Content Kanban & Node-SEO Playbook

Pillar + Neighborhood/ZIP Clusters

Each node is a hub-and-spoke. One authoritative city pillar page links down to a cluster of neighborhood/ZIP child pages. Depth signals topical authority; thin nodes never rank.

• City pillar exists with hero, market dashboard, author block, FAQ, voice section (mirrors Houston flagship)
• 8–12 neighborhood child pages, each with its own ZIP, price band, school district, flood profile
• Every child page links UP to the pillar and ACROSS to 2–3 partner neighborhoods
• No orphan pages — every node page reachable within 2 clicks from the hub

Five Required JSON-LD Blocks Per Node

Schema is how machines (Google + AI crawlers) understand the page. The Houston flagship ships four; we standardize on five for every node — add VideoObject wherever a neighborhood reel exists.

• All 5 schema blocks present and valid (test in Google Rich Results Test)
• FAQ JSON-LD text matches the visible on-page FAQ word-for-word
• dateModified updated on every content refresh
• areaServed lists the actual neighborhood child pages as Neighborhood entities

Hub → City → Neighborhood + Corridor Cross-Links

Link equity flows along the structure. The network hub links to each city node; each city links down to its neighborhoods and across to relocation corridors that connect cities.

• Vertical: Network hub → City pillar → Neighborhood child → (back up to pillar). Breadcrumb nav on every page (Houston flagship uses a sticky navy breadcrumb).
• Corridor cross-links: "Los Angeles → Houston" and "New York → Houston" pages link BOTH endpoint city nodes, weaving the network together.
• Partner links: each neighborhood page links to 2–3 comparable neighborhoods (price tier / school district peers).
• Descriptive anchors: never "click here" — use "River Oaks luxury homes" as the anchor text.

• Sticky breadcrumb: Hub / City / Neighborhood on every page
• Each corridor page links to both origin and destination city nodes
• XML sitemap + HTML hub index include every node page
• Zero orphan pages (crawl with Screaming Frog or equivalent to confirm)

Named Local Correspondent + Credentials

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust. Anonymous content loses to authored content. Each node names a real local correspondent/author with verifiable credentials.

• Author block on every page (Houston flagship: Joseph Diosana, photo/initials, title, license, brokerage).
• Credentials surfaced: brokerage (Keller Williams), associations (HAR, NAR, TREC), years/transaction volume, license #.
• First-person voice section ("From the Field") — original, on-the-ground insight no AI can fabricate. This is the strongest E-E-A-T signal.
• Author entity reconciled in Article + RealEstateAgent schema (same name, same Person).

• Named author with photo, title, brokerage, and license on every node page
• First-person voice/perspective section with specific, dated, local observations
• Author Person entity consistent across schema and visible byline
• Off-site author corroboration (GBP profile, brokerage page, LinkedIn) — same name/entity

The Asset That Earns Citations & AI Quotes

The single biggest differentiator. Generic prose is ignored; specific, structured, proprietary numbers get quoted by AI and cited by other sites. The Houston flagship's market dashboard (price/sqft by ZIP, DOM, YoY, inventory) is the template.

• Price / sq ft by ZIP — granular, neighborhood-level, in a structured table.
• Days on Market (DOM) by neighborhood — a number competitors rarely publish cleanly.
• YoY price change per enclave — directional, with honest disclaimers (Houston flagship footnotes the River Oaks zip-median caveat).
• Migration / relocation flows — "$3M in River Oaks = $8–12M in Bel Air"; budget-conversion stats are extremely quotable.
• Active inventory tier — scarcity signals ("West U has only 3,200 lots in 1.4 sq mi").

• Structured market-data table with price/sqft, DOM, YoY, inventory per neighborhood
• At least 3 "quotable" stat sentences (budget conversions, scarcity facts, growth leaders)
• Honest sourcing + disclaimer line (Redfin/Zillow/HAR composite, updated quarterly)
• Data refreshed on cadence; dateModified bumped each refresh

Get Cited by AI — Stats, Quotes, Direct Answers, llms.txt

AEO = the outcome where ChatGPT/Gemini/Perplexity serve OUR content as the answer, with our brand and a connect link. Achieved by structuring for extraction.

• Direct-answer format: FAQ answers 40–90 words, lead with the answer, then support — exactly how the Houston FAQ is written.
• Stats & named quotes: attributed figures ("up 0.9% YoY") and a named human quote (the voice section) — both heavily favored for citation.
• llms.txt + llms-full.txt at site root (network already ships these) — declares canonical entity, services, brand for AI crawlers.
• robots.txt explicitly allows AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended).
• Brand semantic triples + consistent NAP (name/address/phone) across the network.

• FAQ answers in lead-with-answer, 40–90 word direct-answer format
• 3+ attributed stats and 1+ named human quote per node
• llms.txt + llms-full.txt present; node referenced in them
• robots.txt allows GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended
• Spot-check: ask ChatGPT/Perplexity the node's head query, confirm we surface

Refresh Cadence + Technical Performance

Stale + slow = sinks. Both freshness and speed are ranking and citation inputs.

• Freshness cadence: market dashboard refreshed quarterly; voice/insight section refreshed when the market shifts; dateModified bumped each time.
• Core Web Vitals: the flagship is a single static HTML file with inline CSS, preconnected fonts, no render-blocking JS — LCP < 2.5s, CLS < 0.1, INP < 200ms by design.
• Static-first: keep node pages as static HTML on CDN provider Pages (edge-cached); avoid heavy frameworks.
• Mobile-first: responsive grid (flagship collapses cluster grid + data table cleanly under 768px).

• Quarterly data refresh scheduled; dateModified accurate
• PageSpeed Insights: all three CWV green on mobile + desktop
• Inline critical CSS, preconnect fonts, no render-blocking scripts
• Responsive verified at 480 / 768 / 1140px breakpoints

Citations, Google Business Profile, Reviews

On-page is necessary but not sufficient. Off-site signals corroborate the entity and drive local pack + map visibility.

• Google Business Profile: claimed, complete, NAP-consistent with every node; categories + service areas match the city.
• Review velocity: steady stream of Google reviews (flagship links "Read our Google Reviews"); accelerate via post-close ask.
• Citations / directories: consistent NAP across HAR, Zillow, Realtor.com, brokerage directory, local chambers.
• Featured-in / association badges: KW, HAR, NAR, TREC (flagship trust strip) — corroborate authority.

• GBP claimed + NAP-consistent with the node
• "Read our Google Reviews" link + active review-generation flow
• NAP consistent across 5+ authoritative directories
• Association/brokerage badges present and linked