SEO Core (Lite)

SEO Core (Lite) exists for one reason: to give WordPress clean, correct SEO output without turning your site into a control panel full of charts, warnings, and distractions.
It handles the fundamentals the way search engines expect them to be handled—then steps aside.

Titles, meta descriptions, canonicals, robots directives, social tags, structured data, and a lean sitemap are all generated using WordPress-native hooks and filters.
Nothing is duplicated, nothing is guessed, and nothing is layered on top of existing behavior in a way that causes conflicts.

Everything runs lightweight and front-end focused. There are no crawlers, background scans, keyword scoring engines, or heavy admin scripts.
Output is generated only when pages are rendered, and the sitemap is cached and refreshed only when content actually changes.
The result is SEO that does its job without slowing your site down.

The plugin is actively maintained and built around modern WordPress APIs such as wp_robots and get_canonical_url, avoiding outdated practices that cause duplicate tags or unpredictable behavior.
It plays cleanly with WooCommerce by excluding system pages automatically, and it’s designed to coexist safely in setups where another plugin may own SEO on specific page types.

Installation is straightforward: activate it, set a title template if you want, and you’re done.
Per-post controls are available when you need them, but the defaults are sensible enough that most sites never have to touch them.
The sitemap lives at /sitemap.xml, loads fast, and is ready for Search Console immediately.

SEO Core (Lite) is built for people who value correctness, performance, and restraint.
If you want SEO handled properly—without popups, nags, or dashboards competing for attention—this is exactly that kind of plugin.