Integration
ParSEO for WordPress sites
Updated · 2 min read · By The ParSEO team
The short answer
ParSEO fixes a WordPress site through ParSEO Edge: a few one-time records at your domain company, no plugin, and your WordPress settings stay as they are. ParSEO also has a direct WordPress route built in, through its free ParSEO Companion plugin and an application password you can revoke at any time, but that connection isn't in the app's connect screen yet.
Key points
- Today: ParSEO Edge, switched on in Settings, then Connectors, with no plugin.
- Built in: the ParSEO Companion plugin route, which writes into Yoast SEO, Rank Math or the plugin itself.
- Every fix waits for your OK and can be undone for 14 days.
- Without a connection, each fix comes with exact steps for your WordPress admin.
At a glance
How it connects
ParSEO Edge (a few DNS records)
What ParSEO can change
- Page titles and meta descriptions
- Your business details as structured data on the home page
- Canonical tags, so Google keeps one address per page
- An llms.txt guide for AI assistants
- robots.txt lines that let AI search crawlers read your site
- Your sitemap
- The Google Analytics tag and Google's verification code
- Image alt text
- Removing a noindex tag that hides a page by mistake
- New answer pages and blog posts you approve
The ParSEO Companion plugin route
- Page titles and descriptions, written into Yoast SEO or Rank Math when you use them, otherwise output by the plugin
- Business details as structured data on the home page
- robots.txt lines that let AI search crawlers in
- An llms.txt guide for AI assistants
- Answer pages and posts, published as normal WordPress pages with their FAQ as structured data
Built and tested in ParSEO's publishing engine, not yet in the app's connect screen.
If you leave ParSEO
Fixes served by ParSEO Edge stop when you leave and set your www record back. Before that, press Download your fixes on the Approvals page: it writes out every fix so your web person can put each one into the site itself. Your numbers stay in your own Google accounts.
Set up ParSEO on WordPress
Open Publishing in ParSEO
In ParSEO, open Settings, then Connectors, and press Set up ParSEO Edge in the Publishing card.
Add the proof records
ParSEO shows a few TXT records. Add them at your domain company (where your domain's DNS records are managed, which may not be your WordPress host). ParSEO checks for them by itself; nothing on your site changes yet.
Wait for the certificate
Cloudflare issues the security certificate for your www address. The card shows the wait; there is nothing to do unless a record says otherwise.
Point www at ParSEO Edge
Change your www record to the CNAME value ParSEO shows. If your site opens on the bare domain, forward the bare domain to www.
Approve your first fix
When the card shows Live, approve a fix. It goes into the page for visitors, Google and AI, and you can undo it for 14 days.
How a fix reaches your WordPress site
ParSEO Edge sits in front of your www address. When a visitor, Google or an AI crawler asks for a page, the Edge fetches it from your WordPress host and puts in the fixes you approved: a clearer title, a better description, structured data, a new answer page. Nothing is installed in WordPress, so your theme, plugins and settings are untouched.
If you don't switch Edge on, nothing is lost: each fix comes with steps for your exact setup. For a title and description, that's "Yoast SEO: edit the page, then SEO title and Meta description in the Yoast box", or "Rank Math: Edit Snippet".
The ParSEO Companion plugin
ParSEO's publishing engine also has a direct WordPress route. It uses the ParSEO Companion plugin (version 0.3.0, GPL licensed) and a WordPress application password:
- Every change records what was there before, so ParSEO can undo it. Undoing a page takes it back to draft; nothing is deleted.
- ParSEO never overwrites a page it didn't make.
- Revoke the application password under Users, then Profile, and access stops at once.
- Deactivating the plugin removes everything it added from your pages.
This route isn't in the app's connect screen yet, so new WordPress sites connect through ParSEO Edge.
If you use Yoast SEO or Rank Math
Keep them. ParSEO Edge changes what your pages send out, not your plugin settings. With the Companion route, titles and descriptions are written into whichever of the two you use.
What stays if you leave
Fixes served by ParSEO Edge stop when you leave and set your www record back. Before that, press Download your fixes on the Approvals page: it writes out every fix so your web person can put each one into the site itself. Your numbers stay in your own Google accounts.
Questions people ask
Do I need to install a plugin?
No. ParSEO Edge works without one. The ParSEO Companion plugin is only for the direct WordPress route, which isn't in the app's connect screen yet.
Will ParSEO break my theme?
ParSEO Edge doesn't touch your theme or plugins. It changes only the parts of a page a fix names, such as the title tag, and every fix can be undone for 14 days.
What if ParSEO Edge has a problem?
The Edge fails open: if anything at ParSEO goes wrong, your original page is served as it is. To take Edge out completely, set your www record back to the value ParSEO shows you; the site returns to how it was, usually within minutes.
Does every fix need my approval?
Yes, unless you switch on Apply safe changes for me. Then descriptions, business details and the guide for AI assistants go live without asking; titles always ask first. Every change can be undone for 14 days.
Sources
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