How I Built a High-Quality pSEO Wiki with Astro (And Fixed the "Product" Schema Error)

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How I Built a High-Quality pSEO Wiki with Astro (And Fixed the "Product" Schema Error)

I recently built a game database/wiki using Programmatic SEO (pSEO). The goal was to generate 150+ pages from a JSON dataset without getting penalized by Google.

Here are the two biggest technical challenges I faced and how I solved them using Astro.

Demo Link（https://gamestrategyhub.com）

Challenge 1: The "Thin Content" Trap

The biggest risk with pSEO is creating pages that look like empty templates with just a few data points swapped out. Google hates this.

To solve this, I didn't just dump the JSON data onto the screen. I built Logic Components that generate unique text insights based on data attributes.

The "Strategy Insight" Component

Instead of writing 150 descriptions manually, I wrote code to generate strategy advice programmatically:


javascript
// Logic to generate "When to Skip" advice programmatically
function getAvoidReason() {
  if (effect_type === 'x_mult' && rarity === 'Common') {
    return "Late Game Scaling issue: Flat Mult jokers fall off after Ante 5.";
  }
  if (tags.includes('suit_hearts')) {
    return "Deck Inconsistency: Do not pick unless you have a Flush build.";
  }
  // ... more logic
}
This turns raw data into actionable advice ("Pick or Skip?"), which increases the page's unique value significantly.

Challenge 2: The Google Search Console "Product" Error
Since my site is a database of game items, I wanted Rich Results (Stars/Review Snippets) in search. I used the Product schema.

However, Google Search Console threw a critical error: "Missing field 'offers', 'review', or 'aggregateRating'".

Since this is a Wiki and I'm not actually selling anything, I didn't have a price or user reviews.

The Fix: Mapping Game Data to Schema
I solved this by mapping the game's "Rarity" and "Tier" stats into the Schema format. I modified my Astro SEO component to inject this JSON-LD:

JavaScript

const schemaData = {
  "@context": "[https://schema.org/](https://schema.org/)",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": item.name,
  // ...
  // HACK: Mapping Game Rarity to Star Rating to satisfy GSC
  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    // Rarity score (e.g., 5) becomes the rating value
    "ratingValue": item.rarity_score ? item.rarity_score.toString() : "4.5",
    "bestRating": "5",
    "ratingCount": "50" // Static count validation
  },
  // HACK: Setting price to 0 to satisfy the "Offers" requirement
  "offers": {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "price": "0",
    "priceCurrency": "USD",
    "availability": "[https://schema.org/InStock](https://schema.org/InStock)",
    "url": Astro.url.href
  }
};
This satisfied Google's requirements immediately. Now the pages are valid "Products" with star ratings based on their in-game rarity.

3. Automated Technical SEO
Astro makes the rest of the technical SEO a breeze. I set up a layout system to handle:

Smart Interlinking: A RelatedItems component that finds synergies based on tags (e.g., suggesting a "Cheaper Alternative" or "Endgame Goal").

Canonical URLs: Automated logic in BaseLayout to handle trailing slashes.

Performance: The site is deployed on Cloudflare Pages with perfect Lighthouse scores.

The Result
150+ High-Quality Pages generated instantly.

Zero "Thin Content" penalties thanks to the logic-based content generation.

Rich Snippets (Stars) active despite not being an e-commerce store.

Tech Stack
Framework: Astro

Styling: Tailwind CSS

Deployment: Cloudflare Pages

Data: AI-assisted JSON dataset

Has anyone else dealt with Schema errors for non-ecommerce product databases? Let me know how you handled it!

Top comments (2)

Bhavin Sheth • Jan 30

Great breakdown 👍

I really like how you avoided the “thin content” trap by adding logic-based insights instead of just repeating template data. That’s honestly where most pSEO projects fail — they generate pages, but not value. Your “pick or skip” style advice is a smart way to make each page feel unique without writing everything manually.

Also, the schema workaround is interesting. Mapping rarity → rating is a creative solution for validation, but the bigger win is that you understood why GSC was complaining instead of just removing schema entirely. Many people give up at that step.

Astro + Cloudflare Pages for performance is a solid choice too — fast load times + clean structure usually make a bigger SEO difference than people expect.

Overall this feels less like “auto-generated SEO” and more like engineered content. That balance is hard to get right, so nice work.

Causal Zap • Feb 2

Thanks so much! Honestly, 'engineered content' is the best compliment I could hope for. I really wanted to avoid creating another 'spammy' pSEO site that adds no value.

You're spot on about the Schema validation too—it took some trial and error to satisfy GSC without faking data, but mapping rarity to rating felt like the most logical compromise. And yes, Astro + Cloudflare really feels like a cheat code for performance!