Description
Guru SEO AI gives WordPress sites a focused SEO foundation without requiring a cloud account or paid API service.
Core SEO works without any API key. Guru AI Advisor is optional. If you want AI assistance, choose OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini and connect your own API key for the selected platform.
The central Guru SEO AI principle is simple:
Analyze the output, not the editor.
For published content, Guru SEO AI analyzes the server-rendered public page instead of assuming that WordPress post_content contains the whole page. This matters when a site uses Divi, Elementor, Gutenberg dynamic blocks, shortcodes, theme templates, custom fields, or plugins that alter front-end output.
Guru SEO AI Free performs this live rendered-page analysis for the page or post you are editing. ZenSEO AI Pro expands the same truth engine into sitewide crawling, scheduling, history, external search intelligence, and advanced workflows.
Core SEO
- SEO titles
- Meta descriptions
- Canonical URLs
- Index and noindex controls
- Follow and nofollow controls
- Preferred Search Image
- Google Search Preview
- Public post type SEO controls
- Public taxonomy SEO controls
- Front-end title, meta description, canonical, robots, and social output
- WordPress sitemap handling that respects Guru SEO AI noindex settings
- Conflict protection when another supported SEO plugin is active
Social SEO
- Open Graph title, description, and image
- Facebook Preview
- X title, description, and image
- X Preview
- Default Social Image in Settings
- Logo or Identity Image in Settings
- WordPress Media Library image selection with visible previews
- Sensible rendered-page fallbacks for published pages when Guru SEO fields are blank
Guru SEO AI never uses raw page-builder storage markup as if it were a real social or search description.
Rendered Page Analysis
For published pages, Guru SEO AI can inspect:
- The actual rendered title
- Meta description
- Canonical URL
- Meta robots
- X-Robots-Tag
- Index and follow state
- Open Graph metadata
- X/Twitter metadata
- H1, H2, and H3 structure
- Images and missing alt attributes
- Contextual and global/template links
- JSON-LD Schema
- Malformed JSON-LD
- Duplicate Schema IDs
- Primary visible page content
- HTTP status, response type, response time, and redirect behavior
Guru SEO AI prefers the actual primary page region, such as main, article, or role="main", and filters obvious template/global areas where appropriate.
If Guru SEO AI cannot verify a published page, it reports the retrieval problem. It does not silently substitute raw editor content and present that as equivalent to a verified live-page analysis.
Unpublished drafts are different. Because a draft might not have an authoritative public URL, Guru SEO AI clearly labels draft analysis as limited saved-content analysis.
Search and Social Preview Truth
When Guru SEO fields are empty on a published page, the previews can use verified live front-end metadata.
Google Search Preview priority:
- Title: Guru SEO SEO Title, rendered title, WordPress title
- Description: Guru SEO Meta Description, rendered meta description, manual WordPress excerpt, otherwise an honest no-description state
- Image: Preferred Search Image, Featured Image, otherwise no image
Facebook Preview uses Guru SEO Facebook values first, then verified rendered Open Graph data and appropriate image fallbacks.
X Preview uses Guru SEO X values first, then verified rendered X/Open Graph data and appropriate image fallbacks.
Guru SEO AI does not select a random rendered body image just to make a preview look populated.
Settings and Site Identity
Core Settings keeps the main site identity controls together:
- Site Name
- Site Identity Type: Organization or Person
- Identity Name
- Default Social Image, selected from the WordPress Media Library
- Logo or Identity Image, selected from the WordPress Media Library
- Official Profile URLs for Schema
sameAsidentity links
The Default Social Image and Logo or Identity Image appear side by side on wider screens, each with a visible image preview plus Select, Change, and Remove controls. On smaller screens they stack for easier use.
The Logo or Identity Image is used as the Organization logo or Person image in core Schema. Guru SEO AI stores the WordPress attachment ID when possible while preserving URL compatibility with earlier earlier test builds.
Core Schema
Free includes deterministic JSON-LD for supported core cases:
- Organization or Person identity
- WebSite
- WebPage
- AboutPage
- ContactPage
- CollectionPage
- Article
- BlogPosting
- BreadcrumbList
- Simple FAQPage
- Basic per-page Schema type selection
Advanced Schema management belongs to ZenSEO AI Pro.
Redirects
Guru SEO AI Free includes a real exact-path Redirect Manager:
- 301 Permanent
- 302 Temporary
- 307 Temporary
- 410 Gone
- AJAX add, edit, and delete
- Duplicate-path protection
- Self-redirect protection
- Relative or absolute HTTP/HTTPS destinations
Advanced redirect intelligence, regex/pattern rules, hit analytics, chain/loop analysis, and 404 monitoring belong to ZenSEO AI Pro.
Migration
Guru SEO AI includes preview-first migration from:
- Yoast SEO
- Rank Math SEO
- All in One SEO
- SEOPress
Redirect migration additionally supports:
- Redirection
Migration is non-destructive:
- Existing Guru SEO AI values win
- Unsupported data is reported
- Large imports run in AJAX batches
- Supported exact redirects can be imported
- The most recent import can be undone when the imported values still exactly match what Guru SEO AI added
- Values changed after import are preserved during undo
- Guru SEO AI does not automatically deactivate the source SEO plugin
Guru AI Advisor
Guru AI Advisor is optional.
If no AI API key is configured for the selected platform, all non-AI Guru SEO AI features continue to work normally.
Guru SEO AI Free lets the administrator select one AI Platform at a time:
- OpenAI using GPT-5.6 Sol (
gpt-5.6-sol) - Anthropic using Claude Fable 5.1 (
claude-fable-5-1) - Gemini using Gemini 3.1 Pro (
gemini-3.1-pro-preview)
The free Guru AI Advisor can:
- Analyze the current page
- Suggest one SEO title
- Suggest one meta description
For published pages, Guru AI Advisor is grounded in verified rendered-page evidence and deterministic Guru SEO AI findings. It is instructed not to invent rankings, search volume, traffic, backlinks, competitors, business facts, or explanations of Google’s ranking algorithm.
Free uses one selected AI provider at a time. The shared credential structure is designed so ZenSEO AI Pro can use all configured supported providers for advanced workflows.
Quick Start
- Install and activate Guru SEO AI.
- Open Guru SEO AI in the WordPress admin.
- Review the Dashboard.
- If another supported SEO plugin is active, use the Import shortcut and preview what Guru SEO AI can migrate before switching.
- Open Settings and configure Site Identity and the Default Social Image.
- Edit a published post or page and open the Guru SEO AI panel.
- Use the SEO, Social, Schema, and Audit tabs.
- In Audit, refresh the live page analysis and review what the public page actually outputs.
- Optionally open Settings > AI Platform, choose OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini, and enter an API key to enable Guru AI Advisor.
- On post and page editors, Guru AI Advisor appears in its own card directly beneath the main Guru SEO AI card. Use it to analyze the page or suggest an SEO Title or Meta Description.
- Use Redirects when you need an exact-path 301, 302, 307, or 410 rule.
A complete educational PDF manual is included with the plugin and linked from both the WordPress Plugins screen and the Guru SEO AI dashboard. The guide is written for beginners as well as experienced site owners. It explains not only where Guru SEO AI controls are located, but what SEO titles, meta descriptions, canonicals, robots directives, social metadata, rendered-page analysis, Schema, redirects, sitemaps, migrations, and AI assistance actually mean and when to use them.
External Services
Guru SEO AI core SEO features do not require an external service.
Guru AI Advisor connects only to the AI Platform selected by a site administrator and only after the administrator configures an API key and explicitly runs an AI action.
For an AI action on a published page, Guru SEO AI sends only task-relevant rendered page evidence to the selected provider. This can include rendered primary page text, headings, title, meta description, canonical, index/follow state, link counts, Schema types, permalink, configured Guru SEO AI values, and deterministic page-analysis findings.
Unpublished drafts use limited saved-content context because there may be no public front-end page available.
No page data is sent to an AI provider simply by viewing an admin screen.
Saved API keys are stored in the WordPress database unless the corresponding WordPress constant is defined. Saved keys are never printed back into Settings HTML.
Supported constants:
- OpenAI:
ZENSEO_AI_OPENAI_API_KEY - Anthropic:
ZENSEO_AI_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY - Gemini:
ZENSEO_AI_GEMINI_API_KEY
OpenAI:
* Service: https://openai.com/
* API documentation: https://developers.openai.com/api/
* Terms: https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use/
* Privacy: https://openai.com/policies/privacy-policy/
Anthropic:
* Service: https://www.anthropic.com/
* API documentation: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/api/overview
* Commercial terms: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/commercial-terms
* Privacy: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/privacy
Google Gemini:
* Service: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api
* API documentation: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs
* Terms: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms
* Privacy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
Privacy and Data Handling
Guru SEO AI does not include telemetry.
Core SEO data is stored locally in WordPress.
When Guru AI Advisor is used, task-relevant data is sent to the selected AI provider as described above.
API keys are used server-side. Blank secret-field saves preserve an existing key. Key removal requires an explicit action.
Guru SEO AI includes WordPress Privacy Policy helper content for the optional AI services.
Upgrade to ZenSEO AI Pro
ZenSEO AI Pro is a standalone commercial plugin. It does not require Free to remain installed or active.
ZenSEO AI Pro uses the same shared Guru SEO AI data for overlapping features. Deactivate Free before activating Pro. The editions retain shared SEO data, and Free does not run while Pro is active. Once Pro is active, the inactive Free plugin can be removed.
Pro expands the platform with features such as:
- Whole-site Site Audit crawling
- Sitewide rendered-page analysis
- Audit history and scheduling
- Full Schema Control Center
- Advanced redirects and 404 intelligence
- Search Console and GA4
- Google Places and Google Business Profile
- PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals
- DataForSEO search intelligence
- Sitewide and multi-provider Guru AI Advisor workflows
- Diagnostics, rollback, jobs, and additional professional tools
Installation
- Upload the
guru-seo-aifolder to/wp-content/plugins/, or install the plugin ZIP from Plugins > Add Plugin > Upload Plugin. - Activate Guru SEO AI.
- Open Guru SEO AI in the WordPress admin.
- If another supported SEO plugin is active, review the warning and use Import before deactivating the old plugin.
- Configure Site Identity and the Default Social Image in Settings.
- Optionally configure one AI Platform to enable Guru AI Advisor.
FAQ
-
Does Guru SEO AI require an AI API key?
-
No. Guru AI Advisor is optional. Titles, descriptions, canonicals, robots controls, Social SEO, core Schema, redirects, migration, sitemap handling, and deterministic page analysis work without an AI service.
-
Why does Guru SEO AI analyze the live front-end page?
-
Because the public HTML is the source of truth for a published page. Page builders, shortcodes, theme templates, custom fields, and plugins can change what visitors and search engines actually receive. Analyzing only
post_contentcan miss that output. -
Does this require a Divi, Elementor, or other page-builder integration?
-
No builder-specific integration is required for the core rendered-page analysis. Guru SEO AI inspects the server-rendered public HTML. If a builder or plugin changes that HTML, Guru SEO AI can analyze the resulting output.
-
Does Guru SEO AI execute browser-only JavaScript before analyzing the page?
-
No. Guru SEO AI Free analyzes the server-rendered HTML returned by the public URL. Browser-only JavaScript that modifies the DOM after page load is outside the Free rendered-page scope.
-
What happens if the live page cannot be retrieved?
-
Guru SEO AI reports the verification problem. It does not silently use raw editor content and pretend that result is a verified published-page audit.
-
How are drafts handled?
-
Drafts might not have a trustworthy public URL. Guru SEO AI therefore labels draft analysis as limited saved-content analysis.
-
How do Search, Facebook, and X previews work when Guru SEO fields are blank?
-
For published pages, Guru SEO AI can use verified live front-end metadata as a fallback. Explicit Guru SEO fields always take priority. If there is no trustworthy description, Guru SEO AI shows an honest no-description state instead of using page-builder shortcode/storage content.
-
Which image does the Google Search Preview use?
-
The Preferred Search Image wins. If one is not set, Guru SEO AI can use the WordPress Featured Image. It does not select a random rendered body image.
-
What happens if another SEO plugin is active?
-
Guru SEO AI detects supported competing SEO plugins and pauses its own front-end SEO metadata and Schema output to reduce the risk of duplicate output. A dismissible dashboard warning names the detected plugin and provides an Import shortcut when supported.
-
Which SEO plugins can Guru SEO AI import from?
-
Yoast SEO, Rank Math SEO, All in One SEO, and SEOPress. Guru SEO AI can also import supported exact-path redirects from Redirection.
-
Does importing overwrite existing Guru SEO AI values?
-
No. Existing Guru SEO AI values are preserved.
-
Can I undo an import?
-
Guru SEO AI stores the values added by the most recent import. Undo removes only imported values that still exactly match what the import created. Values changed after import are preserved.
-
Which redirect types are included?
-
Exact-path 301, 302, 307, and 410 rules.
-
Does deleting Guru SEO AI delete my SEO data?
-
No. Using Delete on the WordPress Plugins screen removes the Guru SEO AI plugin files, but does not delete its saved SEO settings, page and post metadata, or redirect rules from the WordPress database. Reinstalling Guru SEO AI, or installing ZenSEO AI Pro, can reuse the retained data.
-
What changed with the Guru SEO AI name?
-
The plugin’s display name is Guru SEO AI and its WordPress folder and slug are
guru-seo-ai. The name change does not reset existing SEO settings, metadata, or redirect rules. Internal WordPress data identifiers remain compatible with earlier pre-release builds. -
Is the documentation suitable for someone new to SEO?
-
Yes. The bundled PDF is both a plugin manual and an SEO learning guide. It explains the purpose of important controls, why they matter, common beginner mistakes, safe defaults, and situations where changing a setting can cause problems. The Schema section explains structured data in plain English, the indexing section explains index/noindex and follow/nofollow, and the canonical and redirect sections include beginner safety guidance.
-
Where is the full documentation?
-
The educational PDF documentation is bundled inside the plugin. Use the Documentation link under Guru SEO AI on the WordPress Plugins screen or under the Guru SEO AI title in the plugin dashboard.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“Guru SEO AI” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Guru SEO AI” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.2
- Updated sitemap URLs with legacy aliases and removed XSLT-dependent display.
1.1
- Aligned the existing page analysis findings presentation with the Pro priority-grouped layout.
-
Improved the response allowance for existing AI Advisor page-analysis requests.
-
Refined existing frontend SEO title, canonical, social metadata, and robots output for theme compatibility.
- Improved existing SEO title variable replacement, including retained Yoast separator choices.
- Updated the existing Anthropic AI model configuration to match the current Pro integration.
- Compatibility and documentation maintenance; no new features.
1.0
- Renamed the plugin to Guru SEO AI with the
guru-seo-aiWordPress folder and slug, without changing stored SEO data identifiers. - Confirmed plugin deletion removes plugin files but retains existing SEO settings, content metadata, and redirects for reinstallation or a Pro upgrade.
- Added an optional, per-user dismissible ZenSEO AI Pro upgrade notice on the plugin dashboard.
- Added a dedicated Go Pro tab with feature highlights and a detailed Free vs Pro comparison table.
- Linked the official Pro product page and Free vs Pro comparison page.
- Clarified that ZenSEO AI Pro is standalone and preserves shared SEO data when upgrading.
- Initial public release.
- Added proprietary Guru SEO AI metadata and taxonomy storage.
- Added SEO titles, descriptions, canonical, robots, and search preview controls.
- Added Social SEO with Facebook and X metadata, previews, and Media Library image workflows.
- Added Default Social Image settings.
- Added core deterministic Schema output.
- Added rendered front-end analysis for published pages.
- Added clearly labeled limited draft analysis.
- Added rendered metadata fallbacks for Search, Facebook, and X previews.
- Added exact-path 301, 302, 307, and 410 Redirect Manager.
- Added preview-first migration from Yoast SEO, Rank Math SEO, All in One SEO, and SEOPress.
- Added supported exact-path redirect migration from Redirection.
- Added safe batched AJAX import and undo for the latest import.
- Added optional Guru AI Advisor with selectable OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini.
- Added supported SEO-plugin conflict detection and front-end output protection.
- Added a bundled beginner-friendly SEO learning guide and plugin documentation PDF with dashboard/Plugins-screen Documentation links.