Title: Markzen SEO Author: ginmaster Published: July 20, 2026 Last modified: July 20, 2026 --- Search plugins ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/markzen-seo.svg) # Markzen SEO By [ginmaster](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ginmaster/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/markzen-seo.1.0.1.zip) * [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/markzen-seo/#description) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/markzen-seo/#reviews) * [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/markzen-seo/#installation) * [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/markzen-seo/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/markzen-seo/) ## Description Markzen SEO puts every SEO tool you actually need into one well-built plugin — with zero frontend performance impact. **Meta management** Custom SEO titles, meta descriptions, canonical URLs, and per-post noindex/nofollow control. A live SERP preview shows exactly how your content appears in Google search results before you publish. **Open Graph & Twitter Cards** Automatic og:title, og:description, og:image, and Twitter card meta tags, with per- post overrides. Your content looks its best when shared on social media — no extra configuration needed. **XML Sitemaps** Auto-generated XML sitemap covering posts, pages, categories, and tags. Automatically pings Google and Bing when you publish. Full admin control over which post types and taxonomies are included. **Robots.txt** Virtual robots.txt management with no file-system writes — Markzen controls robots. txt through WordPress’s built-in `do_robots` filter. Detects and alerts you to any physical robots.txt file on disk that would override your settings. **Broken link checker** Background scan of every internal and external link across your site. View broken links with HTTP status codes, recheck individual links after fixing them, and mark false positives as ignored. Results persist between scans so you only see new issues. **Image alt text auditor** Background scan identifying images that are missing descriptive alt text. Direct edit links for every affected post — no hunting through the media library. **Script detector** On-demand inventory of every active JavaScript file loading on any page — first- party and third-party. Know exactly what is running on your site and where it comes from. **Lighthouse / PageSpeed Insights integration** On-demand Lighthouse audits via Google’s free PageSpeed Insights API. No API key required for the free tier. Bulk audit queue processes up to 20 posts at throttled intervals to respect API rate limits. Per-post SEO score badge in the WordPress post list column. **Focus keyphrase tracking** Assign a focus keyphrase to each post and page. Built-in duplicate detection flags keyword cannibalization — if two or more posts target the same keyphrase, they compete against each other in search results. The Keyphrases view shows your full keyphrase map at a glance. **Structured data (Schema)** Automatic JSON-LD structured data output for Article, WebSite, and LocalBusiness( when local business details are configured in settings). Helps search engines understand your content type and display rich results. **Breadcrumbs** Schema-ready breadcrumbs via the `[markzen_breadcrumbs]` shortcode. Outputs JSON- LD breadcrumb markup alongside the visible trail. **Dashboard & Site Health** Single-screen dashboard showing meta coverage, broken link count, missing image alt text, and Lighthouse SEO scores. The Site Health screen runs six cross-tool checks and shows a pass/fail checklist with direct action links for anything that needs attention. #### Zero frontend performance impact Markzen SEO loads no JavaScript and no CSS on public-facing pages. Every frontend feature — meta tags, Open Graph, structured data, breadcrumbs — is plain HTML output. Installing this plugin does not affect your PageSpeed or Core Web Vitals scores. #### Works without an API key The Lighthouse integration uses Google’s free PageSpeed Insights API. Rate limits apply to the free tier. You can optionally add a free API key in **SEO Settings Advanced** for higher rate limits on bulk audits. #### Privacy Markzen SEO does not track, collect, or transmit any data about your website’s visitors. No analytics, no cookies, and no fingerprinting of any kind are added to your public-facing pages. The plugin’s output is limited to HTML meta tags and structured data in your page’s element. See the External Services section below for details on the limited, administrator-initiated connections this plugin makes to third-party APIs. ### External Services This plugin connects to the following external services in specific, limited circumstances described below. No user data, visitor data, browsing history, or cookies are ever collected or transmitted by this plugin. All connections are initiated by the site administrator through deliberate actions — nothing is sent automatically on visitor page loads. #### Google PageSpeed Insights API Used by: Markzen SEO Lighthouse (audit feature) What is sent: The public URL of a page on your site that you choose to audit. When it is sent: Only when a site administrator clicks “Run audit” or “Run bulk audit”. Never on visitor page loads. Never on a schedule without administrator action. Personal data sent: None. Only a public URL is transmitted. Who receives it: Google LLC. Terms of service: https:// developers.google.com/terms Privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy #### Google Sitemap Ping Used by: Sitemap notification feature (optional, disabled by default) What is sent: Your sitemap URL (example: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml), which is already publicly accessible. No content, no user data. When it is sent: When a post or page is published or updated, if the “Ping Google” setting is enabled in Settings Sitemap. Rate-limited to once per 60 seconds. Personal data sent: None. Who receives it: Google LLC. Terms of service: https://developers.google.com/terms Privacy policy: https://policies. google.com/privacy #### Microsoft Bing Sitemap Ping Used by: Sitemap notification feature (optional, disabled by default) What is sent: Your sitemap URL only. No content, no user data. When it is sent: When a post or page is published or updated, if the “Ping Bing” setting is enabled in Settings Sitemap. Rate-limited to once per 60 seconds. Personal data sent: None. Who receives it: Microsoft Corporation. Terms of service: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/servicesagreement Privacy policy: https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement #### Broken Link Checker (outbound HTTP requests) Used by: Markzen SEO Broken Links (scan feature) What is sent: Standard HTTP HEAD or GET requests to URLs found in your content, to check whether those links are reachable. This is equivalent to a browser loading a URL — no personal data, no cookies, no site data beyond the request itself. When it is sent: Only when a site administrator clicks “Start scan”. Never automatically. Never on visitor page loads. Personal data sent: None. The requests originate from your web server, not from your visitors’ browsers. Who receives it: The operators of any websites your content links to. Each site receives only a standard HTTP availability check. ## Installation 1. Upload the `markzen-seo` directory to `/wp-content/plugins/`, or install directly from the WordPress admin by going to **Plugins Add New** and searching “Markzen SEO”. 2. Activate the plugin from the **Plugins** screen. 3. Navigate to **SEO Dashboard** to run the first background scan and review your site’s current SEO status. 4. Go to **SEO Settings** to configure sitemaps, Open Graph defaults, local business schema, and advanced options. 5. Open any post or page in the editor — the Markzen meta box appears in the right sidebar. Add a focus keyphrase and meta description, and review the live SERP preview. ## FAQ ### Does this plugin affect my site’s page speed? No. Markzen SEO outputs zero JavaScript and zero CSS on public-facing pages. All frontend features are plain HTML. Installing or activating this plugin has no effect on your PageSpeed Insights or Core Web Vitals scores. ### Do I need a Google API key for Lighthouse? No. The Lighthouse integration uses Google’s free PageSpeed Insights API, which works without any API key for single-page audits. If you want to run bulk audits across 20 pages, you may hit the free tier’s rate limits. Add a free API key in ** SEO Settings Advanced** to increase your limit. Instructions for getting a free API key are in the settings screen. ### What happens if I already have a robots.txt file on my server? WordPress serves robots.txt dynamically when no physical file exists on disk. Markzen SEO builds on this by adding its own rules through the `do_robots` filter. If a physical `robots.txt` file exists at the root of your WordPress installation, it takes precedence and the WordPress/Markzen virtual robots.txt is never served. The plugin detects this conflict and shows a warning in the Dashboard, Site Health screen, and the Robots.txt editor. ### Is Markzen SEO compatible with Yoast SEO, Rank Math, or other SEO plugins? Markzen SEO is designed to be the only active SEO plugin on a site. Running multiple SEO plugins at once will produce duplicate meta tags, duplicate sitemaps, and conflicting structured data. Deactivate any other SEO plugins before activating Markzen SEO. ### What data does the plugin store, and what happens when I delete it? Markzen SEO stores: settings (one options row), per-post SEO meta (title, description, keyphrase, canonical, noindex/nofollow, Open Graph overrides), scan results for links and images, and Lighthouse audit history per post. All of this is removed when you delete the plugin through the WordPress admin Plugins screen. Deletion is permanent and irreversible. ### Does the plugin work with custom post types? The SEO meta box and keyphrase analysis appear on any public post type that supports a custom editor. The sitemap and broken link checker cover posts and pages by default; custom post type inclusion is configurable in **SEO Settings Sitemap**. ### Does this plugin slow down the WordPress admin? Background scans (link checker, image auditor, Lighthouse bulk audit) run via WordPress cron — they do not block page loads. The admin dashboard loads scan results from a 1-hour transient cache, so repeated page loads are fast. The first load after the cache expires triggers a fresh database count query, which is typically under 50ms. ## Reviews There are no reviews for this plugin. ## Contributors & Developers “Markzen SEO” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ ginmaster ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ginmaster/) [Translate “Markzen SEO” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/markzen-seo) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/markzen-seo/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/markzen-seo/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/markzen-seo/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/markzen-seo/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog #### 1.0.0 * Initial release. ## Meta * Version **1.0.1** * Last updated **2 days ago** * Active installations **Fewer than 10** * WordPress version ** 6.0 or higher ** * Tested up to **7.0.2** * PHP version ** 8.0 or higher ** * Tags * [lighthouse](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/lighthouse/)[meta tags](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/meta-tags/) [open graph](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/open-graph/)[seo](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/seo/) [sitemap](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/sitemap/) * [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/markzen-seo/advanced/) ## Ratings No reviews have been submitted yet. [Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/markzen-seo/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/markzen-seo/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ ginmaster ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ginmaster/) ## Support Got something to say? Need help? [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/markzen-seo/)