What is Rank Math?
Before I was introduced to Rank Math, I was an avid YOAST fan. All of the 500+ wordpress sites we manage always had Yoast in our default plugin mix. Then came Rank Math, which was divulged to me by the great Neil Patel and I agree now that Rank Math is one of the most powerful WordPress SEO plugin with lots of useful features.
- Easy to Setup
- 1 click import From Yoast & AIO SEO
- Lightweight and Fast SEO Plugin
- Smart SEO Analyser
- Email Ranking Reporting
- No Limit For Keyword Optimization
- Google Keywords Rank Tracking
- Full Schema Support
- Google Search Console
- Fastest link Building
- Google Knowledge Graph
- Bulk Optimization
- Compatibility with WooCommerce
- Full Control ROBOTS Meta On All Posts, Pages or Custom Post types
- Google, Bing, Alexa, Yandex & Pinterest Verification Tool
- Redirect Attachments to Their Parent Posts, Pages or Custom Post types
- Premium 24×7 Support
- Bloggers
- News Websites
- Niche Sites
- Real State
- E-Commerce Player
- Businesses
- Local Businesses
- Startups
- Artist & Photographers
- Directories
The Rank math is completely “FREE”. There are no charges for the SEO plugin. Currently, Many SEO plugins available in the market which charged for extra features or they don’t have extra features, but the rank math is the only plugin in the market which is just not free it has all advanced features.
Rank Math SEO Plugin Review 2019
Rank Math SEO Plugin Modules & FRaunctionality Details
Rank math SEO plugin comes with the multiple-valued modules. It helps bloggers to get top ranking their Blog or Website on the all popular search engine including Google.
- 404 Monitor
- AMP
- Link Counter
- Local SEO and Google Knowledge Graph
- Redirections
- Rich Snippets
- Role Manager
- Search Console
- SEO Analysis
- SiteMap
- WooCommerce
- Setup Wizard
- Import & Export
- Help & Support
404 Monitor
You can’t believe that Rank Math brings the most useful functionality, 404 monitors. Which is easily control your website 404 error logs.
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404 Monitor
Now you do not need to configure this error in Google Search console anymore because You can control all the error logs within your website admin dashboard area by using Rank Math. It spends a very short time to optimize it.
I really like this powerful tool because it helps me to optimize and improve my website SEO. You may also like this tool too while using it.
AMP
65% of the organic traffic comes from mobile. That’s why it is so important to optimize your site for mobile. So AMP (Accelerator Mobile Page) comes to improve the site page speed because peoples like the fast loading website in this decade.
While so many people are using AMP because the most useful tool to integrate with your WordPress website. Then why Rank Math use the AMP module in their plugin?
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AMP
Because nowadays it is an important part of SEO to increase your website traffic, you also need to optimize your website for mobile-friendly. Rank Math AMP module is supported with the AMP plugin by Google. You have to install AMP plugin and activate it before can get the module active on your website.
Link Counter
Link Counter
Link counter will help you to find the total number of Internal links, External links and Incoming links to your each and individual post.
Local SEO and Google Knowledge Graph
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Local SEO and Google Knowledge Graph
If you are doing Local Business then you need to rank on local search to get more traffic, this feature will bring you more traffic & make your brand presence better. It is quite simple in use. You have to enter your business details. It will add relevant metadata to your website. To get a better ranking in search engine.
Re-directions
Many Websites and Blog faces problem regarding broken link 404 not found which is very bad for SEO.
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Redirections
Now Rank Math gives you a dead or abandoned URL redirection feature as well. It is very easy to redirect your old URL to a new one. You can choose from 301 permanent moves, 302 temporary moves, 307 temporary redirects, 410 content deleted and 451 content unavailable for legal reasons. No more third-party plugins required.
Rich Snippets
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Rich Snippet
Here you can easily setup rich-snippet feature without messing with schema & Microdata.
Role Manager
Its Role Management feature limits the features according to their role.
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Role Manager
If you running a Multi-Author Blog or having a team of Editor, Contributors, and Writers then you have to limit the features according to the role of the user.
In that case, Rank Math will do that for you.
Search Console
Google search console is a free service powered by Google for Webmasters.
It contains different sets of tools that helps Webmasters to optimize their site’s online presence.
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Search Console
Search console allows Webmasters to check:
- Submit Sitemaps
- Search Analytics
- Crawl rates
- External Links
- Internal Links
- Penalties
- Hacking and Malware Attacks Report
Rank Math has incorporated most of the important features of the Search Console. Such that Total Clicks, Total impressions, Avg. CTR, Avg. Position, Search Analytics, Sitemaps, and Keyword Tracker.
SEO Analysis
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SEO Analysis
Using Rank Math SEO analysis, with just a single click, you can easily analyze your site’s overall SEO performance.
SiteMap
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Sitemap
The sitemap helps in indexing site. Rank Math gives you full control over your Sitemap settings. You can Enable/Disable it with just one click.
WooCommerce
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WooCommerce
It is useful for those who run an E-commerce Site. Rank Math includes WooCommerce module for easily optimize product page.
Setup Wizard
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Set-up Wizard
I will discuss this later in the “Rank Math full setup guide” section in this article.
Import and Export
In any case, you decide to switch away from Rank Math Plugin, you can save the current settings by creating an export file. You can also Import the current settings once you decide to switch to Rank Math from another SEO plugin.
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Import-and-Export
Help and Support
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Help and Support
This section contains knowledgebase articles that make it easy for you to understand its core features. And you can get out most of the worst scenario by following these guides.
Rank Math Content analysis tool overview
Rank Math Analyze the whole content and give you a score between 0 to 100 points regarding on-page SEO performance of your article. You can score 100 points by fulfilling all the criteria of this plugin and improve your ranking in search engine. The content analysis part is divided into 4 sections.
- General
- Advance
- Rich Snippet
- Social
1. General
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General Setting
General tab allows you to set-up and analyzes the following things.
Focus Keyword: You can optimize your post up to 5 keywords.
SEO Title: Here you will find more than 35 options of heading for your post. I recommend you to use the post title.
Permalink Structure: It is a URL structure of your site. I recommend you to set-up your permalink as a post name.
Meta Description: Meta Description is an overview of your post content which everybody will see in a search snippet.
Basic SEO: It will help you to analyze the following basic SEO of your post.
- Using Focus Keyword in the SEO Title
- Focus Keyword in your SEO Meta Description
- Focus Keyword in the URL
- Focus Keyword appearance at the beginning of your content
- Focus Keyword appearance in the content
- Your content length
Additional: It will help you to analyze the following additional factors of SEO.
- URL Length
- Focus Keyword appearance in subheadings
- Focus Keyword appearance in the Image ALT text
- Linking to external resources
- External link with Do-follow
- Keyword Density
- Internal links in your content
- Duplicate Focus Keyword
Title Readability: It will help you to analyze your content Main Title.
- Focus Keyword appearance at the beginning of SEO title
- The title does contain or not a positive or a negative sentiment word
- The title does contain or not the power word(s)
- Using a number in your SEO title
Content Readability: It will analyze the whole body of your article.
- Using or not a Table of Contents to break-down your text
- Flesch Readability score
- Paragraphs length and structure
- Using rich media like images or videos
2. Advance
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Advanced Setting
Under the advanced tab, you can configure advanced SEO settings. Here you can add Robots Meta, Canonical URL and redirect your article to the new destination.
Robots Meta: Here you have 6 different options 1. Index 2. No-Index 3. No-Follow 4. No-Archive 5. No-Image Index 6. No-Snippet. You can select one or more than one option according to your need.
Canonical URL: If your article has duplicate content then you can use canonical URL to inform search crawlers which page is the main page.
Redirect: If you need to move your article to a new destination then use redirect option available here.
3. Rich Snippet
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Rich Snippet Setting
Here you can set-up a rich snippet feature of your post without messing schema and microdata.
You can select 1 Rich Snippet Type from 14 different options according to your need. And fill-up everything which will appear after selecting Rich Snippet Type.
4. Social
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Social Setting
Under this option, you can set the different title, description and featured Image for Facebook and Twitter. There is also an option to use Facebook Data for Twitter.
Rank Math Setup Guide
First, you need to install Rank Math. If you do not know how to install WordPress plugins check it out our guide on install WordPress plugins. Once you install Rank Math, you will be greeted with the Setup Wizard we discuss below. If you do not know how to install plugins, then install the Rank Math plugin by following the instructions of install WordPress plugins.
If you already installed Rank Math then go to the setup wizard. While Rank Math automatically initiates the setup wizard once you install it, it is possible to skip it accidentally. If you’ve also skipped Rank Math’s setup wizard, then you can rerun the setup wizard by going to Rank Math’s dashboard, and then click the Setup Wizard tab.
Once the setup wizard starts, you will see the setup initiation screen.
Rank Math will perform a compatibility check to see if your website is compatible with Rank Math or not. If you see any errors, you can click the “More” button to see its details.
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Set-up Wizard
Once you’re ready, click on “Start Wizard” button. It is a six-step process.
Step 1 — Import Data
Rank Math has in-built capabilities to import your existing SEO settings from your current SEO plugin. This makes easy and fasts for you switching to Rank Math. Most importantly, you will not lose any SEO rankings.
Rank Math will automatically detect which SEO plugin you are using and allow you to selectively choose which settings you can import. For example, here is how to Import Data when using Yoast SEO.
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Import SEO Settings
For Yoast SEO, you have 4 types of settings to import.
- Import Setting: This option imports Yoast SEO’s settings and the metadata you’ve set for your website.
- Import Post Meta: This option imports the metadata for posts, pages, and custom posts which include the SEO title, description, OpenGraph data, robots meta, and more.
- Import Term Meta: This option imports the metadata for the category, tag, and other taxonomy’s archives.
- Import Author Meta: This option imports the metadata for author pages.
By default, all these options are selected which means all the available settings will be imported to Rank Math. However, if you want to configure any of the settings manually, you can un-check that setting for import and configure it later from the settings.
Also, if you are not ready to import your settings for any reason, you can also use the skip option. Personally, I would not advise this, but you can use it you are testing Rank Math on a local setup or if your website is Brand New.
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start-settings-import
Once you click the “Start Import from Yoast SEO” button, you will see a confirmation box on top of the screen. Click OK to start the import process.
Once you confirm, the import process will begin. Rank Math will give you updates about the various settings that are being imported. The time the process takes to finish will depend on how many posts your website has. Once the process is complete, press the continue button.
Step 2 — Your Website
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Website Type
Your Website: In the next step, you’ll select the type of website that you run and setup Rank Math accordingly. Most of the options are easy to understand, but the first option is the most important one. It allows you to configure Rank Math for the kind of website you operate.
Site Logo: Here you can select or upload a logo for your website. Rank Math tries to detect if you’ve already uploaded a logo and display it here. If no logo is available, you can always select or upload one by clicking the “Add or Upload File”.
Once you click the button, WordPress’s Media Library will open up. If you’ve already uploaded a logo file, select it, or else upload it by dragging and dropping a file onto it. Once you’ve done that, click the “Use this File” button. You’ll see that the logo file is now shown on the screen.
Multiple Authors: This setting lets you inform Rank Math if your website has more than 1 contributor. If you select “On”, Rank Math will make the necessary improvements that will benefit a multi-author blog.
OpenGraph Thumbnail: With Rank Math, you can setup OpenGraph Meta for each of your posts when you publish them. But if you have a large number of posts already present on your website, manually editing the metadata will be time-consuming.
With this setting, you can set a default Open Graph thumbnail for your website. When any of your posts are shared on social media that doesn’t have a featured image, this image will be used instead.
Click the “Add or Upload File” button to open the WordPress Media Library. When it’s open, select an image to set it as your default OpenGraph Thumbnail.
Once you’ve select the file, it will show up next to the OpenGraph Thumbnail setting.
The image below is an example of how the page would look like once you’ve configured Rank Math for a business website. If your page looks familiar, you are ready to move on to the next step. Click the “Save and Continue” button to move to the next step.
Step 3 — Google Search Console
The next step is where you set-up Rank Math to work with Google Search Console. If you don’t know about Google Search Console, then let us give you a brief explanation.
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Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a website management tool by Google. Specifically, it was created so that website owners can see important information about their websites and resolve issues related to search engines. Your Google Search Console account will contain important information such as your website’s index status, crawl or other issues, your search engines rankings and most importantly, the keywords that your website ranks for. This information comes directly from Google and is very accurate compared to any 3rd party tool.
Once you setup Rank Math to work with Google Search Console, then Rank Math can fetch important information from Search Console and display it right inside your WordPress admin. This saves you a lot of time and gives you actionable information to work with when creating new content.
The Google Search Console Setup page in Rank Math looks like this.
The first option helps you authorize Rank Math to fetch information from Google Search Console. Click the “Get Authorization Code” to open up Google Auth Dialog Box.
Another window will open, which will list all your Google Accounts. Choose the appropriate account or add a new account by clicking the “Use Another Account” button.
You’ll see a confirmation box which will display information about the access that Rank Math will get. Click OK to confirm and proceed.
Google will share an authentication code on the screen. Copy the code and close the window. We’ve blurred parts of the authentication code for obvious reasons.
Paste the authorization code that you copied into the Search Console Setting.
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The Authorization Code
As soon as you paste the code in, Rank Math will automatically verify the code and authorize your account. If it doesn’t happen automatically, click the authorize button.
If you made no errors, then you will see the following screen.
If you see this screen, that means Rank Math is authorized for fetching data from Rank Math successfully. If you want to choose another account, you can click the “De-authorize Account” button and repeat the process with the correct account.
Step 4 — SiteMap
This page has everything to do with sitemaps. Sitemaps are like indexes for search engines, and they help search engines discover your website’s content and index it properly. On this page, we will configure the various sitemap options. Here is a preview of all the options available.
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sitemap-options
Let us understand the various options
Sitemaps
This option turns the sitemap feature ON or OFF. The sitemap feature is turned on by default, and we recommend that you keep it that way. If you have other plugins that generate sitemaps, we recommend that you disable them. It is inefficient to keep 2 plugins active that do the same job.
Include Images
This option enables or disables the inclusion of images in your sitemap. This setting is turned on by default, and we recommend that you keep it that way as well. Indexing your website images will help you get more traffic from Google Image search.
Public Post Types
This option controls which types of posts are going to be included in the sitemap. There are 4 options to choose from.
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Public-Post-Type
- Posts: Should be enabled, otherwise your posts will not be indexed.
- Pages: Enable this setting only if have some content on your website published on pages. You can leave it disabled if you only have simple pages like About Us, Contact Us, etc.
- Media: This enables your media to be included in your sitemap, should be selected
- Products: Enable this option if you use WooCommerce on your website. This will include all your products in the sitemap.
Public Taxonomies
This option deals with the inclusion of taxonomies in the sitemap. There are 4 options to choose from.
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Public Taxonomies
- Categories: This will include your categories in the sitemap. This option should be enabled.
- Tags: This will include your tag pages in the sitemap. We recommend that you keep it disabled.
- Product Categories: This will include product categories in the sitemap. Enable this if you use WooCommerce on your website.
- Product Tags: This will include product tag pages in the sitemap. We recommend that you keep it disabled, even if you use WooCommerce.
Once you’ve set-up the sitemap options as per your desire, press the “Save and Continue” button.
Step 5 — Optimization
This step helps optimize many SEO operations on your website. Apart from providing SEO value, these settings will also save you a lot of time. Here is an image that shows all the options in this step.
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Optimization
Let us have a look at the individual settings.
Nofollow Image Links
When you add images on your website, you can also add hyperlinks to it. That means your users can click the image and be taken to another URL. This option lets you configure if you want to Nofollow all image links.
If you mostly add images that point to your internal posts, then you can disable it. But, if you run an affiliate or niche site where most images links are external, then you should enable it.
Nofollow External Links
Normally you can manually nofollow links by adding the rel=“nofollow”
attribute. But, with a lot of links, this can be time-consuming.
This option allows you to automatically Nofollow all external links. Links to all your internal posts will not be affected, and you can safely enable this setting.
Open External Links in New Tab/Window
It’s generally a good practice to have external links open in new tabs by appending the target="_blank"
to the link. Rank Math can automatically perform this for all external links with this setting. The setting is On by default, and we recommend that you keep it that way.
Redirect Attachments
When you add any media or attachments to your post or page, they are also accessible directly using their URL. So, any other blog can link to your media file without you getting any SEO benefit with it.
This setting redirects all the URL of the attachments to the posts that they appear in, giving you SEO benefit for every link to your attachment.
Redirect Status Code
This option selects the redirect code that is used to redirect attachment URLs to their posts. We recommend that you use the default setting, 301 Permanent.
Redirect Orphan Media
In WordPress, Orphan media is media that you have uploaded to your website, but have not used in any post. With this option, you can redirect URLs of orphan media to a specific URL. The safest option is to enter your homepage URL here.
Strip Category Base
WordPress pages usually have a category base attached to them. For example, a regular URL would look like this
mywebsite.com/reviews/product-review/
where “reviews” is the category name. To make your URLs cleaner, you can use this setting to strip the category name from the URLs. If you turn on the setting, the URL will become
mywebsite.com/product-review/
Google Search Console
Here you can enter your Google Search Console verification HTML code. If you followed Step 3.2, we shared in detail how to retrieve your Google Search Console verification HTML. If you have the code saved, you can enter it here.
Bing Webmaster Tools
Similar to Google Search Console, Microsoft Bing also has Bing Webmaster tools, which helps you manage your website’s web presence on Bing. Enter your Bing Webmaster Tools verification HTML in the field to verify your website with Bing Webmaster Tools.
More Settings
You’ll notice that there is a small button on the screen that says “More”.
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More Settings
If you click on it, verification fields for many other websites will appear. You can verify your websites with all the mentioned using their respective verification codes. Verifying your website with all these websites is not mandatory, and you can skip one or more of them if you don’t use it. Even if you decide to use that service later, you can always verify your website with them using the settings in Rank Math.
Once you’ve configured all the settings, click the “Save and Continue” button to save your settings and proceed.
Step 6 — Completing The Setup
The last step is just a confirmation that you’ve set-up Rank Math completely for your website. You can share this on Facebook or Twitter, and also allow Rank Math to collect non-sensitive data and usage information to help us make it even better.
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Completing The Setup
Once you’re ready, scroll down and click the “Proceed to Help Page” to get more details about Rank Math or click the “Return to Dashboard” button to go back to your WordPress admin. We’ve also added some helpful links alongside the page for easy access.
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