SEO Kit

SEO Kit

Complete SEO toolkit for WordPress

SEO Kit handles the technical SEO stuff so you don't have to think about it—meta tags, social sharing images, sitemaps, structured data, and redirects. Set it up once and it works quietly in the background.

Getting Started

What you need:

  • WordPress 5.8 or newer
  • PHP 7.4 or newer
  • Admin access to your site

To install:

  1. Download the plugin from your CraftedPath account
  2. In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
  3. Upload the zip file and click Activate
  4. Go to CraftedPath → SEO Kit to configure

The plugin starts working immediately with sensible defaults. You can customize everything in settings.

Meta Tags

Every page on your site needs a title and description that show up in Google search results. SEO Kit handles this automatically, but you can customize each page.

What gets added automatically:

  • Meta title (post title + your site name)
  • Canonical URL (prevents duplicate content issues)
  • Open Graph tags (for Facebook, LinkedIn)
  • Twitter Card tags

To customize a specific page:

  1. Edit the post or page
  2. Find the SEO panel in the right sidebar
  3. Enter a custom title and/or description
  4. The preview shows how it'll look in search results

Settings you can change:

  • Site Name — What appears after the divider in titles (defaults to your WordPress site title)
  • Meta Divider — The character between page title and site name (|, -, —, etc.)

Noindex option: If you want to hide a page from search engines (like a thank-you page), check the Noindex box in the SEO panel. The page will still work, but search engines won't list it.

Custom canonical URL: If a page exists at multiple URLs, enter the "main" URL in the canonical field. Search engines will treat the others as duplicates pointing to this one.

Social Share Images

When someone shares your page on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, it shows an image. SEO Kit generates these automatically so you don't need to create one for every post.

How it works:

  1. Go to CraftedPath → SEO Kit
  2. Upload your logo (appears on the image)
  3. Optionally add a background image
  4. Set a color overlay and opacity
  5. The preview shows what shared links will look like

The plugin generates a 1200x630 pixel image (the standard size for social platforms). Every page uses this same base image—it's your brand's default sharing look.

Tips:

  • Use a logo with transparent background for best results
  • If using a background image, add a color overlay to ensure your logo stays readable
  • The image updates automatically when you save settings

XML Sitemap

A sitemap tells search engines what pages exist on your site and when they were last updated. SEO Kit generates one automatically.

Your sitemap lives at: yoursite.com/sitemap.xml

It's also automatically added to your robots.txt file so search engines can find it.

What's included by default:

  • Posts
  • Pages
  • Categories
  • Tags

To customize what's included:

  1. Go to CraftedPath → SEO Kit
  2. Find the Sitemap section
  3. Check/uncheck post types and taxonomies
  4. Save changes

Notes:

  • Pages marked as noindex are automatically excluded
  • The sitemap caches for 1 hour, then regenerates
  • WordPress's built-in sitemap is disabled when SEO Kit's is enabled (to avoid duplicates)

Structured Data

Structured data (Schema.org markup) helps search engines understand your content. It can lead to rich results in Google—things like star ratings, FAQ dropdowns, or breadcrumb trails.

SEO Kit adds JSON-LD structured data automatically:

WebSite schema — Tells search engines about your site, enables the sitelinks search box in Google.

Organization schema — Your business/brand information. Set your organization name and logo in settings.

Article schema — Added to blog posts. Includes headline, author, publish date, word count, and featured image.

Breadcrumb schema — Shows the page hierarchy (Home > Category > Post). Helps Google display breadcrumbs in search results.

To configure:

  1. Go to CraftedPath → SEO Kit
  2. Find the Schema section
  3. Set your organization name and upload a logo
  4. Toggle which schema types you want enabled

All four are enabled by default. Disable any you don't need.

Redirects

When you change a page's URL (slug), old links break. SEO Kit handles this automatically and lets you add manual redirects too.

Automatic redirects: When you change a post or page slug, SEO Kit automatically creates a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. Visitors and search engines are seamlessly sent to the right place.

Manual redirects:

  1. Go to CraftedPath → SEO Kit
  2. Find the Redirects section
  3. Click Add Redirect
  4. Enter the old URL (source) and new URL (target)
  5. Choose redirect type (301 is usually correct)
  6. Save

Redirect types:

  • 301 — Permanent redirect. Use for pages that have moved forever. Passes SEO value.
  • 302 — Temporary redirect. Use when the old URL will come back eventually.
  • 307/308 — Technical alternatives. Rarely needed.

The redirects table shows:

  • Source and target URLs
  • Hit count (how many times it's been used)
  • Last accessed date

Smart features:

  • Loop detection prevents you from creating redirect chains that go in circles
  • Chains are automatically flattened (A→B, B→C becomes A→C, B→C)
  • Works with or without trailing slashes

Post List Columns

SEO Kit adds an SEO column to your Posts and Pages list in the admin. It shows at a glance:

  • Set (green check) — Title and description are filled in
  • Unset (gray circle) — Missing title or description
  • noindex — Page is hidden from search engines

This helps you quickly find pages that need SEO attention.

Troubleshooting

"My meta description isn't showing in Google"

  • Google sometimes ignores your description and generates its own. This is normal.
  • Make sure the description is relevant to the page content.
  • It can take weeks for Google to re-crawl and update.

"Social share image isn't showing"

  • Facebook caches aggressively. Use their Sharing Debugger to force a refresh.
  • Make sure your server allows external requests to the generated image URL.

"Sitemap shows 404"

  • Go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save (this flushes rewrite rules).
  • Make sure sitemap is enabled in SEO Kit settings.

"Redirect isn't working"

  • Make sure the source URL starts with / (e.g., /old-page/ not old-page).
  • Check for caching—clear your site cache and browser cache.
  • Verify no other plugin is handling redirects for the same URL.

"Schema validation errors"

  • Use Google's Rich Results Test to check your pages.
  • Make sure you've set an organization logo if Organization schema is enabled.
  • Article schema requires posts to have an author with a display name.

Technical Details

Settings stored in: wp_options table, key craftedpath_seo_settings

Redirects stored in: Custom table wp_cpsk_redirects

Post meta fields:

  • _craftedpath_seo_title — Custom SEO title
  • _craftedpath_seo_description — Custom meta description
  • _craftedpath_seo_noindex — Boolean, hide from search engines
  • _craftedpath_seo_canonical — Custom canonical URL

Sitemap caching: Uses WordPress transients, expires hourly, clears on post save/delete.

To uninstall completely:

  1. Deactivate and delete the plugin
  2. Settings remain in the database by default
  3. To remove everything:
    • Delete the craftedpath_seo_settings option
    • Drop the wp_cpsk_redirects table
    • Post meta fields remain on posts (harmless, but can be deleted via SQL if desired)