Description
The AI SEO plugin for WordPress. GrowRanko helps your pages get selected and cited by AI search engines — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. This is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): the new layer above traditional SEO that decides which sites AI assistants quote when answering questions.
Run alongside your existing SEO plugin (Yoast, RankMath, AIOSEO). They handle Google rankings; GrowRanko adds the AI-search layer they don’t cover yet.
Background reading on the GrowRanko blog:
- What is llms.txt? A complete WordPress guide for 2026
- How to get your WordPress site cited by ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini
- Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) for WordPress: the 2026 playbook
What you get for free
- AI Visibility Score + history sparkline — every audited page receives a 0–100 citability score across structural and content signals. Plus a 30-entry rolling history so you can see whether your fixes are working over time.
- llms.txt + llms-full.txt generator — automatic machine-readable content index served at your site root.
- Custom llms.txt sections — add your own markdown blocks (About, Services, FAQ, Locations) that get prepended to the auto-generated index so LLMs see your most important context first.
- AI crawler controls — one-click Allow / Block for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, Bingbot, CCBot, Applebot-Extended, Amazonbot, DuckAssistBot and others, written into your robots.txt.
- AI crawler visit counter — see exactly which AI bots have fetched pages from your site in the last 7 days. Proof your work is paying off.
- Live robots.txt preview — see exactly what bots see at /robots.txt right now, including rules from other plugins.
- Auto schema injection — detects FAQ blocks, ordered-list how-tos, and article structure on every published post and page, and injects FAQPage / HowTo / Article JSON-LD into the page head. No setup, included for everyone.
- Schema preview per post — pick any post or page and see the exact JSON-LD being injected into the HEAD.
- Schema dedupe with Yoast / Rank Math / AIOSEO / SEOPress — auto-detects your existing SEO plugin and skips the schema types it already emits, so Google Search Console doesn’t flag duplicates.
- Sitemap picker for audits — discover and audit any URL on your site from a dropdown that reads your existing sitemap (works with core WP, Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO).
- IndexNow integration — automatically pings Bing / Yandex / Naver / Seznam every time you publish or update a post, so they see your changes within seconds instead of waiting for crawl. Free, no API key setup needed.
- Per-page fix recommendations — actionable list of what to improve on each audited URL.
- Clean admin UI — focused on action.
All schema generation, llms.txt rendering, and robots.txt rule writing run locally on your site and are free for every user. No local feature in this plugin is gated by a license, account, email verification, time limit, usage quota or any other restriction — once activated, every in-plugin feature works immediately.
Optional external services (run on plugins.growranko.com)
The plugin offers one optional connection to an external service: the AI Visibility Score audit. The audit fetches and analyses a URL’s HTML on plugins.growranko.com (which calls the Gemini API on our server using our paid API key), then returns the score and fix list. Because the actual processing happens on external servers — and cannot be done locally without distributing our paid API key — the audit qualifies as Serviceware under WordPress.org Plugin Guideline 6.
To use the audit you enter an email and confirm a 6-digit code so the service can issue a per-site quota. This step is only requested inside the audit card itself; it never blocks the rest of the plugin.
A license key is purely optional and only raises the quotas of those external services. It never enables or disables any code that ships inside the plugin.
- Pro tier (external service) — unlimited daily audits, AI-powered rewrite suggestions, and priority email support.
- Agency tier (external service) — Pro features plus a weekly AI Visibility Tracker that queries ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews for your target keywords (Perplexity coming Q3) and logs whether your site is mentioned, plus competitor mention gap analysis, and up to 5 sites.
The free tier of the external audit service (20 audits / day) remains usable indefinitely. Even if you never register an email at all, the local features keep working forever.
Privacy and external services
This plugin connects to plugins.growranko.com to:
- Verify your email and issue a site token (one OTP email).
- Compute the AI Visibility Score for an audited URL — the URL’s HTML is fetched on our server and analysed; results are returned. The HTML is not stored after analysis.
- Validate license keys (only when one is entered).
Privacy Policy: https://plugins.growranko.com/privacy
Terms of Service: https://plugins.growranko.com/terms
Screenshots
AI Visibility dashboard with site score, top fixes, and activity. 
Per-page audit with 0–100 citability score and actionable fix list.
Installation
- Upload the plugin files to
/wp-content/plugins/growranko-ai-search-optimizer/, or install via Plugins Add New Search “GrowRanko”. - Activate it through the Plugins menu.
- Go to GrowRanko in the admin sidebar — the dashboard is fully accessible immediately.
- Use the llms.txt, AI Crawlers, and Schema tabs right away. These features run locally and require no account, no email, and no license.
- (Optional, only if you want the AI Visibility Score audit) — enter your email to receive a 6-digit code. The audit runs on plugins.growranko.com because it fetches and analyses each URL’s HTML on our servers; the email lets us issue a per-site quota.
A license key is optional. Without one you keep all local features (schema, llms.txt, crawler controls) and get 20 audits per day on the external audit service.
FAQ
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Does this replace Yoast or RankMath?
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No. Use Yoast or RankMath for traditional Google SEO. This plugin focuses specifically on AI search optimization — schema for LLMs, llms.txt, and AI crawler control.
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No. No footer credits, no affiliate links, no tracking pixels.
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Do I need an account or API key?
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No account is required for the local features (llms.txt, AI crawler rules, schema injection). Those work the moment you activate the plugin.
If you choose to use the optional AI Visibility Score audit, you enter your email once and confirm a 6-digit code so the external audit service (plugins.growranko.com) can issue a per-site quota. Nothing in the plugin is locked or disabled before that step — only the server-side audit endpoint is gated, because it is the one feature that actually runs on our servers.
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Does it work with any theme?
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Yes. The plugin only outputs JSON-LD schema and serves llms.txt / robots.txt rules — it does not modify your theme or front-end design.
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Is my content sent anywhere?
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Only when you click Run Audit. The audited URL’s HTML is fetched and analysed on our server, then discarded — only the score and the breakdown are stored. Schema generation, llms.txt and robots.txt control all run locally on your site.
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What happens if I cancel a paid plan?
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Your license key stops raising the audit quota — you fall back to the free 20 audits per day. Every other feature (schema, llms.txt, crawler control) keeps working unchanged because none of them depend on a license.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“GrowRanko AI Search Optimizer” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “GrowRanko AI Search Optimizer” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
0.4.0
Major free-tier upgrade — six new features, all running locally on your site at no ongoing cost.
- AI Visibility Score history — every audit is now saved to a rolling 30-entry history. Dashboard shows a sparkline of your score trend and the difference vs your last audit of the same URL, so you can actually see whether your fixes are paying off.
- AI crawler visit counter — a Dashboard panel now shows how many times each AI bot (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Bingbot, etc.) has fetched pages from your site in the last 7 days. Proof your AI SEO work is being read.
- Sitemap picker on the audit form — choose any URL from your sitemap (WP core, Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO) via dropdown instead of typing. Discover pages you forgot to audit.
- Custom llms.txt sections — add your own markdown content (About, Services, FAQ, Locations) that gets prepended to your generated llms.txt above the auto-generated index. Makes your llms.txt unique to your business.
- Schema preview — pick any post or page on the Schema tab and see the exact JSON-LD being injected into its HEAD. Transparency for what’s running automatically.
- Live robots.txt preview — the AI Crawlers tab now renders the actual robots.txt content visitors and bots see, including rules from other plugins.
- Schema dedupe with Yoast / Rank Math / AIOSEO / SEOPress — auto-detects the active SEO plugin and skips the schema types it already emits, so Google Search Console stops flagging duplicates.
- IndexNow integration — every published or updated post pings api.indexnow.org so Bing, Yandex, Naver and Seznam see your changes within seconds. Plugin generates the verification key on activation and serves it at the standard
/{key}.txtpath automatically. - Live preview cards in Pro tabs — the AI Rewrite, Visibility Tracker, and Competitor Gap tabs now show a realistic “this is what Pro looks like” sample, so you can decide if it’s worth upgrading without having to pay first.
- Review nudge — a one-time, dismissible admin notice asking for a WordPress.org review appears after 7 days and at least 3 audits. Dismiss permanently with one click.
- Contextual upgrade tracking — upgrade links now carry a
?source=parameter so we can see which features drive Pro signups (no personal data collected, just which tab the user clicked from). - Verified compatible with WordPress 7.0.
0.3.3
- Verified compatible with WordPress 7.0. Bumped “Tested up to” header. No code changes vs 0.3.2.
0.3.2
- Added background-reading links to the GrowRanko blog (llms.txt guide, ChatGPT citation guide, GEO playbook). No code changes vs 0.3.1.
0.3.1
- Refined wp.org listing copy for clarity (“AI SEO for WordPress” hook). No code changes vs 0.3.0.
0.3.0
- New WP admin tabs for the existing Pro/Agency external services so paying customers can use them without leaving WordPress:
- AI Rewrite tab (Pro) — paste a passage, choose a style (TL;DR-first / shorter sentences / Q&A format), get a citation-ready rewrite back from the external AI Rewrite service.
- AI Visibility Tracker tab (Pro / Agency) — manage tracked keywords (max 3 Pro / 15 Agency), trigger an on-demand run, and see a per-keyword × per-LLM mention table for the last 30 days.
- Competitor Mention Gap tab (Agency) — enter a competitor domain, see which keywords they get cited for that you do not.
- All three tabs are visible to every user with a clear “this is a paid Serviceware feature, here is why it costs money” banner when no license is active. Free users can read what the feature does and click through to the pricing page; the actual API calls are gated server-side.
- Daily audit cap display now correctly reflects the active license (20 free / 100 Pro / 500 Agency).
- Local features (llms.txt, AI crawler controls, schema injection) remain fully unrestricted regardless of license — unchanged from prior releases.
0.2.1
- Plugin URI and “Get a license” buttons updated to the new platform-prefixed URL structure (plugins.growranko.com/wordpress/…).
- Tracker service now queries ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews via OpenRouter + DataForSEO. Perplexity integration deferred to Q3 to keep service costs predictable.
- Tracker keyword caps revised on the service side: 3 keywords (Pro), 15 keywords (Agency), 3 keywords (Lifetime). Aligns external service cost with subscription pricing so the service remains sustainable.
0.2.0
- Pro/Agency external service endpoints are now wired end-to-end. Plugin sends X-GRSO-License header on every request when a license is active so the server can authorize Pro features.
- New external service: AI Rewrite (Gemini-powered) — rewrites a passage into citation-friendly form (TL;DR-first, shorter sentences, or Q&A format). Pro tier.
- New external service: Weekly AI Visibility Tracker — the server queries ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews for your target keywords and logs whether your site is mentioned. Pro tier.
- New external service: Competitor mention gap analysis — pick a competitor domain, see which keywords they get cited for that you do not. Agency tier.
0.1.2
- Fixed Get Pro / Get a license buttons to point at the correct buy page on plugins.growranko.com instead of an inactive URL.
- Fixed llms.txt footer attribution to point at the canonical wp.org plugin page.
0.1.1
- Removed the email/OTP gate from the main dashboard so all local features (llms.txt, AI crawler rules, schema injection) are immediately usable on activation, with no registration required.
- The optional AI Visibility Score audit (the only server-backed feature) now embeds a small inline email/OTP step inside its own card; everything else stays free, local, and unrestricted.
- Clarified copy and installation steps to make the local-vs-service split explicit.
0.1.0
- Initial release.
- AI Visibility Score with structural and content signals.
- llms.txt and llms-full.txt generator.
- AI crawler rule management for 13 AI bots via robots.txt.
- Auto schema injection: FAQPage, HowTo, Article (free for everyone).
- Optional license key for higher service quotas on plugins.growranko.com.
- WordPress 6.4+ and PHP 8.1+ compatible.