Descripción
RankVN SEO is a lightweight technical SEO plugin for WordPress with strong Vietnamese-language support (accent-aware processing, Vietnamese keyword analysis, and a bundled Vietnamese translation).
It helps search engines and AI crawlers understand your site: unified JSON-LD Schema, XML/HTML sitemaps, meta & social tags, image SEO, and an optional llms.txt file. The Free build runs on your server — no remote licensing calls and no telemetry without your consent.
What you get in Free
- Meta title & description — customize Google snippets for posts, pages, and the homepage.
- Open Graph & Twitter Cards — richer social previews with safe image handling.
- Unified Schema Graph — one connected JSON-LD block (WebSite, WebPage, Article, Author, BreadcrumbList) plus many manual types you can add in the editor (FAQ, HowTo, Product, Course, LocalBusiness, Recipe, Event, and more).
- XML & HTML sitemaps — search-engine XML sitemaps and a customizable HTML sitemap. When RankVN XML sitemaps are on, the default WordPress sitemap is turned off to avoid duplicates.
- Robots.txt & robots meta — virtual robots.txt plus noindex / nofollow / noarchive per page.
- Canonical URLs — reduce duplicate-content issues.
- Table of contents — heading-based TOC via shortcode.
- Reader rating widget — visitor ratings with AggregateRating schema (no IP storage).
- Image SEO (Alt + Optimize) — suggest/save alt text, optional safe rename, WebP/AVIF variants for faster pages, and Media Health reports.
- Featured vs in-content images — if the same file is both the featured image and used in the post, Save / Optimize keeps the original and creates two separate copies so each slot can have its own file and URL.
- llms.txt — a plain-text map of your site for AI crawlers (optional).
- Per-module Features toggles — turn features on/off; matching settings tabs show or hide with them.
RankVN SEO Free does not include licensing or AI clients and does not contact a RankVN server. Optional AI features live in RankVN SEO Pro.
External Services
This plugin can connect to the following third-party services. All of them are OPT-IN — nothing is contacted until you explicitly enable/configure it in the plugin settings.
IndexNow
Used to notify search engines (Bing, Yandex, and others) that a URL was added or updated, so they recrawl it faster. When enabled, on publish/update the plugin sends the changed URL and your site’s IndexNow key to https://api.indexnow.org. No visitor or personal data is sent.
Protocol/terms: https://www.indexnow.org/ · Bing privacy: https://privacy.microsoft.com/privacystatement
Google Tag Manager (GTM)
Optional. Loaded only if you enter a GTM container ID. The plugin outputs Google’s GTM loader (https://www.googletagmanager.com) so tags you configure in your own GTM account run on your site. Data sent is defined by your GTM configuration.
Terms: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/tag-manager/use-policy/ · Privacy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
Optional. Loaded only if you enter a GA4 Measurement ID. The plugin outputs Google’s gtag.js loader (https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js) to send visitor analytics to your GA4 property.
Terms: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/us/ · Privacy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
Microsoft Clarity
Optional. Loaded only if you enter a Clarity project ID. The plugin outputs the Clarity loader (https://www.clarity.ms) to send session/heatmap analytics to your Clarity project.
Terms: https://clarity.microsoft.com/terms · Privacy: https://privacy.microsoft.com/privacystatement
Note: the SEO analysis feature may fetch pages on your own website (same domain) to read their rendered HTML; no data is sent to any third party.
The Free version does not include any licensing or AI client and never contacts a RankVN server; all AI features are part of RankVN SEO Pro only.
Privacy
RankVN SEO Free does not send your site data externally by default.
* IndexNow: only active if you enter an IndexNow key; sends the submitted public URL plus the key (see External services).
* Google Tag Manager / Google Analytics 4 / Microsoft Clarity: tracking snippets are only rendered if you explicitly enable them and enter the corresponding ID; data is then collected by those third parties from visitors’ browsers.
* Reader Ratings: stores total vote counts and rating averages in local WordPress post metadata only. No visitor IP addresses, browser cookies, or personal tracking tokens are collected.
* The Free version does not contact a RankVN server; licensing and AI features are Pro-only.
Instalación
- Upload the
rankvn-seofolder to/wp-content/plugins/, or install the ZIP from Plugins Add New. - Activate the plugin.
- The Activation Guard checks PHP 7.4+ and WordPress 6.0+. If requirements are not met, the plugin deactivates with a clear notice.
Preguntas frecuentes
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Does RankVN SEO Free require a license?
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No. Free Core works fully without connecting to any external RankVN service.
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Does Free use AI credits?
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No. Free SEO tools run locally with standard rules. AI suggestions and credit workflows are Pro-only.
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Does Free contact a RankVN server?
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No. The Free build does not ship the licensing or AI client, so it never contacts RankVN servers.
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Does the Reader Rating widget store IP addresses?
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No. Only aggregated counts and averages are stored in your database. No visitor IPs or tracking cookies.
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Is the plugin built for Vietnamese sites?
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Yes. Accent-aware processing, Vietnamese keyword analysis, and a full Vietnamese admin translation are included. Source strings are English for WordPress.org.
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Which Schema types are available in Free?
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Core graph types (WebSite, WebPage, Article / BlogPosting / NewsArticle, BreadcrumbList, AggregateRating) plus many manual types you can add in the editor — including FAQPage, HowTo, Product, Course, LocalBusiness, Recipe, Event, Review, VideoObject, JobPosting, SoftwareApplication, and more (see the Schema picker in the post editor).
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What does “Re-optimize (N variants)” mean on an image?
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Those “variants” are optimized copies on disk (for example different sizes / WebP) used to serve the image faster. They are not new items in the Media Library. Library copies are only created when the plugin clones or splits an image for a specific use (for example featured vs in-content, or clone-per-post).
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What is llms.txt?
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A simple text file that summarizes your site structure so large language models and AI crawlers can read it more easily.
Reseñas
No hay reseñas para este plugin.
Colaboradores y desarrolladores
Este software es de código abierto. Las siguientes personas han contribuido a este plugin.
Colaboradores
Traduce “RankVN SEO” a tu idioma.
¿Interesado en el desarrollo?
Revisa el código, echa un vistazo al repositorio SVN o suscríbete al registro de desarrollo por RSS.
Registro de cambios
4.3.1
- Image SEO: when the same attachment is both the featured image and used in the post content, Save or Optimize keeps the original file and creates two separate copies (featured + in-content) with their own URLs — so Media Library shows the original plus two usage copies.
- Clearer on-screen note after that split: reload the editor before clicking Update.
- Clarified in this readme what “variants” means (on-disk WebP/size files, not Media Library duplicates).
- Simple-mode XML sitemap includes category archives.
- Schema editor: the popup stays open on save and restore, its height stays stable, the WebPage/None view is clearer, an empty Article placeholder is hidden when a real Article exists, and the LocalBusiness address warning is hidden for Person.
- A module’s settings tabs stay hidden while that module is off.
- Dashboard counts refresh right after a save or an alt change.
- Vietnamese translation: 114 additional approved strings.
- SEO Project Board save applies only to its own task post type.
- New installs create the 404 log and redirect tables on activation. Upgrades that already have those tables are unchanged.
- Image clone lookup no longer scans the whole Media Library for orphan copies. Clones stay tied to the post; orphans remain a Media Health item.
4.3.0
- Shared helpers for SEO title, description, image and canonical on posts and terms.
- Term archives use the same editor shell as posts, including social tags and robots meta.
- When the RankVN XML sitemap is enabled, the default WordPress sitemap is turned off.
- Image SEO settings open the Image Hub (no broken settings links).
4.2.4
- Code cleanup: removed 14 AI/Pro feature scripts from the Free build (moved to the Pro add-on) and added a build guard to prevent regressions. No change to Free behavior.
4.2.3
- Hardening: escaped the table-of-contents toggle label, validated the settings tab against a strict allow-list before saving, and hardened all JSON-LD output against script-tag breakout.
4.2.2
- Hardening: escaping, nonce/capability checks, and input sanitization reviewed across admin screens and schema output for the WordPress.org guideline review.
4.2.1
- All 18 schema types (Product, Recipe, Event, LocalBusiness, Review, VideoObject, JobPosting, Course, SoftwareApplication and more) are now available in Free — add, edit and output JSON-LD with no locks.
- Improved schema type picker layout so type names and descriptions wrap cleanly.
- Fixed: the welcome modal no longer re-opens on top of the Setup Guide page.
- Fixed: the SEO score column no longer collapses on post lists with many columns (e.g. WooCommerce products).
4.1.1
- Compliance: removed “coming soon” placeholders from the Free admin UI (editor panel and Features page).
- Renamed the editor “E-E-A-T” tab to “AI Disclosure” to reflect its actual scope.
4.1.0
- Image Optimizer: explicit WebP and AVIF toggles that generate next-gen variants only for the formats your server supports (locked with a note when unavailable).
- Media Library & Editor: per-image “Optimize this image” and “Suggest & save Alt” buttons that act on a single image on demand.
- Alt suggestions: choose the source text — nearest heading (default), the post title/H1, or the first H2.
- Media Health: new “reused images” report showing images embedded in two or more posts, plus a configurable heavy-image threshold (MB) and quick hand-off buttons to fix alt or optimize.
- Clone per post: when an image is reused across posts, clone a separate copy for one post so renaming or optimizing it never affects the others.
- Optional rename-by-alt: when saving an alt suggestion, safely rename the file to match — only when the image is not used by other posts.
- All image features run locally in PHP with no external requests.
4.0.0
- First public release on WordPress.org.
- Free edition delivers complete technical SEO with no external server: unified JSON-LD schema graphs, XML sitemaps (posts, pages, news, video, HTML), meta tags & Open Graph, robots.txt & robots meta, canonical, breadcrumbs, table of contents, reader ratings, image alt optimization, redirects, 404 monitor, and llms.txt.
- Per-module Features toggles: enable/disable each feature independently, with settings tabs shown/hidden to match and a fully clean disable (no leftover hooks, menus, metaboxes, assets, or cron).
- Standards compliance: all admin/editor CSS and JavaScript are properly enqueued (no inline blocks); source strings are English with a bundled Vietnamese translation.
- The licensing and AI client are not part of the Free build; the Free version never contacts any RankVN server. AI features are available in RankVN SEO Pro.