CI/CD SEO checklist
The best SEO check is the one that runs automatically. This checklist covers how to integrate SEO validation into your CI/CD pipeline so broken meta tags, missing titles, and invalid structured data never reach production.
Critical
— 3 itemsAdd npx indxel check --ci to your build pipeline
Run Indxel in CI mode during every build. It exits with code 1 if critical SEO rules fail, blocking the deploy. Add it to your GitHub Actions workflow or Vercel build command.
Configure a Vercel build guard
Add indxel check as a pre-build step in your Vercel project settings. The build fails before deploy if SEO validation fails. Zero broken SEO reaches production.
Set rules that every new page.tsx must export metadata with title, description, and OG image. Catch missing metadata in code review or automated checks.
Important
— 5 itemsEnable SEO diff tracking between deploys
Run npx indxel check --diff to compare SEO scores before and after changes. Track which pages improved or regressed with each deploy.
Validate JSON-LD schemas during build. Check for required fields, correct types, and no duplicates. Invalid structured data can trigger Google penalties.
Set up SEO score thresholds
Configure a minimum SEO score (e.g., 80/100) for the build to pass. Any deploy that drops the score below the threshold is blocked until fixed.
Add SEO checks to pull request workflows
Run Indxel as a GitHub Action on every PR. Post a comment with the SEO diff so reviewers can see the impact before merging.
Diff your robots.txt before and after changes. An accidental Disallow: / can deindex your entire site. Treat robots.txt changes like database migrations — review carefully.
Nice-to-have
— 1 itemAutomate sitemap validation after deploy
After each deploy, validate your sitemap returns 200, contains no 404 URLs, and includes all canonical pages. Automate this as a post-deploy webhook or cron job.
Frequently asked questions
How does Indxel integrate with GitHub Actions?
Add npx indxel check --ci as a step in your GitHub Actions workflow. Indxel scans your Next.js project, validates all SEO rules, and exits with code 1 if critical rules fail. The PR is blocked until issues are fixed.
Does CI/CD SEO checking slow down builds?
Indxel check runs in under 10 seconds for most projects. It scans metadata statically — no browser rendering needed. The time cost is negligible compared to catching a broken title tag in production.
What should fail the build versus just warn?
Critical rules (missing title, missing description, broken OG image, blocking robots.txt) should fail the build. Warnings (description too long, missing twitter:card) should log but not block. Configure severity thresholds in your Indxel config.
Automate this checklist
Stop checking manually. Indxel validates SEO rules on every build and blocks broken deploys.