ELEVENTY SEO AUDIT · ZERO-JS · DATA CASCADE · AI VISIBILITY
Free Eleventy (11ty) SEO Audit
Eleventy's zero-JS static output gives you the best possible crawlability and Core Web Vitals baseline — but metadata leaking from the data cascade, missing sitemap templates, and accidentally blocked AI crawlers are gaps a generic audit won't surface with 11ty context. DeepSEOAnalysis audits Eleventy sites with framework-aware guidance.
WHAT WE CHECK
6 Eleventy-specific SEO checks
Beyond the 80+ general checks, the engine applies Eleventy-aware analysis when it detects an 11ty site — covering data cascade metadata, layout template completeness, sitemap setup, and robots.txt configuration.
Data cascade metadata coverage
Eleventy's data cascade is its core feature: front matter in individual template files inherits from directory data files (`directoryname.json`, `directoryname.11tydata.js`), which inherit from global data files in `_data/`. For SEO, this means a `description` set only in `_data/site.json` will appear as the same meta description on every page that doesn't override it at the front matter level. The audit checks every crawled page for unique, present title tags and meta descriptions, flagging pages that share the global default or have no description at all, and identifying which data cascade level is producing the shared value.
Layout template completeness
In Eleventy, the `<head>` block lives in a layout template file (typically `_includes/base.njk`, `_includes/layouts/base.html`, or similar). This layout is responsible for emitting the title tag, meta description, canonical link tag, Open Graph tags, and JSON-LD structured data. Common gaps: canonical tags missing from the layout (or using a hardcoded URL instead of the page's URL); OG image not populated from front matter; no mechanism for injecting per-page JSON-LD structured data. The audit checks all crawled pages for the presence and correctness of these tags against expected standards.
Sitemap configuration
Eleventy has no built-in sitemap. Options: a community plugin (eleventy-plugin-sitemap), a custom Nunjucks/Liquid template that iterates `collections.all` and outputs XML, or manually maintained. Common gaps: the sitemap is missing entirely; it doesn't include recently published pages because the template logic filters incorrectly; `lastmod` dates aren't populated because front matter `date` fields aren't standardised; or the Sitemap directive is missing from `robots.txt`. The audit checks sitemap presence, Sitemap directive in robots.txt, and whether all crawled pages appear in the sitemap.
robots.txt and AI crawler access
Eleventy serves a static `robots.txt` from the input directory (typically `robots.txt` in the project root, output to `_site/robots.txt`). There is no built-in robots.txt generation — it must be a literal file or a template that generates one. Common gaps: the file is missing (Eleventy doesn't create one by default); a development-environment `Disallow: /` from testing was accidentally shipped to production; or AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) are blocked by overly broad rules. The audit checks all major AI crawler user-agents and flags any that are blocked.
Zero-JS static output
Eleventy outputs pure static HTML with zero JavaScript by default — no client-side runtime, no hydration, no JS bundle. This is its most powerful SEO characteristic: Googlebot receives the complete page HTML on the first fetch, with all content, metadata, structured data, and heading structure immediately visible. There is no second-wave JavaScript rendering required. Core Web Vitals on Eleventy sites are typically among the best of any framework: no render-blocking JS, minimal bandwidth, and instant CDN delivery. The audit verifies that your Eleventy site's output is genuinely static and flags any third-party scripts or client-side-only content that could undermine this advantage.
AI visibility for Eleventy sites
Eleventy's static output makes AI visibility tasks straightforward: `llms.txt` goes in the input directory root (output to `_site/llms.txt`, served at `/llms.txt`), FAQPage JSON-LD is added via a Nunjucks/Liquid shortcode or include in the layout template, and Article structured data for blog posts can be emitted from a post-specific layout. The audit checks all five AI visibility signals — llms.txt presence, AI crawler access, FAQPage/HowTo schema, question-heading ratio, and content chunkability — with the specific Eleventy template file, data cascade change, or plugin to implement each fix.
HOW IT WORKS
Audit your Eleventy site in 60 seconds
- Enter your deployed Eleventy URL. Works with Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, Render, or any static hosting that serves the `_site/` output directory. No source code, template files, or data cascade access needed — the audit crawls the built site.
- We crawl and analyse. The engine crawls up to 50 pages (free) or 1,000 pages (paid), checks metadata coverage across all collections and page types, validates JSON-LD schema, measures CrUX Core Web Vitals from real user data, and evaluates all five AI visibility signals.
- You get a prioritised report. Data-cascade-aware issues first — shared global descriptions, missing layout-level canonical tags, blocked AI crawlers — then general SEO, each with the specific front matter key, global data file, or layout template change to fix it.
FAQ
Questions about the Eleventy SEO audit
Does DeepSEOAnalysis detect Eleventy-specific SEO issues?
Yes. The engine detects Eleventy signals — zero-JS static HTML output, data cascade metadata patterns, and Eleventy's template-based architecture — and surfaces framework-specific guidance alongside the 80+ general checks.
Is Eleventy good for SEO?
Eleventy is excellent for SEO for a fundamental reason: it outputs zero JavaScript by default. Every page is pure static HTML, served directly from a CDN with no hydration, no render-blocking JS, and no JavaScript rendering queue for Googlebot. Content is visible in the first HTTP response, Core Web Vitals are typically strong, and the entire site crawls cleanly on the first pass. The common Eleventy SEO gaps are configuration: metadata not set in front matter or global data files, no sitemap plugin installed, and AI crawlers accidentally blocked in robots.txt.
Does Eleventy generate sitemaps automatically?
Not by default. You need to add the `@11ty/eleventy-plugin-syntaxhighlight` or, more commonly, create a sitemap.xml using an Eleventy Nunjucks/Liquid template that iterates over `collections.all`. Several community plugins (`eleventy-plugin-sitemap`) handle this automatically. The audit checks for sitemap presence, whether all crawled pages appear, and whether a Sitemap directive is in robots.txt.
Is the Eleventy SEO audit free?
Yes. The complete audit is free with no signup and no email gate. Paid plans add saved history, scheduled monitoring, larger crawls (up to 1,000 pages), and agency workflows.