Dunes SEO guide

Getting started

What is Dunes SEO?

A premium AI SEO suite for WordPress: it analyzes and fixes your SEO, generates metadata, builds news sitemaps, gets you Discover/News-ready, indexes instantly and connects GA4 and Search Console — all in one trilingual panel. Built for media and newspapers.

How do I install and activate it?

Plugins → Add New → Upload, pick the ZIP, install and activate. Dunes SEO appears in the sidebar. Requires WordPress 6.0+ and PHP 7.4+ (8.1+ recommended) with the OpenSSL extension for the Google APIs.

Where do I start?

In Overview you get your SEO Index and each module’s status. Start with the Analyzer to audit the site, then connect AI and Google in Settings and check Compatibility to avoid duplicate SEO with your theme or another plugin.

How is it different from Yoast or Rank Math?

It is built for news: a Google Discover validator, a Google News sitemap, indexing speed, the Headline Lab, one-click AI, GA4 + Search Console analytics inside WordPress and a trilingual panel. All in-house code, no external libraries, and a hands-off philosophy (it never blocks your site). Not just another generic SEO: it is newsroom-grade SEO.

Does it clash with my theme or another SEO plugin?

No. Dunes SEO detects whether your theme or another plugin (Yoast, Rank Math…) already emits SEO and, in Automatic mode, steps back to avoid duplicate tags. You can force "Always on" to take control, or disable the other. The Compatibility tab tells you what conflicts.

Overview & War Room

What is the Overview (War Room)?

It is your control center: one screen shows the global SEO Index with an animated gauge, the three sub-scores in rings (Analysis, Discover, Connections), each module’s status, the Google Analytics charts and the live activity ticker. From there you jump to any tool.

What is the SEO Index and how is it calculated?

A composite global score: 45% analyzer quality, 35% Discover readiness and 20% active connections (sitemap, IndexNow, GA4, Search Console). Shown with an animated gauge and an A–E grade so you know your status at a glance.

What are the three rings (Analysis / Discover / Connections)?

They are the sub-scores that feed the SEO Index, shown large in premium rings: Analysis sums up the analyzer’s average score, Discover your Google Discover/News readiness and Connections which integrations are active. Click any of them to go to its tool.

What is the live ticker?

A strip that shows the site’s SEO activity in real time: publications, search-engine pings (IndexNow / Indexing API), score changes and module status. If there are no recent events, it shows the current status so it is never empty.

SEO Analyzer

How do I analyze my site?

Go to Analyzer and click Analyze the site. It audits all your pages and posts in batches and scores them 0–100, with issues sorted by severity. It runs in the background and, if the host cuts it off, resumes where it left off.

What exactly does it check?

Each piece goes through dozens of rules: title and meta description length and uniqueness, heading hierarchy (a single H1), image alt, internal and external links, keyword presence, readability, canonical, indexability, content length and Open Graph/Twitter. Each issue comes with its explanation and how to fix it.

What is the 1-click fix?

Each row has Optimize: it fills missing metadata with AI (title, description, keyword) or by rules if no AI, saves it and re-analyzes instantly so you watch the score go up.

Can I analyze or re-analyze a single post?

Yes. Each row has its own re-analyze button, and inside the editor the Dunes SEO box shows the live score as you type. You don’t need to re-run the whole site to see the effect of a change.

AI metadata

How do I generate metadata?

In each post editor there’s the Dunes SEO box with a Google preview and a "Generate with AI" button for title, description and keyword. For bulk, use the AI Metadata tab: it lists posts without metadata and fills them in one click.

Can I use title templates with variables?

Yes. In Settings you define title and description templates per content type with variables like %title%, %sitename% and %sep%. They act as a fallback when a post has no metadata of its own, so no page is left without an optimized title.

What structured data does it emit?

On the frontend it auto-generates Article / NewsArticle, Open Graph, Twitter Cards and BreadcrumbList, with publisher and logo. Nothing to touch: valid markup ships automatically on every article.

And the social image (Open Graph)?

It uses the post’s featured image as the Open Graph and Twitter image, with dimensions, and if there is none it falls back to a default social image you set in Settings. The box preview shows how it will look when shared.

Indexing & robots

How does it ping Google and Bing on publish?

With IndexNow (Bing, Yandex) zero-setup and, optionally, the Google Indexing API via a service account. On publish, update or delete it pings the active engines instantly and logs it.

What is IndexNow and how do I enable it?

It is an open protocol (Bing, Yandex, Seznam) to instantly notify URL changes. Dunes SEO generates and publishes your key automatically: just enable it in Indexing and you’re done, no manual steps. You get a log of every ping sent.

How do I set up the Google Indexing API?

In Google Cloud console create a service account, enable the Indexing API and download its JSON; add that account as an owner in Search Console. Paste the JSON in Settings → Google (the same account works for GA4 and Search Console). Hit "Test connection".

Does it control robots.txt?

Yes, with a virtual robots.txt (no files written): you edit the content, it adds the sitemap line automatically and warns you in red if it detects a "Disallow: /" that would block the whole site.

Sitemaps

What sitemaps does it generate?

An index at /dunes-sitemap.xml with sub-sitemaps for pages, posts, news (Google News, last 48 h), images and video. It announces itself in robots.txt and ships a stylesheet to view it nicely in the browser.

How do I set it up for Google News?

In Sitemaps enable "News" and set the publication name exactly as registered in Google News Publisher Center. Then submit the index to Search Console.

Does it include images and video, and where do I submit it?

Yes: each URL carries its images (with caption) and embedded videos as video-sitemap entries, which helps appear in Google Images and Videos. Submit only the index /dunes-sitemap.xml in Search Console → Sitemaps; Google follows the sub-sitemaps on its own.

Discover & Google News

How does it get me ready for Google Discover?

It emits NewsArticle with publisher and logo, images as ImageObject with dimensions and max-image-preview:large. In the editor each article has a readiness validator scoring /100 that tells you what is missing.

What does the readiness validator check?

A checklist tuned for Discover/News: a large featured image (≥1200 px wide), a hooky headline of the right length, a description, a visible author, indexable content (not noindex), enough length and correct structured data. It gives you the /100 score and the list of what to fix to raise it.

And Google Showcase / other engines?

The same foundation (correct NewsArticle, large images, news sitemap and indexing speed) is what Google wants for Discover, News and Showcase, and it also helps on Bing via IndexNow. Optimized like no other to appear everywhere.

Analytics & Search Console

How do I connect GA4 and Search Console?

A single Google service account works for both. In Analytics paste the JSON and the GA4 Property ID; in Search Console set the site. There’s a "Test connection" button in each. The account needs read access to the GA4 property and owner access in Search Console.

What do I see in Analytics?

Live users, 28-day KPIs, a visits chart, per-article traffic, countries, devices and channels — all inside WordPress, without opening GA4. And from Search Console, clicks, impressions, CTR and average position.

What is the decay radar?

In Search Console, it spots the articles losing clicks vs the previous period and tells you which to refresh to win positions back. Key for news, which decays fast.

Does it measure how long Google takes to index?

Yes. Indexing speed compares the publish date with the first impression in Search Console and gives you the time per article plus the average. A key news KPI to know if you reach the news cycle in time.

Lab & links

What is the Headline Lab?

You type the headline and see live how it looks in Google, Discover, Google News and social, with a headline-strength meter (length, hook, numbers, caps, clickbait). It is the only way to preview your headline across every surface at once before publishing.

Does it generate AI headline variants?

Yes: it asks the AI for several alternatives optimized for News and Discover, each with its strength score, and you apply the one you like in one click. Ideal to find the angle that ranks best without losing your editorial voice.

What do internal links do?

They suggest which related articles to link to (with a "Copy link" button) and which articles could link to this one (inbound opportunities). It strengthens your topic clusters and helps Google discover your content sooner.

Settings & configuration

What is the SEO "take-over"?

In Settings → SEO output you pick the mode: Automatic (only if no conflict), Always on (Dunes SEO takes control as the single source of metadata) or Off.

Can I export/import the configuration?

Yes, Settings has a backup: export and import the configuration JSON (without AI or Google keys, for security) and reset to defaults.

Does it work in several languages?

The panel is trilingual (ES/EN/FR) with a top-bar switcher and an onboarding wizard, no .mo files: you switch the interface language by option. Frontend SEO respects each content’s language.

Licenses & tiers

What does the license include and how much is it?

The license is €69/year and includes every module (analyzer, AI, indexing, sitemaps, Discover/News, analytics, lab…), one year of updates and support. What it costs per year you earn back in traffic, visits and money.

Is the license per site?

Yes, each license is meant for one site. If you manage several, you can buy extra licenses or an agency/publisher plan from your customer panel.

What happens if the license expires?

Hands-off philosophy: if the license is missing or expires, Dunes SEO never blocks your site nor removes the SEO you already have; it just stops receiving updates and support. Validation is offline (HMAC), no "phone home" needed.

Troubleshooting

I see duplicate SEO tags — why?

You have another SEO active (theme or another plugin) and output set to "Always on". Switch to Automatic or disable the other. The Compatibility tab tells you what conflicts.

The sitemap or panel errors out — what do I do?

Enable WP_DEBUG_LOG and check wp-content/debug.log. Make sure the server has PHP’s OpenSSL extension (needed for GA4/Indexing API) and that permalinks aren’t "Plain" (go to Settings → Permalinks and save to refresh the rules).

I don’t show in Google Discover / News — why?

Dunes SEO prepares the whole technical side (NewsArticle, large images, news sitemap, fast indexing), but the call is Google’s. Make sure you’re approved in Publisher Center, that you submitted the news sitemap and that your articles pass the readiness validator with a good score. Discover also rewards quality content and E-E-A-T; inclusion is never guaranteed.

I get no data from GA4 or Search Console

Check three things: that the service account has read access to the GA4 property and is an owner/user in Search Console, that the GA4 Property ID is the correct numeric one, and that PHP has OpenSSL. Use the "Test connection" button. Note that GA4 and Search Console have a 24–48 h data lag.