Description

Technical SEO for WordPress with strong Vietnamese-language support — accent-aware processing, Vietnamese keyword analysis, and a bundled Vietnamese translation.

RankVN SEO is a lightweight, fast, and feature-rich search engine optimization plugin built for WordPress sites. It provides all standard, non-AI SEO capabilities in the Free Core tier to ensure competitive parity and performance.

Key features include:
* Meta Title & Description: Easily customizes Google search snippets for posts, pages, and homepages.
* Open Graph & Twitter Cards: Enriches social media previews with secure image sizing, section mapping, and author references.
* Unified Schema Graph: Outputs a single, connected JSON-LD block linking WebSite, WebPage, Article, Author, and Breadcrumb List.
* XML & HTML Sitemap: Automatically generates search engine-friendly XML sitemaps and customizable HTML sitemaps.
* Robots.txt & Robots Meta: Edits virtual robots.txt files and configures noindex, nofollow, or noarchive tags per page.
* Canonical URL: Prevents duplicate content issues with customizable canonical tags.
* Table of Contents: Inserts automated, responsive heading-based tables of contents via shortcode.
* Reader Rating Widget: Allows visitors to rate posts, automatically generating valid AggregateRating schema.
* Image Alt Text Guard: Scans your Media Library for missing alt attributes and applies suggestions in bulk.
* Media Health Check: Scans and reports potential orphan media files, oversized images, and broken links.

RankVN SEO Free is lightweight, privacy-focused, and executes zero remote scripting or telemetry tracking without consent.

External Services

This plugin can connect to the following third-party services. All of them are OPT-IN — nothing is contacted until you explicitly enable/configure it in the plugin settings.

IndexNow

Used to notify search engines (Bing, Yandex, and others) that a URL was added or updated, so they recrawl it faster. When enabled, on publish/update the plugin sends the changed URL and your site’s IndexNow key to https://api.indexnow.org. No visitor or personal data is sent.
Protocol/terms: https://www.indexnow.org/ · Bing privacy: https://privacy.microsoft.com/privacystatement

Google Tag Manager (GTM)

Optional. Loaded only if you enter a GTM container ID. The plugin outputs Google’s GTM loader (https://www.googletagmanager.com) so tags you configure in your own GTM account run on your site. Data sent is defined by your GTM configuration.
Terms: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/tag-manager/use-policy/ · Privacy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Optional. Loaded only if you enter a GA4 Measurement ID. The plugin outputs Google’s gtag.js loader (https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js) to send visitor analytics to your GA4 property.
Terms: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/us/ · Privacy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Microsoft Clarity

Optional. Loaded only if you enter a Clarity project ID. The plugin outputs the Clarity loader (https://www.clarity.ms) to send session/heatmap analytics to your Clarity project.
Terms: https://clarity.microsoft.com/terms · Privacy: https://privacy.microsoft.com/privacystatement

Note: the SEO analysis feature may fetch pages on your own website (same domain) to read their rendered HTML; no data is sent to any third party.

The Free version does not include any licensing or AI client and never contacts a RankVN server; all AI features are part of RankVN SEO Pro only.

Privacy

RankVN SEO Free does not send your site data externally by default.
* IndexNow: only active if you enter an IndexNow key; sends the submitted public URL plus the key (see External services).
* Google Tag Manager / Google Analytics 4 / Microsoft Clarity: tracking snippets are only rendered if you explicitly enable them and enter the corresponding ID; data is then collected by those third parties from visitors’ browsers.
* Reader Ratings: stores total vote counts and rating averages in local WordPress post metadata only. No visitor IP addresses, browser cookies, or personal tracking tokens are collected.
* The Free version does not contact a RankVN server; licensing and AI features are Pro-only.

Installation

Upload the rankvn-seo folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory, or upload the ZIP file directly via the WordPress admin panel.
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
The Activation Guard will automatically verify minimum PHP (7.4+) and WordPress (6.0+) requirements. If requirements are not met, the plugin will deactivate gracefully with a notice to prevent site crashes.

FAQ

Does RankVN SEO Free require an active license to run?: No, the Free Core tier is fully functional when deactivated. You can access all standard schema, sitemaps, and on-page auditing tools without connecting to any external services.
Does RankVN SEO Free consume AI credits?: No, all AI suggestions, automatic property extractions, and Server C orchestration workflows are Pro features. The Free version works completely locally on standard rules.
Does the Free version contact the RankVN server?: No. The Free build does not bundle the licensing or AI client at all, so it never contacts the RankVN server. License activation, credits, and AI features exist only in RankVN SEO Pro.
Does the Reader Rating widget collect IP addresses?: No. In compliance with strict privacy guidelines, visitor ratings are aggregated as simple counts and averages in your database. No visitor IPs, browser cookies, or tracking headers are stored.
Is the plugin optimized specifically for Vietnamese?: RankVN SEO focuses on the Vietnamese language and Vietnamese businesses: accent-aware processing, Vietnamese keyword analysis, and a fully localized Vietnamese interface (English source strings + bundled Vietnamese translation).
Which Schema types does the Free version support?: The Free Core tier fully supports the standard schema types, including: WebSite, WebPage, Article (BlogPosting/NewsArticle), BreadcrumbList, AggregateRating (post ratings), and 5 manual schema types (FAQPage, HowTo, Product, Course, LocalBusiness).
What is the llms.txt file for?: The llms.txt file provides a specially formatted summary and structure of your website that helps large language models (LLMs / AI crawlers) read, analyze, and index your site content more effectively.

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“RankVN SEO” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Rankvn1988

Translate “RankVN SEO” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

4.2.3

Hardening: escaped the table-of-contents toggle label, validated the settings tab against a strict allow-list before saving, and hardened all JSON-LD output against script-tag breakout.

4.2.2

Hardening: escaping, nonce/capability checks, and input sanitization reviewed across admin screens and schema output for the WordPress.org guideline review.

4.2.1

All 18 schema types (Product, Recipe, Event, LocalBusiness, Review, VideoObject, JobPosting, Course, SoftwareApplication and more) are now available in Free — add, edit and output JSON-LD with no locks.
Improved schema type picker layout so type names and descriptions wrap cleanly.
Fixed: the welcome modal no longer re-opens on top of the Setup Guide page.
Fixed: the SEO score column no longer collapses on post lists with many columns (e.g. WooCommerce products).

4.1.1

Compliance: removed “coming soon” placeholders from the Free admin UI (editor panel and Features page).
Renamed the editor “E-E-A-T” tab to “AI Disclosure” to reflect its actual scope.

4.1.0

Image Optimizer: explicit WebP and AVIF toggles that generate next-gen variants only for the formats your server supports (locked with a note when unavailable).
Media Library & Editor: per-image “Optimize this image” and “Suggest & save Alt” buttons that act on a single image on demand.
Alt suggestions: choose the source text — nearest heading (default), the post title/H1, or the first H2.
Media Health: new “reused images” report showing images embedded in two or more posts, plus a configurable heavy-image threshold (MB) and quick hand-off buttons to fix alt or optimize.
Clone per post: when an image is reused across posts, clone a separate copy for one post so renaming or optimizing it never affects the others.
Optional rename-by-alt: when saving an alt suggestion, safely rename the file to match — only when the image is not used by other posts.
All image features run locally in PHP with no external requests.

4.0.0

First public release on WordPress.org.
Free edition delivers complete technical SEO with no external server: unified JSON-LD schema graphs, XML sitemaps (posts, pages, news, video, HTML), meta tags & Open Graph, robots.txt & robots meta, canonical, breadcrumbs, table of contents, reader ratings, image alt optimization, redirects, 404 monitor, and llms.txt.
Per-module Features toggles: enable/disable each feature independently, with settings tabs shown/hidden to match and a fully clean disable (no leftover hooks, menus, metaboxes, assets, or cron).
Standards compliance: all admin/editor CSS and JavaScript are properly enqueued (no inline blocks); source strings are English with a bundled Vietnamese translation.
The licensing and AI client are not part of the Free build; the Free version never contacts any RankVN server. AI features are available in RankVN SEO Pro.

4.0.0-rc.17

Settings visibility now follows each module’s Features toggle: turning a module off hides its settings tab/section (and turning it on shows them again).
News and Video sitemaps are now independent modules you can enable/disable separately under Features (XML output unchanged).
Module independence hardening: disabling a Free module leaves no leftover hooks, menus, metaboxes, assets, or scheduled cron events; enabling restores everything.
Standards compliance: all admin/editor CSS and JavaScript are now properly enqueued (no inline blocks), matching WordPress.org plugin guidelines.
Translations: normalized remaining source strings to English with the bundled Vietnamese translation kept in sync.

4.0.0-rc.16

Image Optimizer: generate next-gen variants (WebP, and AVIF when your server supports it) and serve them via for faster pages. Originals are always kept by default.
Image Optimizer: new “Output format” setting (Auto / WebP / AVIF) with a server-capability recommendation; AVIF is served before WebP for smaller files with a safe WebP fallback.
Image Optimizer: resize cap (default 2048px long edge, never enlarges), an “Optimize” tab in the Image hub, and a one-click bulk optimize for existing media.

4.0.0-rc.15

i18n: Converted all source strings to English (WordPress.org standard) and bundled a Vietnamese translation (rankvn-seo-vi_VN.po/.mo) so Vietnamese sites still display in Vietnamese.
readme: Full English rewrite with an accurate “External services” disclosure (IndexNow and GTM/GA4/Clarity are opt-in; the RankVN server / Server C is Pro-only and is never contacted by the Free version).
Cleanup: the Free edition no longer schedules the Pro-only hourly verify cron event, and the default Breadcrumb home title is now “Home”.

4.0.0 (internal Pro milestone)

Pro tier launched: AI Content Brief, AI Content Score, Keyword Tracking, Schema Advanced.
Entitlement system: FeatureRegistry, EntitlementEngine, LicenseResolver.
Server C integration: Cloudflare Workers, D1 database, HMAC auth.
Credit system: CreditService, REST endpoint, dashboard balance display.
Pro module gating: locked state cards, Pro CTA, upgrade flow.
Fix: Pro module admin menus register unconditionally (Pro gate shown inside page).
Hotfix: ContentScoreModule HTML containers + i18n keys for JS integration.
Schema Advanced: Recipe, Event, SoftwareApplication (Pro-only, per Law 00BB).

4.0.0-rc8

Unified Schema Graph output architecture.
Secure image sizes, keywords schema arrays, and robots meta filters.
Added load_plugin_textdomain and compliance readme file.

4.0.0-rc8-h2b

Schema: Manual Schema Parity — 5 manual types (FAQPage, HowTo, Product, Course, LocalBusiness).

4.0.0-rc8-h2d

CPT/Taxonomy: ContentTypesService, CPT/Taxonomy SEO compatibility.

4.0.0-rc8-h2f

Setup Wizard: 9-step alignment. Sitemap: query optimization.

4.0.0-rc8-h2ui1-r2

UI: Removed upgrade CTAs, Vietnamese nav labels, Schema/Rating tab split.

4.0.0-rc8-h2ui1-r2b

UI: Dashboard health ring, Modules grid, System Status cards, Settings tab icons.

4.0.0-rc8-6a-t1

Core: FeatureRegistry, EntitlementEngine, LicenseResolver, Entitlement Facade.
i18n: generate-pot.php, languages/rankvn-seo.pot (909 strings).
Security: CompatibilityCheck for conflicting SEO plugins.