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Squirrly SEO Integration

Tier: Basic — Plugin-based toggle integration. When Squirrly SEO is installed and the integration is enabled, SyteOps writes SEO metadata into Squirrly's native storage and applies a small wp-admin fix.

SyteOps can use Squirrly SEO as the SEO engine for Content Pipelines and the Review Portal. When the integration is on, the SEO title, description, and keywords that a pipeline generates — or that a reviewer sets in the portal — are written to Squirrly's native post meta (_sq_title / _sq_description / _sq_keywords) and to the canonical wp_qss snippet row that renders your page <title>. There is no separate settings screen to configure: enabling the integration is all that's required.

:::important One SEO plugin at a time SyteOps connects to one SEO plugin at a time. Turning on Yoast SEO or Rank Math automatically turns Squirrly SEO off, and vice versa. This is deliberate: two plugins writing the same page's title is how a site ends up with a <title> nobody can account for. :::

:::note Removed in a recent release Earlier versions exposed a "Squirrly SEO Custom Settings" card on the System/API tab — ACF field mapping, social-image dimensions, post-type targeting, and meta-field guards. That card and the ACF field mapping have been removed: Content Pipelines now own SEO end-to-end and write Squirrly's native fields directly. Existing _sq_* data is unaffected (it was already the source of truth). :::

Official Squirrly SEO (Newton) documentation​

These are maintained by Squirrly and describe how the plugin stores SEO data and which filters exist:

What It Does​

  • Pipeline and Review Portal SEO writing — SEO title/description/keywords produced by a Content Pipeline's SEO stage, or entered in the Review Portal SEO panel, are written to _sq_title / _sq_description / _sq_keywords post meta and the canonical wp_qss row.
  • Settings-URL fix — Automatically corrects a known Squirrly SEO inline-script syntax error in wp-admin. Enabled automatically whenever the integration is on.

Requirements​

  • SyteOps installed and activated
  • Squirrly SEO plugin installed and activated
  • Squirrly SEO integration enabled in SyteOps

Setup​

  1. Navigate to the Integrations tab in SyteOps
  2. Toggle Squirrly SEO ON
  3. Save

That's it — no additional configuration. With the integration on and the Squirrly SEO plugin active, Content Pipelines and the Review Portal write SEO data to Squirrly automatically, and the settings-URL fix is applied.

How SEO values are written​

A Content Pipeline's SEO stage and the Review Portal SEO panel are two surfaces over the same Squirrly fields (_sq_title / _sq_description / _sq_keywords), plus the wp_qss snippet row that renders the page title.

The SEO title has special handling: by default it is auto-generated from the post title (clean — the description is not appended; that's the meta description's job). If a reviewer types a custom SEO title in the Review Portal, SyteOps marks it as a manual override and stops auto-recomposing it, so a later pipeline run won't overwrite the reviewer's title. Clearing the portal field returns the title to automatic.

Settings-URL fix​

Corrects a malformed inline script from Squirrly SEO that wraps a URL in double quotes, causing a JavaScript SyntaxError on admin pages. It is enabled automatically whenever the Squirrly SEO integration is active — there is no separate toggle to manage.

Troubleshooting​

SEO values not appearing on the front end​

  1. Verify the Squirrly SEO integration is toggled ON on the Integrations tab.
  2. Confirm the Squirrly SEO plugin is installed and activated.
  3. Confirm the post actually ran through a Content Pipeline (or had its SEO set in the Review Portal) — SyteOps only writes SEO on those paths.
  4. Squirrly renders <title> from its wp_qss row; see the official docs above for how it reads stored values.

A reviewer's custom SEO title reverted to the auto-generated one​

A portal-set title is preserved as a manual override. If a title reverts to the auto-composed post title, the override marker was cleared — re-enter the custom title in the Review Portal SEO panel.

For developer details, see the repository doc: docs/developer/integrations/squirrly-seo.md.