WP Manifestindependent plugin directory
manifest / seo / lightweight-seo

Lightweight SEO

Plug n Play. A lightweight WordPress SEO plugin that adds essential SEO functionality without bloat.

by Rakesh Mandal · github.com/nuovixlabs/lightweight-seo · website

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Install

No release zip yet. The repository archive installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow:

wp plugin install https://github.com/nuovixlabs/lightweight-seo/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
Readme github.com/nuovixlabs/lightweight-seo ↗

Lightweight SEO provides correct, predictable on-page SEO without a crawler, analytics dashboard, or background synchronization layer. It supports WordPress 6.0+ and PHP 7.4+.

What it does

Core provides:

  • document titles and templates
  • meta descriptions, canonical URLs, and WordPress-native robots directives
  • Open Graph and X/Twitter metadata
  • post, term, and author SEO controls
  • Organization, WebSite, BreadcrumbList, ProfilePage, and scoped Article schema
  • filtering of WordPress core XML sitemaps
  • safe mode when Yoast SEO, Rank Math, or All in One SEO is active
  • bounded migration tools and a versioned, read-only extension API

Five optional modules are lazy-loaded only in their declared request contexts:

  • Redirects: exact manual redirects and optional published-slug redirects
  • Hreflang: validated manual mappings and adapter hooks
  • Tracking: GTM-first output with direct GA4 or Meta Pixel alternatives
  • Local SEO: validated LocalBusiness schema fields
  • AI Discovery (experimental): crawler policies, a curated /llms.txt, and local readiness checks

AI Discovery does not guarantee crawling, training, citation, inclusion, visibility, or ranking.

Deliberate boundaries

Core makes no remote requests, schedules no recurring jobs, creates no custom tables, and performs no site-wide frontend scans. Search Console/GA4 reporting, URL Inspection, rank tracking, internal-link crawling, and historical analytics belong outside core.

Meta-keywords output, Product schema, specialized image/video/news sitemap providers, continuous 404 logging, Search Console synchronization, internal-link reports, and site-wide image audits were retired in 1.1. Stored legacy keyword values remain exportable during migration.

Installation

  1. Copy the lightweight-seo directory to wp-content/plugins/ or install the release ZIP.
  2. Activate Lightweight SEO in WordPress.
  3. Open SEO in the administrator and review the setup overview.
  4. Enable only the optional modules the site needs.

For a 1.0.3 upgrade or release-candidate test, follow Migration and RC Testing and take a database backup first.

Editing content

The SEO panel on supported posts and pages provides:

  • an optional SEO title and meta description
  • canonical and robots controls
  • social title, description, and image overrides
  • deterministic checks explaining missing or conflicting inputs

Legacy focus-keyword values are preserved for export but are not edited or emitted.

Development

Install the development dependencies and run the local gates:

composer install
composer validate --strict
composer audit
composer test
composer phpcs

Real WordPress tests use tests/bin/install-wp-tests.sh and composer test:integration. CI covers the compatibility matrix documented in QA Checklist.

The public extension contract and stable hooks are documented in Developer API.

Release

Tags must exactly match the Version: header, for example v1.1.0-rc.1. The release workflow creates and verifies the ZIP, checks required runtime files, and smoke-activates the packaged plugin in WordPress.

See Release Notes and Release Baselines for the current candidate.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.