browser4-seo

Browser4 SEO

Quick Start

browser4-cli goto "https://example.com"     # load the page to audit
browser4-cli plugin-list                    # confirm browser4-seo is installed AND enabled
# then call seo.extractMeta() — full SEO metadata extraction (see Tools below)

Extract and audit SEO metadata from the current page using the browser4-seo plugin's two tools.

When to Use

Use this skill when the user wants to:

• Check a page's SEO health — "audit the SEO of this page", "is this page SEO-friendly?"
• Review meta tags — "what's the title/description/canonical of this page?"
• Check Open Graph / Twitter Card — "does this page have proper social share tags?"
• Review structured data — "does this page have JSON-LD schema markup?"
• Diagnose ranking problems — "why isn't this page ranking?" (SEO issues are a common cause)

Do NOT use this skill for:

• General content extraction — use the browser4-cli HTML snapshot / X-SQL instead.
• Performance auditing (Core Web Vitals) — this plugin only covers SEO metadata, not performance metrics.

How It Works

The browser4-seo plugin exposes two tools that operate on the page currently loaded in the browser session: seo.extractMeta() returns every SEO metadata field (title, description, canonical, Open Graph, Twitter Cards, JSON-LD), and seo.checkIssues() compares the page against SEO best practices and returns a health report.

Patterns

1. Quick SEO health check

seo.checkIssues()   # returns a prioritized issue list

2. Full metadata extraction

seo.extractMeta()   # all fields: title, description, canonical, OG, Twitter, JSON-LD

3. Diagnose poor ranking

seo.checkIssues()   # start with the issue report, then fix the top items

Flags

Neither seo.extractMeta() nor seo.checkIssues() takes arguments — both operate on the page currently loaded in the browser session.

Errors & Recovery

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Tool call fails with "plugin not found"	browser4-seo not installed	browser4-cli plugin-list; install the plugin
Plugin installed but seo.* tools unavailable	Plugin is opt-in (default-disabled)	Enable it: browser4.plugins.enable=browser4-seo (or browser4.plugins.enable-all=true) and restart
extractMeta returns empty fields	No page loaded in the session	browser4-cli goto <url> first
checkIssues reports everything missing	Page is a JS shell	The plugin reads the loaded DOM — ensure the page finished rendering

Prerequisites

The browser4-seo plugin must be installed AND enabled on the Browser4 server. The plugin is opt-in (defaultEnabled: false): installing the JAR alone does not activate it. Enable it with browser4.plugins.enable=browser4-seo (or browser4.plugins.enable-all=true) and restart. Check with:

browser4-cli plugin-list
# Look for "browser4-seo" in the output

If not installed, see the plugin's README for build and deploy instructions.

Tools

seo.extractMeta()

Extracts all SEO metadata from the current page. No arguments — operates on the page currently loaded in the browser session.

Returns a JSON object with fields:

Field	Type	Description
url	String	Final page URL (after redirects)
title	String?	<title> content
description	String?	<meta name="description">
canonical	String?	<link rel="canonical"> href
robots	String?	<meta name="robots"> content
og	Object	All Open Graph tags (og:title, og:image, etc.)
twitter	Object	All Twitter Card tags
headings	Object	Count of h1/h2/h3/h4
images	Int	Total <img> count
imagesWithoutAlt	Int	Images missing alt attribute
wordCount	Int	Approximate body word count
jsonLd	Array	Parsed JSON-LD structured data blocks

seo.checkIssues()

Audits the page and returns a categorized list of SEO issues.

Returns a JSON object with:

Field	Type	Description
issueCount	Int	Total issues found
errorCount	Int	Critical issues (e.g., noindex, no title)
warningCount	Int	Important issues (e.g., no canonical, thin content)
infoCount	Int	Minor issues (e.g., no Twitter Card)
issues	Array	Each issue: { severity, field, message, value }

Severity levels: error (must fix) > warning (should fix) > info (nice to have).

Workflow

Example 1: Quick SEO audit

1. Navigate to the target page (browser4-cli navigate <url>)
2. seo.checkIssues()                      → get the issue list with severity
3. Summarize errors first, then warnings
4. If user wants detail on a specific field → seo.extractMeta()

Example 2: Full metadata review

1. Navigate to the target page
2. seo.extractMeta()                      → full metadata object
3. Present: title, description, canonical, OG, Twitter, JSON-LD
4. Flag any missing or suspicious values

Example 3: Compare before/after a fix

1. seo.checkIssues()                      → baseline (note error/warning counts)
2. (user or agent fixes the page source)
3. Refresh the page
4. seo.checkIssues()                      → compare counts to verify the fix

This last workflow is the browser-first feedback loop: change code → refresh → re-audit → confirm.

Tips

• Always run seo.checkIssues() first — it gives a quick summary. Use seo.extractMeta() only when you need the raw values.
• The noindex robots directive is an error-level issue — flag it immediately, as it blocks the page from search engines entirely.
• imagesWithoutAlt > 0 is common but easy to fix — suggest adding alt text.
• JSON-LD count of 0 is only info severity — not all pages need structured data, but e-commerce and article pages benefit from it.