JEKYLL SEO AUDIT · STATIC HTML · LIQUID TEMPLATES · AI VISIBILITY
Free Jekyll SEO Audit
Jekyll's static HTML output gives you excellent crawlability — but missing the jekyll-seo-tag plugin, incomplete front matter, and accidentally blocked AI crawlers are gaps a generic audit won't surface with framework context. DeepSEOAnalysis audits Jekyll sites with plugin-aware guidance.
WHAT WE CHECK
6 Jekyll-specific SEO checks
Beyond the 80+ general checks, the engine applies Jekyll-aware analysis when it detects a Jekyll site — covering front matter, jekyll-seo-tag coverage, sitemap plugin config, and robots.txt setup.
Front matter metadata coverage
Jekyll uses YAML front matter at the top of each `.md` or `.html` file to define the page's title, description, and other metadata. Pages without a `description` field in front matter fall back to the site's global `description` in `_config.yml` — producing the same generic description across every page that doesn't override it. 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.
jekyll-seo-tag plugin completeness
The jekyll-seo-tag plugin (by GitHub) is the standard way to add title tags, meta descriptions, canonical links, Open Graph tags, Twitter cards, and JSON-LD to Jekyll pages. Without it, Jekyll generates no SEO metadata by default. The plugin is enabled by adding `jekyll-seo-tag` to the Gemfile and calling `{% seo %}` in the layout. Common gaps: the `{% seo %}` tag missing from custom layouts, the plugin not installed in self-hosted builds, or site-level `title` and `description` not set in `_config.yml`. The audit checks all crawled pages for the presence and correctness of these tags.
jekyll-sitemap plugin configuration
The jekyll-sitemap plugin generates `sitemap.xml` automatically from all published pages and posts. Without it, Jekyll produces no sitemap. Common gaps: the plugin is installed but not referenced in `robots.txt` via a `Sitemap:` directive; draft pages (`published: false`) are correctly excluded but tag or category archive pages may be unexpectedly included or excluded depending on theme configuration; `lastmod` isn't populated because pages lack `last_modified_at` front matter. 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
Jekyll serves a static `robots.txt` from the repository root (copied to the built `_site/` directory). There is no built-in robots.txt generation — it must be a literal file. A common gap: the file is missing entirely (Jekyll doesn't create one by default), or a wildcard `Disallow: /` from a development configuration was accidentally left in the production file. AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) may also be accidentally blocked by overly broad rules. The audit checks all major AI crawler user-agents and flags any that are blocked.
Static HTML rendering advantages
Jekyll outputs pure static HTML at build time — no server-side rendering, no JavaScript rendering queue, no hydration. Googlebot receives the complete page HTML on the first fetch. This is Jekyll's fundamental SEO advantage over JavaScript-heavy frameworks: all content, metadata, structured data, and heading structure is in the initial HTTP response. The audit verifies that your built Jekyll site is genuinely static and flags any JavaScript-rendered content or third-party widgets that dynamically load primary page content (which would undermine the static HTML advantage).
AI visibility for Jekyll sites
Jekyll makes AI visibility tasks straightforward: `llms.txt` goes in the root of the repository (copied to `_site/llms.txt` by Jekyll), FAQPage JSON-LD is added via a custom `_includes/faq-schema.html` partial included in page layouts, and Article structured data can be emitted by jekyll-seo-tag automatically on posts. 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 Jekyll template, plugin, or `_config.yml` change to implement each fix.
HOW IT WORKS
Audit your Jekyll site in 60 seconds
- Enter your deployed Jekyll URL. Works with GitHub Pages, Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, or any static hosting. No source code, Gemfile, or template 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 page types and collections, 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. Plugin-aware issues first — missing jekyll-seo-tag output, front matter description gaps, blocked AI crawlers — then general SEO, each with the specific plugin, front matter field, or Liquid template change to fix it.
FAQ
Questions about the Jekyll SEO audit
Does DeepSEOAnalysis detect Jekyll-specific SEO issues?
Yes. The engine detects Jekyll signals — static HTML output, jekyll-seo-tag metadata patterns, and Jekyll's sitemap structure — and surfaces framework-specific guidance alongside the 80+ general checks.
Do I need the jekyll-seo-tag plugin?
Yes. Without jekyll-seo-tag (or equivalent), Jekyll generates no title tags, meta descriptions, canonical links, Open Graph tags, or JSON-LD structured data by default. It's a required plugin for any Jekyll site that wants competitive SEO. The plugin is maintained by GitHub Pages and is automatically enabled on GitHub Pages-hosted Jekyll sites, but must be explicitly added to the Gemfile and `_plugins` for self-hosted Jekyll builds.
Does Jekyll generate sitemaps automatically?
Only with the jekyll-sitemap plugin. Without it, no sitemap is generated. The plugin creates `sitemap.xml` from all published pages and posts. Common gaps: draft pages are excluded correctly, but tag and author archive pages may or may not be included depending on theme configuration. The audit checks sitemap presence, whether all crawled pages appear, and whether a Sitemap directive is present in robots.txt.
Is the Jekyll 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.