Connectivity issues

If a feature seems broken, the cause is often a network/firewall issue at your hosting level. The plugin has a built-in connectivity check that pinpoints the issue.

Run the connectivity check

WordPress admin → 🌿 SeoFreshUp → Settings → Requirements. Scroll to the section Connectivité externe (APIs).

Three endpoints are tested:

Endpoint	Status	If green	If red
OpenRouter API	`api.openrouter.ai`	All AI features work	NO AI feature works — fix critical
Firecrawl API	`api.firecrawl.dev`	URL enrichment in rewrite works	URL enrichment disabled — feature loss
Google (general HTTPS test)	`google.com`	Server can reach external HTTPS	Deep hosting issue — contact host

Each result shows: HTTP status code, latency in ms, and a help message if failed.

Cached for 5 minutes. To force a fresh test, click ↻ Re-tester maintenant.

Most common error: cURL error 6 (DNS resolution)

cURL error 6: Could not resolve host: api.firecrawl.dev

Means: your WordPress server can’t resolve the domain. Causes:

Outbound firewall blocking unknown domains (most common on shared hosting)
Local DNS resolver broken (/etc/resolv.conf on Linux servers)
Proxy required but not configured in wp-config.php
WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL set to true in wp-config.php

Fix 1 — Whitelist with your host

Send a support ticket to your host (LWS, OVH, Kinsta, WP Engine, etc.) with this message:

Bonjour,

Sur mon site [yoursite.com], le serveur ne peut pas résoudre certains hôtes
externes en sortant. Erreur cURL : "Could not resolve host: api.firecrawl.dev"
(et similaire pour openrouter.ai).

Pourriez-vous autoriser les sorties HTTPS vers les domaines suivants pour
mon site, qui sont nécessaires à un plugin WordPress (SeoFreshUp) :

- api.openrouter.ai (analyses IA)
- api.firecrawl.dev (scraping pour enrichissement éditorial)
- api.anthropic.com (alternative IA)
- api.openai.com (alternative IA)

Merci !

Most hosts whitelist within 24h.

Fix 2 — Check `WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL`

Open wp-config.php and look for:

define('WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL', true);

If present, either:

Remove it (allows all outbound), or
Whitelist domains with WP_ACCESSIBLE_HOSTS:

define('WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL', true);
define('WP_ACCESSIBLE_HOSTS', 'api.openrouter.ai, api.firecrawl.dev, api.anthropic.com, api.openai.com, www.googleapis.com');

Fix 3 — Configure proxy

If your host requires an outbound HTTP proxy:

define('WP_PROXY_HOST', 'proxy.example.com');
define('WP_PROXY_PORT', '8080');
define('WP_PROXY_USERNAME', 'user');
define('WP_PROXY_PASSWORD', 'pass');

cURL error 28 (timeout)

cURL error 28: Operation timed out after 30000 milliseconds

Means: the request reached the destination but took too long. Causes:

Slow OpenRouter response (rare — they’re usually <2s)
AI rewrite of a very long article (>3000 words = >120s)
PHP max_execution_time set too low (default 30s on shared hosting)

Fix

Increase PHP timeout in wp-config.php:

@set_time_limit(0); // unlimited

Or via php.ini:

max_execution_time = 300

SSL errors

cURL error 60: SSL certificate problem

Means: your server’s CA bundle is outdated. Fix:

Update PHP/cURL on your server (sysadmin task)
Or temporarily, in wp-config.php:

add_filter('https_ssl_verify', '__return_false'); // INSECURE — temporary only