SEO Master - Documentation

Requirements

Requirement	Version
ExpressionEngine	7.x
PHP	7.4 or higher

Installation

Copy the system/seo_master folder to system/user/addons/
Copy the themes/seo_master folder to themes/addons/
In the Control Panel, go to Add-Ons and click Install next to SEO Master

After installation, an SEO Master tab will automatically appear on every channel entry form, no channel-level configuration needed.

Uninstallation

Go to Add-Ons, find SEO Master, and click Uninstall. This removes both the exp_seo_master_entries and exp_seo_master_settings database tables. Make sure to remove any {exp:seo_master:*} template tags before uninstalling.

The SEO Tab

When editing any channel entry, a dedicated SEO Master tab appears at the top of the publish form. It is divided into three sub-tabs: Meta, Open Graph, and Twitter/X.

A Focus Keyword field and a live SEO Score are always visible at the top, regardless of which sub-tab is active.

SEO Score circle and live analysis list in the entry tab — The SEO Score circle and live check list, always visible at the top of the SEO tab.

Meta Tab

Field	Description
Focus Keyword	The primary keyword you want this page to rank for. Used to calculate the SEO score.
SEO Title	The `<title>` shown in search results. Target: 30–60 characters. Supports template variables.
Meta Description	The snippet shown in search results. Target: 120–160 characters. Supports template variables.
Canonical URL	Leave empty to use the entry's default URL. Set this if the content exists at multiple URLs.
Robots	Two dropdowns to control `robots` directives: Indexing (index / noindex) and Follow Links (follow / nofollow).
Google Preview	A live approximation of how the entry will appear in Google search results, updating as you type.

Variable picker dropdown open on the SEO Title field — The variable picker dropdown, click "Insert Variable" to drop a dynamic value into any field.

Live Google Search preview updating as you type — The live Google Search preview, showing exactly how the title and description will appear in search results.

Open Graph Tab

Visible when Open Graph is enabled in Global Settings.

Field	Description
OG Title	Title shown when the page is shared on Facebook or LinkedIn. Can be synced automatically from the SEO Title.
OG Description	Description for social sharing. Can be synced from the Meta Description.
OG Image	Image displayed in the social share card. Recommended size: 1200 × 630 px.
OG Type	Content type: `article`, `website`, `product`, or `video`.
Facebook/LinkedIn Preview	A live card preview that reflects the current OG fields and image.

When the Sync OG from meta fields setting is enabled, the OG Title and OG Description fields default to the SEO Title and Meta Description. A checkbox on each field lets editors override this on a per-entry basis.

Live Facebook/LinkedIn Open Graph preview card — Live Facebook/LinkedIn preview card, updates as you edit the OG fields.

Twitter/X Tab

Visible when Twitter/X is enabled in Global Settings.

Field	Description
Twitter/X Title	Title shown on Twitter/X cards. Can be synced from the OG Title.
Twitter/X Description	Description shown on Twitter/X cards. Can be synced from the OG Description.
Twitter/X Image	Image for the card. Recommended size: 1200 × 600 px.
Card Type	`summary`, `summary_large_image`, `app`, or `player`.
Twitter/X Preview	A live card preview that updates as you edit, shown in the style of the selected card type.

Live Twitter/X summary_large_image card preview — Live Twitter/X card preview, switches layout automatically based on the selected card type.

SEO Score

The SEO Score gives each entry a score out of 100 based on the content of its SEO fields. It is calculated in real time as editors type and saved when the entry is saved.

Check	Points
SEO title is set	+20
Title length is 30–60 characters	+10
Meta description is set	+20
Description length is 120–160 characters	+10
Focus keyword is set	+5
Focus keyword appears in the SEO title	+10
Focus keyword appears in the meta description	+10
Focus keyword appears in the entry content	+10
OG image is set	+5
Maximum	100

Score colours:

80–100 Good

50–79 OK

0–49 Needs Work

Template Tags

Add the following inside the <head> section of your EE templates to output SEO meta tags.

`{exp:seo_master:meta}`

Outputs all meta tags at once: title, description, keywords, robots, canonical, Open Graph, and Twitter/X card tags.

{exp:seo_master:meta entry_id="{entry_id}"}

Example output:

<title>My Article Title | My Site</title>
<meta name="description" content="A short description of the page.">
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword one, keyword two">
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://yoursite.com/my-article/">
<meta property="og:type" content="article">
<meta property="og:title" content="My Article Title | My Site">
<meta property="og:description" content="A short description of the page.">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yoursite.com/images/share.jpg">
<meta property="og:site_name" content="My Site">
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@yoursitehandle">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="My Article Title | My Site">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="A short description of the page.">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://yoursite.com/images/share.jpg">

OG and Twitter/X tags are only output when those features are enabled in Global Settings. All values are HTML-escaped.

`{exp:seo_master:title}`

Returns just the resolved SEO title as a plain string, with no surrounding HTML. Useful when you need to output the title separately, for example in a JavaScript variable or a custom <title> wrapper.

{exp:seo_master:title entry_id="{entry_id}"}

`{exp:seo_master:score}`

Returns the stored SEO score (0–100) as a plain integer. Can be used in conditionals or displayed in a dashboard template.

{exp:seo_master:score entry_id="{entry_id}"}

Template Variables

Template variables can be used in the SEO Title, Meta Description, OG Title, OG Description, Twitter Title, and Twitter Description fields, both in the Global Settings defaults and on individual entries.

Click the Insert Variable button in any of those fields to pick a variable from a dropdown.

Variable	Replaced with
`{entry_title}` or `{title}`	The entry's title
`{site_name}`	Your site name (from EE System Settings)
`{entry_url}`	The full URL of the entry
`{entry_date}`	Entry publication date in your ExpressionEngine global date format
`{channel_name}`	The title of the entry's channel
`{author_name}`	Screen name of the entry author
`{category_name}`	Name of the first category assigned to the entry

Example default title format:

{entry_title} | {site_name}

Global Settings

Go to Add-Ons → SEO Master → Global Settings to configure site-wide defaults.

General

Setting	Description
Default Title Format	Template used when an entry has no custom SEO title. Supports template variables. Default: `{title} \| {site_name}`
Default Meta Description	Fallback description used when an entry has no custom meta description.
Default Robots: Indexing	Site-wide default for the robots index directive (`index` or `noindex`).
Default Robots: Follow	Site-wide default for the robots follow directive (`follow` or `nofollow`).

Open Graph (Facebook / LinkedIn)

Setting	Description
Enable Open Graph tags	Toggles all `og:*` meta tags on or off globally.
Sync OG fields from meta fields	When enabled, OG Title and OG Description default to the SEO Title and Meta Description. Editors can override per entry.
Site Name	Value for `og:site_name`. Supports template variables. Defaults to `{site_name}`.
Default OG Type	Fallback `og:type` value: `article`, `website`, `product`, or `video`.
Default OG Image	Fallback image for `og:image` when no per-entry image is set. Recommended: 1200 × 630 px.

Twitter / X

Setting	Description
Enable Twitter/X card tags	Toggles all `twitter:*` meta tags on or off globally.
Sync Twitter fields from OG fields	When enabled, Twitter Title and Twitter Description default to the OG values. Editors can override per entry.
Twitter/X Site Handle	Your site's Twitter/X handle, e.g. `@yoursite`. Output as `twitter:site`.
Default Card Type	Fallback card type: `summary`, `summary_large_image`, `app`, or `player`.
Default Twitter/X Image	Fallback image for `twitter:image` when no per-entry image is set. Recommended: 1200 × 600 px.

Control Panel Dashboard

Go to Add-Ons → SEO Master to see an overview of SEO health across your site:

Total entries that have SEO data
Average SEO score across all entries
Score breakdown: how many entries are Good (80+), OK (50–79), or Need Work (<50)
A table of the 10 most recently edited entries, with their title, SEO title, focus keyword, and score

Control Panel dashboard with score stats and recently edited entries table — The SEO Master dashboard, an at-a-glance overview of SEO scores across your entire site.

Migrating from SEO Lite Pro

SEO Master includes a one-way migration tool that reads all per-entry data from SEO Lite Pro and imports it into SEO Master. Your SEO Lite Pro data is never modified or removed.

Navigate to Add-Ons → SEO Master → Migrate SEO Lite Pro. The page shows whether the SEO Lite Pro database table (exp_seolite_content) was found, how many entries are available to import, and how many entries already have SEO Master data.

Field Mapping

SEO Lite Pro	SEO Master
`title`	SEO Title
`description`	Meta Description
`keywords`	Meta Keywords
`og_title`	OG Title
`og_description`	OG Description
`og_image`	OG Image
`twitter_title`	Twitter/X Title
`twitter_description`	Twitter/X Description
`twitter_image`	Twitter/X Image

Note: The Robots Directive field is not currently migrated.

Conflict Mode

When an entry already has SEO Master data, you can choose how to handle it:

Skip, keep the existing SEO Master data unchanged
Overwrite, replace the existing data with the SEO Lite Pro values

After Migration

The migration result shows how many entries were inserted, updated, or skipped. After a successful migration, update your EE templates to use the {exp:seo_master:meta} tag in place of any SEO Lite Pro tags.

Database Tables

`exp_seo_master_entries`

Stores per-entry SEO data. One row per entry per site.

Column	Type	Description
`id`	INT	Auto-increment primary key
`entry_id`	INT	EE entry ID
`site_id`	INT	EE site ID
`seo_title`	VARCHAR(512)	SEO title (may include template variables)
`seo_description`	TEXT	Meta description
`seo_keywords`	VARCHAR(512)	Meta keywords
`focus_keyword`	VARCHAR(255)	Focus keyword used for scoring
`canonical_url`	VARCHAR(512)	Custom canonical URL
`robots_index`	VARCHAR(20)	`index` or `noindex`
`robots_follow`	VARCHAR(20)	`follow` or `nofollow`
`og_title`	VARCHAR(512)	Open Graph title
`og_description`	TEXT	Open Graph description
`og_image`	VARCHAR(1024)	OG image file reference
`og_type`	VARCHAR(50)	OG type (`article`, `website`, etc.)
`twitter_title`	VARCHAR(512)	Twitter/X card title
`twitter_description`	TEXT	Twitter/X card description
`twitter_image`	VARCHAR(1024)	Twitter/X image file reference
`twitter_card`	VARCHAR(50)	Twitter/X card type
`seo_score`	TINYINT	Calculated SEO score (0–100)

`exp_seo_master_settings`

Stores global settings as key/value pairs, one row per setting per site.

Column	Type	Description
`id`	INT	Auto-increment primary key
`site_id`	INT	EE site ID
`setting_key`	VARCHAR(100)	Setting name
`setting_value`	TEXT	Setting value

Changelog

1.1.0

Added default OG image and default Twitter/X image settings
Added sync checkboxes on OG and Twitter/X fields in the entry tab
Added live Open Graph preview (Facebook/LinkedIn card style)
Added live Twitter/X preview (all four card types)
Added migration tool for SEO Lite Pro

1.0.0

Initial release