Alert Manager

This skill helps you set up proactive monitoring alerts for critical SEO and GEO metrics. Get notified when rankings drop, traffic changes significantly, technical issues occur, or competitors make moves.

When to Use This Skill

Setting up SEO monitoring systems
Creating ranking drop alerts
Monitoring technical SEO health
Tracking competitor movements
Alerting on content performance changes
Monitoring GEO/AI visibility changes
Setting up brand mention alerts

What This Skill Does

Alert Configuration: Sets up custom alert thresholds
Multi-Metric Monitoring: Tracks rankings, traffic, technical issues
Threshold Management: Defines when alerts trigger
Priority Classification: Categorizes alerts by severity
Notification Setup: Configures how alerts are delivered
Alert Response Plans: Creates action plans for each alert type
Alert History: Tracks alert patterns over time

How to Use

Set Up Alerts

Set up SEO monitoring alerts for [domain]

Create ranking drop alerts for my top 20 keywords

Configure Specific Alerts

Alert me when [specific condition]

Set up competitor monitoring for [competitor domains]

Review Alert System

Review and optimize my current SEO alerts

Data Sources

See CONNECTORS.md for tool category placeholders.

With ~~SEO tool + ~~search console + ~~web crawler connected: Automatically monitor real-time metric feeds for ranking changes via ~~SEO tool API, indexing and coverage alerts from ~~search console, and technical health alerts from ~~web crawler. Set up automated threshold-based alerts with notification delivery.

With manual data only: Ask the user to provide:

Current baseline metrics for alert thresholds (rankings, traffic, backlinks)
Critical keywords or pages to monitor
Alert priority levels and notification preferences
Historical data to understand normal fluctuation ranges
Manual reporting on metric changes when they check their tools

Proceed with the alert configuration using provided parameters. User will need to manually check metrics and report changes for alert triggers.

Instructions

When a user requests alert setup:

Define Alert Categories

## SEO Alert System Configuration

**Domain**: [domain]
**Configured Date**: [date]

### Alert Categories

| Category | Description | Typical Urgency |
|----------|-------------|-----------------|
| Ranking Alerts | Keyword position changes | Medium-High |
| Traffic Alerts | Organic traffic fluctuations | High |
| Technical Alerts | Site health issues | Critical |
| Backlink Alerts | Link profile changes | Medium |
| Competitor Alerts | Competitor movements | Low-Medium |
| GEO Alerts | AI visibility changes | Medium |
| Brand Alerts | Brand mentions and reputation | Medium |

Configure Ranking Alerts

## Ranking Alerts

### Position Drop Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Threshold | Priority | Action |
|------------|-----------|-----------|----------|--------|
| Critical Drop | Any top 3 keyword drops 5+ positions | Position change ≥5 | 🔴 Critical | Immediate investigation |
| Major Drop | Top 10 keyword drops out of top 10 | Position >10 | 🔴 High | Same-day review |
| Moderate Drop | Any keyword drops 10+ positions | Position change ≥10 | 🟡 Medium | Weekly review |
| Competitor Overtake | Competitor passes you for key term | Comp position < yours | 🟡 Medium | Analysis needed |

### Position Improvement Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Threshold | Priority |
|------------|-----------|-----------|----------|
| New Top 3 | Keyword enters top 3 | Position ≤3 | 🟢 Positive |
| Page 1 Entry | Keyword enters top 10 | Position ≤10 | 🟢 Positive |
| Significant Climb | Keyword improves 10+ positions | Change ≥+10 | 🟢 Positive |

### SERP Feature Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| Snippet Lost | Lost featured snippet ownership | 🔴 High |
| Snippet Won | Won new featured snippet | 🟢 Positive |
| AI Overview Change | Appeared/disappeared in AI Overview | 🟡 Medium |

### Keywords to Monitor

| Keyword | Current Rank | Alert Threshold | Priority |
|---------|--------------|-----------------|----------|
| [keyword 1] | [X] | Drop ≥3 | 🔴 Critical |
| [keyword 2] | [X] | Drop ≥5 | 🔴 High |
| [keyword 3] | [X] | Drop ≥10 | 🟡 Medium |

Configure Traffic Alerts

## Traffic Alerts

### Traffic Decline Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Threshold | Priority |
|------------|-----------|-----------|----------|
| Traffic Crash | Day-over-day decline | ≥50% drop | 🔴 Critical |
| Significant Drop | Week-over-week decline | ≥30% drop | 🔴 High |
| Moderate Decline | Month-over-month decline | ≥20% drop | 🟡 Medium |
| Trend Warning | 3 consecutive weeks decline | Any decline | 🟡 Medium |

### Traffic Anomaly Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| Traffic Spike | Unusual increase | 🟢 Investigate |
| Zero Traffic | Page receiving 0 visits | 🔴 High |
| Bot Traffic | Unusual traffic pattern | 🟡 Medium |

### Page-Level Alerts

| Page Type | Alert Condition | Priority |
|-----------|-----------------|----------|
| Homepage | Any 20%+ decline | 🔴 Critical |
| Top 10 pages | Any 30%+ decline | 🔴 High |
| Conversion pages | Any 25%+ decline | 🔴 High |
| Blog posts | Any 40%+ decline | 🟡 Medium |

### Conversion Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| Conversion Drop | Organic conversions down 30%+ | 🔴 Critical |
| CVR Decline | Conversion rate drops 20%+ | 🔴 High |

Configure Technical SEO Alerts

## Technical SEO Alerts

### Critical Technical Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority | Response Time |
|------------|-----------|----------|---------------|
| Site Down | HTTP 5xx errors | 🔴 Critical | Immediate |
| SSL Expiry | Certificate expiring in 14 days | 🔴 Critical | Same day |
| Robots.txt Block | Important pages blocked | 🔴 Critical | Same day |
| Index Dropped | Pages dropping from index | 🔴 Critical | Same day |

### Crawl & Index Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| Crawl Errors Spike | Errors increase 50%+ | 🔴 High |
| New 404 Pages | 404 errors on important pages | 🟡 Medium |
| Redirect Chains | 3+ redirect hops detected | 🟡 Medium |
| Duplicate Content | New duplicates detected | 🟡 Medium |
| Index Coverage Drop | Indexed pages decline 10%+ | 🔴 High |

### Performance Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| Core Web Vitals Fail | CWV drops to "Poor" | 🔴 High |
| Page Speed Drop | Load time increases 50%+ | 🟡 Medium |
| Mobile Issues | Mobile usability errors | 🔴 High |

### Security Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| Security Issue | GSC security warning | 🔴 Critical |
| Manual Action | Google manual action | 🔴 Critical |
| Malware Detected | Site flagged for malware | 🔴 Critical |

Configure Backlink Alerts

## Backlink Alerts

### Link Loss Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| High-Value Link Lost | DA 70+ link removed | 🔴 High |
| Multiple Links Lost | 10+ links lost in a day | 🟡 Medium |
| Referring Domain Lost | Lost entire domain's links | 🟡 Medium |

### Link Gain Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| High-Value Link | New DA 70+ link | 🟢 Positive |
| Suspicious Links | Many low-quality links | 🟡 Review |
| Negative SEO | Spam link attack pattern | 🔴 High |

### Link Profile Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| Toxic Score Increase | Toxic score up 20%+ | 🔴 High |
| Anchor Over-Optimization | Exact match anchors >30% | 🟡 Medium |

Configure Competitor Alerts

## Competitor Monitoring Alerts

### Ranking Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| Competitor Overtake | Competitor passes you | 🟡 Medium |
| Competitor Top 3 | Competitor enters top 3 on key term | 🟡 Medium |
| Competitor Content | Competitor publishes on your topic | 🟢 Info |

### Activity Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| New Backlinks | Competitor gains high-DA link | 🟢 Info |
| Content Update | Competitor updates ranking content | 🟢 Info |
| New Content | Competitor publishes new content | 🟢 Info |

### Competitors to Monitor

| Competitor | Domain | Monitor Keywords | Alert Priority |
|------------|--------|------------------|----------------|
| [Competitor 1] | [domain] | [X] keywords | High |
| [Competitor 2] | [domain] | [X] keywords | Medium |
| [Competitor 3] | [domain] | [X] keywords | Low |

Configure GEO/AI Alerts

## GEO (AI Visibility) Alerts

### AI Citation Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| Citation Lost | Lost AI Overview citation | 🟡 Medium |
| Citation Won | New AI Overview citation | 🟢 Positive |
| Citation Position Drop | Dropped from 1st to 3rd+ source | 🟡 Medium |
| New AI Overview | AI Overview appears for tracked keyword | 🟢 Info |

### GEO Trend Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| Citation Rate Drop | AI citation rate drops 20%+ | 🔴 High |
| GEO Competitor | Competitor cited where you're not | 🟡 Medium |

Configure Brand Alerts

## Brand Monitoring Alerts

### Mention Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| Brand Mention | New brand mention online | 🟢 Info |
| Negative Mention | Negative sentiment mention | 🔴 High |
| Review Alert | New review on key platforms | 🟡 Medium |
| Unlinked Mention | Brand mention without link | 🟢 Opportunity |

### Reputation Alerts

| Alert Name | Condition | Priority |
|------------|-----------|----------|
| Review Rating Drop | Average rating drops | 🔴 High |
| Negative Press | Negative news article | 🔴 High |
| Competitor Comparison | Named in competitor comparison | 🟡 Medium |

Define Alert Response Plans

## Alert Response Plans

### Critical Alert Response (🔴)

**Response Time**: Immediate (within 1 hour)

| Alert Type | Immediate Actions |
|------------|-------------------|
| Site Down | 1. Check server status 2. Contact hosting 3. Check DNS |
| Traffic Crash | 1. Check for algorithm update 2. Review GSC errors 3. Check competitors |
| Manual Action | 1. Review GSC message 2. Identify issue 3. Begin remediation |
| Critical Rank Drop | 1. Check if page indexed 2. Review SERP 3. Analyze competitors |

### High Priority Response (🔴/🟡)

**Response Time**: Same day

| Alert Type | Actions |
|------------|---------|
| Major Rank Drops | Analyze cause, create recovery plan |
| Traffic Decline | Investigate source, check technical issues |
| Backlink Loss | Attempt recovery outreach |
| CWV Failure | Diagnose and fix performance issues |

### Medium Priority Response (🟡)

**Response Time**: Within 48 hours

| Alert Type | Actions |
|------------|---------|
| Moderate Rank Changes | Monitor trend, plan content updates |
| Competitor Movement | Analyze competitor changes |
| New 404s | Set up redirects, update internal links |

### Low Priority (🟢)

**Response Time**: Weekly review

| Alert Type | Actions |
|------------|---------|
| Positive Changes | Document wins, understand cause |
| Info Alerts | Log for trend analysis |

Set Up Alert Delivery

## Alert Notification Setup

### Notification Channels

| Priority | Channels | Frequency |
|----------|----------|-----------|
| 🔴 Critical | Email + SMS + Slack | Immediate |
| 🔴 High | Email + Slack | Immediate |
| 🟡 Medium | Email + Slack | Daily digest |
| 🟢 Low | Email | Weekly digest |

### Alert Recipients

| Role | Critical | High | Medium | Low |
|------|----------|------|--------|-----|
| SEO Manager | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Dev Team | ✅ | ✅ (tech only) | ❌ | ❌ |
| Marketing Lead | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Executive | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |

### Alert Suppression

- Suppress duplicate alerts for 24 hours
- Don't alert on known issues (maintenance windows)
- Batch low-priority alerts into digests

### Alert Escalation

| If No Response In | Escalate To |
|-------------------|-------------|
| 1 hour (Critical) | SEO Manager → Director |
| 4 hours (High) | Team Lead → Manager |
| 24 hours (Medium) | Team → Lead |

Create Alert Summary

# SEO Alert System Summary

**Domain**: [domain]
**Configured**: [date]
**Total Active Alerts**: [X]

## Alert Count by Category

| Category | Critical | High | Medium | Low | Total |
|----------|----------|------|--------|-----|-------|
| Rankings | [X] | [X] | [X] | [X] | [X] |
| Traffic | [X] | [X] | [X] | [X] | [X] |
| Technical | [X] | [X] | [X] | [X] | [X] |
| Backlinks | [X] | [X] | [X] | [X] | [X] |
| Competitors | [X] | [X] | [X] | [X] | [X] |
| GEO | [X] | [X] | [X] | [X] | [X] |
| **Total** | **[X]** | **[X]** | **[X]** | **[X]** | **[X]** |

## Quick Reference

### If You Get a Critical Alert

1. Don't panic
2. Check alert details
3. Follow response plan
4. Document actions taken
5. Update stakeholders

### Weekly Alert Review Checklist

- [ ] Review all alerts triggered
- [ ] Identify patterns
- [ ] Adjust thresholds if needed
- [ ] Update response plans
- [ ] Clean up false positives

Validation Checkpoints

Input Validation

Alert thresholds are based on realistic baseline data
Critical keywords and pages clearly identified
Response plans defined for each alert priority level
Notification channels configured with appropriate recipients

Output Validation

Every metric cites its data source and collection date
Alert thresholds account for normal metric fluctuations
Response plans are specific and time-bound
Source of each alert trigger clearly stated (~~SEO tool API alert, ~~search console notification, ~~web crawler alert, or manual user check)

Example

User: "Set up ranking drop alerts for my top keywords"

Output:

## Ranking Alert Configuration

### Critical Keywords (Immediate Alert)

| Keyword | Current | Alert If | Priority |
|---------|---------|----------|----------|
| best project management software | 2 | Drops to 5+ | 🔴 Critical |
| project management tools | 4 | Drops to 8+ | 🔴 Critical |
| team collaboration software | 1 | Any drop | 🔴 Critical |

### Important Keywords (Same-Day Alert)

| Keyword | Current | Alert If | Priority |
|---------|---------|----------|----------|
| agile project management | 7 | Drops out of top 10 | 🔴 High |
| kanban software | 9 | Drops out of top 10 | 🔴 High |

### Alert Response Plan

**If Critical Keyword Drops**:
1. Check if page is still indexed (site:url)
2. Look for algorithm update announcements
3. Analyze what changed in SERP
4. Review competitor ranking changes
5. Check for technical issues on page
6. Create recovery action plan within 24 hours

**Notification**: Email + Slack to SEO team immediately

Tips for Success

Start simple - Don't create too many alerts initially
Tune thresholds - Adjust based on normal fluctuations
Avoid alert fatigue - Too many alerts = ignored alerts
Document response plans - Know what to do when alerts fire
Review regularly - Alerts need maintenance as your SEO matures
Include positive alerts - Track wins, not just problems

Alert Threshold Recommendations

Recommended Alert Thresholds by Metric

Metric	Warning Threshold	Critical Threshold	Check Frequency
Organic traffic	-15% WoW	-30% WoW	Daily
Average position (tracked KWs)	>3 position drop	>5 position drop	Daily
Pages indexed	-5% change	-20% change	Weekly
Crawl errors	>10 new errors	>50 new errors	Daily
Core Web Vitals	Any metric moves to "Needs Improvement"	Any metric moves to "Poor"	Weekly
Backlinks lost	>5% of total in 1 week	>15% in 1 week	Weekly
AI citation loss	Any key query loses citation	>20% queries lose citation	Weekly
Server errors (5xx)	>1% of pages	>5% of pages	Daily
Security issues	Any detected	Any detected	Daily
Manual penalty	N/A	Any notification	Daily

Alert Fatigue Prevention

Alert Management Best Practices

Practice	Why	How
Tiered severity	Not all alerts need immediate action	Critical: Immediate; Warning: Review daily; Info: Weekly digest
Threshold tuning	Reduce false positives	Start conservative, tighten after 1 month of baseline data
Grouping	Prevent alert storms	Group related alerts (e.g., multiple rank drops = "ranking alert")
Cooldown periods	Avoid repeated alerts for same issue	Do not re-alert on same metric for 24-48 hours
Scheduled digests	Reduce notification volume	Batch non-urgent alerts into daily or weekly email
Auto-resolution	Close alerts when metric recovers	Track recovery and auto-close if threshold restored

Alert Priority Classification

Priority	Response Time	Notification Channel	Example
P0 — Emergency	Within 1 hour	SMS + Slack + Email	Site down, manual penalty, security breach
P1 — Urgent	Same day	Slack + Email	Major traffic drop, crawl blocked, indexing issues
P2 — Important	Within 48 hours	Email + Weekly digest	Rank drops, CWV degradation, backlink loss
P3 — Monitor	Next weekly review	Weekly digest only	Minor fluctuations, new competitor content

Escalation Path Templates

Standard Escalation Flow

Alert Triggers -> Automated Classification -> Route by Priority

P0: Notify SEO Lead + Dev Team immediately
    -> If not acknowledged in 30 min -> Notify Engineering Manager
        -> If not resolved in 2 hours -> Notify VP/Director

P1: Notify SEO Lead
    -> If not acknowledged in 4 hours -> Notify Marketing Manager
        -> Add to next standup agenda

P2: Add to daily digest
    -> If persists >1 week -> Escalate to P1

P3: Add to weekly digest
    -> If persists >1 month -> Escalate to P2

Alert Response Playbooks

Traffic Drop Alert

Step	Action	If True	If False
1	Check if site-wide or page-specific	Go to Step 2a	Go to Step 2b
2a	Check Google Search Status Dashboard for algorithm update	Document and wait	Go to Step 3
2b	Check specific page for technical issues (404, noindex, slow)	Fix technical issue	Go to Step 3
3	Check Search Console for crawl errors or index drops	Fix crawl/index issues	Go to Step 4
4	Check if competitors published new content	Analyze and plan content response	Go to Step 5
5	Check backlink profile for lost links	Outreach for link recovery	Escalate for deeper analysis

Ranking Drop Alert

Step	Action	If True	If False
1	Verify the drop is real (check multiple tools, wait 24-48h)	Confirmed drop, go to Step 2	False alarm, close alert
2	Check if algorithm update occurred	Document, monitor, improve content quality	Go to Step 3
3	Check if your page changed recently	Revert or fix the change	Go to Step 4
4	Analyze the SERP — did a new competitor appear?	Study competitor, plan response	Go to Step 5
5	Check for lost backlinks to the ranking page	Recover links or build new ones	Escalate for full audit

Technical Alert (Site Down / 5xx Errors)

Step	Action	If True	If False
1	Confirm site is actually down (check from multiple locations)	Go to Step 2	Close alert as false positive
2	Check server/hosting status page	Provider issue — contact support, wait	Go to Step 3
3	Check recent deployments or configuration changes	Rollback the change	Go to Step 4
4	Check server resource usage (CPU, memory, disk)	Scale resources or optimize	Escalate to engineering

Reference Materials

Alert Threshold Guide — Recommended thresholds by metric, fatigue prevention strategies, and escalation path templates

Related Skills

rank-tracker — Ranking data for alerts
backlink-analyzer — Backlink monitoring
technical-seo-checker — Technical monitoring
performance-reporter — Alert summaries in reports
memory-management — Store alert history and thresholds in project memory
content-refresher — Content decay alerts trigger refresh workflows

alert-manager