Changelog

New sidebar navigation – All plugin screens now share a persistent left-hand sidebar, giving you one-click access to Dashboard, Settings, Image SEO, Redirections, 404 Monitor, Schema Templates, Rank Tracker, and all other modules from any page

Dashboard SEO Scores widget – A new SEO Scores card on the dashboard shows a Good / OK / Poor breakdown of your published content, with a post-type switcher (Posts, Pages, and any custom post types) and direct View links that open the post list pre-filtered by score band

Settings tabs reorganised – Image SEO moved from the Advanced tab to General (where always-on core features live); AI Meta Generator API keys and model preferences moved from Advanced to Tools; 404 Monitor removed from Settings entirely (free) — access it directly via the sidebar link

Added: Sitemap post-type exclusions - choose which post types to include or exclude from your XML sitemap

Added: Split archive noindex controls - separately control noindex for author archives, date archives, and media attachment pages

Added: Organization / Person Knowledge Graph schema - output JSON-LD on your homepage to power Google Knowledge Panels

Added: Global robots snippet controls - set max-snippet, max-image-preview, and max-video-preview directives site-wide

Added: Facebook App ID and Twitter/X site handle settings for Open Graph and Twitter Cards

Duplicate redirect entries when the same source URL is saved more than once

Auto-created redirects causing double-prefix URLs on subdirectory installs

Bulk delete on Redirections page returning "No IDs provided" error

404 Monitor prune lock now set before the COUNT query to prevent excessive database queries

Breadcrumbs module - complete rewrite - The breadcrumb trail builder has been rebuilt from the ground up as a shared static method (`build_trail()`) used by both the visual renderer and JSON-LD schema output, ensuring they never drift out of sync. The trail now handles WooCommerce products (shop page + deepest product category ancestors), standard blog posts (blog archive page + category ancestors), hierarchical pages (all page ancestors), custom post types (archive link + first hierarchical taxonomy path), taxonomy archives (term ancestors for nested categories/tags), date archives (year, month, day with linked parent levels), search results, 404 pages, and author archives. All breadcrumb links include `aria-current="page"` on the final item for accessibility and Google compliance. Breadcrumbs - dedicated Settings tab - A new Breadcrumbs tab appears in Settings when the module is active. It is automatically hidden when the module is disabled and the settings page redirects to General. The tab provides Display Settings (separator field with quick-pick buttons for common characters, home label, prefix text, include archive page toggle) and a Usage card with the PHP function and shortcode reference.

Settings - Robots & Indexing tab reordered - The robots.txt editor and LLMs.txt cards now appear at the top of the tab, with the noindex settings card below. Files that are actively served take visual priority over indexing directives.

Features page - Configure links - All modules on the Features page now show a Configure link pointing directly to their relevant settings section: Breadcrumbs to `#breadcrumbs`, IndexNow to `#tools`, LLMs.txt to `#robots`, Robots to `#robots`. Modules with no dedicated settings section show an Active badge only.

Tools tab - IndexNow key file link - The "Key file served at: /hash.txt" label has been replaced with "Key file: View key file" to avoid repeating the key hash that is already shown above. Bulk Editor - private posts excluded - Private posts and non-navigable post types (Elementor templates, JetEngine templates, etc.) are now excluded from all Bulk Editor queries, the post count, the status dropdown, and the Average SEO Score calculation.

Breadcrumb CSS - CSS custom properties - Frontend styles now use CSS custom properties (`--rbs-bc-link`, `--rbs-bc-current`, `--rbs-bc-sep-color`, `--rbs-bc-size`) with defaults, making Pro style overrides possible without modifying the stylesheet. Font size unified to 16px (14px on mobile). Elementor kit override compatibility added via `!important` on color and font-size declarations.

Meta title - archive pages - Post type archives, date archives (year/month/day), and author archives now generate proper titles. Previously post type archive pages fell through to the `else` branch returning only the site name.

Meta title - template variable resolution - `%post_title%` in a taxonomy title template now resolves to the term title instead of showing literally when called without a post object. All remaining unresolved `%variable%` placeholders are automatically stripped after replacement so they never appear in the browser tab.

Meta description - archive and search pages - Meta descriptions are now generated for post type archives (using the post type description), author archives (using the author bio), and search result pages (a "Search results for: query" string). Previously these pages output no description at all.

Error with Yoast SEO - `RankBixSEO_TOC::add_heading_ids()` and `maybe_auto_insert()` declared a strict `string` type on the `$content` parameter. Yoast SEO calls `get_the_excerpt()` internally which triggers the `the_content` filter with `null`, causing a fatal TypeError. Both methods now accept `?string` (nullable) and return early safely.

Title template `%post_title%` not replaced on archives - When a taxonomy title template was saved containing `%post_title%`, it was passed through `resolve_template()` with a null post object, leaving the placeholder literal in the browser title.

Post type archives showing only site name - `get_title()` had no `is_post_type_archive()` branch, so post type archive pages returned only `get_bloginfo('name')` instead of the archive title.

SEO Analyzer - A new "SEO Analyzer" tab on the Site Audit page lets you fetch any URL and run a full SEO health check on it, exactly as a search engine would see the page. The analyzer scores the page out of 100 and groups results into Basic SEO (title tag, title length, meta description, description length, H1, H2 headings, canonical URL, indexability), Content (word count, image alt text, structured data, Open Graph, Twitter Cards), and Technical (HTTPS, redirect detection, viewport meta, HTML language attribute, response time, page size, cache headers). Each failed or warned check shows a direct fix link - either to the post editor, the Social settings, Schema settings, or Advanced settings - so you can act on findings in one click. The last report is saved site-wide so any admin who opens the page sees the same results. The URL input defaults to the site home page. Score history (last 10 runs) is stored and a trend badge (for example "up +8" or "down -3") appears next to the score on each fresh analysis, showing how the page has changed since the previous run. A "Showing last saved report" banner with a Re-analyze button appears when cached results are auto-loaded on page open.

Elementor SEO panel - A dedicated SEO tab now appears in the Elementor editor sidebar alongside the Elements and Globals tabs. The panel includes a live Google SERP preview card (showing the post's OG image or featured image thumbnail, URL breadcrumb, title, and description - all updating in real time as you type), an SEO Title field, a Meta Description field, a Focus Keyword field, and an Advanced tab with Canonical URL, Robots directives (noindex, nofollow, noarchive, nosnippet), and a Cornerstone Content flag. All fields save automatically when you click Elementor's own Update button - no separate save action needed. The panel is hidden for Elementor template post types (elementor_library, landing pages, floating buttons) where per-post SEO data is not applicable. A Generate button appears next to the SEO Title and Meta Description fields to produce AI-written copy via whichever provider is configured in Settings (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Groq, or Cohere) using the post title, content, and focus keyword.

Bulk Editor - AI generation - A "Generate SEO for selected" button appears in the Bulk Editor toolbar when one or more rows are checked. Clicking it processes each row sequentially, filling any empty SEO Title, Meta Description, and Focus Keyword fields using whichever AI provider is configured in Settings (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Groq, or Cohere). Content sent to the AI is cleaned of shortcodes and excess whitespace before the request is made. If no AI key is set, the plugin derives values from the post title and first paragraph instead. Existing field values are never overwritten. A rate limit of 200 AI calls per hour applies.

Homepage SEO - static front page notice - When WordPress is configured to use a static page as the front page (Settings > Reading), the Homepage SEO section in the plugin's General settings now displays a notice explaining that the page's SEO fields should be edited directly on that page, with a button to open it for editing. Only the Title Separator field remains visible in this state, as it applies site-wide rather than to the front page specifically.

Bulk Editor - per-page 30-row option - The rows-per-page selector now includes a 30-row option alongside the existing 20, 50, 100, and 200 options. The default is 20 rows per page.

WordPress core sitemap suppressed - When the Rank Bix SEO sitemap module is active, WordPress's built-in sitemap (`/wp-sitemap.xml`) is now automatically disabled. Having two sitemaps active at once causes duplicate URLs and confuses search engine crawlers. If the sitemap module is turned off, the WordPress default comes back as normal.

Duplicate Page - page builder CSS regeneration - When duplicating a page built with Elementor, Beaver Builder, Bricks, Oxygen, or Divi, the builder's cached CSS (tied to the original post ID) was copied to the duplicate. The builder then skipped regeneration and served stale or mismatched styles on the new post. The CSS cache meta keys (`_elementor_css`, `_fl_builder_cache_ver`, `_bricks_page_styles`, `ct_css_style`, `_et_pb_css`) are now excluded from the duplicate copy, forcing each builder to generate clean, post-ID-correct CSS on first open.

LLMs.txt - file now generates reliably - The LLMs.txt file failed to generate or regenerate on sites where the legacy rankbix_seo_llmstxt_enabled database option had previously been set to disabled. The enabled state is now read from the module toggle (consistent with all other modules) rather than the stale option, so the file is written correctly whenever the LLMs.txt module is active - no manual workaround or settings re-save needed.

Sitemap cache - busts on term edits and unpublish - The cached sitemap was not invalidated when a category or tag was edited, or when a published post was moved back to draft or private. Both gaps are now covered: editing any taxonomy term triggers a cache bust via the edited_term hook, and any post transition away from published does the same.

robots.txt - created vs updated feedback - The “Generate robots.txt” button now reports “robots.txt created.” when no file existed, and “robots.txt updated.” on subsequent saves, so you can tell at a glance whether the file was new or replaced.

IndexNow - pings on trash, delete, and unpublish - IndexNow previously only pinged search engines when a post was published or updated. It now also pings when a post is trashed, permanently deleted, or moved to draft or private, so search engines are notified promptly to re-crawl and drop the URL from their index.

Duplicate Page - admin notice after duplicate - After duplicating a post, a dismissible success notice now appears at the top of the page with a direct “Edit the new draft” link, making it easy to open the copy immediately without hunting for it in the post list.

Breadcrumbs - Untitled fallback - Breadcrumb ancestor links and the current-page label no longer show an empty label when a post has no title. “Untitled” is displayed instead, keeping the trail readable.

LLMs.txt - preview of auto-generated default in settings - The LLMs.txt settings field now includes a collapsible “Preview auto-generated default” section showing exactly what the plugin would write to /llms.txt if the content field is left blank, so you can review it before deciding whether to customise it.

404 Monitor - Export CSV button - A new “Export CSV” button on the 404 Monitor page downloads all logged 404 errors as a dated CSV file (URL, Referrer, Hits, First Seen, Last Seen), suitable for analysis in a spreadsheet or importing into a redirect tool.

Smart SEO Dashboard u2014 full site SEO overview: average score across all content, GSC clicks & impressions, 404 errors, active redirects and every module's on/off status in one view.

GSC Performance u2014 real Google Search Console data inside WP-admin: 28-day clicks, impressions, CTR and average position, near-ranking keyword opportunities (positions 4u201320), low CTR wins and traffic-drop alerts.

Full Site Audit u2014 one-click crawler for all published posts and pages: categorised Critical, Warning and Opportunity issues with AI step-by-step fix guidance.

Schema Templates u2014 build reusable JSON-LD templates (Article, Product, Review, Event, HowTo, FAQ and more) per post type with dynamic variables; update all matching pages from a single save.

Video SEO Sitemap u2014 auto-discovers embedded YouTube and self-hosted videos and generates a Google-compliant video sitemap with thumbnails and durations.

WooCommerce SEO Booster u2014 Product, Offer and Review schema auto-generated from product data; category SEO templates; stock-aware meta titles and descriptions.

White-Label Client Reports u2014 replace the Rank Bix logo with your agency brand, set colours and contact details, then generate PDF SEO reports your clients see as yours.

User Role Manager u2014 granular per-role access control: decide which WordPress user roles can view or edit SEO fields, run audits, manage redirects or access reports u2014 down to individual feature level.

Priority Support & Licence-based Updates u2014 automatic plugin updates delivered via the Rank Bix licence server (including staging environments); dedicated priority support queue.

Image Alt Audit — New admin page at Rank Bix SEO → Image Alt Audit. Browse all media images, see missing-alt stats, fix inline, and auto-fill all missing in 30-image AJAX batches with character-count colour coding. Toggleable from the Features page.

FAQ & HowTo Gutenberg Blocks — Two dynamic blocks (rankbix-seo/faq, rankbix-seo/howto) inject FAQ and HowTo JSON-LD schema automatically. Server-side rendered so schema stays current without re-saving posts.

Page Builder Content Extraction — New RankBixSEO_ContentExtract class reads real post content from Elementor, Beaver Builder, Bricks, Oxygen, Divi, and WPBakery. All keyword analysis, readability scoring, and AI generation now use page-builder-aware content.

robots.txt Editor & Tester — Replaces the plain textarea with a two-tab widget. The Editor tab shows syntax-highlighted WP-managed rules (read-only) plus an editable custom rules area with continuous line numbers. The Tester tab evaluates any URL path against any crawler using the Google longest-path-wins spec, returning an Allowed/Blocked badge and the matching rule.

Toolbar — SEO score badge — Colour-coded score badge (green 70+, amber 40–69, red below 40) next to the plugin name in the admin bar when viewing or editing a singular post. Reads the stored score — no on-the-fly recalculation.

Toolbar — Mark this page — Submenu with instant AJAX toggles for Cornerstone Content, NoIndex, and NoFollow. A green ✓ shows the active state with no page reload. Works on the frontend and in the post editor.

Toolbar — Duplicate shortcut — A Duplicate link appears directly in the Rank Bix SEO toolbar (after Settings) when the Duplicate module is enabled, the post type is allowed, and the user has the required role. Replaces the old standalone admin bar button.

robots.txt — physical file support — When a physical robots.txt exists at the site root the Editor reads and displays it. New Regenerate, Delete, and Generate buttons manage the file without FTP.

Settings — 404 Monitor tab visibility — The 404 Monitor tab in Settings is now hidden when the module is disabled.

Settings — Save Settings button on 404 Monitor tab — The Save Settings button is now hidden automatically when the AJAX-only 404 Monitor tab is active.

Redirections — notices in page header — Action notices (saved / deleted / updated) now render as flash banners above the form, not inside the header layout.

Features page — New Rank Bix SEO → Features page with toggle switches for individual modules: XML Sitemap, Redirections, 404 Monitor, Duplicate Page, Breadcrumbs, IndexNow, LLMs.txt, Broken Link Checker, Table of Contents, and Robots.txt. Data is preserved when a module is disabled.

Content Manager — Bulk SEO Editor and Import SEO are now unified under Rank Bix SEO → Content Manager with two tabs, replacing the previous separate submenu items.

Multilingual — Polylang & WPML — SEO title, description, and focus keyword are registered as translatable fields with Polylang Pro. SEO meta is auto-copied when a new translation is created. WPML support via wpml_object_id filter.

XML Sitemap — hreflang alternates — Multilingual sites (Polylang / WPML) now include <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="..."> tags for every available translation, plus an x-default entry.

Admin navigation — Sidebar nav adds Content Manager and Features as dedicated items. Redirections, 404 Monitor, and Duplicate Page are hidden automatically when their module is disabled.

Sitemap under Settings — Sitemap configuration moved to Settings → Sitemap tab. The old standalone menu item 301-redirects for backwards compatibility.

XML Sitemap structure corrected — sitemap index now properly outputs <sitemapindex> listing individual sub-sitemaps per content type rather than a flat <urlset>.

“Back to Sitemap Index” navigation link now functions correctly.

404 Monitor enhancements — added summary stat cards (Total URLs, Total Hits, Top URL, Last 24h) and a 14-day bar chart showing new 404 URLs discovered daily.

Bulk SEO Editor coverage panel — displays percentage of posts with SEO title and meta description set, with fillable progress bars and “Fix N missing” quick-links.

Google SERP preview — live search result preview below the Homepage Meta Description field in General settings, updating in real time as you type.

Duplicate Page SEO copy control — new checkbox controls whether SEO title, description, focus keyword and noindex flag are copied to duplicated posts (enabled by default).

Sitemap XSLT browser view u2014 XML sitemaps now include a stylesheet processing instruction, rendering a styled HTML page in browsers while remaining clean XML for crawlers.

WordPress Dashboard Widget — “Rank Bix SEO Overview” panel showing SEO health status, key site statistics (Posts, Pages, Redirects, 404 Errors, Broken Links) and quick-action buttons.

Admin Toolbar menu now always visible; new “Show SEO alert badges” toggle replaces previous visibility control.

Added 308 redirect type (permanent, method-preserving) to the Redirections manager.

Settings navigation now uses URL hash for correct tab opening on page load.

AI Keys settings now document where keys are stored and offer hardening via wp-config.php.

Critical settings bug resolved — saving Duplicate Page settings no longer wipes General settings.

SEO health alerts in toolbar — red badge appears when critical issues are detected, with one-click fix links. Alerts cover: “Discourage search engines” enabled, plain permalink structure, conflicting SEO plugins, missing homepage SEO title and disabled XML sitemap.

Settings page remembers active tab across saves via sessionStorage and supports direct URL linking via hash (e.g. #advanced).

SEO score formula unified between post listing and meta box; score badge tooltip now shows all 11 checks with pass/fail status.

Dashboard stats include 404 Errors and Broken Links counts when those modules are enabled.

LLMs.txt card shows live file status indicator.

Documentation, Support and Rate Plugin links added to the plugins list row.

Google PageSpeed Insights toolbar link URL corrected to use /analysis?url=.

Tools settings UI overhaul — IndexNow, LLMs.txt, 404 Monitor and Broken Link Checker grouped with clearer labels, toggle descriptions and a manual broken link scan button.

Importer result messages now report exact counts of transferred items.

Onboarding checklist added for new users; auto-hides when all steps are complete.

AI Meta Generator — fixed “Generate Title + Description” returning only title; updated default models (Gemini 2.0 Flash, Claude Haiku 4.5, Llama 3.1); Cohere upgraded to v2 API; maxOutputTokens increased from 400 to 800.

Table of Contents — fixed auto-insert on front end and with Gutenberg content; redesigned styling with CSS variables, card shadow and responsive mobile handling.

AI generate buttons remain functional after provider selection and page reload.

Fixed layout overflow on Bulk SEO Editor on narrow screens.

Tools settings toggles now save correctly when multiple options are changed simultaneously.

IndexNow integration — auto-notifies Bing, Yandex and IndexNow-participating search engines on post/page publish or update.

LLMs.txt — serves /llms.txt describing your site to AI systems; opt-in AI crawler blocking via robots.txt.

404 Monitor — logs 404 errors to the database (up to 500 entries, auto-pruned). Shows URL, referrer, hit count and last-seen date. “+ Redirect” button pre-fills the redirections form.

Broken Link Checker — background WP-Cron job checks external links via HTTP HEAD requests. Stores up to 50 broken links.

Tools settings tab — centralises IndexNow, LLMs.txt, 404 Monitor and Broken Link Checker settings.

WordPress toolbar menu — quick links to Dashboard, Settings, Redirections, Sitemap, Bulk SEO and 404 Monitor.

Gemini API key now sent via X-Goog-Api-Key header instead of URL query parameter.

Added rate limiting (20 requests per user per hour) to the AI generation handler.

Added explicit capability check to render_duplicate_page().

XML sitemap output cached in a one-hour transient with auto-invalidation on publish.

AI provider model list loaded lazily via AJAX when the AI tab opens, removing up to four blocking HTTP requests.

Duplicate Page title prefix/suffix settings now take effect correctly.

SEO title & meta description with template variables (%post_title%, %site_name%, %sep% and more).

Open Graph & Twitter Cards with per-post social image overrides.

XML & HTML Sitemap u2014 auto-generated, cached, supports Google News sitemap and image entries.

Schema / JSON-LD u2014 Article, Product, Review, HowTo, FAQ, BreadcrumbList, LocalBusiness u2014 generated automatically.

Keyword analysis and 15-point live SEO scoring in the WordPress post editor.

Image SEO u2014 auto-fills missing alt text and title attributes.

Breadcrumbs shortcode and template function with BreadcrumbList structured data.

Duplicate Page u2014 clone posts, pages and custom post types with all SEO meta preserved.

Redirections u2014 301 / 302 / 307 with CSV import/export and hit counter.

Bulk SEO Editor u2014 edit titles, descriptions and focus keywords across all posts in one screen.

AI Meta Generator u2014 generate titles and descriptions with your own OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Groq or Cohere API key.

Table of Contents with smooth scroll, shortcode and auto-insert.

Custom robots.txt rules and custom canonical URLs.

One-click importer from Yoast SEO, Rank Math and All in One SEO.