Agent skill

SEO Traffic Diagnosis

by rampstackco in rampstackco/claude-skills

Diagnose organic traffic changes (drops, stalls, or unexpected wins) using Ahrefs MCP plus Search Console data.

MITAuto-check passedMarketing & SEO

Install SEO Traffic Diagnosis

skills CLI
$ npx skills add rampstackco/claude-skills --skill seo-traffic-diagnosis -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install rampstackco/claude-skills seo-traffic-diagnosis --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/rampstackco/claude-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/seo-traffic-diagnosis .claude/skills/seo-traffic-diagnosis && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
seo-traffic-diagnosis
GitHub stars
945
Token cost
~2.2k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,066 words
Files
3 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
103
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Diagnose organic traffic changes (drops, stalls, or unexpected wins) using Ahrefs MCP plus Search Console data.

  • Works in 10 steps: Confirm the symptom. Get exact dates,… → Validate the data. Layer 1 checks. Rule… → Localize. Layer 2. Segment until the… → …
  • Traffic suddenly dropped
  • SKILL.md covers When to use, When NOT to use, Required inputs and The framework: 5 layers of…, plus 5 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

SEO Traffic Diagnosis is an agent skill from rampstackco/claude-skills. Diagnose organic traffic changes (drops, stalls, or unexpected wins) using Ahrefs MCP plus Search Console data. Use this skill when traffic suddenly dropped, has been flat despite investment, after an algorithm update, after a migration or deploy, or when a competitor seems to be taking share. Triggers on traffic dropped, traffic decline, traffic stalled, organic decline, lost rankings, why is traffic down, algorithm update, post-migration traffic loss, traffic diagnosis. Also triggers when stakeholders are…

Its SKILL.md is about 2.2k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 3 other files, including reference files (for example `README.md` and `references/diagnosis-checklist.md`).

It sits in Marketing & SEO. It works with Google Search Console, Model Context Protocol and Ahrefs. The repository describes itself as: Stack-agnostic Claude Skills covering the full website lifecycle: brand, design, content, SEO, dev, ops, growth, and research. Build, ship, audit, optimize. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Traffic suddenly dropped
  • Has been flat despite investment
  • After an algorithm update
  • After a migration

Example prompts

  • “/seo-traffic-diagnosis”

Workflow steps

10 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Confirm the symptom. Get exact dates, magnitude, segment if known.
  2. Validate the data. Layer 1 checks. Rule out tracking and seasonality.
  3. Localize. Layer 2. Segment until the pattern is clear.
  4. Page-level dive. Layer 3 on the most affected pages.
  5. Technical check. Layer 4. Recent deploys, robots, canonicals, redirects.
  6. External check. Layer 5. Algorithm updates, competitors, industry.
  7. Build the hypothesis. State the cause as a single sentence.
  8. Validate the hypothesis. Find the evidence that confirms or refutes it. See references/diagnosis-checklist.md.
  9. Action plan. Specific fixes mapped to specific evidence.
  10. Communicate. Write up the diagnosis. Stakeholders want clarity, not exhaustive analysis.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 482c9bf. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

SEO Traffic Diagnosis loads about 2.2k tokens when it runs, and up to ~4.2k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 183 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,066 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~183
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.2k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~4.2k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from rampstackco/claude-skills at commit 482c9bf, republished under its MIT licence (© rampstackco). 1,066 words, ~2,218 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/seo-traffic-diagnosis/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 2 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
seo-traffic-diagnosis
description
Diagnose organic traffic changes (drops, stalls, or unexpected wins) using Ahrefs MCP plus Search Console data. Use this skill when traffic suddenly dropped, has been flat despite investment, after an algorithm update, after a migration or deploy, or when a competitor seems to be taking share. Triggers on traffic dropped, traffic decline, traffic stalled, organic decline, lost rankings, why is traffic down, algorithm update, post-migration traffic loss, traffic diagnosis. Also triggers when stakeholders are panicking about an organic traffic number they cannot explain. A panic about tracking, event, or dashboard setup is a measurement problem, not a traffic problem: route those to `analytics-strategy`.
category
seo-audit-suite
catalog_summary
Diagnose drops, stalls, or wins via 5-layer root cause analysis
display_order
5

SEO Traffic Diagnosis

Diagnose why organic traffic moved (down, flat, or unexpectedly up) using Ahrefs MCP combined with Search Console and analytics data. Stack-agnostic. Produces a root-cause diagnosis and an action plan.


When to use

  • Organic traffic dropped sharply
  • Organic traffic has been flat for months despite content investment
  • After a known Google algorithm update
  • After a migration, replatform, or domain change
  • After a deploy that touched routing, redirects, or rendering
  • When a competitor is visibly taking organic share
  • When a single page dropped from a ranked position
  • When stakeholders need an explanation, fast

When NOT to use

  • Routine performance reporting (use analytics-strategy)
  • Pre-emptive content planning (use seo-content-gap-audit)
  • Backlink-only investigations (use seo-backlink-audit)
  • Technical issue triage outside of traffic concerns (use seo-site-health-audit)

Required inputs

  • Description of the symptom (what changed, when, magnitude)
  • Date the change started (best estimate)
  • Recent SEO history: deploys, migrations, content changes, link campaigns
  • Access to Ahrefs MCP, Search Console, and analytics
  • Confirmation the change is real (not a tracking artifact)

The framework: 5 layers of diagnosis

A traffic change has one or more root causes. Move through the layers in order. Stop when you have enough evidence.

Layer 1: Confirm the change is real

Before diagnosing, rule out:

  • Tracking gaps (analytics outages, tag manager issues)
  • Bot traffic changes
  • Reporting comparison errors (different date ranges, wrong segment)
  • Seasonality (compare year-over-year, not just month-over-month)
  • Holiday or weekday effects

Cross-check Search Console clicks against analytics organic sessions. Significant divergence often points to a tracking issue, not a real traffic change.

Layer 2: Localize the change

Where is the change happening?

Segment by:

  • Country and language
  • Device (mobile, desktop, tablet)
  • Page or section (homepage, blog, product, category)
  • Query type (branded vs non-branded)
  • Landing page

A change in one segment requires different diagnosis than a change everywhere.

PatternLikely cause
One country droppedLocal algorithm update, hreflang issue, geo redirect issue
Mobile dropped, desktop flatMobile usability or page speed regression
One section droppedTopical algorithm update or section-specific quality issue
Branded queries droppedBrand-level issue: site outage, reputation, manual action
Non-branded droppedAlgorithmic ranking issue
Single page droppedPage-level issue: content, technical, or competitive
Sitewide droppedSitewide issue: penalty, technical, migration, or algorithm
Layer 3: Page-level analysis

For affected pages, audit:

  • Position changes per ranked keyword (Ahrefs Rank Tracker history)
  • SERP composition changes (more ads, AI overviews, featured snippets, video)
  • Click-through rate changes
  • Index status (Search Console coverage)
  • Crawl errors and accessibility
  • Recent content changes
  • Internal link changes
  • Backlink changes (lost links, redirect chains)

A page can lose traffic without losing rank if SERP composition changed.

Layer 4: Technical analysis

Did anything break technically?

Check:

  • Robots.txt changes
  • Canonical tag changes
  • Meta robots changes (accidental noindex)
  • Redirect chains and loops
  • Render issues (especially for JS-heavy frameworks)
  • Site speed regressions
  • Hreflang errors
  • Sitemap freshness
  • HTTP status codes (4xx, 5xx spikes)
  • Server log evidence of crawl behavior changes

Recent deploys are the prime suspect. Compare deploy dates to traffic change dates.

Layer 5: External analysis

If layers 1-4 do not explain the change, look outward.

  • Algorithm update calendar (cross-reference timing)
  • Competitor moves (new content, new SERP features they captured)
  • Industry trend (declining search demand for the topic)
  • Manual action (Search Console security and manual actions)
  • Negative SEO (sudden link velocity changes)

External-factor diagnosis benefits from competitive context: did your traffic drop while competitors held steady (suggests an algorithm-specific issue), or did the entire vertical lose ground (suggests a user-behavior shift)? Similarweb shows competitor traffic trends; Ahrefs shows competitor SERP movement; pairing both surfaces whether the issue is yours alone or the category's.


Show full SKILL.md (478 more words)Show less

Workflow

  1. Confirm the symptom. Get exact dates, magnitude, segment if known.
  2. Validate the data. Layer 1 checks. Rule out tracking and seasonality.
  3. Localize. Layer 2. Segment until the pattern is clear.
  4. Page-level dive. Layer 3 on the most affected pages.
  5. Technical check. Layer 4. Recent deploys, robots, canonicals, redirects.
  6. External check. Layer 5. Algorithm updates, competitors, industry.
  7. Build the hypothesis. State the cause as a single sentence.
  8. Validate the hypothesis. Find the evidence that confirms or refutes it. See references/diagnosis-checklist.md.
  9. Action plan. Specific fixes mapped to specific evidence.
  10. Communicate. Write up the diagnosis. Stakeholders want clarity, not exhaustive analysis.

Failure patterns

  • Jumping to algorithm update. "It must be the algorithm" is the lazy answer. Eliminate technical and page-level causes first.
  • Solving the wrong problem. A drop diagnosed as "content quality" when the real cause was an accidental noindex on a deploy. Validate the hypothesis before fixing.
  • No baseline for "normal." Without a baseline, every fluctuation looks alarming. Establish what normal noise looks like before reacting.
  • Treating one page as the site. Site-wide and page-level diagnoses are different. Confirm scope first.
  • Ignoring branded vs non-branded. A drop in branded queries means a brand-level problem. A drop in non-branded means an SEO problem. Different teams own them.
  • Comparing wrong date ranges. Comparing 28 days to the previous 28 days during a holiday distorts the picture. Use year-over-year for seasonal businesses.
  • Stopping at correlation. A deploy and a drop on the same day is a strong correlation, not proof. Find the mechanism.
  • Single-source diagnosis. Ahrefs sees position. Search Console sees clicks and queries. Analytics sees behavior. Logs see crawl. Use them together.
  • Premature reassurance. Telling stakeholders "it is just an algorithm update, will recover" without evidence sets up a worse conversation later.

Output format

A diagnosis document with:

  1. Summary. What changed, when, magnitude, root cause in one paragraph.
  2. The symptom. Charts and segment breakdowns.
  3. Layer-by-layer findings. What each layer ruled in or out.
  4. Root cause hypothesis. Single statement with evidence.
  5. Action plan. Ordered fixes with owners and timelines.
  6. Recovery forecast. Realistic expectations on timeline and ceiling.
  7. Monitoring plan. What to watch for confirmation of recovery.

Length: 4-10 pages. Stakeholders read this fast.


If required data is unavailable

This skill's output depends on data, measurements, or tool results it cannot generate on its own. When a required input, tool, or data source is unavailable or unverifiable, the sanctioned output is the deliverable with the gap stated: what was needed, what was actually obtained or verified, and which parts of the output are affected. Fabricating, estimating, or interpolating a required number to complete the deliverable is never sanctioned. A stated gap is a complete answer.


Reference files

© rampstackco, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 2 other files (references) in skills/seo-traffic-diagnosis of rampstackco/claude-skills.

  • SKILL.md
  • README.md
  • references/diagnosis-checklist.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 482c9bf

Compare with similar skills

SEO Traffic Diagnosis next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

SEO Traffic Diagnosis compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
SEO Traffic Diagnosis this skillrampstackco/claude-skills945—~2.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
SEO Coachpetera2c/simple-table2292 repos~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
SEO Project Setuppetera2c/simple-table2291 repos~1.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Rank TrackingRyze-AI-Adgent/open-seo-mcp-skills4.7k—~573Automated safety check: PassMIT
SEO AuditRyze-AI-Adgent/open-seo-mcp-skills4.7k—~663Automated safety check: PassMIT
Global SEO Growthminhnv0807/ai-business-skills609—~5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

Similar skills

  • SEO Coach

    petera2c/simple-table

    Enter a friendly OpenSEO coach mode that explains workflows, recommends next steps, and helps users use agents, web search, scraping, and MCP data effectively.

    229 GitHub starsUsed in 2 repos~1.2k tokens
    Marketing & SEOAuto-check passed
  • SEO Project Setup

    petera2c/simple-table

    Set up a durable local SEO workspace with project context, notes, goals, positioning, preferences, MCP checks, and Search Console data intake.

    229 GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~1.5k tokens
    Marketing & SEOAuto-check passed
  • Rank Tracking

    Ryze-AI-Adgent/open-seo-mcp-skills

    Rank tracking without a tracker subscription — position movers between any two periods from real Search Console data.

    4.7k GitHub stars~573 tokensUpdated 16 days ago
    Marketing & SEOAuto-check passed
  • SEO Audit

    Ryze-AI-Adgent/open-seo-mcp-skills

    Full SEO audit of a site from its real Search Console + GA4 data — indexation health, CTR anomalies, decaying pages, striking-distance keywords, quick wins.

    4.7k GitHub stars~663 tokensUpdated 16 days ago
    Marketing & SEOAuto-check passed
  • Global SEO Growth

    minhnv0807/ai-business-skills

    Covers six SEO layers for a website: crawl and index audit, local SEO, search-intent content, AI search visibility, schema markup and backlink or directory distribution.

    609 GitHub stars~5k tokensUpdated 28 days ago
    Marketing & SEOAuto-check passed
  • Backlink

    yan-labs/yan-skills

    A skill your agent uses for backlink work - finding, qualifying, submitting, analyzing or verifying backlinks, directory and blog-comment placements, competitor link sources, anchors, toxic links…

    213 GitHub stars~8.9k tokensUpdated today
    Marketing & SEOAuto-check passed

More from rampstackco/claude-skills

All 103 skills in this repo
  • After Action Report

    rampstackco/claude-skills

    Run a structured after-action review (postmortem, retrospective) on a launch, incident, or completed project to capture timeline, root cause analysis, contributing factors, and actionable lessons.

    945 GitHub stars~2.5k tokensUpdated 3 days ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Analytics Strategy

    rampstackco/claude-skills

    Design measurement frameworks including event taxonomy, KPI hierarchy, dashboard architecture, attribution models, and analytics implementation strategy.

    945 GitHub stars~2.4k tokensUpdated 3 days ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Brand Style Guide

    rampstackco/claude-skills

    Build or audit a comprehensive brand style guide that documents the full brand system including story, logo system, color, typography, imagery, voice, applications, and dos/don'ts.

    945 GitHub stars~2.1k tokensUpdated 3 days ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Brand Voice

    rampstackco/claude-skills

    Develop or document a complete brand voice and tone system covering voice attributes, tone shifts by context, vocabulary preferences, grammar rules, and copy examples.

    945 GitHub stars~2.2k tokensUpdated 3 days ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Content And Copy

    rampstackco/claude-skills

    Write or edit website copy, blog content, and editorial pieces with attention to voice, structure, and goal.

    945 GitHub stars~2.1k tokensUpdated 3 days ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Content Strategy

    rampstackco/claude-skills

    Develop a content strategy covering editorial positioning, content pillars, formats, calendar, governance, and topical authority planning.

    945 GitHub stars~2.6k tokensUpdated 3 days ago
    Auto-check passed

Categories

Questions about SEO Traffic Diagnosis

What does SEO Traffic Diagnosis do?

Diagnose organic traffic changes (drops, stalls, or unexpected wins) using Ahrefs MCP plus Search Console data. SEO Traffic Diagnosis is an agent skill from rampstackco/claude-skills. Diagnose organic traffic changes (drops, stalls, or unexpected wins) using Ahrefs MCP plus Search Console data.

When should I use SEO Traffic Diagnosis?

SEO Traffic Diagnosis fits situations like: traffic suddenly dropped; has been flat despite investment; after an algorithm update; after a migration.

How do I install SEO Traffic Diagnosis in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add rampstackco/claude-skills --skill seo-traffic-diagnosis -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/seo-traffic-diagnosis in rampstackco/claude-skills) into .claude/skills/seo-traffic-diagnosis in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install SEO Traffic Diagnosis in Codex?

Run `npx skills add rampstackco/claude-skills --skill seo-traffic-diagnosis -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/seo-traffic-diagnosis in rampstackco/claude-skills) into .agents/skills/seo-traffic-diagnosis in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use SEO Traffic Diagnosis in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add rampstackco/claude-skills --skill seo-traffic-diagnosis -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/seo-traffic-diagnosis, .gemini/skills/seo-traffic-diagnosis, .github/skills/seo-traffic-diagnosis and .opencode/skills/seo-traffic-diagnosis in your project.

What does SEO Traffic Diagnosis need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: SEO Traffic Diagnosis is instructions for the agent only.

Does SEO Traffic Diagnosis access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is SEO Traffic Diagnosis safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does SEO Traffic Diagnosis use?

SEO Traffic Diagnosis is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does SEO Traffic Diagnosis use?

About 2.2k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 8.9k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 2k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to SEO Traffic Diagnosis?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with SEO Traffic Diagnosis: SEO Coach (petera2c/simple-table, 229 stars), SEO Project Setup (petera2c/simple-table, 229 stars), Rank Tracking (Ryze-AI-Adgent/open-seo-mcp-skills, 4.7k stars) and SEO Audit (Ryze-AI-Adgent/open-seo-mcp-skills, 4.7k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains SEO Traffic Diagnosis?

rampstackco (a GitHub organization) maintains it in rampstackco/claude-skills, which has 945 GitHub stars. The repository holds 103 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 7, 2026.

Source: rampstackco/claude-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.