seo-performance-mcp

Know which blog posts to refresh, expand, merge, or kill - without guessing.

A MCP server that turns your scattered SEO and analytics data into one clear verdict per URL. Plug it into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-aware client and ask: "Which three posts should I update this week?" - and get an answer backed by hard numbers.

What it does

seo-performance-mcp unifies post-publish signals from every channel you already pay for:

• Google Search Console - clicks, impressions, CTR, position, top queries

• Matomo or GA4 - visits, dwell time, bounce rate

• Microsoft Clarity - scroll depth, rage clicks, dead clicks

• AI citation tracking - which LLMs cite your URL today vs. last month

• Sitemap / CMS - publish dates, tags, word counts (any platform via XML sitemap; optional Ghost integration for richer metadata)

It then runs a deterministic rule engine over those signals and emits a verdict per URL:

refresh / expand / merge / kill / double_down / hold

with reason codes, evidence, and a 0-1 confidence score. Reporting only - the server never mutates your posts.

Related MCP server: GSC SEO MCP

Why it matters

Most content teams have analytics in five tabs and a gut feeling. That's how good posts rot quietly, mediocre posts get over-promoted, and the obvious "rewrite this one" is invisible until traffic has already cratered.

This MCP closes the loop:

• One question, one URL in, one verdict out.

• Same logic across the whole cohort, so the ranking is comparable.

• All decisions traceable to numeric thresholds you can pin in src/verdict/rules.ts.

• AI clients (Claude, Cursor, MCP hosts) can drive the entire content audit in plain English.

Who it's for

• Content marketers running a blog of 50+ posts and tired of guessing what to refresh.

• SEO consultants doing audits who want a portable, deterministic scoring layer instead of bespoke spreadsheets.

• AI-first content teams wiring up rewrite agents - this MCP is the upstream signal layer.

• Indie publishers on Ghost, WordPress, Hugo, Astro, Next, Webflow, or any CMS that exposes a sitemap.

What you get

After one cohort run you have:

• A ranked table of every post with a verdict and confidence score.

• A markdown brief per "refresh" URL: numbers + top queries + suggested actions an editor (or a writing agent) can act on immediately.

• A list of "quick wins": queries sitting at positions 5-15 with below-expected CTR - the fastest title-rewrite wins on the property.

• A historical AI-citation diff: which LLMs cited you and stopped.

Install

npx -y @automatelab/seo-performance-mcp

In a Claude, Claude Code, or Cursor MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "seo-performance": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@automatelab/seo-performance-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "POSTS_SITEMAP_URL": "https://example.com/sitemap.xml",
        "GSC_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON": "<base64-encoded service-account JSON>",
        "GSC_SITE_URL": "sc-domain:example.com",
        "MATOMO_URL": "https://example.com/analytics",
        "MATOMO_TOKEN": "...",
        "MATOMO_SITE_ID": "1",
        "GA4_PROPERTY_ID": "123456789",
        "GA4_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON": "<base64-encoded service-account JSON>",
        "CLARITY_PROJECT_ID": "...",
        "CLARITY_API_TOKEN": "...",
        "CITATION_INTELLIGENCE_URL": "https://citation.example.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

Every env var is optional. Adapters that lack their env config skip their slice of the snapshot; the server still boots. The verdict engine works on whatever slices are present.

Platform integration

Point it at any site, no CMS plugin required. The post-discovery layer resolves in priority order:

1. POSTS_LIST - JSON array of {url, title?, published_at?, tags?, word_count?}. Use this when you already have a content index and want exact control.

2. Ghost Admin API - if both GHOST_ADMIN_API_URL and GHOST_ADMIN_API_KEY are set, Ghost is used as a richer metadata source. Optional.

3. HTML extraction - per-URL og:title, article:published_time, and JSON-LD datePublished are read live from the URL.

4. XML sitemap - set POSTS_SITEMAP_URL to your sitemap (or sitemap index) and the server enumerates posts from <loc> + <lastmod>.

Most users only need POSTS_SITEMAP_URL. WordPress, Hugo, Astro, Next.js, Webflow, Framer, Wix, Squarespace, Notion-as-a-site, Substack-mirror sites all expose a sitemap by default.

To add a brand-new platform: nothing to build - just point POSTS_SITEMAP_URL at it.

Tools exposed

Use as a GitHub Action

Run any of the tools on a cron from CI and post the output to a GitHub Issue, Discussion, or PR. The action is published on the GitHub Marketplace.

- uses: AutomateLab-tech/seo-performance-mcp@v1
  with:
    tool: cohort_report
    format: markdown
    input: '{"window": 90, "min_age_days": 90, "limit": 20}'
    gsc-service-account-json: ${{ secrets.GSC_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON }}
    gsc-site-url: ${{ secrets.GSC_SITE_URL }}
    posts-sitemap-url: ${{ secrets.POSTS_SITEMAP_URL }}

Outputs:

A complete weekly-audit workflow that opens a GitHub Issue with the cohort report is in examples/weekly-cohort-report.yml.

Use as a one-shot CLI

The package also ships a seo-perf-cli bin so you can run a single tool without an MCP client:

npx -p @automatelab/seo-performance-mcp seo-perf-cli cohort_report \
  --input '{"window": 90, "limit": 20}' \
  --format markdown

Same env vars as the MCP server. --format markdown is supported for cohort_report and posts_refresh_brief; other tools fall back to fenced JSON.

Companion skills + Cursor rule

Three thin routing files ship in the repo so the LLM in your client knows when to reach for these tools:

• skills/seo-performance/SKILL.md - tool-routing skill. Drop into ~/.claude/skills/seo-performance/ (or .claude/skills/ per project) to auto-load in Claude Code. Routes a single question to the right tool.

• skills/weekly-audit/SKILL.md - one-shot weekly audit playbook. Composes gsc_quick_wins + cohort_report + posts_cite_loss into a deduped, cross-signal ranked digest with proposed edits per URL. Drop in alongside the routing skill.

• cursor/rules/seo-performance.mdc - copy to .cursor/rules/seo-performance.mdc in any Cursor workspace.

All optional. The MCP server works without them; they just shorten the "which tool do I call" round-trip.

MCP prompts

The server exposes three prompts that bundle the playbook. Any MCP client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Continue) can list and invoke them:

Verdict engine

Deterministic, rule-based, traceable. Reason codes:

• ctr_below_position_expected

• position_drift

• decay_30d_over_30pct / decay_60d_over_50pct

• stagnant_no_clicks

• thin_content_low_dwell

• rising_impressions_low_ctr / rising_clicks_continue_investment

• citation_loss / citation_growth

• duplicate_or_cannibalizing

• high_bounce_low_scroll

• fresh_post_too_young

The mapping (reasons → verdict) and every threshold lives in src/verdict/rules.ts. Edit it, pin it in tests, ship your own rule book.

Development

npm install
npm run dev        # tsx src/index.ts
npm run build      # tsc
npm test           # vitest

License

MIT

Maintenance and verification

See the maintenance guide for interpretation limits, current tool names where applicable, and reproducible verification.