BD Auto Blog

Configuration & Content Settings

Updated March 9, 2026 9 min read

Accessing the Settings

All BD Auto Blog settings are stored as a single serialized array in the WordPress bdab_settings option. You can configure everything from the Settings tab in the BD Auto Blog dashboard (BD Auto Blog → Settings in the admin menu). Settings are saved via AJAX, so the page does not reload.

API Configuration

Claude API Key

Your Anthropic Claude API key powers all topic generation and article writing. The key is encrypted with AES-256-CBC (using a key derived from your site’s AUTH_SALT) before being stored in the database. In the settings UI, it displays as a masked value like sk-ant-...Ab1c. To update the key, paste a new one into the field — if the field still shows the masked value, the existing key is preserved.

Use the Validate button to test your key against the Claude API before saving. This sends a lightweight request to confirm the key is authorized.

Model Selection

The Model setting controls which Claude model generates your content. The default is claude-sonnet-4-6. The plugin automatically strips date suffixes from model IDs (e.g., claude-sonnet-4-6-20250827 is corrected to claude-sonnet-4-6) via a filter on option_bdab_settings, and persists the fix so it only runs once.

Blog Profile

Niche

The primary subject area of your blog. This is a required field — topic generation will return an error if it is empty. Examples: “cybersecurity for small businesses”, “sustainable living”, “WordPress plugin development”. The niche is passed to both the topic generator and article writer system prompts to ensure all content stays on-topic.

Target Audience

Describes your ideal reader. This shapes the depth and language of generated articles. If left blank, the article writer defaults to “professionals and decision-makers” and the topic generator defaults to “general readers.” Be specific for better results: “mid-level IT managers at companies with 50-500 employees” produces more targeted content than “tech professionals.”

Writing Tone

Choose one of six tones that influence the voice of every generated article:

  • Informative (default) — Clear, educational, fact-focused
  • Conversational — Approachable, uses casual language and rhetorical questions
  • Professional — Formal, business-appropriate
  • Casual — Relaxed, uses contractions and colloquialisms
  • Authoritative — Confident, expert-driven, assertive
  • Friendly — Warm, encouraging, reader-centric

Custom Instructions

Free-text field appended to both topic generation and article writing prompts. Use this for site-specific rules such as:

  • “Always mention our product BD Shield in the conclusion.”
  • “Never recommend competitor products by name.”
  • “Include code examples when discussing technical topics.”
  • “Focus on actionable advice for beginners.”

Publishing Settings

Publish Time

The time of day (in your WordPress timezone) when the daily article generation cycle begins. Set in HH:MM format (e.g., 09:00). The scheduler uses wp_timezone() to calculate the correct UTC timestamp. If the configured time has already passed today, it schedules for tomorrow.

Publish Mode

Controls the post status of generated articles:

  • Draft (default) — Articles are saved as drafts so you can review and edit before publishing.
  • Publish — Articles are published immediately and are visible to readers right away.

Posts Per Day

How many articles to generate each day. Accepts values from 1 to 10, but is capped by your license tier’s posts_per_day limit (Starter: 1, Professional: 3, Agency: 10). The effective value is calculated as min(your_setting, tier_limit).

Default Author

Select which WordPress user is listed as the post author. The dropdown shows all users with Administrator, Editor, or Author roles. If no author is selected (or the selected user no longer exists), the plugin falls back to the first administrator account on the site.

Default Category

The WordPress category assigned to every generated post. The AI also suggests 1–3 categories per article based on the content; if those categories exist, they are assigned alongside the default. If a suggested category does not exist, it is automatically created.

Content Quality Settings

Word Count Range

Set minimum and maximum word counts for generated articles:

  • Minimum Word Count — Floor of 300 words. Default: 1200.
  • Maximum Word Count — Must be greater than or equal to the minimum. Default: 2000.

The AI is instructed to write within this range. The actual word count is tracked in the article log.

SEO Level

Controls how aggressively the AI optimizes for search engines:

  • Minimal — Natural writing with organic keyword placement. No specific keyword density targets.
  • Standard (default) — Primary keyword in the title and first paragraph, related keywords in subheadings. Targets 1–1.5% keyword density (5–8 uses of the primary keyword) with a focus on readability.
  • Aggressive — Primary keyword in the title, first 100 words, 2+ subheadings, and throughout the article. Targets 6–10 keyword uses (1–1.5% density). Includes a meta description under 155 characters. Uses LSI keywords.

Internal Linking

When enabled (on by default), the AI includes 2–4 internal link suggestions in the article body using a placeholder format: [INTERNAL_LINK: descriptive topic]. After article generation, the plugin resolves these placeholders by searching your existing published posts, categories, and tags for matching content. If a match is found, the placeholder becomes a real <a href> link. If no match is found, the placeholder is converted to plain text (no broken links).

The link resolver handles three formats the AI may produce: raw [INTERNAL_LINK: ...] placeholders, anchor tags with placeholder text as the href, and malformed bracket patterns.

Featured Images

Auto Featured Image

When enabled (on by default), the plugin automatically generates a featured image for every article. Two image sources are available:

Branded Images (Default)

Generates a unique SVG graphic for each post with:

  • A gradient background using colors derived from the article title (via MD5 hash → HSL conversion), ensuring every image is unique
  • The article title word-wrapped across the image (1200×630 pixels, ideal for social sharing)
  • A category badge if a category is assigned
  • The site name at the bottom (hidden for Agency tier with white-label enabled)
  • Decorative accent circles for visual interest

The SVG is saved to the WordPress uploads directory and attached as a proper media library item with the AI-generated alt text.

Unsplash Stock Photos (Professional+ Only)

Fetches a relevant landscape photo from the Unsplash API. Requires a separate Unsplash API Key (also encrypted with AES-256-CBC). The search strategy uses a progressive broadening approach:

  1. First searches with the article’s primary SEO keyword (first tag)
  2. If no results, narrows to fewer keywords
  3. Falls back to title words
  4. Stop words are filtered out for better results

The plugin deduplicates images across your site by tracking Unsplash photo IDs in post meta (_bdab_unsplash_id). Photographer attribution is stored in _bdab_photo_credit and _bdab_photo_link post meta for Unsplash API compliance. If the Unsplash search fails, the plugin automatically falls back to generating a branded SVG image.

SEO Settings

Auto SEO Meta

When enabled (on by default), the plugin automatically sets SEO metadata on every generated post. It is compatible with multiple SEO plugins:

  • Yoast SEO — Sets _yoast_wpseo_metadesc, _yoast_wpseo_title, and _yoast_wpseo_focuskw
  • RankMath — Sets rank_math_description, rank_math_title, and rank_math_focus_keyword
  • All in One SEO — Sets _aioseo_description
  • Generic — Always stores the meta description in _bdab_meta_description

The AI generates the meta description as the post excerpt (max 155 characters, including the primary keyword). The focus keyword is set to the first tag in the article’s tag list.

The plugin also registers itself as a TOC (Table of Contents) provider for RankMath via the rank_math/researches/toc_plugins filter, so RankMath recognizes BD Auto Blog’s TOC for its SEO analysis.

Table of Contents

When enabled (on by default), a table of contents is automatically generated from the article’s H2 headings and prepended to the content. The TOC uses anchor links (each H2 receives a sanitized id attribute). The TOC is only generated if the article has 3 or more H2 headings. The plugin also hides third-party TOC elements (from JEZTOC, LuckyWP, RankMath TOC, Yoast TOC, and SimpleTOC) to prevent duplicates.

Schema Markup

Every generated article automatically receives two types of JSON-LD structured data, output in the <head> via the wp_head hook:

  • Article schema — Includes headline, description, dates, author, publisher, image, keywords, and word count
  • FAQ schema — A FAQPage schema with all questions and answers from the article’s FAQ section

Social Media Snippets (Professional+ Only)

When enabled, the AI generates ready-to-use social media posts alongside each article:

  • Twitter/X — Max 280 characters with 2–3 relevant hashtags
  • Facebook — 2–3 engaging sentences designed for social engagement
  • LinkedIn — Professional tone with industry insight, 2–3 sentences

Snippets are stored as post meta: _bdab_social_twitter, _bdab_social_facebook, _bdab_social_linkedin.

Call-to-Action Blocks (Professional+ Only)

Add a customizable CTA block to every generated article. Configure the following:

  • Enable CTA — Toggle on/off
  • CTA Position — End (after the article), Beginning (before the article), or Mid (after the 3rd paragraph)
  • CTA Heading — Bold heading text
  • CTA Description — Supporting text below the heading
  • CTA Button Text — The call-to-action button label
  • CTA Button URL — Where the button links to
  • Background Color — Default: #1e3a5f (dark navy)
  • Text Color — Default: #ffffff (white)
  • Button Color — Default: #6366f1 (indigo)

The plugin generates the CTA HTML from these builder fields and stores it in the cta_html setting. The CTA block is wrapped in a <div> with the appropriate CSS class (e.g., bdab-cta or your custom prefix). For mid-article placement, the plugin counts </p> tags and inserts the CTA after the third closing paragraph tag; if the article has fewer than 3 paragraphs, the CTA is appended at the end.

YouTube Video Embedding

Automatically embed a relevant YouTube video in every generated article:

  • Enable YouTube Embedding — Toggle on/off
  • YouTube API Key — A YouTube Data API v3 key (encrypted with AES-256-CBC like other API keys)
  • Video Search Mode — Keywords (uses the keywords setting or article tags) or AI (Claude generates an optimal YouTube search query as part of the article JSON response)
  • Default Keywords — Fallback search terms if AI mode is not used
  • Video Position — After Intro (before the first H2), Mid (before the middle H2), or Before FAQ (before the last H2)

The plugin searches YouTube for embeddable videos, verifies embeddability via the YouTube Videos API, and uses the privacy-enhanced embed URL (youtube-nocookie.com). Video metadata is stored in post meta (_bdab_youtube_video_id and _bdab_youtube_video_title). The embed uses a responsive container with 56.25% padding-bottom for a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Queue Management

Queue Minimum Size

The minimum number of queued topics before the auto-refill triggers. Default: 7. When the queue drops below this threshold during the daily 2:00 AM refill check, the plugin automatically generates new topics.

Queue Refill Size

How many new topics to generate when the queue needs refilling. Default: 7. This is the number of topics requested from the Claude API during auto-refill.

Email Notifications

BD Auto Blog can send email alerts for key events. Configure a notification email address (defaults to the WordPress admin email if left blank).

  • Notify on Publish — Sends an email each time an article is successfully created, including the title, word count, API cost, post status, and links to view and edit the post.
  • Notify on Error (on by default) — Sends an email when article generation fails, including the error message, topic title, and retry attempt count (max 3 attempts).
  • Notify on Queue Empty (on by default) — Sends an email when the scheduler finds no queued topics, with a link to the dashboard.

Weekly Digest (Professional+ Only)

A comprehensive performance report emailed every Monday at 8:00 AM, including: articles published that week, total words written, API costs, all-time statistics, queue status, and links to each published article. The digest is scheduled via a weekly cron event.

Stealth Mode

Stealth mode makes it harder for visitors and competitors to detect that you use an auto-blogging plugin:

  • Enable Stealth Mode — When activated, the plugin writes an .htaccess file to its own directory that returns a 404 for direct folder access.
  • CSS Prefix — Changes the CSS class prefix from the default bdab to a custom 2–6 character string (e.g., ab). This affects TOC classes, pro-tip boxes, key takeaway boxes, CTA blocks, and YouTube embeds in the article HTML. The prefix also changes the image filename prefix from bdab- to img-.

The plugin maintains backward compatibility: if the prefix is bdab, it still outputs the legacy class names (.bdab-pro-tip, .bdab-key-takeaways, .bdab-cta-block) for articles generated before stealth mode was introduced.

Pause and Resume

You can pause all automated activity without deactivating the plugin. Click the Pause button on the Dashboard tab (or use the toggle). When paused:

  • All scheduled cron events (daily generation, queue refill, weekly digest) are cleared
  • Single-article chain generation is stopped (hard stop, no chaining)
  • Manual topic generation and “Write Now” still work (they require an active license but do not check the pause state)

Click Resume to re-enable automation. The scheduler immediately recalculates the next run times and schedules all events.