Five steps. You can stop at any of them.
Auditors hand you a list and leave. Automations edit your site and tell you afterwards. SEO Merlin sits between them on purpose — it does the work, then waits for you.
Scan
Connect Search Console and Analytics, then run a scan. Quick pass takes about thirty seconds; a full pass runs three to five minutes across all 46 checks and nine categories.
- Every issue carries a severity and a fix mode
- Deterministic, AI-assisted or advisory — declared up front
- 43 checks need no API key at all
Preview
AI fixes call the model right there and hand back the real proposed value. You read the exact string that would be written — not a description of it, not a summary.
- Before and after, side by side
- Character counts checked against the limit
- Shows which phrases on your page grounded the output
Approve
Go item by item. Take it, leave it, or rewrite it — your edit travels separately and is re-validated at the writer before anything is committed.
- Approve, reject or edit each item on its own
- A blank value can’t wipe an existing field
- Length limits enforced on output, not just the prompt
Apply
The request carries a single-use token whose hash covers the preview you approved. Alter one character in transit and the write is refused before it reaches your database.
- Token expires in fifteen minutes and works once
- The rollback record is saved before the write runs
- Lands in your SEO plugin’s own fields, never duplicated
Undo
Every write stores what was there before. Undo puts it back — unless you’ve edited that page since, in which case it stops and reports drift rather than trampling your work.
- Reverse a single fix or an entire scan
- Drift detection protects edits you made later
- The two irreversible operations are labelled and excluded from bulk apply
The preview is the product
Most tools describe the change. This one renders it. The review screen reads from the same field the writer receives, so what’s on your screen is what lands in the database — byte for byte.
- Grounded by a function — statistics, quotes and sources must already exist on your page
- Every URL verified — cited links get an HTTP check before they’re proposed
- It declines — when nothing on the page supports a claim, the fix returns empty instead of inventing one
1600 × 1040 recommended
Why you can let it near a live site
These aren’t promises in a marketing page. They’re mechanisms in the code — the reason a plugin can write to a site that’s already ranking.
- Single-use token — hashed against the exact preview you approved
- Rollback written first — an interruption mid-write still leaves a way back
- Drift detection — undo stops rather than overwriting your later edits
- Disclosed edges — the two irreversible operations are labelled as such
What you need to have ready
Two of these are optional. The plugin does most of its work without any of them.
A WordPress site
WordPress 6.5 or newer on PHP 8.1+. It works alongside Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO, SEOPress and The SEO Framework — writes land in your existing plugin’s fields.
Google connections (optional)
Search Console and Analytics unlock click-through, impression and traffic-decline checks. Sign-in runs through an OAuth broker that handles only the token exchange.
An AI key (optional)
An Anthropic key enables AI-written meta descriptions, alt text, FAQ schema and the AI-readiness fixes. Billed by them at their rate — we take nothing on top.
Run one scan. Read one diff. Then decide.
Ten AI fixes free, no card, no trial clock. If the output isn’t good enough, you’ll know inside ten minutes.
WordPress 6.5+ · PHP 8.1+ · Works with your existing SEO plugin