How to Switch from Yoast to Rank Math – Complete Step-by-Step Guide (2025)

If you’ve been using Yoast SEO for a while, you’re not alone-it’s been the go-to plugin for many WordPress users. But lately, a lot of website owners and bloggers are making the switch to Rank Math, and for good reason.

Why switch to Rank Math?

• More features in the free version (like schema markup, redirection manager, 404 monitor).
• Lightweight and faster than Yoast.
• Built-in Google Analytics and Search Console integration.
• Better user interface and setup wizard.
• Advanced AI content suggestions (in the pro version).

In short, Rank Math offers more SEO power out of the box, which is why many users are migrating. But switching plugins can feel risky, especially when your site’s rankings are at stake. That’s why you need a proper step-by-step plan—exactly what this guide will walk you through.

Is It Safe to Switch SEO Plugins?

One of the biggest fears people have is:
“Will I lose my SEO rankings if I switch from Yoast to Rank Math?”

Good news: If done properly, switching SEO plugins won’t harm your rankings.

Here’s why it’s safe:

• Rank Math has an import tool that automatically brings in all your Yoast settings, including meta titles, descriptions, and even schema markup.
• Your SEO data remains intact-URLs, slugs, and sitemap structure remain the same unless you change them.
• There’s no downtime or site breakage involved if the transition is handled carefully.

However, skipping critical steps (like backing up or running the setup wizard) can cause issues. That’s why it’s essential to follow a step-by-step migration process, which begins with…

Backup Your Website First (Must-Do Step!)

Before making any changes to your SEO plugin, it’s absolutely essential to create a full website backup.

Why?

Because SEO plugins directly affect:

• Your post and page metadata
• Sitemap structure
• Canonical tags
• Schema and more

A backup ensures that if anything goes wrong during the switch, you can easily restore your site with zero data loss.

How to create a backup:

• Use free WordPress plugins like:
  • ✅ UpdraftPlus
  • ✅ All-in-One WP Migration
  • ✅ WPVivid
• Make sure to back up:
  • Database
  • Plugins
  • Themes
  • Uploads (media)

Pro Tip: Store the backup off-site on Google Drive or Dropbox for extra safety.

Deactivate Yoast SEO Plugin (Do NOT Delete Yet!)

Once you’ve backed up your website, the next step is to deactivate the Yoast SEO plugin—but don’t delete it right away.

Here’s why:

• Rank Math needs access to your existing Yoast SEO settings and metadata (like titles, descriptions, schema, and redirects).
• If you delete Yoast before importing, you’ll lose all that valuable SEO data.

How to deactivate Yoast:

1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard → Plugins → Installed Plugins.
2. Find Yoast SEO.
3. Click Deactivate (but do not uninstall or delete it yet).

At this stage, your SEO setup might look inactive, but don’t worry-Rank Math will take over seamlessly in the next step.

Install and Activate Rank Math Plugin

Now it’s time to bring in your new SEO powerhouse: Rank Math.

How to install Rank Math:

1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard → Plugins → Add New.
2. Search for “Rank Math SEO” in the plugin search bar.
3. Click Install Now and then Activate.

Once activated, Rank Math will prompt you to start its Setup Wizard. Don’t skip it—this wizard is designed to guide you through the entire setup in a clean and beginner-friendly way.

What you’ll love:

• Clean dashboard
• More control over on-page SEO
• Options for schema, redirections, sitemaps, breadcrumbs, and more

Run Rank Math Setup Wizard

The Setup Wizard is the heart of your migration process. It detects your previous SEO plugin (Yoast) and lets you import all your settings with just a few clicks.

Steps to follow:

1. As soon as Rank Math is activated, the Setup Wizard launches automatically.
2. Choose a setup mode:
   • Easy Mode: For beginners or basic SEO needs.
   • Advanced Mode: If you want more customization and access to detailed options.
3. Connect your Rank Math account (free account is required).
4. On the next step, Rank Math will detect Yoast SEO and offer to import its data. ✅ Tick the boxes to import:
   • Meta titles & descriptions
   • Post/page focus keywords
   • Social meta data
   • Schema markup
   • Redirection rules (if any)
5. Click Start Import and wait for the confirmation message.

Once done, Rank Math becomes your active SEO plugin, and your previous Yoast SEO settings are now safely transferred.

Import Yoast SEO Settings into Rank Math

After you’ve activated Rank Math and completed the setup wizard, you need to import your Yoast SEO settings into Rank Math. This is a crucial step to ensure you don’t lose any of your SEO data (like titles, descriptions, and schema).

How to import Yoast settings:

• Automatic Import via Rank Math Setup Wizard:
  • Rank Math automatically detects that you were using Yoast and offers to import your settings during the setup process. Simply check the options you want to import:
    • Meta titles & descriptions: This ensures your SEO titles and meta descriptions for posts, pages, and categories are preserved.
    • Focus keywords: If you used Yoast’s keyword analysis, Rank Math will import these too.
    • Social media settings: If you had social media metadata set in Yoast, Rank Math will take care of that.
    • Schema Markup: This helps maintain any structured data you’ve applied to your posts and pages.
    • Redirection rules: If you used Yoast’s Redirection Manager, those redirects will be imported as well.
• Manual Import (If Needed):
  If you missed the automatic import during setup or need to re-import:
  1. Go to Rank Math → Status & Tools.
  2. Click Import/Export.
  3. Select Yoast SEO and click Start Import.
  4. Wait for the process to finish and confirm that your settings have been imported successfully.

By doing this, you ensure a smooth transition and avoid any SEO ranking drops due to missing metadata or redirections.

Configure Essential SEO Settings

Once your Yoast settings are imported, it’s time to optimize Rank Math by configuring essential SEO settings.

Here’s how you can fine-tune Rank Math for optimal performance:

• Titles & Metas:
  • Navigate to Rank Math → Titles & Meta.
  • Configure default templates for SEO titles and meta descriptions for all post types (Posts, Pages, Categories, etc.). You can use dynamic variables like %title%, %excerpt%, %sitename% for auto-generated titles and descriptions.
  • Example: For your blog posts, you can set the template: %title% – %sitename%.
• Sitemap Settings:
  • Go to Rank Math → Sitemap Settings.
  • Ensure that sitemaps are enabled for Posts, Pages, Categories, and Custom Post Types.
  • You can also enable or disable Image Sitemaps if you have a media-heavy site.
• Schema Markup:
  • Rank Math offers rich snippet integration for posts and pages. Go to Rank Math → Titles & Meta → Post Type Settings to set up schema types (like Article, Recipe, Product, etc.).
  • Choose the schema type that best fits your content for better search engine visibility.
• Redirections:
  • Rank Math has a Redirection Manager built-in. To set up 301 redirects from old URLs or to manage broken links, go to Rank Math → Redirections.
  • You can also set up 404 monitoring to catch errors and set up redirects automatically.

Check for Conflicts and Finalize Setup

Now that Rank Math is set up, it’s time to make sure everything is working smoothly without any conflicts.

Steps to check for conflicts:

• Disable Unused Plugins:
  If you had any other SEO-related plugins running alongside Yoast, like a caching or redirection plugin, disable them to avoid conflicts with Rank Math.
• Check for Duplicate Meta Data:
  Use a SEO audit tool (like Screaming Frog SEO Spider or Google Search Console) to crawl your site. Ensure that meta titles, descriptions, and schema markup are appearing correctly without duplicates.
• Test Redirects:
  Use tools like Screaming Frog or Redirection Plugin to check if old Yoast redirects are still active or need to be updated.
• Test 404 Errors:
  Make sure your site is free of broken links. You can use Google Search Console or the Rank Math 404 Monitor to find and fix any 404 errors. You’ll want to make sure visitors aren’t hitting error pages, as this can harm SEO.

Monitor SEO Performance After the Switch

After migrating to Rank Math, it’s essential to keep a close eye on how your SEO performance is tracking. Monitoring will help you identify any issues and ensure your rankings remain stable.

Here’s how to monitor your site’s SEO performance:

Google Search Console:
Use Google Search Console (GSC) to monitor your site’s search traffic, clicks, and impressions. Check the Performance tab to see if there’s any drop in clicks or impressions post-migration.

Pay attention to any 404 errors or crawl issues. If your site’s pages are not indexed properly after the switch, it may indicate a problem with your setup.

Keep an eye on Rich Results to see if your schema markup is working correctly.

Rank Math Analytics:
If you’re using the Pro version of Rank Math, take advantage of its built-in analytics dashboard to track your site’s overall SEO performance.

Review keyword rankings, traffic sources, and click-through rates (CTR).

Use the Content AI feature for additional keyword analysis and optimization insights.

Rank Tracking Tools:
Use rank tracking tools like Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to keep tabs on keyword positions. These tools will allow you to monitor rankings for important keywords before and after the migration.

Make Additional Tweaks Based on Results

After monitoring your site’s performance for a few days or weeks, you may want to fine-tune your SEO setup for better results. Rank Math allows plenty of customization options to suit your needs.

Here are some areas you can tweak:

Schema Markup Customization:
Rank Math automatically applies schema markup, but you can fine-tune it. If you run a blog, you can add Article schema to blog posts or Review schema to review pages.

Go to Rank Math → Titles & Meta → Post Types to select the right schema for different post types (e.g., Articles, Products, Events).

Keyword Optimization:
Use Rank Math’s keyword tracking to make sure you’re targeting the right keywords. If certain pages are underperforming, go back to the content and tweak your title tags, meta descriptions, and focus keywords.

Optimize Internal Linking:
Rank Math also helps you manage internal linking. If you’re optimizing a blog post or landing page, use the SEO Analysis tool within Rank Math to check for internal linking opportunities.

Internal links are crucial for improving crawlability and user experience, and Rank Math’s tool will help you spot pages that need more links.

Content AI (Pro Feature):
If you’re using Rank Math Pro, Content AI helps you create more optimized content. It analyzes your existing posts and suggests keyword usage, content structure, and readability improvements.

Keep Rank Math Updated

One of the easiest ways to ensure your SEO plugin stays effective is by keeping it updated. Regular updates ensure you’re using the latest features, security patches, and performance improvements.

Here’s how to manage updates for Rank Math:

Enable Automatic Updates:
Rank Math will automatically update itself to the latest version, but you can double-check the update settings by going to WordPress Dashboard → Plugins → Installed Plugins. Make sure that Rank Math is set to update automatically.

Manually Update Rank Math:
If you ever need to manually update, go to the Plugins page in WordPress, and if an update is available for Rank Math, click Update Now.

Always ensure that you’re running the latest version of the plugin for security and optimal performance.

Check for New Features:
Rank Math continuously adds new features, such as new schema types, integration with other platforms, and AI-powered tools. Keep an eye on updates in the Rank Math Dashboard for these additions.