Shipped Information Gain on all 18 `/topics/{id}` leaves: grouped decision tables, workflows, cluster examples, best-for cards, and ten-locale copy; choose/guide prose is no longer rendered. | Dev Logs

Date: 2026-09-02 11:17 Summary: Shipped Information Gain on all 18 /topics/{id} leaves: grouped decision tables, workflows, cluster examples, best-for cards, and ten-locale copy; choose/guide prose is no longer rendered. Visibility: people

[question] 执行进行优化topic页面

[try to solve]

Context

Topic leaves at /topics/{id} were still thin after a same-day guide+FAQ pass: 18 pages shared one isomorphic template (intro → choose → limits → guide → homepage cards → FAQ×4). A second analysis showed a larger directory-farm risk (/where-to-use-tools and /tool-type), but the user asked to thicken topics first and not 301/noindex taxonomy without a separate confirmation.

Quality bar for this ship: every named tool must have at least one sentence that is false on the homepage card (required inputs, failure mode, or “use another slug”). Tables are a format, not the gain. Do not clone tool-page formulas. Do not add empty isomorphic tables. H1 is a decision question; nav label stays a short tag.

Process

1. Added a catalog-aligned structure module (scripts/site/topic-ig.mjs): per topic, groups[].slugs, ordered workflow, relatedTopics, optional citations, ymyl / localCluster. Prompt cluster workflow is two steps (prompt-template-builder then writing-prompt-generator). Science workflow is velocity then acceleration.
2. Rewrote the leaf renderer (scripts/site/components/content-topics.mjs):
   • Does not render choose or guide bodies.
   • Grouped decision tables (job / link to /tools/{slug} / need / skip).
   • Ordered workflow (<ol>) only when there are at least two steps.
   • Cluster numeric/process example.
   • Limits plus related-topic links and clickable authority URLs (WHO on health).
   • Primary cards grouped with best-for blurbs (topic_*_card_*), not homeDesc.
   • Secondary cards use a why-this-is-secondary line.
3. Authored EN and ZH independently, then eight more locales (es/ar/pt plus id/fr/ja/ru/de) with the same keys. Generator scripts/site/build-topic-ig.mjs flattens to scripts/site/i18n-topic-ig.mjs and checks: every primary slug in a table row, every secondary slug has a why, flow length matches structure, FAQ = 4, English meta desc 120–160 characters.
4. Merged IG last in t() so title/desc/intro/FAQ from IG override older topic + guide shards. i18n merge order: topic → guide → IG.
5. English business-finance meta desc was 165 characters; shortened to the 120–160 gate, then regenerated.
6. npm run build:site:full (this repo has no build:site alias). Spot-checked prerendered HTML. lint:seo passed (existing title/orphan warnings only).

Root cause / analysis

Homepage cards already say what a tool is. Repeating tool names in a “how to pick” paragraph adds tokens, not facts. SERP PDF hubs already show feature matrices; a second matrix of card titles would be zero incremental value. The incremental facts live in need (what you must already have) and skip (when this slug fails or another slug is the job). Grouping by sub-job (merge vs compress vs protect; platform size vs generic compress) stops one giant isomorphic table.

Choose vs guide had high lexical overlap; rendering neither avoids the same paragraph twice. FAQ now answers questions the table cannot (rights/DRM, “is this a diagnosis”, upload policy), not a fifth recitation of slugs.

Taxonomy leaves remain homepage clones. That is a scaled-content risk, but changing their indexability is a product decision (301 vs noindex vs unique modules) and was out of scope.

Solution

Live leaf shape (example: English /topics/pdf-docs):

• H1: “Merge, compress, or protect: which PDF step first”
• Grouped tables with tool links (/tools/merge-pdf, etc.)
• Workflow: merge → organize → compress once → protect last
• Worked example: 12-page pack vs 8 MB email cap
• Cards use table “need” facts, not home blurbs
• #topic-ig-table (old #topic-guide id retired)

Health (zh) includes a WHO obesity/overweight fact-sheet link. Japanese chrome is Japanese (not Portuguese leftovers from an earlier scaffold).

Regenerate copy with npm run build:topic-ig after editing topic-ig-copy-*.mjs. That script is not wired into build:site:full; the generated i18n-topic-ig.mjs is what pages read.

Notes / boundaries

• Did not 301 or noindex /where-to-use-tools or /tool-type. Confirm before any crawl change.
• Did not add FAQPage schema for rich results (FAQ rich results retired). Visible Q&A remain for humans.
• lint:taxonomy still fails on pre-existing writing-prompt-generator: missing/invalid scenario writing; unrelated to this topic pass.
• Interactive browser click-through was not available in this session; verification was prerendered HTML + renderer smoke tests.
• Old choose/guide i18n keys remain in shards so a rollback is possible; they are unused in the leaf template.

[actions]

• Added scripts/site/topic-ig.mjs, build-topic-ig.mjs, topic-ig-copy-en.mjs, topic-ig-copy-zh.mjs, topic-ig-copy-rest*.mjs, generated i18n-topic-ig.mjs.
• Updated leaf renderer, tool-card desc override, i18n.mjs merge, public/styles/site.css, package.json script build:topic-ig.
• Regenerated site with npm run build:site:full; rebuilt topic HTML after #topic-ig-table id change; gzipped _pages.