Blog quality scoring checklist skill

Blog Quality Scoring Checklist

Score each blog post against this checklist. Used by /blog analyze.

Content Quality (30 points)

Check	Points	Pass Criteria
Depth/comprehensiveness	7	Covers topic thoroughly, no major gaps
Readability	7	Match the audience; default Flesch 60-70, 55-75 acceptable; technical/YMYL topics may justify denser prose
Originality/unique value markers	5	Original data, case studies, first-hand experience
Sentence & paragraph structure	4	Avg sentence 15-20 words, ≤25% over 20; paragraphs 40-80 words; H2 every 200-300 words
Engagement elements	4	Summary box near the top, callouts, varied content blocks
Grammar/anti-pattern	3	Passive voice ≤10%, AI trigger words ≤5/1K, transition words 20-30%, clean prose

SEO Optimization (25 points)

Check	Points	Pass Criteria
Heading hierarchy with keywords	5	H1 → H2 → H3, no skips, keyword in 2-3 headings, H2 every 200-300 words
Title tag (40-60 chars, keyword, power word)	4	Front-loaded keyword, positive sentiment, brackets if applicable
Keyword placement/density	4	Natural integration (0.5-2%), no stuffing, present in first 100 words
Internal linking (3-10 contextual)	4	Descriptive anchor text, bidirectional, related content
URL structure	3	Short, keyword-rich, no stop words, lowercase
Meta description (150-160 chars)	3	Fact-dense, clear value prop; include a sourced statistic only when central to the page
External linking (tier 1-3)	2	3-8 outbound links to authoritative sources

E-E-A-T Signals (15 points)

Check	Points	Pass Criteria
Author attribution (accountable, with bio)	4	Named author/editor preferred; organization attribution acceptable with clear editorial ownership
Source citations (tier 1-3, inline format)	4	([Source](url), year) format, 8+ unique stats, zero fabricated
Trust indicators (contact, about, transparency)	4	Site has contact page, about page, editorial policy
Experience signals (first-person markers)	3	"When we tested...", "In our experience...", original photos/data

Source citations gating rule: Sources must follow the FLOW evidence triple: year anchor in prose, inline citation with publisher and title, AND URL with retrieval date in compact retrieval notes, footnotes, or a bibliography. Sources without retrieval dates do not pass this criterion. Reference: flow-alignment.md.

Technical Elements (15 points)

Check	Points	Pass Criteria
Schema markup priority baseline	4	Article/BlogPosting + Person + Organization + BreadcrumbList; FAQPage optional only for visible Q&A entity support; dateModified current
Image optimization (alt text, format, lazy load)	3	AVIF/WebP, descriptive alt text, lazy except LCP
Structured data elements	2	Tables, lists, comparison blocks for AI extraction
Page speed signals (no render-blocking)	2	LCP < 2.5s, no render-blocking JS, fetchpriority on hero
Mobile-friendliness	2	Responsive, tap targets 48px+, no horizontal scroll, paragraphs ≤100 words
OG/social meta tags	2	og:title, og:description, og:image (1200x630), twitter:card

AI Citation Readiness (15 points)

Check	Points	Pass Criteria
Passage-level citability (120-180 word passages)	4	About 50-word direct-answer sentence followed by self-contained passage with stat + source
Q&A formatted sections	3	60-70% of H2s as questions, visible FAQ section when template calls for it
Entity clarity	3	Unambiguous topic entity, consistent terminology
Content structure for extraction	3	Answer-first, tables with <thead>, comparison formats
AI crawler accessibility	2	SSR/SSG, no JS-gated content, robots.txt allows AI bots

Total: 100 points

Scoring Bands

Score	Rating	Action
90-100	Exceptional	Publish as-is, flagship content
80-89	Strong	Minor polish, ready for publication
70-79	Acceptable	Targeted improvements needed before publish
60-69	Below Standard	Significant rework required
< 60	Rewrite	Fundamental issues, start from outline

Priority Classification

When reporting issues, classify by priority:

Critical (Must Fix Before Publishing)

• Fabricated statistics (zero tolerance)
• Broken heading hierarchy (H1 → H3 skip)
• Paragraphs > 200 words (Yoast red)
• No source attribution on claims
• Missing author attribution
• Content behind JavaScript (invisible to AI crawlers)
• Missing summary box near the top

High Priority

• Missing answer-first formatting on H2 sections
• Missing Article/Person/Organization/BreadcrumbList schema baseline
• Missing visible Q&A section when the selected template calls for FAQ
• Fewer than 8 sourced statistics
• Missing meta description or lastUpdated
• Title tag outside 40-60 character range
• No internal links
• Flesch score outside 55-75 range
• No OG/social meta tags
• Paragraphs > 150 words
• Passive voice > 15%
• AI trigger words > 8 per 1,000

Medium Priority

• Fewer than 2 charts
• Fewer than 3 images
• Tier 4-5 sources present
• Self-promotion > 1 mention
• Sections exceeding 300 words between headings
• Missing experience signals (no first-person markers)
• Images not in AVIF/WebP format
• loading="lazy" on LCP image
• Average sentence length > 22 words
• Transition words < 15% or > 35%

Low Priority

• Paragraph length slightly above 80 words (but under 150)
• Question-format H2 ratio outside 60-70%
• Missing chart type diversity
• Images without alt text
• Missing external links to tier 1-3 sources
• Entity terminology inconsistency

Quick Automated Checks

These can be detected programmatically:

Content Quality

1. Word count per paragraph (split on double newlines, flag > 150, critical > 200)
2. Sentence count per paragraph (flag > 3 sentences)
3. Flesch-Kincaid score (default target 60-70, acceptable 55-75; adjust for audience)
4. Heading frequency (flag gaps > 300 words between H2s)
5. Summary box presence in first 500 characters (accept "TL;DR", "Key Takeaways", "Summary", or "Quick Answer")
6. Average sentence length (target 15-20, flag > 22)
7. Sentences over 20 words (flag if > 25% of total)
8. Passive voice percentage (flag > 10%, high priority > 15%)
9. AI trigger word density (flag > 5 per 1,000 words)
10. Transition word percentage (target 20-30%, flag < 15% or > 35%)

SEO Optimization

11. Title tag length (frontmatter, target 40-60 chars)
12. Heading hierarchy (regex for ^#{1,6} , no skipped levels)
13. Meta description length (frontmatter, target 150-160 chars)
14. Internal link count (regex for relative URLs or same-domain links)
15. External link count and tier classification
16. URL structure check (lowercase, no stop words)

E-E-A-T Signals

17. Author attribution presence (frontmatter author field)
18. Citation format (regex for \([^)]+\(http)
19. Unsourced statistics (numbers without attribution nearby)
20. Self-promotion patterns (brand name frequency, max 1)
21. First-person markers ("we tested", "in our experience")

Technical Elements

22. Image count (regex for !\[ or <img)
23. Image alt text presence (images without alt attribute)
24. Chart count (regex for <svg or <figure)
25. Schema presence (search for structured data markers)
26. OG meta tags (frontmatter ogImage, coverImage)
27. loading="lazy" on first image (flag as LCP issue)
28. lastUpdated presence (frontmatter check)

AI Citation Readiness

29. Opening citable passage after each H2 (target 120-180 words after about 50-word answer sentence)
30. Question-format heading ratio (target 60-70% of H2s)
31. Visible Q&A presence when template calls for FAQ
32. Table presence with <thead> (for AI extraction)
33. robots.txt AI bot allowance (site-level check)