Repair invisible SEO and database maintenance
What it is
The Utility page includes two maintenance tools that clean up SEO data after imports, migrations or multilingual setups.
Repair invisible SEO (Yoast) — From Yoast 14+ the frontend serves SEO from an internal cache (the wp_yoast_indexable table), not from the fields you see in the editor. After an import, a migration, or activating WPML, this cache goes stale: the SEO is set in the editor but does not show on the page (or in the rotation preview). This tool counts the affected items and rebuilds the cache by deleting the stale indexable rows (and orphaned hierarchy rows); Yoast then rebuilds them from the post meta on the next visit, and the SEO becomes visible again. It appears only when Yoast is active.
Fix SEO database — Finds and repairs "dirty" SEO fields left by imports or migrations: broken tokens (e.g. %tegory%%), orphaned separators at the end, double spaces. It also removes legacy options and orphaned cron entries. Valid tokens like %%sitename%% are preserved, and the previous values stay restorable via an Undo button.
Questions people ask
The SEO is filled in the editor but doesn't appear on the page — why? With Yoast 14+, the page reads from the stale indexable cache. Run Utility → Repair invisible SEO; AISA also auto-refreshes the indexable on write, so newly generated SEO appears without manual repair.
Is Fix SEO database safe? Yes — it preserves valid variable tokens and saves the previous values, so you can restore them with one click if needed.
Why don't I see the Repair invisible SEO card? It only shows when Yoast is the active SEO plugin, since the indexable table is a Yoast feature.
Related
- SEO is set but not visible (Yoast)
- Backup and Restore SEO