The setup wizard
The setup wizard lives at SEOBetter > Setup. It has five steps, and only one of them matters for generating articles long term (step 2). You can re-run any step later, and every setting it touches also lives in SEOBetter > Settings.
Step 1: Welcome
A short explanation of what SEOBetter does: it writes articles built to be cited by AI engines (Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and other answer engines) as well as rank in classic Google search. There is also a 3-minute intro video. Watch it if you're new; skip it if you're not.
Step 2: Connect your AI engine
This is the important step. SEOBetter is BYOK (bring your own key): you connect an API key from an AI provider and pay that provider directly, usually a few cents per article. Your key is stored on your own WordPress install.
The free plan is bring-your-own-key, so this is where you connect it. Gemini and Groq have free tiers, so you can generate at $0; OpenAI, Anthropic, Moonshot AI (Kimi), OpenRouter, and a self-hosted Ollama model also work. Your first 30 articles per site are Cloud-assisted, then the plugin's built-in engine keeps writing on your key.
The step has three parts:
- Choose a platform. OpenRouter is the recommended card. OpenAI, Google Gemini, Groq, Ollama, and Custom are also available.
- Paste your API key and click Test key to confirm it works.
- Pick a quality tier. Baseline is cheaper and fast; Higher quality costs roughly 5 to 10 times more per article. You can change this any time in Settings.
If you pick Ollama or Custom, the tier cards are replaced by a model name field (and a base URL field for Custom).
See Connect your AI provider for more detail on choosing a provider.
Step 3: Local accuracy and images
Both keys here are optional and free, and you can click Skip for now.
- Pexels key: strongly recommended. It gives every article crisp, on-topic photos. Without one, images fall back to generic stock that is often irrelevant to your topic. Takes about 2 minutes at pexels.com/api. See Add a free Pexels key.
- Google Places key: recommended if you write local content ("best cafes in..."). SEOBetter finds local businesses without any key, but Google Places gives the most accurate results, especially for small towns.
Step 4: Stay in the loop
An optional email opt-in for setup tips and launch updates. Tick the box, enter your email, click Subscribe. Or click Skip. Nothing in the plugin changes either way.
Step 5: You're ready
A recap of what you connected, plus a button to generate your first article. If you skipped the AI key, come back and connect one under Settings > AI Provider before you generate: the free plan writes on your own key, and Gemini and Groq keys are free to create.