CataSEO for Woo

Installation and Usage Guide for the CataSEO WordPress Connector Plugin for WooCommerce.

CataSEO is a SaaS-based SEO optimization engine. This plugin acts as a secure, high-performance bridge between your WooCommerce store and our cloud-based AI. The plugin reads your product catalog, forwards it to the CataSEO dashboard for optimization, and writes the AI-generated meta titles, descriptions, and Open Graph content back into your local WordPress database — directly into the meta fields your existing SEO plugin already reads.

1. Requirements & Compatibility

System requirements

PHP 7.4 or newer (8.1+ recommended)
WordPress 6.4 or newer
WooCommerce 9.6 or newer
HPOS Compatible with High-Performance Order Storage

SEO plugin support

CataSEO detects your active SEO plugin automatically and writes optimized content into its native meta fields. Supported modes:

Yoast SEO
Rank Math
All in One SEO
Standalone — if no SEO plugin is active, CataSEO writes meta tags directly into each product page's <head> element via the standard wp_head action.

2. Installation and Connection

Install the plugin

In your WordPress admin, navigate to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
Upload the cataseo.zip file and click Install Now.
Click Activate Plugin. WooCommerce must already be active on the site.
A new CataSEO item appears in the WordPress admin sidebar under the WooCommerce menu.

Connect your store

Click the CataSEO menu item. The plugin's native status portal opens inside WordPress.
Click Connect to CataSEO. You will be redirected to the WooCommerce native authorization screen.
Review the requested permissions (read and write access to your products) and click Approve.
WooCommerce returns you to the CataSEO portal, now showing Connection Active.

The connection uses the native WooCommerce REST API authorization flow. No custom authentication scheme, no hardcoded API keys, no external credential storage — the handshake is handled entirely by WooCommerce's own OAuth-style authorization endpoint, and the resulting consumer key and secret are stored in WooCommerce's own REST keys table.

3. Native Dashboard Overview

The CataSEO admin page is a native WordPress portal — no iframes, no embedded web views. It sits under the WooCommerce menu and displays the current connection status, the detected SEO plugin, and a button to launch the full optimization dashboard.

CataSEO Optimization Dashboard in WooCommerce

The portal shows three things at a glance:

SEO integration status — which SEO plugin was detected, its version, and the exact WordPress meta keys CataSEO will write optimized content into.
Connection status — whether the store is connected to the CataSEO cloud, which account it is connected to, how many products are in the catalog, and the current plugin version.
Launch Dashboard button — opens the full CataSEO optimization interface in a new browser tab.

4. Data Persistence

When you optimize a product in the CataSEO dashboard, the generated content is pushed back to your WooCommerce store through the plugin's REST API endpoints and written directly into your WordPress database.

All AI-generated meta titles, descriptions, and Open Graph content are stored locally in your WordPress database. The SEO value you accumulate through optimization remains intact even if this plugin is deactivated or uninstalled.

Screenshot 3 of 3Standard WooCommerce product edit screen with the Yoast SEO meta box showing populated meta title and meta description fields written by CataSEO.

Place the screenshot here. A standard WooCommerce Product Edit screen with the SEO meta box (Yoast, Rank Math, or AIOSEO) showing optimized content written by CataSEO.

Where optimized content is stored

The connector writes to the exact meta keys your SEO plugin already reads, which means your optimized content is visible in the same places your SEO plugin shows its own data — the product edit screen, the front-end <head>, and your site's structured data output.

5. Managing Optimizations

All optimization work happens on the CataSEO cloud dashboard, not inside WordPress. The plugin's native portal is intentionally minimal — it is a secure launching pad, not a workspace.

From the CataSEO native portal in WordPress, click Launch Dashboard. The full CataSEO interface opens in a new browser tab.
On the dashboard, select a product (or a batch of products) and trigger an optimization.
Review the AI-generated meta title, meta description, and Open Graph content side by side with the originals.
Click Apply. CataSEO pushes the approved content back to your WooCommerce store through the connector's REST API endpoints.
The new content is visible immediately on the WooCommerce product edit screen and on your live storefront.

6. Troubleshooting

Reconnecting if the connection drops

If the WooCommerce REST API credentials used by CataSEO are revoked (for example, if an administrator clears the REST keys in WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced → REST API), the CataSEO portal will no longer show Connection active. To reconnect:

Open the CataSEO page in your WordPress admin.
Click Connect to CataSEO again. This triggers a fresh WooCommerce authorization flow and generates a new pair of REST API credentials.

Editing a product in WordPress while CataSEO is syncing

CataSEO keeps the local WordPress database and the cloud dashboard in sync in both directions. If you edit a product's meta title or description directly in WordPress, the plugin automatically notifies the CataSEO cloud so the dashboard reflects your change — there is no need to trigger a manual refresh.

In the rare case that you save a product in WordPress at the same moment CataSEO is pushing an optimization for that same product, the write that completes last is the value that is stored. This is standard WordPress REST API behavior and applies to any plugin that writes post meta. Because CataSEO only pushes content when you explicitly click Apply in the dashboard, there is no silent background sync that can overwrite your local edits without your action.

The status portal shows "No SEO plugin detected"

This means none of Yoast SEO, Rank Math, or All-in-One SEO is currently active on the site. CataSEO will still work — it falls back to standalone mode and injects meta tags directly into each product page's <head> via the standard wp_head action. If you install and activate one of the supported SEO plugins later, CataSEO will detect it on the next page load and switch to writing into that plugin's meta keys.

7. Support and Maintenance

Support

Support requests are answered within 48 hours on business days. Contact us at support@cataseo.ai.

Uninstall policy

Uninstalling the CataSEO connector plugin removes only the connector's own settings and connection state. The optimized meta titles, descriptions, Open Graph content, and any other SEO fields CataSEO has written into your WordPress database are preserved. Your store retains the full SEO value of every optimization you have ever approved, whether it is stored in Yoast SEO's post meta, Rank Math's post meta, All in One SEO's database table, or CataSEO's own standalone meta keys.

This behavior is explicit in the plugin's uninstall.php and follows the WooCommerce Marketplace guideline that merchant-generated content must survive plugin removal.

Updates

Plugin updates are distributed through the WooCommerce Marketplace on the cadence required by Woo's update policy. Each release passes the full WooCommerce QIT test suite (activation, security, malware, end-to-end, REST API, PHP compatibility, and static analysis) before publication.