Connect a custom-built site with the SEOAsist Site API

If your site isn't on WordPress or Shopify (Next.js, Laravel, .NET, plain PHP…), you can add a small API to it and let SEOAsist do the SEO work. Once connected, title, description, canonical, robots, structured-data and redirect fixes are applied server-side, blog posts get published and llms.txt stays up to date. No plugin, no pull requests.

#Prerequisites

• You can change the site's code (yourself, a developer, or an AI coding assistant such as Claude or Cursor).
• You can set environment variables for the site (.env or your hosting panel).
• You have edit rights in the panel; otherwise you'll see “You need edit rights for this.”

#1. Install the API on your site

1. Open the site from Sites and switch to the Fix channels tab.
2. In the SEOAsist Site API (custom-built sites) card at the top, press Setup prompt.
3. Press Copy in the dialog and hand the text to Claude, Cursor or the developer working on your project. The prompt contains the full spec plus details for this site (site URL, API base URL and, if connected, its GitHub repository).
4. Prefer to code it yourself? Press Developer guide. It has Steps, Spec, Next.js, PHP and Test tabs with copy-paste code to start from.

Your site exposes four endpoints under one base path: GET /manifest, PUT /rules, POST /content and PUT /files. See the Site API reference for the details.

#2. Save the URL and add the token

1. Type the API address into the API base URL field at the bottom of the card. The default suggestion is https://<your-domain>/api/seoasist.
2. Press Connect. A yellow box titled Token — shown only now appears with a SEOASIST_SITE_TOKEN=sa_… line.
3. Press Copy and add that line to the site's environment variables. Then restart or redeploy the site.

#3. Test the connection

1. Optionally, try /manifest first with the curl command in Developer guide → Test.
2. Press Test connection in the card. SEOAsist calls the /manifest endpoint and stores the capabilities your site declares.
3. On success you'll see “Connected · capabilities: … · N rules sent”. All enabled rules that were waiting are pushed to the site right away.

#What happens automatically after connecting

The status line shows the capabilities your site declared: SEO rules, Content publishing and llms.txt / robots. Each one works on its own, and SEOAsist only uses the ones your site lists.

The card also has two manual buttons: Send rules now (N) and Send llms.txt. The llms.txt button needs an llms.txt generated in the AI access tab first.

#Auto-fix in Technical Audit

When the Site API is connected with the “SEO rules” capability, an Auto-fix button appears next to supported issues on the Technical Audit page. Supported issues: missing, too long, too short or duplicate titles; missing, too long or duplicate meta descriptions; missing canonicals or canonicals pointing to another page; missing html lang; pages marked noindex.

It builds values for the affected pages of the latest crawl (up to 40): AI writes titles and descriptions, while canonical, lang and robots values are computed. They are sent to your site as rules and a verification crawl starts. Running it again for the same issue replaces the earlier rules. More in Intentional issues and auto-fix.

#Verification

• The card's status line shows a green Connected, the capability tags and “last push N rules”.
• Open the page source of one of your pages (“View page source” in the browser). The applied title or meta description must be in the HTML. Rules are meant to be applied server-side, not with client-side JavaScript.
• If something fails, the status turns red (Error) and the last error message is shown in the card. See Site API connection problems.

#FAQ

#Are the rules on my site deleted when I disconnect?

No. Disconnect only stops SEOAsist from sending; the rules stored on your site stay as they are.

#What happens if I change the API URL?

Enter the new URL and press Save URL. The status changes to Awaiting test; run Test connection again. The token stays the same.

#Does my site change when there are no rules?

It shouldn't. The spec requires every page to render exactly as today when there are no rules, and the setup prompt explicitly asks not to break existing SEO behaviour.

#How is this different from the Pixel?

They share the same rules. The Pixel applies them in the browser with JavaScript; the Site API applies them on your server, so search engines see the change directly in the HTML. The Site API can also publish posts and write llms.txt.

#Can I connect a local development URL (localhost)?

No. SEOAsist only calls publicly reachable addresses; localhost and private network addresses are rejected. Install the API on your live site.