How to Install SEO Skills in Claude Code (Step-by-Step)

Claude Code can do a surprising amount of SEO work on its own, but it gets much more reliable when you give it skills: packaged instructions that tell it exactly how to run an audit, validate schema, or write a post. This guide shows how skills work in Claude Code, where they live on your machine, how to install them (by hand, from a plugin, or with an installer), and how to fix the usual problems when a skill doesn't show up.

Everything below is based on the current Claude Code documentation for skills, subagents, and plugins.

What is a skill in Claude Code?

A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file inside it. The file has two parts:

• YAML frontmatter between --- markers. The description field tells Claude when the skill is relevant.
• Markdown instructions that Claude follows when the skill runs: steps, checklists, scoring rules, and references to any supporting files in the same folder.

Claude uses a skill in two ways. It can load the skill automatically when your request matches the description, or you can invoke it directly by typing / followed by the skill name. The folder name (or the name field in the frontmatter, when set) becomes the command you type.

Skills are a good fit for SEO because SEO work is mostly repeatable procedure. A technical audit, a schema check, or a content brief follows the same steps every time, and a skill makes Claude follow them the same way every time.

Custom slash commands have been merged into skills. A file at .claude/commands/audit.md and a skill at .claude/skills/audit/SKILL.md both create /audit. Old command files keep working, but new work should use skills because they support extra files and automatic loading.

Where do Claude Code skills live?

Where you put a skill decides which sessions can use it:

For SEO skills you'll use across many client sites, the personal location is usually the right choice. Put a skill in a project's .claude/skills/ folder when it's specific to one site, such as a skill that knows that site's templates and URL rules.

Specialist agents (subagents) live next to skills, in ~/.claude/agents/ for personal agents or .claude/agents/ inside a project. Larger SEO suites often ship both: skills hold the procedures, and agents run parts of an audit in parallel.

Method 1: Install a skill by hand

This is the simplest way to understand what's going on, and it works for any single skill.

1. Create the folder: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/meta-check
2. Save a SKILL.md file inside it (example below).
3. Open any project and start Claude Code with claude.
4. Ask something that matches the description, or type /meta-check.

Here's a small but useful SEO skill:

---
description: Checks title tags and meta descriptions on a page. Use when the user asks to review titles, meta descriptions, or snippet length.
---

## Instructions

1. Fetch the page the user names.
2. Report the title tag and meta description with their character counts.
3. Flag titles over 60 characters and descriptions over 160 characters.
4. Flag missing, duplicated, or keyword-stuffed values.
5. Suggest one improved title and description that match the page's main topic.

The description matters more than anything else in the file. Claude matches your request against it, so include the words people actually say: "title tag", "meta description", "snippet".

Method 2: Install skills from a plugin

Plugins bundle skills together with agents, hooks, and MCP servers, so you install a whole toolkit at once. In a Claude Code session:

1. Add the marketplace that lists the plugin: /plugin marketplace add owner/repo
2. Install the plugin: /plugin install plugin-name@marketplace-name
3. Review the plugin details in the panel that opens, choose a scope, and confirm.

Run /plugin on its own to browse what's available. If Claude Code tells you a reload is needed, run /reload-plugins.

Method 3: Use a suite installer

Big SEO suites usually come with an installer that copies dozens of skills and agents into place for you. ClaudeSEO works this way. After purchase you accept the GitHub invitation for the private repository, then run the installer from any project directory:

npx github:claudeseo-tools/seo
npx -y github:claudeseo-tools/claudeblog

The installer copies the skills and agents into your .claude/ folder. Some audit features use Python and a headless browser, so run these once inside Claude Code:

• /claudeseo setup creates an isolated Python runtime and installs Playwright Chromium.
• /claudeseo doctor checks that the runtime, dependencies, and Chromium are ready.

You need Python 3.11 or newer and access to Claude Code. After that, every /claudeseo and /claudeblog command is available in every project. The full skill list shows what each one does.

Do you need to restart Claude Code?

Usually not. Claude Code watches ~/.claude/skills/ and your project's .claude/skills/ folder, so adding or editing a skill there takes effect in the current session.

There are two exceptions:

• If the skills folder didn't exist when the session started, run /reload-skills so Claude Code picks it up.
• If ~/.claude/agents/ didn't exist before the session started, restart Claude Code so it can find newly installed agents.

When in doubt after installing a large suite, restarting is quick and rules out both cases.

How to check that your SEO skills are installed

Ask Claude directly: "What skills are available?" Your new skills should appear in the answer. You can also type / and look for the skill names in the command menu.

Then run a real test on a page you know well:

/claudeseo page https://your-site.com/pricing

A good first test is a page where you already know the issues, so you can judge whether the output is accurate.

Troubleshooting: skill not showing up or not triggering

For a general health check of your setup, run /doctor in a Claude Code session. It reports problems with your installation, skills, MCP servers, and plugins, and asks before changing anything.

Which SEO skills should you install first?

Start with the skills that match the work you do every week:

• Site audits: a full audit skill gives you a prioritized list of technical, content, and schema issues. See how the full site audit works.
• Technical SEO: crawlability, indexability, Core Web Vitals, and JavaScript rendering. See the technical SEO audit.
• Schema: detecting, validating, and generating JSON-LD. See schema markup.
• Content: briefs, drafts, and scoring before you publish. See the Claude Blog writing skill.

Once the skills are installed, the next step is a repeatable workflow. Our guide to running a technical SEO audit with Claude Code walks through one from start to finish, and the Claude Code SEO tutorial covers the full research-to-measurement loop.