Installing SiteReview

SiteReview is a standard WordPress plugin distributed through the wordpress.org plugin directory. Pro features are unlocked by entering a license key in Settings — there is no separate Pro plugin to install.

System requirements

Required PHP extensions:

• openssl for AES-256-GCM encryption of stored secrets
• dom and libxml for HTML parsing in the SEO section
• mbstring for Unicode handling in narrative text
• json
• curl or PHP streams (WordPress itself depends on this)
• intl for Punycode handling of internationalized domains

Optional extensions:

• gd or imagick for white-label logo processing — without one, logo upload is rejected with a notice
• zip for bundled-asset extraction during plugin updates (WordPress itself depends on this)

Hosting environment expectations:

• Outbound HTTPS via wp_remote_get and wp_remote_post
• Write access to wp-content/uploads/
• Either WP-Cron or external cron pinging wp-cron.php so Action Scheduler can fire scan jobs in the background
• Rewrite rules through .htaccess on Apache or equivalent nginx rules — the plugin has a fallback if rewrite cannot be installed

Browser support for the WordPress admin and the rendered report: latest two major versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. Internet Explorer is not supported.

Installing from the WordPress admin

1. In the WordPress admin, navigate to Plugins > Add New.
2. Search for SiteReview.
3. Click Install Now on the SiteReview plugin card, then Activate.
4. A top-level menu item SteadyPress > SiteReview appears in the admin sidebar. Click it to open the plugin.

Installing by upload

1. Download the plugin zip from steadypress.ai or wordpress.org.
2. In the WordPress admin, navigate to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin.
3. Choose the downloaded zip and click Install Now.
4. Activate the plugin.

Installing with WP-CLI

wp plugin install sitereview --activate

What activation does

When you activate SiteReview, the plugin:

1. Refuses network activation on multisite. SiteReview must be activated per site, not network-wide. If a network admin attempts network activation, the plugin deactivates itself and surfaces a notice.
2. Creates three custom database tables for report data, scan jobs, and PSI sub-jobs.
3. Initializes default settings.
4. Creates the wp-content/uploads/sitereview/ directory tree with empty index files so the directory cannot be listed by the web server.
5. Installs the rewrite rule that maps /sitereview-reports/{token}/ to the report file.
6. Schedules a sentinel Action Scheduler job to confirm WP-Cron is firing.
7. Surfaces an admin notice prompting you to set up a Google PageSpeed Insights API key.

Activation is idempotent — running it twice is safe.

Post-install setup

On first open of the plugin, an onboarding modal walks you through getting a Google PageSpeed Insights API key. This step is essential. Without a key, PSI calls fall back to Google's shared anonymous quota and fail immediately with HTTP 429, which degrades the Performance, Mobile Friendly, and SEO sections.

The walkthrough opens five inlined screenshots covering:

1. Opening the Google Cloud Console
2. Creating or selecting a project (sample name SiteReview-API)
3. Enabling the PageSpeed Insights API
4. Creating an API key
5. Copying the key

You paste the key into a field within the modal and click Test connection. A successful test confirms the key works against your homepage.

If you have a Pro license, the onboarding offers an optional license activation step. You can skip this and enter it later under Settings > License.

The modal can be replayed at any time from Settings > Replay onboarding.

Multisite

SiteReview supports WordPress multisite with per-site activation only. Each subsite has its own settings, its own license registration, its own reports, and its own uploads directory. Network activation is blocked. Network admins do not see a SteadyPress menu.

Tested configurations: subdirectory multisite and subdomain multisite. Mapped-domain subsites are not officially supported but typically work.

Troubleshooting installation

Plugin activates but no admin menu appears. Check the user role. The SiteReview admin requires the manage_options capability, which by default belongs only to administrators.

Activation fails with a fatal error mentioning Composer or an autoloader. The plugin zip was not built with the production autoloader. Re-download from wordpress.org or steadypress.ai rather than installing from a development checkout.

Activation fails on multisite with a "must be activated per site" notice. This is expected — network-wide activation is blocked. Activate from inside each individual subsite that needs SiteReview.

Activation succeeds but no rewrite rule fires on /sitereview-reports/{token}/. Some hosts disable .htaccess rewrites or run nginx without WordPress rewrite rules. SiteReview detects this and falls back to the direct uploads URL (/wp-content/uploads/sitereview/reports/{token}/). Both URLs serve the same report. Settings displays which pattern your install will use.

"PSI key not configured" notice persists after entering a key. Re-open the API integration row in Settings, paste the key again, and click Test connection. If the test fails with a 403 or 400, the key was not enabled against the PageSpeed Insights API in the Google Cloud Console; revisit step 3 of the onboarding walkthrough.

Plugin file size warning at upload. SiteReview is approximately 5.5 MB zipped. Some hosts cap upload size at 2 MB. Increase upload_max_filesize and post_max_size in PHP configuration, or install through Plugins > Add New using the wordpress.org search rather than uploading.

Need more help? Contact support.