SEO Plugin Integration and Structured Data
Passing meta information to your SEO plugin, internal links, JSON-LD, and the llms.txt setting
Passing meta information to your SEO plugin
Under "Settings > Generation Defaults > SEO Plugin Integration" (seo_plugin), choose the SEO plugin you use. The generated meta description and title are automatically filled into that plugin's input fields.
Set it to Auto-detect and Sorabun will look at whichever SEO plugin is active and route the information appropriately.
Internal links and related articles
| Item | Setting key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Add related articles | add_related | Add links to related articles at the end of the article |
| Number of related articles | related_count | How many to show |
| Auto-create categories | auto_create_category | Create a category if no suitable one exists |
| Maximum number of categories | category_max | Default 10, 0 for unlimited. Once the limit is reached, Sorabun picks from existing categories |
| Source note | add_source_note | List the information sources referenced, as "References," at the end of the article (off by default) |
Internal links are automatically inserted at appropriate points in the body text, pointing to existing articles. To avoid piling up loosely related links, Sorabun only picks articles that are genuinely close in content.
Restricting outbound links
A generated article can sometimes end up recommending an unrelated third-party service, because research results mix in promotional articles from various companies alongside official information.
Under "Settings > Generation Defaults > Outbound Links" (outbound_links), you can restrict which links are allowed.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Only sources cited as evidence | Default. Only pages actually used for fact-checking |
| Government sites only | Limited to domains like go.jp, lg.jp, gov, etc. |
| No outbound links | Removes all of them |
| No restriction | Behaves as before |
For a link that doesn't meet the condition, only the link is removed. The surrounding text stays.
Gemini's search feature returns intermediary URLs in the form vertexaisearch.cloud.google.com/..., which expire after a while and give the reader no idea where they actually lead. Sorabun never shows these URLs in an article (if one ends up in the body text, only the link is removed). Only sources with an actual resolvable URL are listed under "References"; if none qualify, the whole section is omitted.
To increase the number of sources with real URLs, configure a SERP API such as Serper.dev under "Settings > Search Data Source."
Structured data (JSON-LD)
Enabling add_jsonld outputs structured data with the article. This helps with rich results in search and helps AI understand the content.
llms.txt
Enabling llms_txt outputs an llms.txt file at the root of your site. This file tells AI crawlers "what's on this site," with the aim of making it easier for tools like ChatGPT to cite you.
Ask AI button
Enabling askai_enabled automatically adds an "Ask AI" block at the end of the article. When a reader clicks the button, a prompt containing the article's title and URL is passed directly to whichever AI the reader normally uses (ChatGPT / Gemini / Claude / Perplexity). Because the reader can "ask how the article's content applies to their own situation," their question gets resolved right there on the article.
- Which AIs are shown can be toggled individually with
askai_chatgpt,askai_google,askai_claude, andaskai_perplexity - ChatGPT and Claude open with the prompt already in the input field, and don't start until the reader submits it. Gemini and Perplexity start answering as soon as they open (Gemini opens in Google Search's AI mode, because Gemini itself can't accept a query passed via URL)
- The exchange happens on each AI's own service; nothing the reader types there is sent back to your site
- The prompt includes only the title and URL, not the article body. Every major AI today can search and browse, so if it has the URL, it will read the body itself
- To hide this on specific articles only, use the
sorabun_askai_showfilter to control it per article
Tone
Under "Settings > Generation Defaults > Tone" (default_tone), choose the tone used across the article.
- です・ます調 (desu/masu form): for general blogs and media outlets
- だ・である調 (da/de aru form): for essays and reports
- Casual: for personal blogs, when you want a friendly feel
Author profile image (no Gravatar required)
By default, WordPress author icons depend on Gravatar (an external service); if an author hasn't registered there, they're left with the gray silhouette. Without a visible face for the author, both the credibility of the author info (E-E-A-T) and the theme's author box feel unfinished.
Once you activate Sorabun, a "Profile Image (Sorabun)" field appears under Users > Profile. Just choose an image from the media library, and it appears everywhere Gravatar would normally show, including the author box, the comments section, and so on.
- Square images display best
- Removing the image reverts to Gravatar as before
- If you're also using another avatar plugin, whichever loads later takes priority. You don't need to configure both