Lean SEO

Lightweight SEO for WordPress. No bloat, no upsells, just what you need.

by Sarai Chinwag · github.com/sarai-chinwag/lean-seo · website

★ 0stars

Install

Download source zip No release zip yet

This is the repository archive. It installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow.

Install straight from GitHub with WP-CLI:

wp plugin install https://github.com/sarai-chinwag/lean-seo/archive/refs/heads/main.zip

No built-in updater. New versions won't appear under Dashboard → Updates. Install new releases yourself, or let Git Updater track the repository.

Readme github.com/sarai-chinwag/lean-seo ↗

Lightweight SEO for WordPress — no bloat, no upsells, just what you need.

Description

Essential SEO in ~1,500 lines of PHP: meta tags, Open Graph, Twitter Cards, XML sitemaps, Schema/JSON-LD markup, canonical URLs, and per-post SEO fields with live preview.

Requirements

WordPress 6.0+
PHP 7.4+

Installation

cp -r lean-seo /path/to/wp-content/plugins/
wp plugin activate lean-seo

Zero configuration required — activate and it works.

Features

Meta Tags — Title, description, Open Graph, Twitter Cards
XML Sitemaps — Auto-generated, paginated for large sites (1000 posts per page)
Schema/JSON-LD — WebSite, Organization, Article, BreadcrumbList
Canonical URLs — Proper canonicalization
Per-Post SEO — Custom title/description meta box with live preview

Sitemaps

URL	Content
`/sitemap.xml`	Index
`/sitemap-posts.xml`	Posts (auto-paginates)
`/sitemap-pages.xml`	Pages
`/sitemap-categories.xml`	Categories
`/sitemap-tags.xml`	Tags

Hooks/Filters

// Custom description for special pages
add_filter( 'lean_seo_custom_description', function( $desc ) {
    if ( is_page( 'special' ) ) return 'Custom description';
    return $desc;
} );

// Default OG image fallback
add_filter( 'lean_seo_default_image', function( $url ) {
    return 'https://example.com/default.jpg';
} );

// Add post types to the SEO meta box
add_filter( 'lean_seo_meta_box_post_types', function( $types ) {
    $types[] = 'product';
    return $types;
} );

// Add custom sitemaps to the index
add_action( 'lean_seo_sitemap_index', function() {
    echo '<sitemap><loc>' . home_url( '/custom.xml' ) . '</loc></sitemap>';
} );

Abilities API

Lean SEO registers abilities via the WordPress Abilities API (wp_abilities_api_init) for programmatic SEO management:

Ability	Description	Permission
`lean-seo/get-sitemap-urls`	Returns all sitemap URLs	`manage_options`
`lean-seo/get-post-seo`	Get SEO data for a specific post	`edit_post`
`lean-seo/update-post-seo`	Update title/description for a post	`edit_post`
`lean-seo/audit-post-seo`	Analyze a post for SEO issues with scoring	`edit_post`
`lean-seo/scan-seo-issues`	Scan multiple posts for issues, sorted by score	`manage_options`

The audit checks title length, description length, word count, heading structure, internal/external links, image count, and alt text coverage — returning a 0–100 score with actionable issue details.

Known Issues

Version constant mismatch: The plugin header declares version 1.0.1 but LEAN_SEO_VERSION is defined as 1.0.0. This is cosmetic and does not affect functionality.

FAQ

Why not Yoast? Lean SEO does the same essential work in ~1,500 lines vs. megabytes. No configuration wizard, no upsells, no admin bloat.

Does it work with custom post types? Yes. Use the lean_seo_meta_box_post_types filter to add SEO fields to any post type.

License: GPL-2.0+ Author: Sarai Chinwag for Extra Chill