Description

VDL Search Visibility Scanner builds a local Visibility Map for your WordPress site. It helps site owners find public pages that may be risky or invisible to search engines because of technical visibility problems.

This is not a ranking tracker, SEO content generator, backlink tool, or generic SEO suite. It focuses on technical discoverability signals.

What it checks

WordPress discourage search engines setting
robots.txt reachability
sitemap reachability
sitemap reference in robots.txt
homepage status
selected public pages and recent posts
noindex robots meta
canonical tag status
title tag presence
meta description presence
sitemap coverage gaps
basic redirect chains

Visibility Map

Results are grouped into:

Homepage
Pages
Posts
Sitemap
Robots

Each result is classified as Discoverable, Risky, Invisible, or Expected with a priority label. The priority engine separates true visibility blockers from mild metadata cleanup.

Results also include a visibility impact label and classification reason so site owners can see why an item is urgent, moderate, low-impact, or expected.

What to fix first

The dashboard groups findings into:

Fix now: true visibility blockers
Fix soon: discovery and coverage risks
Optional cleanup: metadata and content polish
Expected: utility, legal, search, and system exclusions

Expected results are common utility-page signals, such as noindex on checkout or account pages, that should not be treated like broken public-page visibility.

Likely important pages

The scanner highlights pages commonly important for search visibility, such as the homepage, shop pages, product pages, top-level pages, and posts. Utility pages such as cart, checkout, and account pages are kept calm when noindex is expected.

External services

The scanner runs locally against the current site and does not require an external API.

The “Get Help Fixing This” button is a normal external link to VaultDevLabs. No scan data is sent automatically. The link may include summary counts and the current site URL in the URL query so you can request a manual review.

Screenshots

Command Center dashboard with priority-driven status, Visibility Map, and local export actions.
Fix First grouped diagnostics separating blockers, discovery risks, cleanup, and expected exclusions.
Diagnostic result cards with Visibility Journey signals for HTTP, robots, noindex, canonical, and sitemap.
Likely Important Pages panel showing pages commonly important for search visibility.
Detailed results and HTML export report with priority, impact, classification, and comparison context.

Installation

Upload the plugin files to /wp-content/plugins/vdl-search-visibility-scanner/ or install the ZIP.
Activate the plugin.
Open Visibility Scanner in wp-admin.
Click Run Full Scan.

FAQ

Does this plugin submit my pages to Google or Bing?: No. V1 checks visibility signals only. It does not submit URLs or scrape search results.
Does this plugin use an external API?: No external API is required for scanning. The only external navigation is the optional support/review link clicked by an administrator.
Does this guarantee indexing or ranking?: No. It identifies technical signals that may affect discoverability. It does not guarantee indexing, rankings, traffic, or search engine behavior.
Why are only some URLs scanned?: V1 uses a focused capped scan so it stays fast and safe for WordPress admin use. It checks the homepage, posts page, top-level pages, latest posts, and sampled sitemap URLs.

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“VDL Search Visibility Scanner” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

VaultDevLabs

Translate “VDL Search Visibility Scanner” 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

Redesigned the admin dashboard as a decision-first Visibility Command Center.
Added grouped diagnostic cards for Fix now, Fix soon, Optional cleanup, and Expected findings.
Added client-side filters for all findings, priority groups, important pages, expected items, and cleanup.
Added Visibility Journey strips derived from existing HTTP, robots, noindex, canonical, and sitemap signals.
Moved the full table into a secondary Detailed results section and improved local export placement.
Improved likely important page and since-last-scan panels for faster scan interpretation.

0.3.1

Added translator comments for placeholder strings flagged by Plugin Check.
Removed unnecessary CSV stream close to avoid filesystem-operation warnings.
Documented AJAX nonce verification for Plugin Check static analysis.

0.3.0

Added classification reasons to results, admin table, and CSV/HTML exports.
Added Visibility Impact labels: Critical, Moderate, Low, and Expected.
Updated hero status logic so optional cleanup does not overstate visibility risk.
Added Likely Important Pages panel and importance reasons.
Polished Since Last Scan comparison with new, resolved, unchanged, new critical, and new moderate counts.
Expanded exports with impact, classification, importance, comparison, site URL, and generated timestamp fields.

0.2.0

Added priority engine with Fix now, Fix soon, Optional cleanup, and Expected labels.
Added What To Fix First panel so visibility blockers are separated from mild metadata hygiene.
Added page context detection for homepage, posts page, WooCommerce product/shop/cart/checkout/account, legal/privacy, archives, search pages, posts, pages, and public URLs.
Added previous-vs-latest scan comparison summary for new, resolved, and unchanged actionable issues.
Added priority and context columns to CSV and HTML exports.

0.1.1

Added expected handling for common utility pages such as cart, checkout, account, legal, search, category, and tag pages when noindex is likely intentional.
Reduced noisy top issues by excluding expected utility noindex findings from critical issue ranking.

0.1.0

Initial standalone local scanner with Visibility Map dashboard, sitemap/robots checks, invisible page scan, retest URL, and export links.