Stackbirds SEO Verification Audit

The live site returns 403 to non-browser user-agents, which can block Googlebot and AI crawlers (GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot). Allow them at the edge before any other fix can take effect.

// middleware.ts (repo root)
import { NextResponse } from "next/server";
import type { NextRequest } from "next/server";

const ALLOWED_BOTS = [
  "googlebot", "bingbot", "duckduckbot", "applebot",
  "gptbot", "oai-searchbot", "chatgpt-user",     // OpenAI
  "perplexitybot", "perplexity-user",            // Perplexity
  "claudebot", "claude-web", "anthropic-ai",     // Anthropic
  "google-extended", "ccbot",
];

export function middleware(req: NextRequest) {
  const ua = (req.headers.get("user-agent") || "").toLowerCase();
  const isBot = ALLOWED_BOTS.some(b => ua.includes(b));
  const res = NextResponse.next();
  if (isBot) res.headers.set("x-allow-bot", "1");
  return res;
}

export const config = { matcher: "/((?!_next|favicon|api).*)" };

Then: in the WAF / Cloudflare / Vercel Firewall rule currently returning 403, exempt requests whose UA matches the list (or whose response header carries x-allow-bot: 1). Verify with curl -A "GPTBot" https://stackbirds.xyz/ — should return 200.

Add to app/layout.jsx, inside the document so AI engines can confirm the brand entity.

<script
  type="application/ld+json"
  dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: JSON.stringify({
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
      {
        "@type": "Organization",
        "@id": "https://stackbirds.xyz/#org",
        "name": "Stackbirds",
        "url": "https://stackbirds.xyz/",
        "logo": "https://stackbirds.xyz/logo.png",
        "description": "Self-trained agents for ops teams — record a workflow once, an agent runs it forever.",
        "sameAs": [
          "https://twitter.com/STACKBIRDS_HANDLE",
          "https://www.linkedin.com/company/STACKBIRDS_HANDLE",
          "https://github.com/stackbirds-engineering"
        ]
      },
      {
        "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
        "@id": "https://stackbirds.xyz/#app",
        "name": "Stackbirds",
        "applicationCategory": "BusinessApplication",
        "operatingSystem": "Web",
        "url": "https://stackbirds.xyz/",
        "description": "Self-trained agents for ops teams.",
        "publisher": { "@id": "https://stackbirds.xyz/#org" },
        "offers": { "@type": "Offer", "price": "0", "priceCurrency": "USD" }
      }
    ]
  })}}
/>

Create both files under app/. Next.js serves them at /robots.txt and /sitemap.xml automatically.

// app/robots.ts
import type { MetadataRoute } from "next";
export default function robots(): MetadataRoute.Robots {
  return {
    rules: [{ userAgent: "*", allow: "/", disallow: ["/api/"] }],
    sitemap: "https://stackbirds.xyz/sitemap.xml",
    host: "https://stackbirds.xyz",
  };
}

// app/sitemap.ts
import type { MetadataRoute } from "next";
export default function sitemap(): MetadataRoute.Sitemap {
  const base = "https://stackbirds.xyz";
  const now = new Date();
  return [
    { url: `${base}/`,        lastModified: now, changeFrequency: "weekly",  priority: 1.0 },
    { url: `${base}/support`, lastModified: now, changeFrequency: "monthly", priority: 0.6 },
    { url: `${base}/policy`,  lastModified: now, changeFrequency: "yearly",  priority: 0.3 },
  ];
}

Replace the existing metadata export in app/layout.jsx.

// app/layout.jsx
export const metadata = {
  metadataBase: new URL("https://stackbirds.xyz"),
  title: {
    default: "Stackbirds — self-trained agents for ops teams",
    template: "%s | Stackbirds",
  },
  description:
    "Record a workflow once. A self-trained agent runs it forever. Built for ops teams.",
  alternates: { canonical: "/" },
  openGraph: {
    type: "website",
    siteName: "Stackbirds",
    title: "Stackbirds — self-trained agents for ops teams",
    description: "Record a workflow once. An agent runs it forever.",
    url: "https://stackbirds.xyz/",
    images: [{ url: "/og.png", width: 1200, height: 630, alt: "Stackbirds" }],
  },
  twitter: {
    card: "summary_large_image",
    title: "Stackbirds — self-trained agents for ops teams",
    description: "Record a workflow once. An agent runs it forever.",
    images: ["/og.png"],
    creator: "@STACKBIRDS_HANDLE",
  },
  icons: { icon: "/icon.png", apple: "/apple-icon.png" },
};

Then: drop a 1200×630 share image at public/og.png and a 512×512 mark at public/icon.png. Override the inherited description in app/policy/page.jsx and app/support/page.jsx with their own export const metadata.

Adds a real FAQ block to the homepage and marks it up so it can win featured snippets and AI-answer citations.

// components/Faq.jsx
const FAQS = [
  { q: "What is Stackbirds?",
    a: "Stackbirds is a platform for self-trained agents for ops teams — you record a workflow once, and an agent runs it forever." },
  { q: "How do self-trained agents work?",
    a: "You demonstrate a task in the browser. Stackbirds captures the steps, generalises them, and replays them autonomously — typically training in about five minutes." },
  { q: "Is it secure?",
    a: "SOC 2 ready, SSO included, and agents run in isolated browser sessions per workflow." },
  { q: "Who is it for?",
    a: "Ops, RevOps and back-office teams that move data between SaaS tools and want to automate without writing scripts." },
];

export default function Faq() {
  return (
    <section id="faq">
      <h2>Frequently asked questions</h2>
      {FAQS.map(f => (
        <details key={f.q}><summary>{f.q}</summary><p>{f.a}</p></details>
      ))}
      <script type="application/ld+json" dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: JSON.stringify({
        "@context": "https://schema.org",
        "@type": "FAQPage",
        "mainEntity": FAQS.map(f => ({
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": f.q,
          "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": f.a }
        }))
      })}} />
    </section>
  );
}

Bonus AEO: add a one-line "Stackbirds is…" definition above the hero so AI engines have a clean extractable claim.