A WordPress plugin from anandbajrangi.com

Anand Bajrangi SEO Free, lightweight SEO for WordPress

Titles, descriptions, canonical URLs, robots rules, sharing tags, structured data and sitemaps: the parts of a page that search engines read and visitors never see. Anand Bajrangi SEO builds on what WordPress already does instead of replacing it.

Every feature is free. No paid version, no account, no tracking.

Get the plugin See what it does

Version 0.9.0 (release candidate). Requires WordPress 6.4 and PHP 7.4 or newer.

What search engines read

Each of these lives in your page's code, below the waterline. Anand Bajrangi SEO lets you set them per site, per content type and per post, and switches off anything you don't need.

  • Title

    Templates for every content type, archive and the homepage, with variables such as {title}, {sep} and {sitename}, plus your own title for any post or term. Without one, WordPress builds the title as usual.

  • Description

    Your own text for each post and term, or a template. Left empty, the plugin uses the excerpt or the start of the content.

  • Canonical

    Self-referencing canonical URLs for archives, including paginated pages, and a custom canonical wherever you need one. None on pages you have set to noindex.

  • Robots

    noindex and nofollow for each post, term, content type and archive, through WordPress's own robots API. The plugin only adds directives; it never removes a noindex set by WordPress or another plugin.

  • Social

    Open Graph and X (Twitter) card tags with a title, text and image for each post, and a default image for the whole site.

  • Schema

    One JSON-LD graph (WebSite, WebPage, Article, Organization or Person, BreadcrumbList) built only from real site data. Nothing is invented, and structured data never guarantees rich results.

  • Sitemap

    Improves the XML sitemap WordPress already provides: leaves out noindexed and excluded content and adds real last-modified dates.

See the result before you publish

The SEO panel in the block editor shows a search-result preview built by the same code that prints your page's tags. It follows your edits as you type, before you save.

  • Character counts for the title and description as they will appear, with variables filled in.
  • A sharing preview with the image, title and text that social sites pick up.
  • SEO analysis: headings, image alt text, links, length and readability. Suggestions, not a score.
  • The same fields in the classic editor and on category and tag screens.
A sample post. The preview is an estimate: search engines may show a different title or text.

Everything else on board

Every module can be switched off, and a switched-off module adds no code to your pages.

Redirects
301, 302, 307, 308 and 410 for exact paths, with loop detection and CSV import and export. Optional, and no database query on your pages while no redirect is enabled.
Migration
Copies SEO data from Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, SEOPress and The SEO Framework. A dry run comes first, and the other plugin's data is never changed.
Breadcrumbs
An accessible breadcrumb trail through a shortcode or template function, with matching structured data.
robots.txt rules
Add your own rules to the robots.txt WordPress generates, with validation and a warning before you block the whole site. The plugin never writes a file.
WooCommerce
Product sharing tags with the real price and availability, a link to WooCommerce's own product data, and hidden products kept out of sitemaps.
WPML and Polylang
SEO fields for each translation, and setting texts that can be translated through string translation. Hreflang stays with your multilingual plugin.
Duplicate-tag check
Loads up to five of your pages and counts every title, description, canonical, robots and sharing tag and structured data block, so you can see if a theme or plugin prints them twice.
Settings import and export
Move settings between sites with a preview of every change and an automatic backup you can restore.
Site Health and diagnostics
Checks in WordPress's Site Health screen, and a diagnostic report for support with passwords, tokens and personal data removed. Nothing is sent anywhere.
WP-CLI
Commands for migration, settings, redirects and diagnostics, for sites you manage from the command line.

Switching from another SEO plugin

You can try Anand Bajrangi SEO without taking your current setup apart first.

  1. Install it next to your current plugin

    The plugin notices the other SEO plugin and starts with its own output switched off, so nothing is printed twice.

  2. Run a dry run

    Under Anand Bajrangi SEO → Tools → Migrate, a dry run reports how many posts and fields would change. Nothing is saved.

  3. Import

    Only empty fields are filled unless you choose to overwrite. Run it again and nothing changes twice.

  4. Switch over and check

    Deactivate the old plugin, switch on this plugin's modules, and run the duplicate-tag check on your pages.

Imports from Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, SEOPress and The SEO Framework. Site-wide settings of other plugins are not copied; review this plugin's templates after importing.

What it promises, and what it doesn't

Anand Bajrangi SEO does

  • Stay free. There is no paid version, licence key or account.
  • Stay on your server. No tracking and no requests to outside services.
  • Use real data. It never invents ratings, reviews, prices or business details for structured data.
  • Leave your files alone. It never writes files, not even robots.txt.
  • Keep your data. Deleting the plugin removes nothing unless you opted in to data removal first.

No plugin can promise

  • Better rankings. The plugin makes sure search engines get correct information; rankings depend on your content and much more.
  • Rich results. Structured data can make a page eligible; search engines decide whether to show them.
  • Compatibility with everything. The plugin is tested with the setups below. If it misbehaves with yours, please report it.

What was tested for version 0.9.0

  • WordPress 6.4 and 7.1, single site and multisite
  • PHP 7.4, 8.1, 8.3 and 8.5
  • 333 automated tests, plus browser and accessibility checks
  • Alongside WooCommerce, Polylang and the five SEO plugins it imports from

Extra database queries measured on a 15-post test site: none on the home page and single posts, one on category archives. These are local measurements on a small site, not a guarantee for yours. Page builders, caching plugins, WPML and other multilingual plugins have not been tested yet.

Questions

Is there a paid version?

No. Every feature is in the free plugin, and there is nothing to unlock.

Will it improve my rankings?

No plugin can promise that. Anand Bajrangi SEO makes sure search engines get correct titles, descriptions, canonical URLs, indexing instructions, sitemaps and structured data. Rankings depend on your content and many factors outside any plugin.

Can I use it together with another SEO plugin?

Two plugins printing the same tags create duplicates. Anand Bajrangi SEO detects common SEO plugins, starts with its output switched off when one is active, warns about overlapping modules and can count duplicate tags on your pages. You can also keep only the modules your other plugin doesn't cover.

Does it work with my theme?

Custom titles need a theme that lets WordPress print the title. Block themes always do. For older themes there is a legacy title option under Settings → General.

What happens to my data if I delete the plugin?

By default nothing is deleted, so you can reinstall without losing anything. To remove all Anand Bajrangi SEO data when you delete it, switch on "Delete data on uninstall" under Settings → General first.

Is it in the WordPress.org plugin directory?

Not yet. Until it is, download the ZIP from this page and install it through Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.

How do I report a bug or a security issue?

Please report security issues privately through anandbajrangi.com rather than in public. For other problems, the diagnostic report under Anand Bajrangi SEO → Tools gives the details needed to help, with secrets and personal data removed.

Get Anand Bajrangi SEO

Version 0.9.0, a release candidate. Free software under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later. Requires WordPress 6.4 and PHP 7.4 or newer.

Download anand-bajrangi-seo-0.9.0.zip

SHA-256: 6bd4a7e83c7f09125c2b96ed91cb9f32d48ff78826dc9e0951a1be7e46fb786b

  1. In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin and choose the ZIP file.
  2. Activate Anand Bajrangi SEO.
  3. Open Anand Bajrangi SEO → Overview and review the site check and the list of modules.
  4. Coming from another SEO plugin? Use Anand Bajrangi SEO → Tools → Migrate before deactivating it.

Built by Anand Bajrangi. anandbajrangi.com

Anand Bajrangi SEO is not affiliated with WordPress.org or the WordPress Foundation.