rationalwp

Rational SEO provides 100% of the technical SEO requirements for modern sites with 0% of the database bloat, UI clutter, or performance drag.
<h4>Philosophy</h4>
Rational SEO rigorously rejects features that do not directly influence search engines or social crawlers:
<ul>
<li>No Content Scoring – No traffic lights, readability checks, or keyword density counters</li>
<li>No Dashboard – No “SEO Overview” widget or React-powered admin home</li>
<li>No Analytics – No ranking tracking or Google Search Console API integrations</li>
<li>No Frontend Assets – Zero CSS or JS files loaded on the frontend</li>
<li>No 404 Logging – Never writes 404 hits to the database</li>
</ul>
<h4>Features</h4>
Meta Tags
<ul>
<li>Custom title tags with configurable separator</li>
<li>Meta descriptions (manual or auto-generated from excerpt/content)</li>
<li>Robots meta (index/noindex control)</li>
<li>Canonical URLs</li>
<li>Google and Bing verification meta tags</li>
</ul>
Social Media
<ul>
<li>Open Graph tags (og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url, og:type, og:locale, og:site_name)</li>
<li>Twitter Cards (summary or summary_large_image)</li>
<li>Per-post social image override</li>
</ul>
Structured Data
<ul>
<li>JSON-LD schema output using @graph format</li>
<li>Organization or Person schema (configurable)</li>
<li>WebSite schema with publisher linking</li>
<li>WebPage schema</li>
<li>Article schema on posts/pages with author, dates, and images</li>
</ul>
XML Sitemaps
<ul>
<li>Sitemap index at /sitemap.xml</li>
<li>Per-post-type sitemaps with pagination</li>
<li>Transient caching with stale-while-revalidate</li>
<li>Content freshness filtering (exclude old content)</li>
<li>Post type exclusions</li>
</ul>
Editor Integration
<ul>
<li>Meta box on all public post types</li>
<li>Custom SEO title and description fields</li>
<li>Focus keyword field with real-time presence indicators (title, description, first paragraph, URL slug)</li>
<li>Noindex toggle per post</li>
<li>Canonical URL override</li>
<li>Social image override</li>
<li>Taxonomy term SEO fields (title, description, noindex, canonical)</li>
</ul>
Post Type Archives
<ul>
<li>Custom SEO title and description for each post type archive</li>
<li>Configure via Settings > Rational SEO > Archives tab</li>
</ul>
AI Assistant (optional)
<ul>
<li>AI-powered focus keyword suggestions</li>
<li>AI-generated SEO titles and meta descriptions</li>
<li>One-click “Suggest All” for keyword, title, and description together</li>
<li>Uses OpenAI GPT-4o-mini (requires your own API key)</li>
<li>Data sent only when you click — never in the background</li>
</ul>
<h3>External Services</h3>
This plugin connects to the following external services:
<h4>RationalWP Plugin Directory</h4>
This plugin fetches a list of available RationalWP plugins from <a href="https://rationalwp.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">rationalwp.com</a> to display in the WordPress admin menu. Only the menu file version number is sent as a cache-busting query parameter. No user data is transmitted. The response is cached locally for 24 hours.
<ul>
<li>Service URL: <a href="https://rationalwp.com/plugins.json" rel="nofollow ugc">https://rationalwp.com/plugins.json</a></li>
<li>Terms of Service: <a href="https://rationalwp.com/terms/" rel="nofollow ugc">https://rationalwp.com/terms/</a></li>
<li>Privacy Policy: <a href="https://rationalwp.com/privacy/" rel="nofollow ugc">https://rationalwp.com/privacy/</a></li>
</ul>
<h4>OpenAI API (optional)</h4>
This plugin provides optional AI-powered SEO suggestions using the <a href="https://openai.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">OpenAI API</a>. When a site administrator configures an OpenAI API key in Settings > Rational SEO > General, users can click “Suggest” or “Generate” buttons in the post editor to receive AI-generated focus keywords, SEO titles, and meta descriptions.
Data is only sent when a user explicitly clicks an AI suggestion button. The data sent includes the post title and up to 2000 characters of post content (stripped of HTML), along with the user’s own API key for authentication. No data is sent automatically or in the background.
<ul>
<li>Service URL: <a href="https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions" rel="nofollow ugc">https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions</a></li>
<li>Terms of Use: <a href="https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use/" rel="nofollow ugc">https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use/</a></li>
<li>Privacy Policy: <a href="https://openai.com/policies/privacy-policy/" rel="nofollow ugc">https://openai.com/policies/privacy-policy/</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Hooks for developers</h3>
RationalSEO exposes a complete set of filters and actions so themes and plugins can customize or extend output without forking the plugin. All hooks were introduced in version 1.0.6.
<h4>Short-circuit filters</h4>
Return non-null to short-circuit default resolution; return null to fall through to internal logic.
These filters let you override the data that RationalSEO resolves internally. Return a non-null value to bypass the built-in logic entirely, or return null to let RationalSEO proceed as normal.
<ul>
<li><code>rationalseo_og_image_data</code> — Return a (partial) image data array; missing keys are filled with safe defaults. Signature: <code>($pre, $context)</code>.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_meta_description</code> — Return a string to override the meta description. An empty string <code>''</code> means “explicitly no description” and suppresses the tag. Signature: <code>($pre, $context)</code>.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_post_seo_meta</code> — Return an array of post SEO meta to override the database lookup. Signature: <code>($pre, $post_id)</code>.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_term_seo_meta</code> — Return an array of term SEO meta to override the database lookup. Signature: <code>($pre, $term_id)</code>.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Per-value filters</h4>
These filters run on the resolved value just before it is output. All use the signature <code>($value, $context)</code>.
<ul>
<li><code>rationalseo_document_title</code> — string. The <code><title></code> tag value before output.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_canonical_url</code> — string. The <code>rel=canonical</code> URL before output.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_robots</code> — array. The robots directives array (joined with <code>,</code> for output).</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_og_locale</code> — string. <code>og:locale</code> value before output.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_og_type</code> — string. <code>og:type</code> value (e.g. <code>website</code> / <code>article</code>) before output.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_og_title</code> — string. <code>og:title</code> value before output.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_og_description</code> — string. <code>og:description</code> value before output.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_og_url</code> — string. <code>og:url</code> value before output.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_og_site_name</code> — string. <code>og:site_name</code> value before output.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_twitter_card_type</code> — string. <code>twitter:card</code> value before output.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_twitter_title</code> — string. <code>twitter:title</code> value before output.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_twitter_description</code> — string. <code>twitter:description</code> value before output.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Skip filters</h4>
Return a truthy value to suppress an entire output block. Signature: <code>($skip, $context)</code>.
<ul>
<li><code>rationalseo_skip_meta_description</code> — Skip the meta description tag entirely.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_skip_canonical</code> — Skip the canonical link tag entirely.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_skip_open_graph</code> — Skip all Open Graph tags entirely.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_skip_twitter_cards</code> — Skip all Twitter Card tags entirely.</li>
</ul>
Example — disable Open Graph on the entire site:
<pre><code>add_filter( 'rationalseo_skip_open_graph', '__return_true' );
</code></pre>
<h4>Action injection points</h4>
These actions fire immediately before and after each social meta block is emitted. They fire only when the block is not skipped via the corresponding skip filter. Signature: <code>do_action( '...', $context )</code>.
<ul>
<li><code>rationalseo_before_open_graph</code> — Fires before the Open Graph tags are output.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_after_open_graph</code> — Fires after the Open Graph tags are output.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_before_twitter_cards</code> — Fires before the Twitter Card tags are output.</li>
<li><code>rationalseo_after_twitter_cards</code> — Fires after the Twitter Card tags are output.</li>
</ul>
Example — append a custom og:* tag after the standard Open Graph block:
<pre><code>add_action( 'rationalseo_after_open_graph', function( $ctx ) {
 // Append extra og:* tags here.
 echo "<meta property=\"og:custom\" content=\"value\" />\n";
} );
</code></pre>
<h4>The $context array</h4>
All per-value filters, skip filters, and action hooks receive a <code>$context</code> array as their last argument. It is built by the internal <code>build_context()</code> method and always contains the following keys:
<ul>
<li><code>mode</code> — string. One of: <code>front_page</code>, <code>home</code>, <code>singular</code>, <code>archive_term</code>, <code>archive_post_type</code>, <code>archive_author</code>, <code>archive_date</code>, <code>search</code>, <code>404</code>, <code>fallback</code>.</li>
<li><code>queried_object</code> — mixed. Result of <code>get_queried_object()</code> at resolution time. May be <code>WP_Post</code>, <code>WP_Term</code>, <code>WP_Post_Type</code>, <code>WP_User</code>, or <code>null</code>.</li>
<li><code>post_id</code> — int. Queried post ID when on a singular view; <code>0</code> otherwise.</li>
<li><code>term_id</code> — int. Queried term ID when on a taxonomy archive; <code>0</code> otherwise.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Worked example</h4>
Override <code>og:type</code> to <code>event</code> for a custom post type, leaving all other post types unchanged:
<pre><code>add_filter( 'rationalseo_og_type', function( $type, $context ) {
 if ( 'singular' === $context['mode'] && 'tribe_events' === get_post_type( $context['post_id'] ) ) {
 return 'event';
 }
 return $type;
}, 10, 2 );
</code></pre>
(<code>tribe_events</code> is illustrative — works for any CPT slug.)

RationalSEO

Technical SEO essentials with zero bloat. No dashboards, analytics, content scoring, or frontend assets.

Serphot

SEO Forge is an all-in-one solution for SEO optimization of WordPress websites, providing all the essential tools to improve search engine rankings.
<h3>Key Features:</h3>
📊 SEO Analytics & Views Counter 
* Detailed page view statistics by different time ranges 
* Interactive charts by days, weeks, months, and years 
* Track popular content 
* Author-based view statistics 
* Import/export view data
🗺️ XML Sitemaps 
* Automatic XML sitemap generation for all content types 
* Support for posts, pages, categories, tags, and authors 
* Image sitemap for improved media indexing 
* News sitemap for Google News 
* Automatic splitting of large sitemaps 
* HTML sitemap for users
🎯 SEO Meta Tags 
* Custom SEO Titles and Descriptions for all pages 
* Template support with dynamic tags 
* Progress bar to control meta length 
* Automatic canonical link generation 
* Hreflang support for multilingual sites
📱 Open Graph & Social Media 
* Configurable Open Graph tags 
* Facebook, Twitter, and other social media support 
* Automatic featured image for sharing
🏗️ Schema.org Markup 
* Automatic markup for articles, organizations, and products 
* Built-in FAQ block support 
* Author profile markup 
* Breadcrumbs 
* Structured data for different content types
🔧 Advanced SEO Tools 
* Robots.txt file management 
* Remove category base from category URLs 
* Automatic URL transliteration 
* Built-in spell checker 
* Export SEO data to Yoast SEO
🧩 Gutenberg Blocks 
* FAQ block with automatic structured data 
* Pros & Cons block 
* Full Gutenberg compatibility
🌐 Multilingual 
* Full Polylang support 
* Automatic hreflang tags 
* Localized SEO templates 
* Language-specific sitemaps
<h3>Detailed Usage Guide</h3>
<h3>🎯 Setting Up SEO Meta Tags</h3>
Step 1: Go to SEO Forge → SEO Templates
Here you can configure templates for all page types: 
– Posts 
– Pages 
– Categories 
– Tags 
– Author Archives 
– Date Archives 
– Search Results 
– 404 Pages
Step 2: Use Available Template Tags
In Title and Description fields you can use: 
– <code>{site_name}</code> – website name 
– <code>{current_title}</code> – current title (works for all page types) 
– <code>{category}</code> – category name 
– <code>{separator}</code> – separator (|) 
– <code>{year}</code> – current year
Example template for posts: 
 <code>Title: {current_title} {separator} {site_name} 
Description: Read the article "{current_title}" on {site_name}. Updated information for {year}.</code>
Step 3: Individual Settings
For each post/page you can set: 
– Meta Title (with progress bar for 50–65 characters) 
– Meta Description (with progress bar for 160–180 characters) 
– Custom URL Slug
<h3>📊 Using the Views Counter</h3>
Viewing statistics: 
1. Go to SEO Forge → View Statistics 
2. Select a time period: today, week, month, year, or all time 
3. Filter by page type, category, or author 
4. Explore interactive charts
Shortcodes: 
– <code>[ONEX-TOTAL-VIEWS]</code> – total views of the current post 
– <code>[ONEX-TODAY-VIEWS]</code> – today’s views 
– <code>[ONEX-WEEK-VIEWS]</code> – weekly views 
– <code>[ONEX-MONTH-VIEWS]</code> – monthly views 
– <code>[ONEX-AUTHOR-TOTAL-VIEWS]</code> – total views of the author 
– <code>[ONEX-AUTHOR-WEEK-VIEWS author_id="1"]</code> – author’s weekly views
PHP template usage: 
 `php 
$views_counter = \OnexSEO\Post_Views_Counter::get_instance();
echo $views_counter->get_post_views(get_the_ID()); 
echo $views_counter->get_post_views_today(get_the_ID()); 
echo $views_counter->get_post_views_this_week(get_the_ID()); 
echo $views_counter->get_post_views_this_month(get_the_ID()); 
echo $views_counter->get_post_views_range(get_the_ID(), ‘2023-01-01’, ‘2023-01-31’);
echo $views_counter->get_author_total_views(get_the_author_meta(‘ID’));
$top_posts = $views_counter->get_top_posts_by_period(‘week’, 5); 
$top_posts = $views_counter->get_top_posts_by_period(‘week’, 5, 15); // Category ID 15 
$top_posts = $views_counter->get_top_posts_by_period(‘total’, 10, null, 1); // Author ID 1 
 `
<h3>📱 Open Graph Settings</h3>
Step 1: Go to SEO Forge → Open Graph
Step 2: Configure defaults: 
– Site name for social media 
– Default description 
– Default sharing image 
– Content type (website, article, etc.)
Step 3: Per-page/post: 
– Featured Image is used automatically 
– If none, the default image is applied 
– Title and Description are pulled from SEO settings
<h3>🗺️ XML Sitemaps</h3>
Automatic generation: 
– Main sitemap: <code>yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml</code> 
– Image sitemap: <code>yourdomain.com/sitemap-images.xml</code> 
– News sitemap: <code>yourdomain.com/sitemap-news.xml</code>
Content type settings: 
1. Go to SEO Forge → Dashboard 
2. Choose which content types to include 
3. Save settings
HTML sitemap: 
1. Go to SEO Forge → Dashboard 
2. Click “Create HTML Sitemap” 
3. A new page with interactive sitemap will be generated
<h3>🏗️ Schema.org Markup</h3>
Automatically added for: 
– Articles (Article) 
– Organizations (Organization) 
– Author profiles (Person) 
– Breadcrumbs (BreadcrumbList) 
– FAQ blocks
Additional fields: 
1. Edit post/page → SEO settings section 
2. Fill in extra Schema.org fields 
3. Data will be automatically included
<h3>🧩 Gutenberg Blocks</h3>
FAQ Block: 
1. In Gutenberg editor click “+” 
2. Find “SEO FAQ” block 
3. Add questions and answers 
4. FAQPage schema is generated automatically
Pros & Cons Block: 
1. Find “Pros & Cons” block 
2. Add pros in green area 
3. Add cons in red area 
4. Customize styles if needed
<h3>🔧 Advanced Tools</h3>
Robots.txt management: 
1. Go to SEO Forge → Dashboard 
2. Edit robots.txt content 
3. Save changes
Remove category base: 
– Automatically active after installation 
– Changes <code>/category/name/</code> to <code>/name/</code>
URL transliteration: 
– Cyrillic slugs are automatically converted to Latin 
– Works for new posts/pages
Spell checker: 
– Integrated spell check in editor 
– Highlights mistakes and suggests fixes
<h3>📊 Import/Export Data</h3>
Export to Yoast SEO: 
1. Go to SEO Forge → Export to Yoast SEO 
2. Click “Start Export” 
3. All SEO data will be transferred
Import from other plugins: 
1. Go to SEO Forge → Import SEO 
2. Select source (Yoast, RankMath, etc.) 
3. Click “Import Data”
<h3>👤 Author Page SEO</h3>
Setup: 
1. Go to Users → Your Profile 
2. Scroll to “SEO settings for author page” 
3. Enable/disable indexing (noindex switch) 
4. Set SEO Title & Description for each language
Available tags for authors: 
– <code>{site_name}</code> – site name 
– <code>{current_title}</code> – author name 
– <code>{category}</code> – main category 
– <code>{separator}</code> – separator 
– <code>{year}</code> – current year
<h3>🌐 Multilingual (Polylang)</h3>
Automatic features: 
– Hreflang tag generation 
– Language-specific sitemaps 
– Localized templates
Per-language settings: 
1. Templates adapt to active languages 
2. SEO metaboxes per language 
3. Open Graph generated per language
<h3>📈 Dashboard & Analytics</h3>
Dashboard includes: 
– Quick actions 
– View statistics 
– Sitemap status 
– Configuration check
Views column in admin: 
– Automatically added to posts/pages list 
– Shows number of views 
– Sortable by views
<h3>Troubleshooting</h3>
Issue: Views not showing 
– Ensure counter is enabled 
– Check DB tables exist 
– Clear cache
Issue: Sitemaps not generating 
– Check permalink settings 
– Ensure content types are selected 
– Regenerate permalinks
Issue: SEO fields not saving 
– Check user permissions 
– Verify nonce check 
– Clear browser cache
Issue: Schema not visible 
– Test with Google Structured Data Testing Tool 
– Fill required fields 
– Check conflicts with other plugins
<h3>Requirements</h3>
<ul>
<li>WordPress 5.0+</li>
<li>PHP 7.4+</li>
<li>MySQL 5.6+</li>
<li>Recommended: PHP 8.0+, MySQL 8.0+</li>
</ul>
<h3>Compatibility</h3>
Compatible plugins: 
* Polylang 
* WooCommerce (basic support) 
* Contact Form 7 
* Gutenberg blocks
Tested with themes: 
* Twenty Twenty-Three 
* Twenty Twenty-Two 
* Astra 
* GeneratePress 
* OceanWP
<h3>Updates</h3>
When updating, all settings/data are preserved. Recommended: 
1. Backup your site before major updates 
2. Test after updating 
3. Clear site cache 
4. Regenerate permalinks (Settings → Permalinks → Save)
<h3>Support</h3>
Official support: 
* Documentation included 
* GitHub repository 
* Developer site: https://serphot.com/
Bug reports: 
Provide: 
1. WordPress & plugin version 
2. List of active plugins 
3. Problem description 
4. Steps to reproduce
Feature requests: 
We welcome your suggestions.
<h3>License</h3>
This plugin is licensed under GPL v2 or later.
<h3>Credits</h3>
Thanks to all users for feedback. Special thanks to: 
* WordPress community 
* Polylang developers 
* Testers & contributors
<h3>Additional Information</h3>
Performance: 
* Optimized SQL queries 
* Efficient caching 
* Minimal page load impact 
* Asynchronous stats loading
Security: 
* Sanitized & escaped data 
* Nonce checks 
* User capability checks 
* SQL injection protection
Accessibility: 
* Semantic HTML 
* Keyboard navigation 
* High-contrast UI 
* Screen reader friendly
For more info visit the official plugin website.

SEO Forge

A powerful SEO plugin with support for all content types, automatic XML sitemap generation, Schema.org markup, and comprehensive analytics.

RationalSEO vs SEO Forge