Honest Comparison
Index AI vs Plug in SEO.
Audit checklist or AI-search execution?
Plug in SEO is a long-standing Shopify SEO audit tool — it grades your store against a comprehensive checklist and tells you what to fix. Index AI is the AI-search execution layer — it builds llms.txt, deploys a Schema suite, submits via IndexNow and scores you on AI readiness. Two different angles on SEO, often complementary.
Index AI
by BrandUp Factory
AI-SEO execution layer for Shopify. Generates llms.txt, ships a Schema suite, submits via IndexNow, scores AI readiness.
- llms.txt auto-maintained
- Full JSON-LD Schema suite
- IndexNow submissions
- AI Readiness Score with trend
Plug in SEO
Audit + content-quality SEO tool
Continuous Shopify SEO audits. Broken-link detection, meta-tag clean-up, heading-structure checks, content-readability — established checklist tool.
- Comprehensive SEO audit checklist
- Broken-link + 404 monitoring
- No llms.txt or AI-search features
- Schema coverage is baseline
Side by side
Feature-by-feature.
Two strong tools, different angles on Shopify SEO. Here's the unvarnished view.
Index AIGenerates llms.txt, deploys Schema suite, submits via IndexNow, scores AI readiness.
Continuous health checks: broken links, heading structure, meta lengths, readability.
Auto-built from your live catalogue. Kept fresh as products change.
Outside Plug in SEO's scope as a classic SEO surface tool.
Product, Offer, FAQ, Organization, BreadcrumbList. Validated before deploy.
Product, Organization, BreadcrumbList, Article. Solid but classic-SEO focused.
Real-time URL pings — minutes instead of days for AI crawler discovery.
Relies on sitemap + Search Console submissions.
One number summarising AI-search readiness. Prioritised fixes + trend over time.
Plug in SEO scores classic SEO health (passing checks ratio), not AI readiness.
Reports robots.txt fixes, schema gaps, missing FAQ blocks.
Plug in SEO's headline feature — comprehensive automated audits across the store.
Outside Index AI's scope.
Strong broken-link detection across products, collections and blog content.
Index AI doesn't analyse copy quality.
Reading-level checks, meta-tag length warnings, heading-structure validation.
Index AI focuses on machine-readable signals.
Bulk meta titles + descriptions across products and collections.
See which AI crawlers visited which pages — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI.
Plug in SEO reports on classic search metrics, not AI-crawler activity.
robots.txt checker + basic AI Visibility Score + Knowledge Hub access.
Free audit is limited; full feature set on paid plans.
Stores that need to show up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI.
Stores that want a continuous health-check across classic-SEO surface.
The honest take
When to pick which.
Plug in SEO audits, Index AI executes — different jobs. Here's how to decide which one (or both) earns a slot in your stack.
Pick Index AI when…
- You want to be visible to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews when buyers ask.
- Your classic-SEO basics are mostly fine; the next gain is AI-search readiness.
- You need llms.txt, a comprehensive Schema suite, and IndexNow submissions — none of which Plug in SEO offers.
- You want a single AI Readiness Score with prioritised fixes, not a long audit checklist.
- You want to see AI-crawler traffic — which engines visited, which pages.
Pick Plug in SEO when…
- You want continuous SEO audits across the whole store — broken links, headings, meta lengths, content readability.
- You're doing bulk meta-tag clean-up and want one place to maintain titles + descriptions across the catalogue.
- You want a tool that catches classic-SEO regressions (broken links, missing meta) over time.
- You're still working through classic-SEO basics and a checklist-driven workflow matches how you operate.
FAQ
Common questions.
Audit one side, execute the other.
Free Starter plan. Layer Index AI on top of Plug in SEO or use it standalone — start showing up in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.