package.

Why this matters: AI-powered search is growing rapidly. If your content is not structured so that AI crawlers can process it efficiently, you will not appear in AI answers, regardless of how strong your classical SEO is.

Specifically, GEO checks:

Whether AI crawl bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) can actually reach the page (robots.txt settings). Whether an llms.txt file is present. Whether text sections have the optimal length for AI citations. The “sweet spot” is approximately 134 to 167 words per passage. Pages outside this range are frequently skipped by AI systems. Whether bio paragraphs have the right length and whether the overall content structure is AI-friendly.

10. Strategic SEO Planning (/seo plan <type>)

Quick answer: Creates a tailored SEO plan based on your business type, including prioritized measures, timelines, and expected impact.

Available business types: saas, local, ecommerce, publisher, agency. Each plan accounts for the specific SEO challenges of the respective business model. A local service provider gets different recommendations than a SaaS company.

11. Programmatic SEO (/seo programmatic <url>)

Quick answer: Analyzes and plans scalable page production from data sources, with built-in quality safeguards against thin content and index bloat.

The module checks existing programmatic pages for thin content and keyword cannibalization, plans URL patterns and template structures, automates internal linking, and implements canonical strategies. Quality gates are built in: more than 100 pages triggers a warning, more than 500 pages without a prior audit triggers a hard stop.

12. Competitor Comparison Pages (/seo competitor-pages <url>)

Quick answer: Generates conversion-optimized comparison pages in the style of “X vs. Y” and “Alternatives to X” with structured feature matrices and Schema Markup.

Outputs include structured comparison tables with feature matrices, Product Schema Markup with AggregateRating, conversion-optimized layouts with CTA placement, and keyword targeting for comparison queries. Generated content follows fairness guidelines for objective competitor representation.

Bonus: Hreflang Validation (/seo hreflang <url>)

Quick answer: Specifically for multilingual websites. Generates and validates hreflang tags and detects the most common configuration errors.

Three implementation methods are supported: HTML tags, HTTP headers, and XML sitemap entries. The tool detects missing self-referencing tags, missing return tags, invalid language/region codes (ISO 639-1 + ISO 3166-1), and HTTP/HTTPS mismatches. Cross-domain hreflang is also supported.

How do I connect Claude SEO with professional SEO tools?

Claude SEO can be connected to external SEO data sources via MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers, allowing live data from professional SEO tools to feed directly into analyses.

Available integrations:

Ahrefs (official MCP server: @ahrefs/mcp) and Semrush (official MCP server) provide keyword data, backlink profiles, and competitive analyses. Via community servers, Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, and DataForSEO can also be connected.

Setup is documented in the MCP Integration Guide in the repository. Important: a paid subscription to Ahrefs or Semrush is still required. The MCP integration simply makes these tools accessible to Claude SEO.

What does a complete workflow look like in practice?

A typical workflow for optimizing a website with Claude SEO:

Step 1: Start a full audit. /seo audit https://my-website.com delivers an overview with score and prioritized measures after two to five minutes (depending on the number of pages).

Step 2: Analyze the results. The SEO Health Score (0 to 100) immediately shows where the biggest issues are. The detailed breakdown by category identifies concrete areas for action.

Step 3: Export a PDF report. “Create a PDF report from the audit” generates a professional document that can be shared with clients or team members.

Step 4: Add Schema Markup. /seo schema https://my-website.com analyzes the existing markup and generates ready-to-embed JSON-LD.

Step 5: Check AI search optimization. /seo geo https://my-website.com shows the AI Search Readiness Score and delivers concrete recommendations for appearing in AI answers.

Step 6: Implement fixes. Pass the generated action plan to a coding agent or implement the recommendations manually.

Can Claude SEO replace my existing SEO tools?

No, not fully. Claude SEO complements existing tools but does not replace them in all areas. Its strengths lie in fast, AI-powered analysis and particularly in GEO optimization (visibility in AI search engines), which almost no other tool addresses as directly. What Claude SEO does not offer: historical keyword data, backlink databases, rank tracking over time, or SERP monitoring. For those, tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Sistrix remain necessary.

The ideal combination: Claude SEO for fast audits, Schema generation, and GEO optimization. Classic SEO tools for keyword research, backlink analysis, and long-term monitoring.

Who benefits from Claude SEO?

Ideal for web developers and freelancers who want to deliver fast SEO analyses to clients. Content creators who want to optimize their pages for AI search (GEO). Technical SEO specialists who need a fast audit tool in the terminal. Agencies that want to build an automatable SEO workflow.

Less suited for users without a technical background (Claude Code is a terminal tool). Companies that need extensive historical data and keyword research. Organizations with strict compliance requirements for reporting formats.

Conclusion

Claude SEO is an impressive open-source project that fundamentally accelerates SEO analysis through AI-powered parallel processing. The combination of twelve specialized skills and the GEO feature for AI search optimization is unique in this form.

The claim of being “free” in the introductory video is technically correct (the skill package itself costs nothing) but incomplete. In practice, you need at least a Claude Pro subscription at $20/month, and with intensive use, total costs reach $100 to $200/month. Compared to a combination of several professional SEO tools, Claude SEO can still be significantly cheaper, provided you are aware that costs arise through token consumption.

Anyone already using Claude Code and doing regular SEO work should definitely try Claude SEO. Installation takes under a minute, and the first audit quickly shows whether the workflow fits your process.

Link to the repository: github.com/AgriciDaniel/claude-seo

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is Claude SEO really free? The tool itself yes (MIT license). However, running it requires a Claude subscription (from $20/month) or API access, since every analysis consumes tokens.

Which Claude subscription is enough for SEO audits? Claude Pro ($20/month) is sufficient for occasional analyses. For daily use, Claude Max ($100/month) is recommended due to higher rate limits.

Can Claude SEO replace Ahrefs or Semrush? No. Claude SEO complements these tools through fast AI audits and GEO optimization, but offers no keyword databases, backlink analyses, or long-term rank tracking.

Do I need programming skills? You do not need to be a developer, but basic familiarity with the terminal (command line) is necessary. Claude Code does not have a graphical interface.

How long does a full website audit take? Approximately two to five minutes for most websites. For sites with more than 100 subpages, it may take longer.

What is GEO and why do I need it? GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) optimizes content to be cited by AI search systems (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews). With growing AI search traffic, this is increasingly relevant for business.

Does Claude SEO work with non-English websites? Yes. The analysis works regardless of language. The hreflang skill is specifically designed for multilingual websites, which is particularly relevant for international markets.