Run your SEO process the same way every time. Claude Code skills for SEO and marketing.

Claude Code skills are folders with a SKILL.md file of instructions that Claude loads when your request matches the job. For SEO, a skill saves a task you repeat, such as meta descriptions, so Claude does it your way every time. Below I show how to install, write and vet one, and my AI tools for small business guide covers the basics. To learn Claude Code from the install up, start with my course hub.

What are Claude Code skills?

A skill is a saved set of instructions for one job. Anthropic's skills documentation says Claude uses skills when relevant, or you invoke one directly with /skill-name. Open any skill folder and you'll find plain text you can read and edit.

The SKILL.md file starts with YAML frontmatter between --- markers, then markdown instructions. The description is the only field the docs recommend, and name defaults to the folder name. A skill folder can also hold scripts and reference files, and Claude Code skills follow the Agent Skills open standard.

A Reddit user on r/claudeskills wrote, "The whole point of a skill is to fix something Claude consistently gets wrong". Another wrote, "Skills help repeatable tasks return consistent information."

How Claude Code decides when to load a skill

Skill descriptions stay in context so Claude knows what exists, and the full body loads only when invoked. That's how Anthropic's skills docs describe it. Write each description as a trigger that names the job and the words you'd use to ask for it.

You can run a skill two ways. Claude picks it automatically when your request matches the description, or you type /skill-name with arguments after it.

Descriptions still cost something. A Reddit user on r/ClaudeCode noted, "Every skill and add-on puts its description into every session whether you use it or not". Keep the descriptions you write short, and delete skills you never run.

Start your Claude Code skills with one task you repeat

Big lists of free skills are easy to find. Most of them were written for someone else's job, and each one adds a description to your context.

Start instead with one task you already do every week and know how to do well. Write down your checklist, your rules and what a good result looks like. That's your first skill.

A Reddit user on r/WebsiteSEO described the same habit: "mostly through skills i built for specific tasks rather than one big prompt". Small skills with one job each are easier to test and easier to trust.

Personal and project folders for a Claude Code skill

Where you save a skill decides who can use it, per Anthropic's skills docs:

• Personal skills live in ~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md and work in all your projects on that machine.

• Project skills live in .claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md inside the repository, so your team gets them when you commit the folder.

• Custom commands are merged into skills. A .claude/commands/deploy.md file and a .claude/skills/deploy/SKILL.md file both create /deploy.

• Your existing command files keep working, and the docs recommend skills for new work.

• A CLAUDE.md file is different. Claude reads it at the start of every session, so it suits standing instructions you want in every session.

Write your own Claude Code skill in five steps

If you already follow an on-page SEO checklist, you have the raw material for a skill. Build it like this:

1. Pick one job you repeat and already do well, such as writing meta descriptions or reviewing a page.
2. Create a folder named for the job inside .claude/skills/ for one project, or ~/.claude/skills/ for all of them.
3. Add a SKILL.md file with frontmatter. Write a description that says what the skill does and when to use it.
4. Write the instructions below the frontmatter as plain steps. Keep SKILL.md under 500 lines and move long reference lists into separate files.
5. Test it. Ask for the job in your own words, then run it by name. If it won't trigger, make the description more specific.

A SKILL.md example for meta descriptions

Here's an illustrative skill for one SEO job. Save it as .claude/skills/meta-description/SKILL.md, then swap in your own rules.

---
name: meta-description
description: Write a meta description for one web page. Use it when the user asks for a meta description or a search snippet.
---
Read the page the user names and find its main keyword.
Write three options between 150 and 160 characters, each using the keyword once.
Say what the reader gets, never promise rankings, and mark the option you would pick.

Where to find skills in Claude Code plugin marketplaces

People search for a "skills marketplace," but Anthropic's term is plugin marketplace, and skills arrive inside plugins. Anthropic's plugin docs define a plugin as "a directory of skills, agents, hooks, MCP servers, or other components". Use these steps from the install guide:

1. Type /plugin in a Claude Code session and open the Discover tab to browse plugins.
2. Anthropic's official marketplace, claude-plugins-official, is added the first time you start Claude Code in a terminal. The docs example is /plugin install commit-commands@claude-plugins-official.
3. Add Anthropic's example repo with /plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills, or its community marketplace with /plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-community.
4. Install from the example repo with /plugin install example-skills@anthropic-agent-skills or /plugin install document-skills@anthropic-agent-skills.
5. Choose a scope. User covers all your projects, project is committed in .claude/settings.json, and local uses .claude/settings.local.json.

Check a Claude Code skill before you install it

Anthropic's plugin docs say plugins run code with your user privileges, so review before installing. A Reddit user on r/ChatGPTCoding asked for a "vetting checklist before something touches a real repo." Here's mine:

• Open the SKILL.md and read every instruction it gives Claude. It's plain text, so this takes minutes.

• Look for a scripts folder or other files, and read what each script does before it runs.

• Watch for instructions that add links, footers or brand mentions to your output.

• Check who publishes the GitHub repo and whether you can read all of it.

• Test it on a draft page, never on your live site first.

• Remember that a skill you wrote yourself skips most of this, because you know every line.

SEO skills and marketing skills worth building

Each skill below pairs what you give Claude with what you still check. The same pattern works for email, social posts and Google Ads copy.

Keyword research

Give it a topic and your keyword export. It groups terms by intent into a content brief. You check the volumes against your own keyword tool.

Competitor gap review

Give it your page and the top-ranking pages. A Reddit user on r/WebsiteSEO wrote, "Competitor gap analysis and Keyword analysis are two areas Claude does well."

Meta titles and descriptions

Give it the page and your length rules, like the example above. You check every claim before anything ships.

Schema drafts

Give it the page facts and it drafts JSON-LD structured data. My free schema generator gives you a block to compare against.

Site audit from a crawl export

Give it a crawl or Search Console export and ask for patterns. You decide which issues matter for your site.

Brand voice review

One r/WebsiteSEO user described "an anti-slop reviewer that flags generic phrasing and unsupported claims." Feed it your brand voice rules and banned words.

The Claude Code skills that run my SEO agency

My agency workspace runs on Claude Code project skills. Each skill has one job, and they chain together, so research feeds the writing and the writing goes to review:

• Keyword and SERP research for each page.

• Voice-of-customer research before anything gets written.

• One writing skill per page type, such as service pages and blog posts.

• Schema markup for each finished page.

• A validator skill that checks every page against my writing rules.

• Site audits and website building with Claude Code.

• Press releases.

• Turning my short videos into watch pages, like my video on the AI tools I use for local SEO.

A Claude Code skill holds your playbook and MCP holds the data

A skill doesn't know SEO for you. It stores how you do it, so the output follows your process each time.

The data can come from MCP, which Anthropic's overview calls "an open standard for connecting AI tools to external data sources". The skill holds the steps, and an MCP connection holds the access. My guide to Claude Code for SEO covers the wider workflow.

You still review the output. A Reddit user on r/WebsiteSEO said you need to "know what good looks like, otherwise you just get confident nonsense."

Get ready-made SEO skills for Claude Code

I sell ready-made SEO skills plus training, so you can run SEO with Claude Code yourself. You install the skills, learn how they work, and adapt them to your own rules.

Get my Claude Code skills and training

• Start here: Claude Code for SEO.
• Next step: build a website with Claude Code.
• Try it: free schema generator.