--- id: aaron-he-zhu/aaron-marketing-skills/domain-authority-auditor version: "608710e5" license: Apache-2.0 install: manual updated: 2026-07-27 --- # domain-authority-auditor — This skill analyzes a domain's citation authority and competitive standing within its market segment. It benchmarks trustworthiness indicators against peer domains to surface authority gaps and opportunities for improvement. Publisher: aaron-he-zhu · Stars: 2469 · Updated: 2026-07-27 Install (manual): `git clone https://github.com/aaron-he-zhu/aaron-marketing-skills` ## SKILL.md # Domain Authority Auditor Audit one domain's citation-trust signals relative to a declared peer cohort. Produce a complete CITE score only when all applicable evidence and comparison context are present. CITE is advisory; it does not predict whether an answer engine will cite the domain. ## When This Must Trigger - The user asks whether a domain is trustworthy, authoritative, or citation-ready. - A campaign needs a peer-relative CITE baseline or rerun. - Link, entity, penalty, or citation evidence may materially change a domain gate. ## Quick Start ```text Audit example.com against these five same-stage U.S. SaaS peers. Run the CITE content-publisher profile; mark every private-data gap Unknown. ``` ## Skill Contract Use `offsite-signal-analyzer` for link diagnosis without a gate, `content-quality-auditor` for one page, and `entity-registry` for canonical entity repair. Compare multiple domains as separate same-profile runs; never score them as one pooled target. **Reads:** one domain, one locked cohort, and dated citation/identity/trust/eminence evidence. **Writes:** only a permissioned v3 artifact. **Done when:** context is complete, all 40 states are explicit, the scorer result is preserved, and any saved artifact validates. ## Instructions ### Runtime Contract Read `../../../references/auditor-runbook.md`, `scoring-semantics.md`, `cite-domain-rating.md`, and the `CITE` entry in `framework-catalog.json`. For standalone installs, use bundled immutable `references/auditor-runtime.md`; never fetch mutable `main` or guess missing policy. Before deterministic calls, follow [`runtime-invocation.md`](../../../references/runtime-invocation.md), resolve `AARON_SKILLS_ROOT="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || true)}"`, and require the scorer, validator, and typed catalogs. If unavailable, return `score_state: NOT_SCORED` / `score_confidence: not_scored` with no gate verdict or persistent artifact. ### Required Setup Declare: - one canonical domain and observation date; - market and entity stage; - domain type/profile: `default`, `content-publisher`, `product-service`, `ecommerce`, `community-ugc`, `tool-utility`, or `authority-institutional`; - a locked peer cohort with inclusion rules and evidence window. Without peer cohort, market, stage, or domain type, return `NEEDS_INPUT/UNDECIDED`; the inherited numeric anchors are diagnostic priors, not universal thresholds. ## Data Sources | Need | Preferred evidence | |---|---| | Links | Dated backlink export/index with known coverage | | Identity | Structured data, canonical profiles, knowledge-graph/public entity evidence | | Trust | Link-history comparison, security checks, authorized console evidence | | Eminence | Search/analytics visibility and locked peer/query panels | | Cohort | Named domains plus inclusion/exclusion, market, stage, type, and window | ### Evidence Procedure 1. Normalize the domain and verify scope (host/subdomain/protocol treatment). 2. Freeze backlink, entity, security, search visibility, citation-panel, and reputation evidence with sources/dates. 3. Evaluate all 40 IDs against the declared cohort. Tool estimates remain `estimated` or `proxy`; user exports remain `user-provided` unless independently verified. 4. Use Unknown for absent backlink indexes, private console data, or comparison universes. Do not mark link-dependent items N/A simply because data is unavailable. 5. Apply catalog-authorized N/A only with a reason, for example an AI-citation item when no locked panel is in scope. 6. Verify vetoes positively: - `CITE-T03`: material link/traffic incoherence plus corroborating manipulation evidence relative to the cohort. - `CITE-T05`: verified manipulation network after common-source/ecosystem adjustment. - `CITE-T09`: verified active manual action or material unresolved deindexing. Domain youth, privacy-protected WHOIS, low absolute volume, or missing private-console access cannot by themselves fail a veto. Create a typed `audit-run.schema.json` input and execute `python3 "$AARON_SKILLS_ROOT/scripts/rubric-score.py" score ` when the verified runtime is available. Never renormalize weights around Unknown items. ## Report Begin with the auditor-runbook's exact typed conversation header. Never replace `status`, `verdict`, or `score_state` with prose; list each explicitly missing qualified item as ``ID: `unknown``` before findings. Lead with verdict, profile/cohort/target/date, score or `NOT_SCORED` coverage/interval, and confidence. Then provide: - C/I/T/E score and coverage table; - peer-relative evidence and cohort definition; - verified risks versus unresolved Unknowns; - top fixes with owner, evidence needed, and rerun condition; - provenance appendix, including qualified IDs when detailed traceability is requested. Use SHIP/FIX/BLOCK/UNDECIDED as the canonical artifact verdict. User-facing prose may say trusted/cautious only as a descriptive translation, never as a separate decision system. ## Verdict Rules - Complete, no veto, healthy score/no failures: `DONE` + `SHIP`. - Complete, remediation needed or one veto: `DONE_WITH_CONCERNS` + `FIX`; one veto caps final at 59. - Complete, 2+ verified vetoes: `DONE` + `BLOCK`; no final score. - Missing applicable/cohort evidence: `NEEDS_INPUT` + `UNDECIDED`; no score. Route link investigation to `offsite-signal-analyzer`, technical/index evidence to `technical-seo-checker`, entity repair to `entity-registry`, and page quality to `content-quality-auditor`. ## §2 CITE Worked Examples - Complete product-service profile, raw 78, one verified T09 failure: `DONE_WITH_CONCERNS/FIX`, final 59. - Complete profile, raw 45, one verified T05 failure: final remains 45; the ceiling never raises a score. - Verified T03 and T05 failures with complete evidence: `DONE/BLOCK`, raw retained, no final score. - Missing backlink universe or private-console evidence: affected items are Unknown and no total is emitted. ## §3 CITE Guardrails - Young domain age and WHOIS privacy are neutral without contradictory evidence. - A press/launch spike can explain link velocity; test the explanation before labeling manipulation. - Absolute volume is interpreted within peer cohort, entity stage, market, and domain type. - Public index absence does not prove a private manual action; T09 requires positive evidence. ## §5 CITE Translation Use plain descriptions by default. On a trace request, show `CITE-T03`, `CITE-T05`, and `CITE-T09` with source/date/cohort; never expose an unqualified ID. ## Persistence Persist only after explicit authorization. Assemble the complete v3 draft, validate it against the intended `memory/audits/domain/YYYY-MM-DD-.md` relative path, persist only through one full-content Write, and revalidate the target. Edit/shell/MCP mutations of the reserved sink are unsupported. Use: ```bash python3 "$AARON_SKILLS_ROOT/scripts/validate-audit-artifact.py" --relative-path ``` The audit request itself does not authorize hot-cache, candidate, or registry writes. ## Validation Checkpoints - Target/profile/market/stage/cohort are explicit and locked. - All 40 IDs have evidence-backed state, Unknown, or valid N/A. - Absolute anchors were not applied as cohort-independent laws. - Vetoes are verified failures, not absence-of-evidence shortcuts. - Scorer output, coverage, confidence, status, and verdict are preserved. - Persisted artifact is permissioned, path-correct, minimized, and validator-clean. ## Reference Materials - [CITE benchmark](../../../references/cite-domain-rating.md) - [Auditor runbook](../../../references/auditor-runbook.md) - [Scoring semantics](../../../references/scoring-semantics.md) - [Offsite signal analyzer](../offsite-signal-analyzer/SKILL.md) ## Next Best Skill - **Investigate links:** [offsite-signal-analyzer](../offsite-signal-analyzer/SKILL.md) - **Repair entity state:** [entity-registry](../../../protocol/entity-registry/SKILL.md) - **Verify technical/index state:** [technical-seo-checker](../../tune/technical-seo-checker/SKILL.md) - **Audit representative content:** [content-quality-auditor](../../tune/content-quality-auditor/SKILL.md) [View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/aaron-he-zhu/aaron-marketing-skills/domain-authority-auditor) · [View on GitHub](https://github.com/aaron-he-zhu/aaron-marketing-skills)