Everything, step by step.
Download, install, activate, and run your first scan. Then upgrade, and set up the Browser Extension. Nothing assumed, nothing skipped.
1. Get XypherSEO free
The free plan is a real plugin, not a trial. It does not expire, and it does not nag you.
Install straight from your WordPress dashboard
This is the easiest route and the one most people should take.
- In WordPress, go to
Plugins, thenAdd New Plugin - Search for
XypherSEO - Click
Install Now, thenActivate
That is it. You are on the free plan and it is running.
Or download the .zip and upload it
Use this if you prefer to hold the file, or if your host restricts dashboard installs.
- Download the plugin from the pricing page or from WordPress.org
- In WordPress, go to
Plugins,Add New Plugin,Upload Plugin - Choose the .zip file, click
Install Now, thenActivate
2. Activate a paid licence
Skip this if you are on Free. If you bought Pro or Ultimate, this unlocks it.
Find your licence key
Your key and download link were emailed to the address you used at checkout. Search your inbox for XypherSEO. Check spam and promotions if it is not there.
You can also get it any time from your customer portal.
Paste the key into the plugin
Open the XypherSEO settings in your WordPress admin, find the licence field, paste your key, and save. Your plan unlocks immediately.
Add your Anthropic key, only if you want AI generation
The AI features are bring-your-own-key. Paste your Anthropic API key into the settings and the generation tools switch on. Without a key, no AI request is ever made, and every other feature works normally.
You pay Anthropic directly at their rates. We take no markup and sell no credits.
3. Run your first scan
This is where it clicks. Do it on a page you actually care about, not a test post.
Open your most important page
Pick the page you would most like to rank for and be cited for. A money page, a pillar post, your best guide. Something real.
Run the AECS scan
You get a score across four pillars: Answer, does the page state its answer plainly and early. Entity, is it clear what the page is about. Cluster, does it sit inside related content. Structure, can a machine parse it.
Every deduction tells you exactly what is wrong and how to fix it. It is a checklist with a grade attached, not a vanity number.
Fix two things and watch the score move
Do not try to fix everything. Take the two highest-impact deductions, fix them, and watch the score respond live as you edit.
4. Upgrade to Pro or Ultimate
Upgrade when the free plan starts feeling like a floor rather than a ceiling.
Choose your plan
Go to the pricing page and pick Pro or Ultimate. Checkout happens in the same tab, and your licence key and download link arrive by email within a minute.
- Free covers the SEO fundamentals, permanently
- Pro adds the full AEO and GEO toolkit, AI generation, and the advanced technical tools
- Ultimate adds the XypherSEO Browser Extension on top of everything in Pro
Activate the upgrade
Paste your new licence key into the XypherSEO settings, exactly as in step 2 above. Your existing content, scores, and settings are untouched. The new features simply appear.
5. XypherSEO vs Yoast and Rank Math
An honest comparison. Yoast and Rank Math are good plugins. They were built for a search landscape that has since grown a second half.
| Capability | XypherSEO | Yoast | Rank Math |
|---|---|---|---|
| Titles, meta, sitemaps, canonicals | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Schema markup | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Redirects and 404 monitor | Yes | Paid | Yes |
| AEO scoring, answer readiness | Yes | No | No |
| GEO scoring, AI citation readiness | Yes | No | No |
| AECS framework scoring | Yes | No | No |
| AI crawler controls and log | Yes | No | No |
| llms.txt generation | Yes | No | No |
| AI generation, bring your own key | Yes | No | Credits |
| Browser extension | Ultimate | No | No |
The honest summary: if all you need is classic on-page SEO, Yoast and Rank Math will serve you fine, and we will not pretend otherwise. What neither of them was built to do is tell you whether ChatGPT can read your page, whether your answer is extractable, or whether an AI crawler is being blocked by your own robots.txt. That is the half of search that is growing, and that is the half XypherSEO was built for.
6. The XypherSEO Browser Extension
Included with Ultimate. The plugin optimizes your site from the inside. The extension lets you read any site from the outside, including your competitors.
Why we built it
The plugin can only see the site it is installed on. That is a real limit. When you are trying to work out why a competitor gets cited and you do not, you need to look at their page the way an engine looks at it, and you cannot install a WordPress plugin on somebody else's website. The extension solves exactly that: it reads any page in your browser and shows you what a search engine or an AI engine actually sees.
What it does
Read any page like an engine
Open any URL, yours or a competitor's, and see its structure, headings, entities, schema, and answer readiness, exactly as a machine parses it.
Instant AECS score, anywhere
Run the same AECS scoring you use in the editor against any page on the web, without installing anything on that site.
See the schema on any page
Inspect the structured data a page is actually emitting, so you can see precisely what a competitor is telling engines about themselves.
Spot the gap, then close it
Compare a competitor's page against yours, find the specific structural reason they are extractable and you are not, and take it back into the plugin to fix.
How to install it
Get the extension file
The extension is for Ultimate customers only. The download link is sent to you by email after you purchase Ultimate. It is not on the public Chrome Web Store.
Unzip the file
Download the .zip from the link in your email and unzip it. You should end up with a folder. Put it somewhere you will not accidentally delete it, because Chrome loads the extension from that folder every time it starts.
Turn on Developer mode in Chrome
- Open Chrome and go to
chrome://extensions - Find the
Developer modetoggle in the top right - Switch it on
Load the extension
- Click
Load unpacked - Select the folder you unzipped in step 2
- The XypherSEO extension appears in your extensions list
Activate it with your Ultimate licence
Open the extension and paste the same Ultimate licence key you used for the plugin. It unlocks immediately.
Use it
Go to any page, yours or a competitor's, and open the extension. You get the structure, the schema, the entities, and the AECS score for that page, read the way an engine reads it.
The workflow that actually wins: find a competitor who is getting cited for a query you want, open their page in the extension, see exactly what makes them extractable, then open your own page in the plugin and close that specific gap. The extension tells you what to fix. The plugin fixes it.
Plugin plus extension
Separately they are two good tools. Together they close the loop. The extension is your reconnaissance: it shows you what the winners are doing and what engines actually see. The plugin is your execution: it fixes your pages and scores them until they are right. Most people optimize blind, guessing at why they are invisible. With both, you stop guessing.
Start where it makes sense.
Free is a real plugin, not a trial. Pro adds the full AEO and GEO stack. Ultimate adds the Browser Extension.