seo-affiliate-compliance

Use this skill when generating metadata, discovery files, or compliance content.

Guidelines:

• •Generate SEO-friendly metadata: title, description, canonical, and Open Graph tags.
• •Add or update sitemap.xml and robots.txt for static hosting.
• •Provide affiliate disclosure and disclaimer pages when applicable.
• •Avoid deceptive or policy-violating claims; do not imply personal testing.
• •Keep canonical URLs consistent with production redirects (trailing slash vs no slash).
• •Ensure non-existent pages return real 404s with noindex,follow.

Current compliance status (January 2026):

• •Disclaimer page: /disclaimer (includes affiliate disclosure)
• •Privacy Policy: /privacy (includes Google Analytics, AdSense, cookies)
• •ads.txt: /public/ads.txt (Google AdSense publisher ID)
• •robots.txt: Generated at build time via /scripts/generate-sitemap.mjs (Allow: /)
• •sitemap.xml: Generated at build time, submitted to Google Search Console

Search Console lessons (January 2026):

• •Trailing slash canonicalization must match the live host to avoid "Page with redirect".
• •Query-parameter tag/category filters are not indexable; add real tag/category archive pages and include them in the sitemap.
• •Remove blanket SPA rewrites when prerendered HTML exists; serve a real 404.html instead.

AdSense compliance checklist:

• •Sufficient original content (25+ posts, 900-1500 words each)
• •Clear site navigation (Header: Home, Blog, About; Footer: Disclaimer, Privacy)
• •No prohibited content (adult, violence, drugs, etc.)
• •No deceptive practices (fake buttons, misleading claims)
• •Affiliate content adds value beyond just links (guides, comparisons, tips)
• •robots.txt allows all crawlers

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) implementation:

• •Measurement ID: G-7L8HGVP5MZ (defined in src/lib/site.ts)
• •Implementation: Cookie consent-based loading in CookieConsent.tsx
• •CRITICAL: The gtag function MUST use arguments object, NOT rest parameters
  javascript

  // CORRECT - gtag.js expects Arguments objects in dataLayer
  function gtag() {
    dataLayer.push(arguments);
  }
  
  // WRONG - Arrays are NOT processed correctly by gtag.js
  function gtag(...args) {
    dataLayer.push(args);
  }
  

• •Standard initialization order:
  1. •Initialize dataLayer array
  2. •Define gtag function using arguments
  3. •Call gtag("js", new Date())
  4. •Call gtag("config", "G-MEASUREMENT_ID")
  5. •Load gtag.js script asynchronously
• •The collect request (sending data to GA) only works when dataLayer contains Arguments objects
• •Prefer GA4 automatic page_view tracking, but for SPA consent-gated setups where auto events fail, disable send_page_view in the config and send manual page_view events on route changes after consent.

Per-post affiliate disclosure:

• •NOT required (removed per user preference)
• •Site-wide Disclaimer page handles this
• •Do not add disclosure blocks to individual blog posts