Your AI SEO Prompts Write Garbage. Here's How to Build Skills That Don't
Tools
Step-by-step
Claude skills for SEO
Trigger Marketing
The Trigger team
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You typed "do keyword research for my plumbing site" into an AI. It confidently gave you a list. Half of it is made up and the other half is "plumber near me."
John Morabito, who runs SEO agencies, has a word for that on the Search With Candour podcast (Oct 26, 2026). A bare "Hey, build me a keyword research" prompt "would be garbage" (0:18:40-0:21:00).
The fix isn't a better prompt. It's a better skill.
Quick words (one line each):
Skill: a saved instruction file (often called SKILL.md) that an AI like Claude loads to do one job the same way every time.
SOP (standard operating procedure): your written, step-by-step way of doing a task.
Gold example: your best past work, saved so the AI can copy the standard.
Workflow: several skills chained together, each one handing its result to the next.
What good looks like
Morabito's keyword-research skill uses their SOPs, gold-standard examples and training videos, plus a real export from Ahrefs or Semrush that a human pulls. The result: about 80-90% done, and 8 hours of work down to 2 (0:18:40-0:21:00).
Same AI. Different inputs. Night and day.
Step 1: Write down how you actually do the job
Before any AI touches it, write your real process for one task. Every step, in order. That's your SOP.
No SOP? The AI invents one. That's where the garbage comes from.
Step 2: Add your gold examples
Save 2-3 examples of that job done really well. Put them in the skill folder. The AI matches the bar you show it.
Step 3: Feed it real data, not AI guesses
Morabito plugs in real data tools (he names Apify, DataForSEO and OpenSEO) instead of trusting Claude's own crawling or keyword volumes (0:46:40-0:48:30).
Rule of thumb: numbers come from a data tool. Words come from the AI.
Step 4: Add a rules file for each client
He puts client-specific rules right inside the client's skill. His example: Ohio cannabis rules inside that client's writer skill (0:33:00-0:35:00).
Regulated industry? Brand words you never use? Put them in a rules file. The AI reads it every time.
Step 5: Add guardrail skills
Two that he runs on every output (0:27:00-0:30:00):
A "humanizer" skill that makes the writing sound like a person.
A "delivery guardrail" skill that collects the feedback managers keep giving, so the same mistakes stop.
His tip: don't rely on Claude's memory for this. Write it into a skill.
Step 6: Chain the skills into a workflow
His content pipeline, in order (0:37:00-0:41:00):
Brief (top 20 results, entities, People Also Ask questions).
Draft.
Internal links.
Brand voice.
Humanizer.
A "GEO scorecard" that sends low-scoring drafts back for another pass.
GEO (generative engine optimization), in one line: getting your content quoted in AI answers.
The missing piece, he says: a 30-minute expert interview per article. Because "the only currency we have left ... is net new information."
Step 7: Keep a human in the middle
Morabito's phrase is "human at the center," not just a human checking at the end (0:18:00). The person feeds the context and makes the calls. The AI does the heavy lifting.
He also says monthly reports are hard to automate, because they need the "why" behind the numbers (0:19:00). Keep those human.
Step 8: Fewer skills, used more
He built 140 skills and uses about 30 regularly (0:44:00-0:45:00). The value is your custom context, not a pile of free "comment for my skill" giveaways.
Want a head start? Borrow a free set
StudioHawk, an Australian SEO agency, publishes claude-seo-skills free through its Hawk Academy course. When we checked it on Oct 28, 2026:
60 skills (schema auditor, content briefs, cannibalization finder, content decay, internal linking, migration plan and more).
MIT licence, last updated Oct 25, 2026, 21 stars (as of Oct 28, 2026).
The sample skill we read (schema-markup-auditor) says "You never invent facts" and flags missing values instead of guessing.
To install (from the README): clone the repo with git clone https://github.com/lhitches/claude-seo-skills.git, then copy each skills/.md into its own folder as SKILL.md. The README gives a loop for Mac/Linux and for PowerShell.
Then do Steps 1-4 on top: add your SOPs, gold examples, data and client rules. A borrowed skill plus your context beats a borrowed skill alone. Read each one before you use it with a client.
Do this today
Pick one SEO job you do every week.
Write your step-by-step SOP for it.
Save 2-3 of your best past examples next to it.
Turn both into one skill, and feed it a real data export instead of asking the AI for numbers.
Start a "feedback we keep giving" list and make it a guardrail skill.
Related reading
Sources
Don't worry if this seems like it's a pain in the ass for someone who doesn't build websites. That's because it is. The good news: just click the link below, pull the trigger, and we'll take care of the rest.
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