How to use Polymetric AI Search Optimizer.

The plugin doesn't ship with an AI model. It runs on yours - your own Anthropic or OpenAI key, so your content goes straight to the provider you pick and you pay them directly. No middleman server, no markup, no monthly seat you forget to cancel.

Grab a key first. For Claude, that's console.anthropic.com. For GPT, platform.openai.com. Either one works well; pick the one you already have an account with.

Then, in WordPress:

1. Go to Settings → Polymetric AI Search Optimizer.
2. Choose your provider - Anthropic or OpenAI.
3. Paste your key into the API key field and save. It's encrypted before it touches your database, and the settings page never shows it back to you.

If the key is good, you'll see a green "connected" note. If it's the wrong provider for the key (an OpenAI key with Anthropic selected, say), it'll tell you that instead of failing silently later.

Open any post or page in the block editor. The plugin works on standard Gutenberg content, so a normal post is exactly what it wants.

1. Open the editor's options menu - the three dots, top right - and click Polymetric AI Search Optimizer. The panel opens on the right.
2. Pick a preset. Quick polish is the safe default: it restructures without rewording your sentences.
3. Click Rewrite. The plugin sends your content to your model and waits for the optimized version. A short post takes a few seconds; a long one runs in chunks and takes a bit longer.
4. Read the preview. You get the original and the rewrite side by side. Nothing has changed on your post yet.
5. Click Apply to post if you like it, or Discard if you don't.

When you apply, the rewrite comes back as normal Gutenberg blocks - paragraphs, headings, lists, tables - that you can edit like anything else. Your previous version is saved as a WordPress revision, so rolling back is one trip to Editor → Revisions away.

That's the whole loop. Open, preset, Rewrite, preview, apply. Most posts are a two-minute job.

A preset is just a saved set of tactics. Start with one, then tweak if you want.

Quick polish

Structure only. It optimizes your headings, tightens paragraphs, and adds the scannable structure AI engines pull from - without rephrasing your actual sentences. This is the one to reach for when you like how a post reads and just want it organized for citation. The safe default.

Custom

You check the exact tactics you want and ignore the rest. Good when you know what a post needs - say, a comparison table and a key-takeaways block, but no FAQ.

Full AI optimization PRO

The whole toolbox. Structure plus the rewrite tactics: answer-first openers, plainer language, key-term definitions, and an FAQ section with schema. This is the aggressive pass for a post you want working as hard as possible in AI answers.

Rewrite as Q&A PRO

Converts the entire post into question-and-answer pairs with FAQ schema. Built for help docs and knowledge-base content, where a reader is scanning for one specific answer. It's the most destructive preset to narrative flow, so don't point it at a story or an opinion piece - it'll chop good prose into a Q&A skeleton.

Tactics come in two groups. Structure tactics reorganize and add - they don't touch your wording. Rewrite tactics actually rephrase your sentences. Open "Customize tactics" in the sidebar to mix and match; picking your own flips the preset to Custom automatically.

Some phrases have to come through a rewrite untouched - your exact target keyword, a product name, a brand term. Protected phrases are how you lock them. Anything you list gets preserved word for word, even inside a heading the plugin restructures.

There are three ways phrases get protected:

• Automatically, from your SEO plugin. The plugin reads your focus keyword straight from Yoast SEO or Rank Math and locks it without you doing anything.
• By hand. Open "Customize tactics & protected keywords" in the sidebar and type any phrases you want preserved, one per line.
• By AI detection PRO. Hit Detect and the plugin reads the post, finds the entities and key terms worth protecting, and fills them in for you. Edit the list before you rewrite.

Protected phrases beat every other tactic. If "best robo-advisor for beginners" is on the list, no amount of heading optimization or language simplification will reword it.

Custom instructions are a per-post note that rides along with every rewrite of that post. It's the place to tell the model things a preset can't: a content brief, who the post is for, a goal, or a section you don't want it to touch.

You'll find the box in the sidebar, under the preset picker. A few examples that work well:

• "This is a comparison post targeting beginners. Keep the tone plain."
• "Do not edit the pricing section."
• "Lead the intro with the verdict, not the background."

The note is saved with the post, so it's still there next time you rewrite. One honest caveat: custom instructions are guidance the model follows, not a hard lock. It honors a "don't touch this section" most of the time, but the rules it never breaks (no fabrication, every link preserved) still win if your instruction ever conflicts with them. For something that absolutely must survive verbatim, use a protected phrase, not a custom instruction.

Brand voice is the global cousin of this. Set it once in Settings PRO and it applies to every rewrite on the site - your tone, your banned words - on top of the built-in voice matching.

Once you trust the output, the preview step starts to feel slow. Two options speed it up.

Skip Preview

A setting that applies rewrites straight to the post, no preview modal. Your previous version is still saved as a revision, so you can always undo - you just don't get the side-by-side first. Off by default.

God Mode

Bulk optimization, straight from the Posts list. Turn it on in Settings (it's off by default, tucked under an Advanced toggle, because a no-preview bulk rewrite is not something you stumble into). Once it's on, you get an "Optimize for AI search" bulk action: select posts - or select all - pick the action, and you land on a confirmation screen.

That screen shows you every post in the run, an estimated API cost, and a warning, before anything happens. Click through and the plugin rewrites and applies each post one at a time, with live status. Every previous version is kept as a revision.

I clicked Apply and nothing changed

Update to 1.0.3 or newer. An earlier build could silently skip the apply when the editor had unsaved block edits. The current version swaps your content reliably and converts the rewrite into proper blocks.

It warned me about a page builder

The plugin detects Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, Bricks, Oxygen, WPBakery, and friends, and warns you before touching that content - because rewriting a page-builder layout would replace it with plain HTML and break it. Open the post in the standard block editor, or build it without the page builder, and you're fine.

A long post timed out

Long posts are split into sections at heading boundaries and rewritten piece by piece, which usually handles even multi-thousand-word guides. If a post is enormous and still times out, run Quick polish (it asks the model for less) or split the post.

The key won't connect

Check that the provider you selected matches the key - an OpenAI key won't work with Anthropic selected, and vice versa. If it still fails, regenerate the key in the provider's console and paste the new one.

My custom blocks turned into plain HTML

Rewrites come back as standard blocks, so a non-standard custom block can get flattened to HTML on apply. The preview flags this with a warning - check it before applying, and if a block matters, leave that post for manual editing.