=== SEO Read More Buttons ===
Contributors: fernandot, ayudawp
Tags: seo, read more, buttons, crawl budget, link juice
Requires at least: 5.0
Tested up to: 7.0
Requires PHP: 7.4
Stable tag: 1.0.5
License: GPLv2 or later
License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Retired plugin, no longer maintained. It keeps working, and deactivating it is safe: your theme's read more links come back untouched.

== Description ==

**This plugin is retired. It is no longer maintained and its WordPress.org listing
is being closed.**

Nothing breaks in the meantime: the plugin keeps working on the sites that have it,
and deactivating it is safe. It stores no per-post data and changes nothing
permanently, so the moment you deactivate it your theme prints its own read more
links again, exactly as it did before.

= What to do =

1. Deactivate the plugin. Your theme's read more links come back on their own.
2. If you want to remove it for good, delete it. Version 1.0.5 cleans up after
   itself: its settings and admin flags are removed from the database on delete.
3. If you were using it for SEO, have a look at
   [Visibility](https://wordpress.org/plugins/native-aeo-pack/), the AyudaWP plugin
   where that work continues: meta tags, Open Graph, JSON-LD schema, robots
   directives, redirects and native sitemap control.

= What moves to Visibility, and what does not =

The idea worth keeping from this plugin is the **accessible read more link**: a link
that says what it points to, instead of repeating "Read more" hundreds of times
across your archives. That gives screen readers a meaningful description and search
engines a meaningful anchor text. A server-side version of it, built on the native
`excerpt_more` and `the_content_more_link` filters, is planned for a future
Visibility release.

The button conversion itself is **not** carried over, on purpose:

* A control that takes you to a URL should stay a link. Turning it into a button
  loses middle-click, Ctrl+click to open in a new tab, "copy link address" and the
  status bar preview, and screen reader users expect a link when the action is
  navigation.
* It ran in the browser. Crawlers that do not execute JavaScript, which includes
  most AI assistants, never saw the change, so the SEO benefit it advertised did not
  reach them.

Doing it on the server, in far fewer lines, fixes both.

== Installation ==

This plugin is retired and is not recommended for new installs. If you already have
it, see "What to do" above.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= Will my site break when I deactivate it? =

No. The plugin only acts while it is active, and it does not store anything in your
posts. Deactivate it and your theme's read more links are back on the next page load.

= Will my settings move over to Visibility? =

There is nothing to move. This plugin's settings (button text, ARIA label, which
archives it ran on) describe a feature Visibility does not have, so they would not
mean anything there. Visibility's read more option, when it lands, is a single
setting you pick once.

= Do I have to install Visibility? =

No. Deactivating this plugin is enough, and your site is left exactly as it would be
without it. Visibility is a suggestion for the SEO side, not a replacement for the
buttons.

= Is my SEO affected if I stop using it? =

Not meaningfully. The duplicate read more link on archive pages is a small hygiene
issue, not a ranking problem: search engines deduplicate URLs, so a second link to
the same post does not waste crawl budget the way this plugin's description claimed.
What is genuinely worth fixing is the repetitive "Read more" anchor text, and that is
the part moving to Visibility.

= Why close it instead of keeping it around? =

It solved a small problem in the wrong layer, and keeping a plugin on the directory
means keeping it audited, tested against every WordPress release and supported. That
effort is better spent on the plugins that do the job properly.

== Screenshots ==

1. Plugin settings page with SEO behavior and accessibility options
2. Before: Traditional read more links creating duplicate URLs
3. After: Clean buttons that don't create SEO issues
4. Admin settings showing theme compatibility and custom CSS examples

== Changelog ==

= 1.0.5 =
* New: retirement notice on the settings page. The plugin is no longer maintained and its WordPress.org listing is being closed. It keeps working, and deactivating it is safe: your theme's own read more links come back untouched.
* New: uninstall cleanup. Deleting the plugin now removes its settings, its admin flags and its per-user dismissal meta, on single sites and across a multisite network, so nothing is left behind in the database.

= 1.0.4 =
* Added: Activation notice with link to settings on plugins page
* Added: Promotional banner with AyudaWP.com plugin and service recommendations
* Improved: All scripts and styles moved to external files (WordPress coding standards compliance)
* Improved: Cleaner settings page, removed redundant info boxes, icon next to the title
* Improved: WordPress 7.0 button specificity compatibility
* Tested up to WordPress 7.0

= 1.0.3 =
* Tested up to WordPress 6.9

= 1.0.2 =
* Fixed: Minor typo changes

= 1.0.1 =
* Fixed: Settings validation now correctly prevents saving empty post type or page type selections
* Fixed: Admin notices no longer display duplicate messages
* Improved: Settings page now shows single, clear validation messages
* Improved: Better user feedback when attempting to save invalid configurations

= 1.0.0 =
* Initial release

== Upgrade Notice ==

= 1.0.5 =
This plugin is retired and its WordPress.org listing is being closed. It keeps working, and deactivating it is safe: your theme's read more links come back untouched. Deleting it now also cleans up its data. For SEO, Visibility is where the work continues.

== Support ==

= Need private support or custom development? =
Do you need one-on-one help, priority troubleshooting, or a custom feature, integration, or tweak built specifically for your site? I offer private support and custom development. Just [contact me](mailto:seo-read-more-buttons-ayudawp@ayudawp.com) and tell me what you need.

= Need help or have suggestions? =
* [Official website](https://servicios.ayudawp.com/)
* [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/AyudaWordPressES)
* [Documentation and tutorials](https://ayudawp.com/)

== About AyudaWP ==

We are specialists in WordPress security, SEO, AI and performance optimization plugins. We create tools that solve real problems for WordPress site owners while maintaining the highest coding standards and accessibility requirements.
