A 20-Step Technical SEO Prompt and Checklist for Vibe-Coded Websites

Image source: https://vibecodeseo.com/

To help creators and developers ensure their AI-built web applications get properly crawled and ranked on Google Search, developer and creator Suraj Sharma (@suraj_sharma14) shared a comprehensive '20-step technical SEO prompt and checklist' tailored specifically for vibe coders.

While vibe coding tools such as Lovable, Bolt, v0, Cursor, and Replit make it possible to assemble full-stack web applications in an afternoon, newly shipped projects often face complete invisibility on Google. Empty HTML payloads from client-side rendering (CSR), misconfigured robots.txt files, lingering development noindex tags, and absent sitemaps frequently prevent search crawlers from discovering and indexing pages.

Suraj Sharma framed this common dilemma into a concise, all-in-one audit prompt that can be fed into an AI coding assistant to methodically inspect and fix technical SEO blockers across a codebase.

The Master SEO Prompt for Vibe Coders

Below is the complete prompt shared by Sharma, designed to direct AI coding agents (such as Cursor, Claude Code, ChatGPT, or Codex) through a full technical SEO overhaul:

Every vibe coder's SEO prompt:

"Google isn't showing my vibe-coded website.
- Render it server-side.
- Generate a sitemap.
- Submit it to Search Console.
- Unblock Googlebot in robots.txt.
- Delete the noindex tags.
- Kill the redirect chains.
- Fix the 404s.
- Add canonical tags.
- Write a meta description for every page.
- One H1 per page.
- Add FAQ schema.
- Add breadcrumbs.
- Link the orphan pages.
- Alt text on every image.
- Convert images to WebP.
- Fix the layout shifts.
- Load in under 2 seconds.
- Remove the obvious AI slop.
- Add a real author bio.
- Get quality backlinks.

Rank #1 by Friday. Make no mistakes."

Deconstructing the 20-Step Technical SEO Checklist

The 20 items span the full lifecycle of technical search optimization: crawling, indexing, rendering, page architecture, performance, and trust signals.

1. Crawling and Indexing Foundations (Steps 1–5)

• 1. Render it server-side: Replace bare client-side JavaScript shells with Server-Side Rendering (SSR) or Static Site Generation (SSG) so search crawlers receive fully rendered HTML on first fetch.
• 2. Generate a sitemap: Automatically build a valid sitemap.xml listing all canonical, indexable 200-OK pages.
• 3. Submit it to Search Console: Add and verify the domain in Google Search Console, then submit the sitemap URL to trigger crawling.
• 4. Unblock Googlebot in robots.txt: Inspect robots.txt to confirm that Googlebot is not inadvertently blocked from crawling essential site assets and pages.
• 5. Delete the noindex tags: Perform a global sweep to remove <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> tags carried over from development or staging environments.

2. URL Hygiene and Page Structure (Steps 6–10)

• 6. Kill the redirect chains: Eliminate multi-hop 301/302 redirect loops and point internal references directly to the final target URL.
• 7. Fix the 404s: Identify broken links and missing assets, resolving them with proper destinations or 301 redirects.
• 8. Add canonical tags: Set explicit <link rel="canonical"> tags on every page to prevent duplicate URL parameters from diluting index authority.
• 9. Write a meta description for every page: Provide clear, page-specific <meta name="description"> tags to inform search result snippets and improve click-through rates.
• 10. One H1 per page: Structure semantic heading hierarchies starting with exactly one distinct <h1> heading per page followed by logical <h2> and <h3> tags.

3. Structured Data and Internal Linking (Steps 11–15)

• 11. Add FAQ schema: Embed FAQPage JSON-LD structured data to qualify for rich snippet dropdowns in search results.
• 12. Add breadcrumbs: Implement breadcrumb navigation and BreadcrumbList schema markup to clarify internal site hierarchy for users and search bots.
• 13. Link the orphan pages: Audit the site for isolated pages that receive no internal incoming links and connect them to relevant parent sections.
• 14. Alt text on every image: Provide descriptive, accessible alt attributes for all image tags to improve accessibility and image search indexing.
• 15. Convert images to WebP: Compress and convert legacy PNG and JPEG assets into lightweight WebP or AVIF formats to reduce payload size.

4. Performance and Trust Signals (Steps 16–20)

• 16. Fix the layout shifts: Define explicit width and height dimensions on media and reserve layout slots to stabilize Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
• 17. Load in under 2 seconds: Optimize bundles, defer non-critical scripts, and leverage CDN caching to achieve sub-2-second Largest Contentful Paint (LCP).
• 18. Remove the obvious AI slop: Strip out repetitive, generic AI-generated filler text in favor of concise, high-utility explanations.
• 19. Add a real author bio: Strengthen Google's E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) signals with genuine author and team credentials.
• 20. Get quality backlinks: Earn relevant incoming links from trusted industry directories, publications, and communities.

Discovery vs. Selection: The Role of Trust

In response to discussions around the checklist, Sharma highlighted the distinction between technical compliance and sustained user engagement:

"Technical SEO gets you discovered. Trust gets you chosen."

While modern AI tools make deploying functional web applications faster than ever, ensuring that search engines can crawl, render, and index those applications—while delivering credible value that retains human visitors—remains an indispensable part of any product launch.

Original source

• Suraj Sharma on X (@suraj_sharma14): Every vibe coder's SEO prompt & 20-step checklist