Description

Visibility brings together everything a WordPress site needs for technical SEO without installing a heavyweight all-in-one plugin. It is built around WordPress native features (wp_robots, wp_sitemaps_*, register_post_meta, the Block Editor sidebar) and stays out of your way: no custom database tables, no cron jobs, no third-party calls beyond a cached Gravatar lookup.

The clean metadata, Open Graph and JSON-LD structured data it generates don’t only help classic search engines (SEO) — they are also what answer engines (AEO) and generative AI assistants and LLMs (GEO) read to understand, summarize and cite your content.

Three modules you toggle independently from the Overview tab:

Discover — meta tags, Open Graph, Twitter Cards and JSON-LD schema.
Indexing — robots directives (noindex / nofollow).
Sitemaps — native XML sitemap control.

Built on WordPress core

Visibility is “native” in the literal sense: every feature is a thin layer over a WordPress core API, not a reimplementation. When the platform already does something, Visibility configures it instead of shipping its own engine.

Robots directives ride on the core wp_robots filter, plus the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header for feeds (which are XML and have no <head>).
The document title is composed by core: Visibility only sets the per-post title through pre_get_document_title and the separator through the native document_title_separator filter.
Canonical URLs go through core’s get_canonical_url, so rel=canonical and og:url always match.
The XML sitemap is core’s own wp-sitemap.xml; Visibility filters the wp_sitemaps_* hooks to shape it and never generates a sitemap of its own.
Per-post, per-term and per-author values are stored in standard post, term and user meta via register_post_meta, and exposed to the Block Editor over the REST API.
Removing the /category/ base (and WooCommerce’s /product-category/) uses the core rewrite API and the term_link filter, with 301 redirects on template_redirect; deactivating the plugin restores the default URLs.
Attachment-page redirects use template_redirect and wp_safe_redirect.
The per-post UI is the native Block Editor panel (PluginDocumentSettingPanel) and a Classic Editor meta box, alongside core Quick Edit and Bulk Actions.
Schema coordination references VigIA’s @id nodes instead of duplicating the Organization and WebSite graph.

The result is the lightweight footprint described under “Zero database tables” below: no custom tables, no cron jobs, no build step, no external services beyond a cached Gravatar probe.

Discover: meta tags and social cards

Document title and meta description on home, singulars, taxonomy archives and author archives, auto-generated from the content you already have (post title, excerpt, term description, user biographical info).
Open Graph tags (og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url, og:type, og:site_name).
Twitter Card tags (summary_large_image when an image is available, summary otherwise).
Article + BreadcrumbList JSON-LD on posts and pages for Google rich results.
Person JSON-LD on author archives with sameAs from user profile social URLs (E-E-A-T).
Smart image detection for og:image: per-post override featured image WooCommerce gallery first inline image in the content fallback Open Graph image.
Customizable: max length of auto-generated descriptions, home description override, fallback Open Graph image, site-wide Twitter @username and Facebook App ID, publisher logo for Article schema.
Title separator — pick the character placed between the page title and the site name in the automatic document title, applied through the native document_title_separator filter. Per-post title overrides are used verbatim.
Per-post overrides in the post sidebar: meta title (also replaces the document title), meta description, canonical URL, Open Graph image.
Canonical URL override per post or page: replaces rel=canonical and og:url for that entry, for syndicated or duplicate content whose ranking signals should point elsewhere.
Per-term overrides on the term edit screen: meta title and meta description for category, tag and custom taxonomy archives, with the term name and term description as fallbacks.
Author social URLs: fields added to the user profile (Twitter/X, LinkedIn, GitHub, Mastodon, Instagram, YouTube) used as sameAs in Person schema.

Indexing: robots directives (noindex / nofollow)

Bulk noindex / nofollow by post type — Set entire post types (pages, posts, products, etc.) as noindex, nofollow or both with a single checkbox per directive.
Bulk noindex / nofollow by taxonomy — Set entire taxonomy archives (categories, tags, product attributes, etc.) as noindex, nofollow or both. Works with all public taxonomies, including WooCommerce product categories, tags and attributes.
Smart exclusions — When a post type or taxonomy is set to noindex or nofollow, exclude specific posts or terms that should keep the default behavior. Exclusions work independently per directive.
Individual noindex / nofollow — Set noindex or nofollow on specific posts or taxonomy terms without affecting the entire content type or taxonomy.
Instant search — Find content and terms quickly with a live search field in the settings page. Click to add, click to remove.
Link-level nofollow — A nofollow checkbox in the Classic Editor link popup lets you mark individual links with rel="nofollow" without leaving the editor. The Block Editor already exposes a native nofollow toggle in its link popover.
Quick Edit — Toggle noindex and nofollow directly from the post list table without opening the editor.
Bulk actions — Set or remove noindex and nofollow on multiple posts at once from the post list.
Robots column — Two color-coded icons in your content lists show the current index/follow state at a glance.
Search results noindex / nofollow — Prevent internal search result pages from being indexed and/or having their links followed.
404 pages noindex / nofollow — Keep 404 error pages out of search indexes and stop crawlers from following dead-end links.
Date archives noindex / nofollow — Apply either or both directives to daily, monthly and yearly archive pages.
Paginated archives noindex / nofollow — Apply either or both directives to /page/2/, /page/3/ and beyond, including Query Loop block pagination on block themes.
Attachment pages noindex / nofollow — Apply either or both directives to media attachment pages.
Author archives noindex / nofollow — Apply either or both directives to author archive pages.
RSS feeds noindex / nofollow — Granular control to noindex and/or nofollow RSS feeds by type: main feed, taxonomy feeds, author feeds, site comments feed and per-post comments feeds. Works via the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header since feeds are XML.
Remove the category base — Optionally strip the /category/ base (and WooCommerce’s /product-category/) from category URLs, built on the core rewrite API, with automatic 301 redirects from the old URLs so nothing already indexed breaks. Off by default; deactivating the plugin restores the default URLs.
Attachment page redirects — Optionally 301-redirect attachment pages to their parent post via the core template_redirect hook. Only the attachment page is redirected; the media file itself keeps working. Since WordPress 6.4 new sites disable attachment pages and no longer link to them, so this mainly helps older sites that still use them; on a modern site you can simply noindex them instead. Off by default.

Priority logic (applies independently to noindex and nofollow):

Individual directive always applies.
Post type / taxonomy bulk directive applies unless the post or term is specifically excluded.
Exclusions override the bulk setting for specific posts or terms.

Sitemaps: native XML sitemap control

Exclude post types from the native wp-sitemap.xml.
Exclude taxonomies entirely from the sitemap.
User control — exclude specific user roles, individual users, or disable the entire users sitemap for single-author sites.
Flexible content exclusions — exclude posts and pages by ID or by slug patterns; exclude taxonomy terms by ID or by slug fragments.
Lastmod dates — adds last-modification dates to every URL in the sitemap and to every entry in the sitemap index (Google’s most used optional field).
Smart redirects — automatically redirect old sitemap URLs left over by other SEO and sitemap plugins (Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO, SEOPress, Google XML Sitemaps, Jetpack and others) to the native WordPress sitemap (301), so you don’t lose crawl signals when switching.
Static sitemap detector — spots leftover sitemap.xml, sitemap_index.xml, news-sitemap.xml and similar files in your WordPress root that silently override the native sitemap, and helps you remove them.
Performance — customize the maximum number of URLs per sitemap (1–50,000).
Noindex-aware — content marked as noindex by the Indexing module is automatically excluded from the sitemap, so search engines won’t even find it there.

Coming from Yoast SEO, Rank Math or All in One SEO?

Visibility imports your SEO data from the big suites in one click: meta titles, meta descriptions and noindex / nofollow overrides — on posts, pages and custom post types, and also on taxonomy terms (categories, tags, custom taxonomies) — plus per-post canonical URLs and Open Graph images. When it finds suite data that is not in Visibility yet, the Overview tab shows an import card with a per-plugin, per-field breakdown. The suite can be active or already deactivated — leftover data in the database is enough.

A note on All in One SEO for transparency: from its free version the import covers meta titles, meta descriptions, canonical URLs and noindex / nofollow, but not Open Graph images or per-term SEO (taxonomy SEO is an AIOSEO Pro feature, so the free version does not store it). Yoast and Rank Math import the full list above, taxonomy terms and Open Graph images included. The per-plugin breakdown on the import card always shows exactly what was found, so you can see this per field before importing.

The import is non-destructive (it copies, never deletes or changes the source), idempotent (re-running never duplicates), and your existing Visibility values always win. Titles and descriptions made from the suite’s template variables (%%title%%, %title%, #post_title) are skipped on purpose: Visibility already generates those from your real content. After importing, review a few entries and deactivate the suite — Visibility never deactivates another plugin for you.

Most site-wide suite settings (search appearance rules, social defaults) are not imported, so review the Discover, Indexing and Sitemaps tabs once and you are set. The exceptions are three parity options Visibility also offers — removing the category base, redirecting attachment pages and the title separator — which are brought over when the suite had them set. Your old sitemap entry points are covered too — legacy sitemap URLs get a 301 redirect to the native /wp-sitemap.xml.

Coming from Native SEO Meta Tags, NoIndexer or Sitemap Customizer?

Visibility unifies those three AyudaWP plugins. When it detects their data, the Overview tab offers a one-click importer that copies your per-post, per-term and per-author values, plus the site-wide configuration of each plugin, into Visibility — with a per-plugin summary of exactly what was detected and imported. It is non-destructive: your existing Visibility values are kept, lists are merged, and nothing is removed from the old plugins.

Block Editor integrated

A single sidebar panel in the Block Editor exposes everything you need per post:

Meta title (also replaces the document title).
Meta description.
Canonical URL.
Open Graph image (with media picker and live preview).
noindex toggle.
nofollow toggle.

The panel is implemented as a PluginDocumentSettingPanel — fully compatible with WordPress collaborative editing.

Classic Editor compatible

When the Block Editor is disabled for a post type, all the per-post controls are exposed as a single Classic Editor meta box with the same fields. Quick Edit and Bulk Actions on the post list provide the noindex/nofollow toggles without opening the editor.

Zero database tables

Visibility uses standard WordPress options and post/term/user meta tables. No custom tables, no cron jobs, no scheduled background processes, no external API calls beyond a cached Gravatar avatar probe (24h TTL) for E-E-A-T author images.

Replaces full SEO plugins, doesn’t coexist with them

Visibility is not designed to run alongside Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, SEOPress, The SEO Framework or Slim SEO. Running two SEO plugins generates duplicate <head> tags and hurts your SEO. If Visibility detects one of these active it will warn you on the settings page — you should keep one and deactivate the other.

If you want full keyword analysis, redirect managers, content scoring and dozens more features, stick with your current SEO suite. If you want the essentials, fast and native, Visibility is for you.

Perfect companions

Visibility is fully independent — these plugins aren’t required — but they pair really well with it:

VigIA — AI visibility, crawler analytics, Site Identity JSON-LD on the home page. Visibility coordinates @id references with VigIA so both can add schema without duplicating the Organization or WebSite nodes.
AI Share & Summarize — share buttons for social networks and AI assistants. Helps your content reach both audiences and language models.
AI Content Signals — control how AI systems can use your content (training, search, both) through robots.txt directives endorsed by Cloudflare.
Vigilante — all-in-one WordPress security: firewall, login protection, security headers, 2FA, file integrity monitoring.

External services

This plugin connects to Gravatar (operated by Automattic Inc.) to check whether the post or page author has a public Gravatar avatar, so it can be exposed in Open Graph tags (og:image) and in Person JSON-LD (image) for E-E-A-T.

What data is sent and when:

When a singular view is rendered and the Open Graph module is active, and no other image source exists (per-post og:image, featured image, WooCommerce gallery image, inline content image), the plugin sends an MD5 hash of the lowercased and trimmed author email to https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/{hash}?d=404 via wp_remote_head() (HEAD request, no body).
When an author archive is rendered and the Person schema module is active, the same probe is performed for that author.
The original email address is never sent — only an MD5 hash, which is the standard Gravatar lookup mechanism.
The result (found / not found) is cached for 24 hours in a transient so subsequent page loads do not hit Gravatar again.

This is the same mechanism WordPress itself uses to display Gravatar avatars in comments. Gravatar’s privacy policy: https://automattic.com/privacy/

Support

Need private support or custom development?

Do you need one-on-one help, priority troubleshooting, or a custom feature, integration, or tweak built specifically for your site? I offer private support and custom development. Just contact me and tell me what you need.

Need help or have suggestions?

Love the plugin? Please leave us a 5-star review and help spread the word!

About AyudaWP

We are specialists in WordPress security, SEO, AI and performance optimization plugins. We create tools that solve real problems for WordPress site owners while maintaining the highest coding standards and accessibility requirements.

Installation

Upload the native-aeo-pack folder to /wp-content/plugins/ or install through the Plugins screen.
Activate the plugin.
Open Visibility in the admin sidebar to review the active modules and tune the defaults.
Done. Meta tags, robots directives and sitemap filters are applied automatically based on your settings.

FAQ

Does Visibility replace Yoast / Rank Math / AIOSEO?: For most sites, yes. Visibility covers what 90% of sites actually need: titles, meta descriptions, canonical URLs, Open Graph, schema, robots directives and sitemap control — and it imports your per-post data from those plugins in one click. It does not include keyword analysis, redirect managers or content scoring. If you don’t need those, Visibility is a much lighter alternative. If you do, stick with your current SEO plugin — Visibility isn’t meant to run alongside.
How do I migrate from Yoast SEO, Rank Math or All in One SEO?: Install and activate Visibility. If data from any of those plugins exists in your database (the suite can be active or already deactivated), the Overview tab shows an import card with a per-field breakdown: titles, meta descriptions and robots overrides on posts and on taxonomy terms, plus canonical URLs and Open Graph images. One click copies it all into Visibility without touching the source plugin, skipping anything you already set here. Review a few entries, then deactivate the suite. Old sitemap URLs (sitemap.xml, post-sitemap.xml…) keep working through a 301 redirect to the native /wp-sitemap.xml.
I used Native SEO Meta Tags, NoIndexer or Sitemap Customizer. How do I migrate?: Install and activate Visibility. If it finds data from any of those plugins, the Overview tab shows an import card with a per-plugin breakdown and an “Import now” button. The import is non-destructive (it copies, never deletes) and your existing Visibility values win on any conflict, so you can run it safely. Once you’ve imported and checked everything, deactivate the old plugins.
Are there any database tables?: No. Visibility stores its settings in a single WordPress option and uses native post, term and user meta tables for per-content overrides. Deleting the plugin removes the option; per-content overrides remain so reinstalling does not lose your work.
Can I disable individual modules?: Yes. The Overview tab lets you toggle Discover (meta tags), Indexing (robots) and Sitemaps independently. You can run only what you need.
Does it work with custom post types and custom taxonomies?: Yes. All public post types and taxonomies are supported — including WooCommerce product categories, tags and attributes (the latter requires “Enable Archives?” in the WooCommerce attribute settings).
How do I set noindex on a single post?: In the Block Editor, open the Visibility panel in the post sidebar and tick the noindex toggle. In the Classic Editor, the same toggle is in the Visibility meta box. You can also use Quick Edit or Bulk Actions from the post list.
Where does Visibility store per-post overrides?: In standard WordPress post meta (_native_aeo_pack_* keys). Term overrides go to term meta, user social URLs to user meta. Nothing leaves the standard WordPress tables.
How can other plugins or themes detect Visibility’s robots state?: Public helper class methods are available for third-party integrations. Documentation will be expanded as the public API stabilizes.

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“Visibility – Native SEO / AEO / GEO” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

“Visibility – Native SEO / AEO / GEO” has been translated into 1 locale. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Visibility – Native SEO / AEO / GEO” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

1.4.0

New: Optional removal of the /category/ base (and WooCommerce’s /product-category/) from category URLs, with 301 redirects from the old URLs and an automatic permalink refresh on save.
New: Optional 301 redirect of attachment pages to their parent post. Only the attachment page is redirected; the media file keeps working.
New: Configurable document title separator, the character placed between the page title and the site name in the automatic title.
Improved: The one-click importer from Yoast SEO, Rank Math and All in One SEO now also brings over those three site-wide options when the suite had them set.
Improved: Settings labels and descriptions now use standard SEO terminology (the wording Google Search Central uses).
Improved: Consistent heading styles across the settings tabs; the Indexing tab subsections no longer use uppercase headings.

For older changelog entries, please check the changelog.txt file.

Description

Built on WordPress core

Discover: meta tags and social cards

Indexing: robots directives (noindex / nofollow)

Sitemaps: native XML sitemap control

Coming from Yoast SEO, Rank Math or All in One SEO?

Coming from Native SEO Meta Tags, NoIndexer or Sitemap Customizer?

Block Editor integrated

Classic Editor compatible

Zero database tables

Replaces full SEO plugins, doesn’t coexist with them

Perfect companions

External services

Support

About AyudaWP

Installation

FAQ

Does Visibility replace Yoast / Rank Math / AIOSEO?

How do I migrate from Yoast SEO, Rank Math or All in One SEO?

I used Native SEO Meta Tags, NoIndexer or Sitemap Customizer. How do I migrate?

Are there any database tables?

Can I disable individual modules?

Does it work with custom post types and custom taxonomies?

How do I set noindex on a single post?

Where does Visibility store per-post overrides?

How can other plugins or themes detect Visibility’s robots state?

Reviews

Contributors & Developers

Interested in development?

Changelog

1.4.0

Meta

Ratings

Contributors

Support