Editor Meta Box

Per-post SEO controls including title, description, focus keyword, noindex, canonical, and AI-powered suggestions.

Overview

RationalSEO adds a meta box to the post editor on all public post types. The meta box appears below the content editor and provides per-post SEO controls.

SEO Title

Override the auto-generated title tag for this post. The placeholder shows what the default title would be (post title + separator + site name). Leave empty to use the default.

Focus Keyword

Enter the primary keyword or phrase you want this content to rank for. When a focus keyword is set, RationalSEO performs four real-time checks:

  • In SEO title — Whether the keyword appears in the SEO title
  • In meta description — Whether the keyword appears in the description
  • In first paragraph — Whether the keyword appears in the first paragraph of content
  • In URL slug — Whether the keyword appears in the post slug

These checks are informational only — they do not block publishing or affect output.

The focus keyword is also used for automatic meta description generation. If no custom description is set and no excerpt exists, RationalSEO will look for the first sentence containing the focus keyword and use that as the meta description.

Meta Description

Override the auto-generated meta description. Leave empty to use the automatic fallback chain (excerpt → keyword sentence → content beginning). Maximum recommended length is 160 characters.

Advanced Settings

Click the Advanced Settings disclosure to reveal additional options:

  • Exclude from Search Results (noindex) — Adds a noindex robots directive and removes the post from XML sitemaps
  • Canonical URL — Override the canonical URL if this content is duplicated elsewhere
  • Social Image Override — Custom image URL for Open Graph and Twitter Cards, overriding the featured image

AI Assistant

If an OpenAI API key is configured under Settings → RationalWP → SEO → General → AI Assistant, additional buttons appear in the meta box:

  • Suggest All — Generates a focus keyword, SEO title, and meta description in one click
  • Suggest (Focus Keyword) — Suggests a focus keyword based on the post content
  • Generate (SEO Title) — Generates an optimized SEO title based on the content and focus keyword
  • Generate (Meta Description) — Generates a meta description based on the content and focus keyword

The API key is encrypted at rest using AES-256-CBC with your site’s auth salt.