Commander SEO + Performance Refresh for 2025

We tightened the foundation of takescake so it ranks, loads, and converts better—without touching the fun parts of searching and scanning cards.

What Changed

• Homepage promise and metadata now emphasize Commander-grade search, full-screen scanning, NLWeb conversational APIs, and nightly TCGplayer pricing instead of generic AI buzzwords.
• New “Built for speed, crawlability, and trust” section highlights our fast defaults, structured data, and affiliate hygiene right on the homepage.
• Posts index metadata ships with canonical, OG/Twitter, and clearer descriptions, improving click-through for /posts and feed pages.
• Cached markdown reads for posts cut duplicate filesystem work on the server, keeping response times predictable as the library grows.

Why It Helps

• Search intent alignment: Titles and descriptions now match what players actually look for—Commander staples, scanners, and price sanity checks—improving SERP relevance.
• Affiliate compliance: We keep sponsored rel attributes and tcgplayer wrapping front-and-center so outbound links stay trustworthy.
• Performance headroom: Caching and static rendering defaults reduce server churn while preserving hourly freshness for posts and pricing.

How to Verify

1. Open / and confirm the hero/title/taglines mention Commander-first search, scanning, and TCGplayer pricing.
2. Scroll to “Built for speed, crawlability, and trust” for the new SEO/perf-focused callouts.
3. Visit /posts and check the page source for updated OG/Twitter metadata plus the canonical link to /posts.
4. Crawl logs should show fewer repeated reads per post thanks to cached markdown parsing.

What’s Next

• Ship an in-app traffic dashboard backed by the new attention-weighted telemetry.
• Expand structured data coverage on deck and scanner pages to surface richer cards-inventory snippets.
• Add automated lighthouse + Core Web Vitals checks to CI so regressions get flagged before deployment.