alert-manager

Alert Manager

Sets up proactive monitoring alerts for ranking, traffic, technical, backlink, competitor, and GEO changes.

Quick Start

Set up SEO monitoring alerts for [domain]

Create ranking drop alerts for my top 20 keywords

Skill Contract

Expected output: an alert configuration summary plus the standard handoff summary for memory/monitoring/.

• Reads: baselines, critical keywords/metrics to watch, normal volatility, delivery preferences, and any user-provided or tool data.
• Writes: a user-facing monitoring deliverable and reusable summary.
• Promotes: significant anomalies, durable thresholds, follow-up actions, and pending decisions to memory/open-loops.md.
• Done when: each chosen alert category has a named trigger condition, threshold, and priority; a Critical/High/Medium/Low response plan and delivery routing are defined; and thresholds are tuned to the metric's stated normal volatility.
• Primary next skill: [performance-reporter](../performance-reporter/SKILL.md) when alert output needs a reporting cadence.

Handoff Summary

Emit the standard shape from [skill-contract.md §Handoff Summary Format](../../references/skill-contract.md).

Data Sources

All integrations optional (see [CONNECTORS.md](../../CONNECTORS.md)). With tools, monitor real-time feeds from ~~SEO tool, ~~search console, and ~~web crawler. Without tools, ask for baselines, critical keywords, preferences, and historical data.

Decision Gates

Stop and ask the user when:

• No baseline or normal-volatility reference exists for the metrics to be watched — thresholds would be arbitrary. Offer: (1) supply recent baseline data, (2) use the Quick Reference defaults below and label them Estimated, (3) cancel.

Continue silently (never stop for):

• Which delivery channel to use — default to the channel already in context (or email) and note it.
• A category the user did not mention — leave it unconfigured; do not add alerts they did not request.

Instructions

When a user requests alert setup:

1. Define Alert Categories — choose from rankings, traffic, technical, backlinks, competitors, GEO / AI, and brand alerts.
2. Configure Alert Rules by Category — define trigger condition, threshold, alert name, and priority for each relevant rule; tie each threshold to a stated baseline and label that baseline Measured / User-provided / Estimated.
3. Define Alert Response Plans — map Critical / High / Medium / Low to response time and next actions.
4. Set Up Alert Delivery — configure channels, routing, cooldowns, maintenance windows, and escalation paths.
5. Create Alert Summary — output category counts, the critical playbook, and a weekly review checklist as the deliverable.

Label every metric Measured (tool/export), User-provided, or Estimated (model inference); never present an estimate as measured; if a required metric is unavailable, mark it N/A — do not invent it.

Reference: See [Alert Configuration Templates](references/alert-configuration-templates.md) for the full category tables, thresholds, and response-plan templates.

Example

Sample outcome: a keyword alert matrix with Critical vs High thresholds, a response plan for drops, and notification routing to email + Slack.

Alert Threshold Quick Reference

| Metric | Warning | Critical | Frequency | |--------|---------|----------|-----------| | Organic traffic | -15% WoW | -30% WoW | Daily | | Keyword positions | >3 position drop | >5 position drop | Daily | | Pages indexed | -5% change | -20% change | Weekly | | Crawl errors | >10 new/day | >50 new/day | Daily | | Core Web Vitals | "Needs Improvement" | "Poor" | Weekly | | Backlinks lost | >5% in 1 week | >15% in 1 week | Weekly | | AI citation loss | Any key query | >20% queries | Weekly | | Security issues | Any detected | Any detected | Daily |

Steep-decline trigger (always on): if organic traffic OR aggregate keyword rank falls >30% below its trailing baseline (default: prior 28-day median for the same weekday band), fire a Critical alert regardless of category. Use a trailing median, not a single prior day, so one noisy data point does not trip it. Label the baseline Measured / User-provided / Estimated.

An alert opens a readback window, not an instant verdict. Treat a fired alert as a hypothesis: confirm the drop holds across the readback window before declaring an incident, then promote (incident + rollback/fix) or roll back the alert (transient noise — close it). See [measurement-protocol.md](../../references/measurement-protocol.md) for the window length and promote/rollback rule.

Reference: See [Alert Threshold Guide](references/alert-threshold-guide.md) for threshold setting, fatigue prevention, escalation paths, and response playbooks.

Save Results

Ask "Save these results?" If yes, write to memory/monitoring/ — see [Skill Contract](../../references/skill-contract.md) §Save Results Template.

Reference Materials

• [Alert Threshold Guide](references/alert-threshold-guide.md) — Thresholds, fatigue prevention, and escalation templates

Next Best Skill

Reporting cadence requested → [performance-reporter](../performance-reporter/SKILL.md). Standalone setup → Terminal. Visited-set rule applies per [skill-contract.md](../../references/skill-contract.md).