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diagnostics skill

/plugins/seo-workflow-orchestration/skills/diagnostics

This skill helps teams perform structured technical SEO audits and incident validation by guiding signal triangulation and replication workflows.

npx playbooks add skill gtmagents/gtm-agents --skill diagnostics

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

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SKILL.md
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---
name: diagnostics
description: Use for structured technical SEO audits, incident response, and validation.
---

# Technical Diagnostics Toolkit Skill

## When to Use
- Investigating crawl/index anomalies, traffic drops, or Core Web Vitals regressions.
- Running scheduled audits ahead of major launches or migrations.
- Validating fixes before/after engineering deployments.

## Framework
1. **Signal Triangulation** – combine Search Console, log files, crawler output, and analytics deltas.
2. **Replication Scripts** – document steps to reproduce issues (user agents, locales, device types).
3. **Root Cause Hypotheses** – map symptoms to likely causes (render blocking, redirects, robots, schema errors).
4. **Fix Design** – outline remediation options, risk level, dependencies, and testing approach.
5. **Validation & Monitoring** – specify metrics and alerts to confirm resolution.

## Templates
- Diagnostics worksheet (symptom, evidence, hypothesis, owner, next action).
- Crawl + render checklist per environment.
- Validation log capturing metrics pre/post change.

## Tips
- Keep historical baselines to quickly detect regressions.
- Pair with engineering release notes to correlate incidents.
- Automate recurring crawls and lighthouse runs to catch issues early.

---

Overview

This skill provides a structured technical diagnostics toolkit for SEO audits, incident response, and validation. It combines signal triangulation, reproducible replication steps, hypothesis-driven root cause analysis, and clear validation plans. Use it to find, fix, and confirm resolution of crawl, indexing, performance, and traffic issues.

How this skill works

The skill inspects multiple data sources—Search Console signals, server logs, crawler output, and analytics deltas—to triangulate the true symptom. It captures replication scripts that document how to reproduce issues across user agents, locales, and devices. For each incident it produces root-cause hypotheses, ranked remediation options with risk and dependency notes, and a validation plan tied to concrete metrics and alerts.

When to use it

  • Investigating sudden traffic drops or indexing anomalies
  • Diagnosing Core Web Vitals regressions or page speed degradations
  • Running scheduled audits before launches or site migrations
  • Validating fixes immediately before and after engineering deployments
  • Setting up recurring monitoring to detect regressions early

Best practices

  • Maintain historical baselines for key metrics to speed up regression detection
  • Correlate diagnostics with engineering release notes and deployment windows
  • Automate recurring crawls and Lighthouse runs for continuous visibility
  • Document exact replication steps (user agent, URL, device, locale) to ensure reproducibility
  • Prioritize fixes by impact, effort, and risk, and include a rollback plan

Example use cases

  • Triangulate a sudden drop in organic traffic using Search Console, logs, and analytics
  • Run a pre-launch crawl and render checklist to catch indexability and render-blocking issues
  • Validate a deployed fix by comparing pre/post metrics and keeping a validation log
  • Create a diagnostics worksheet for a cross-functional incident response meeting
  • Automate daily Lighthouse runs and alert on Core Web Vitals regressions

FAQ

What sources should I include for reliable triangulation?

Combine Search Console, server logs, crawler render output, and analytics deltas. Each source validates different aspects: indexing signals, server behavior, rendering, and user impact.

How do I choose the right validation metrics?

Pick metrics tied to the observed symptom and business impact: index coverage for crawling, Core Web Vitals for UX, and organic sessions or CTR for traffic. Define thresholds and alerts before deploying fixes.