Rank Bix SEO

Changelog

1.1.11

Improvements

• LLMs.txt – file now generates reliably – The LLMs.txt file failed to generate or regenerate on sites where the legacy rankbix_seo_llmstxt_enabled database option had previously been set to disabled. The enabled state is now read from the module toggle (consistent with all other modules) rather than the stale option, so the file is written correctly whenever the LLMs.txt module is active – no manual workaround or settings re-save needed.
• Sitemap cache – busts on term edits and unpublish – The cached sitemap was not invalidated when a category or tag was edited, or when a published post was moved back to draft or private. Both gaps are now covered: editing any taxonomy term triggers a cache bust via the edited_term hook, and any post transition away from published does the same.
• robots.txt – created vs updated feedback – The “Generate robots.txt” button now reports “robots.txt created.” when no file existed, and “robots.txt updated.” on subsequent saves, so you can tell at a glance whether the file was new or replaced.
• IndexNow – pings on trash, delete, and unpublish – IndexNow previously only pinged search engines when a post was published or updated. It now also pings when a post is trashed, permanently deleted, or moved to draft or private, so search engines are notified promptly to re-crawl and drop the URL from their index.
• Duplicate Page – admin notice after duplicate – After duplicating a post, a dismissible success notice now appears at the top of the page with a direct “Edit the new draft” link, making it easy to open the copy immediately without hunting for it in the post list.
• Breadcrumbs – Untitled fallback – Breadcrumb ancestor links and the current-page label no longer show an empty label when a post has no title. “Untitled” is displayed instead, keeping the trail readable.
• LLMs.txt – preview of auto-generated default in settings – The LLMs.txt settings field now includes a collapsible “Preview auto-generated default” section showing exactly what the plugin would write to /llms.txt if the content field is left blank, so you can review it before deciding whether to customise it.
• 404 Monitor – Export CSV button – A new “Export CSV” button on the 404 Monitor page downloads all logged 404 errors as a dated CSV file (URL, Referrer, Hits, First Seen, Last Seen), suitable for analysis in a spreadsheet or importing into a redirect tool.

Bug Fixes

• LLMs.txt – HTML entity in file output – The physical /llms.txt file and the PHP fallback response both output > instead of > when the stored content contained HTML-encoded characters. html_entity_decode() is now applied in both the static file writer and the PHP serve path so the raw Markdown character is always written correctly.

1.1.10

New Features

• Image Alt Audit – New admin page at Rank Bix SEO → Image Alt Audit. Shows every image in the media library with stats cards (Total Images, Missing Alt Text, % Have Alt Text with progress bar) and a filterable table (Missing / All / Has Alt tabs). Each row displays the thumbnail, filename, file type badge, status badge (Missing/OK), parent post link, and an inline alt text input. Per-image Save and Suggest buttons let you fix alt text without leaving the page. Auto-fill All Missing batch-fills all missing images in 30-image AJAX batches with a live progress counter. Character count is colour-coded: red below 30 chars, green 30–125 (ideal range), orange above 125. Module can be enabled or disabled from the Features page.

• FAQ & HowTo Gutenberg Blocks – Two new dynamic blocks registered under the rankbix-seo namespace. The FAQ Block (rankbix-seo/faq) lets you add unlimited question/answer pairs in the editor; schema is injected automatically into the page’s JSON-LD without any manual configuration. The HowTo Block (rankbix-seo/howto) provides title, total time (ISO 8601), and unlimited steps (name + description); HowTo schema is generated automatically from block data. Both blocks use save: () => null (server-side rendering) so schema stays up to date without re-saving posts. Block styles are loaded only on pages that use the blocks.

• Page Builder Content Extraction (RankBixSEO_ContentExtract) – New utility class that extracts post content from all major page builders: Elementor (JSON meta), Beaver Builder (serialised meta), Bricks Builder, and Oxygen Builder, with a fallback to post_content for Divi, WPBakery, and standard block/classic content. All keyword analysis, readability scoring, and AI content generation now use page-builder-aware content instead of raw post_content, giving accurate results on builder-powered sites. An in-request cache prevents duplicate meta reads within a single page load.

• robots.txt Editor + Tester – The plain custom rules textarea in Settings → Robots & Indexing has been replaced with a full two-tab widget. The Editor tab shows a read-only, syntax-highlighted block of WordPress-managed rules (purple directives, red Disallow, green Allow, blue Sitemap, grey comments) with CSS counter line numbers, followed by an editable custom rules textarea whose line numbers continue from the WP block. A live stats footer tracks total lines and character count. The Tester tab lets you type any URL path, pick a crawler from a bot-selector pill row (Googlebot, Bingbot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Yandex, CCBot, or All), and click Test URL to instantly evaluate whether that crawler is allowed or blocked – using the Google longest-path-wins spec. The result card slides in showing an Allowed / Blocked badge, the matched User-agent group, and the exact matching rule.

• Toolbar – SEO score badge – The Rank Bix SEO toolbar item now displays a colour-coded score badge next to the plugin name whenever you are viewing or editing a singular post or page. Green badge (70+) for good, amber (40–69) for OK, red (below 40) for poor, grey dot when no focus keyword is set. Works on both the frontend and the WordPress admin post editor with zero page-load overhead – reads the cached stored score with no on-the-fly recalculation.

• Toolbar – “Mark this page” submenu – The Rank Bix SEO admin toolbar item now includes a Mark this page submenu when viewing or editing a singular post or page. Three toggle items are available: As Cornerstone Content (marks the page as cornerstone content), As NoIndex (sets the page to noindex), and As NoFollow (sets the page to nofollow). A green ✓ checkmark appears next to each item when it is currently active. Clicking any item toggles the setting instantly via AJAX with no page reload. Works on both the frontend (live page view) and the WordPress post editor.

• Toolbar – “Duplicate” shortcut – A Duplicate link now appears directly in the Rank Bix SEO toolbar group (after Settings) when the Duplicate module is enabled, the current post type is in the allowed post types list, and the logged-in user has an allowed role. Clicking the link duplicates the post as a draft using the existing Duplicate module settings. Replaces the old standalone admin bar button.

Improvements

• Duplicate Page – simplified settings – The redundant “Enable Duplicate Page module” toggle has been removed from the Duplicate Page settings screen. The module is now enabled or disabled exclusively from the Features page, matching how all other modules work. Existing installations are unaffected – the stored value is preserved as a fallback.

• robots.txt – physical file support – When a physical robots.txt file exists at the site root, the Editor widget now reads and displays the actual file content instead of the WP defaults placeholder. The section label changes to “Physical file content”. Three new action buttons appear: Regenerate file rebuilds the physical file from WP defaults (filtered via apply_filters('robots_txt', ...)) plus saved custom rules; Delete file removes the physical file so WordPress’s virtual robots.txt takes over again. When no physical file exists, a Generate robots.txt file button creates one. All actions run via AJAX, show an inline status message, and automatically reload the page to reflect the new state.

Bug Fixes

• Settings – 404 Monitor tab shown when module disabled – The 404 Monitor tab appeared in the Settings tab bar regardless of whether the 404 Monitor module was enabled. The tab now correctly respects the module state and is hidden when the module is off.

• Settings – Save Settings button visible on 404 Monitor tab – The Save Settings button remained visible when the 404 Monitor tab was active, even though that tab is AJAX-only and outside the settings form. The button is now hidden automatically when switching to the 404 Monitor tab.

• Redirections – notices rendered inside page header – Action notices (Redirect saved / Redirect deleted / Redirect updated) were echoed immediately after the page header function, placing them inside the plugin’s flex layout wrapper and causing them to appear alongside the header logo and title instead of in the page body. Notices now render as properly styled flash banners above the Add New Redirect form.

• Redirections – wrong notice shown after delete then add – Submitting the Add Redirect form on a page whose URL still contained &del=N from a previous delete caused both the save and delete handlers to fire in sequence, displaying “Redirect deleted.” instead of “Redirect saved.” The three action checks are now an exclusive if / elseif / elseif chain so only one fires per request.

1.1.9

New Features

• Features page – module enable/disable – A new Rank Bix SEO → Features page lets you toggle individual modules on or off using toggle switches. Available modules: XML Sitemap, Redirections, 404 Monitor, Duplicate Page, Breadcrumbs, IndexNow, LLMs.txt, Broken Link Checker, Table of Contents, and Robots.txt. Core features (Meta Title & Description, Open Graph, Schema / JSON-LD, Image SEO, Bulk SEO Editor) are always active and listed separately. Your data is preserved when a module is disabled. Disabled modules are hidden from the admin nav automatically.

• Content Manager page – Bulk SEO Editor and Import SEO are now combined under a single Rank Bix SEO → Content Manager page with two tabs: Bulk SEO Editor and Import SEO. The previous separate submenu items have been replaced by this unified page.

• Multilingual support – Polylang & WPML – Rank Bix SEO now detects and integrates with Polylang and WPML automatically. SEO title, meta description, focus keyword, and secondary keywords are registered as translatable fields with Polylang Pro’s Translation Editor so translators can localise them per language. When a new translation is created in Polylang, all SEO meta fields (title, description, focus keyword, noindex, schema type, social image, and more) are automatically copied to the translated post as a starting point. Structural fields (noindex, schema type, social image ID) are copied but not flagged as translatable, so they remain shared across translations unless overridden. WPML support uses the standard wpml_object_id filter for per-language URL resolution; custom field translation for WPML can be configured via WPML → Settings → Custom Fields Translation.

• XML Sitemap – hreflang alternates – On multilingual sites running Polylang or WPML, each <url> entry in the XML sitemap now includes <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="..."> tags for every available translation, with an additional x-default entry pointing to the default-language version. The xmlns:xhtml namespace declaration is added to <urlset> only when hreflang links are present, keeping single-language sitemaps unchanged. Translated post URLs are injected as their own <url> entries with their own full hreflang set – ensuring Google sees reciprocal hreflang on every language version. Sitemap caches are automatically invalidated when a translation is saved (pll_save_post / wpml_translation_job_saved), so the sitemap always reflects the latest translation state.

Improvements

• Admin navigation – The sidebar nav now shows Content Manager and Features as dedicated nav items. Module-conditional items (Redirections, 404 Monitor, Duplicate Page) are hidden from the nav automatically when their module is disabled.
• Sitemap under Settings – The Sitemap configuration is now accessed via Settings → Sitemap tab. The old standalone Sitemap menu item redirects to Settings for backwards compatibility.
• Admin toolbar – The admin toolbar dropdown now links to Content Manager instead of the previous separate Bulk SEO link.

1.1.8

Bug Fixes

• XML Sitemap – proper sitemap index structure – sitemap_index.xml was incorrectly
  outputting a flat <urlset> containing every URL on the site in a single file. It now
  outputs a <sitemapindex> listing individual sub-sitemaps per content type
  (post-sitemap.xml, page-sitemap.xml, category-sitemap.xml,
  post_tag-sitemap.xml), matching the structure search engines expect. The
  “← Back to Sitemap Index” link in the browser view now correctly navigates back to the
  index instead of reloading the same page. /sitemap.xml now 301-redirects to
  /sitemap_index.xml. Trailing-slash variants of sitemap URLs are also redirected to
  the canonical form to prevent duplicate indexing.

For the full changelog see rankbix.com/changelog/.