Stop Paying for WordPress Plugins: Build Your Own AI SEO Assistant

The WordPress ecosystem is powerful, but the plugins that actually move the needle tend to cost money. Premium SEO tools, social media integrations, advanced analytics — add them up and you're looking at a significant annual bill. So what happens if you build those features yourself?

That's the question I explored through a concrete project: borcumubilmiyorum.com.tr (roughly, "I don't know how much I owe"). It started as a personal need and became a testing ground for AI-powered features inside WordPress.

Why WordPress?

A lot of people in this space come from Squarespace, Framer, or other template-driven platforms. WordPress offers something different: you can add small code snippets, customise the dashboard, and run your own logic on the server side. That flexibility is a critical advantage when it comes to AI integration.

What Does the Debt-Tracking Site Do?

The site lets users see their total debt, monthly payment schedule, investments, and income-expense balance from a single dashboard. Features include a 12-month payment calendar, market values (for reference only — it's not a trading platform), and the remaining budget for the current month. You can sign in with a demo account and try it yourself.

Building the site was really about one underlying goal: embedding AI-powered tools directly inside the WordPress admin panel.

How the AI SEO Assistant Works

I added an SEO assistant directly to the WordPress dashboard. It reads your site's content and suggests page titles and meta descriptions. The core idea is straightforward: you connect your server to an AI agent, define the permissions that agent needs, and then assign it tasks from within the panel.

For example, after writing a title and description for your homepage, you press "Suggest with AI." The agent analyses the page and returns search-intent-aligned title alternatives, blog post ideas, and social media copy. It does exactly what Yoast Premium does — without the annual fee.

For blog posts, you can generate meta descriptions and image alt text the same way. There's also an option to customise the preview image shown when the page is shared on social media.

The Real Advantage of This Approach

When you buy a plugin, you use the features the plugin author decided to build. When you build your own tool, you add exactly the feature you need, exactly where you need it. No unused tabs, no irrelevant notifications, no upsell screens cluttering your workflow.

There is an initial setup cost: you need to configure your server and connect the AI agent. But once it's running, every new feature you add is entirely under your control.

What's Next: Let's Build This Together

This project is a starting point. Sign up on the site, try it out, and let me know what's missing — I'll keep developing it based on real feedback.

More importantly: which WordPress plugin are you currently paying for, and which feature do you actually use? The answer to that question will shape the next episode of this series. Drop it in the comments and let's figure out together which plugin deserves an AI-powered replacement.