Are you searching for the best free SEO plugin for WordPress blog? If yes, you landed in the perfect place. In this article, I am discussing the most popular and best free WordPress SEO plugin review and its settings. the plugin name is Rank math SEO plugin. it is the best Yoast SEO alternative plugin.

Table of Contents
What is Rank Math?
Rank Math is a new generation SEO plugin for WordPress. All SEO Professionals are waiting for the most popular plugin Yoast SEO. Because of this multiple focus keyword optimization feature. So here is the Rank Math WordPress SEO plugin.
So today I wish to write about Rank Math WordPress SEO plugin settings in this post. I am using this plugin for a few months. It is an impressive WordPress SEO plugin for writing SEO-friendly content and ranking higher in search engines in 2020.
Why you need this Rank Math SEO Plugin?
WordPress is the most popular open source Content Management System (CMS) software. By using this CMS, you need to optimize your content as per SEO regulation. So you can rank the content on the first page of the search engines.
This is very difficult for non-techie guys to improve their SEO using no WordPress SEO Plugin. Even webmasters feel boring coding updates to perform all SEO activities on their blog/website by looking at their source code. There are plenty of best WordPress SEO plugins are available on the WordPress plugin directory.
Rank Math SEO plugin helps you optimize your content for search engines and outrank your competitors. This is the best seo plugin wordpress 2019.
Here is the time to goodbye for the code editing process about blog SEO purposes. Here it simplifies your SEO activities from one place.
For WordPress users, WordPress SEO plugins simplify your SEO activities. It helps you to optimize your content for better search visibility to advanced SEO activities by adding Schema Microdata and 404 error monitoring, etc. It is the best SEO plugin for WordPress users.
It comes with awesome features to manage your content and website optimization features like in-built content optimization, keywords managing features, redirection manager and more.
Why is Free? Here the team explained why this plugin is giving free of cost.
Features of Rank Math SEO Plugin
Every blogger and webmaster wants to check the perfect SEO plugin to perform all SEO activities from one place. It saves more time and for better results.
If you are searching for the same thing, here is the perfect WordPress SEO Plugin – Rank Math SEO Plugin.
The Rank Math SEO plugin is a perfect SEO plugin for on-page activities and for technical optimization.
Here are the awesome features of Rank Math SEO. After reading these features, you cannot leave this plugin without a grab.
- It is Light Weight and Full optimized for Speed
- Simple Modular Interface design
- Simple User-Friendly Interface
- Helpful Content In-depth SEO Analysis
- Advanced SEO settings
- Easy Rich Snippet setup
- XML Sitemap creation
- 404 Monitoring
- Redirection
- Social Media Sharing set up the feature
- Easy Schema setting
- Robots.txt and .htaccess editor
How to install and Configure Rank Math SEO plugin?
A rank Math SEO plugin is free. It is available in the WordPress Plugin repository.
Here are the steps to install.
Step 1: First login into your WordPress blog and
Step 2: go for Plugins > New and type Rank Math in the plugin search box.
Step 3: Install the Plugin and Activate it
After complete, the plugin installation is done, you will be prompted with an authentication screen with a Rank Math official server like this.
It helps you to get regular updates and support. If you want to know how to install a WordPress plugin, here is the article, and it explains this.
Now the plugin is visible in their menu at the left side column as “Rank Math”.

How to set up Rank Math Plugin for the first time?
Once you install and activate the Rank Math SEO Plugin, you need to grant permission from MyThemeShop official site.
To do this, click on Rank Math from the left side column and enter the Rank Math account login and activate the plugin officially.
If you did not have an account in Rank Math official site. Create a new account from here.
It is free. Once authenticated, the plugin performs a compatibility check and shows the Setup Wizard button. Click the button.
Here are the 6 steps
1. Import
- The plugin has the inbuilt feature to import your existing SEO settings from the current SEO plugin. Here the plugin will scan and detects your exited SEO plugin settings, and it allows the required settings to import.
- If you are using the Yoast SEO plugin, you will get the screen like below. Just choose and click on Start Import from SEO It takes a few seconds to import the data from Yoast SEO to Rank Math SEO.
- Once the process is complete, click the Continue button.
2. Your Site
In this step, enter the details of your blog like blog type, Logo upload, and default social share image details. Once you fill the details, just click on Save and Continue.
- Setup for the general blog: Choose any of the given – Personal blog (or) Personal Portfolio (or) Other Personal Website forms the drop-down-list
- Setup for Business: Choose any of the given – Small Business (or) WebShop (or) other Business Website form the drop-down-list
3. Search Console
Connect your Google Search Console account here by clicking the Get Authorization Code.

Enter Google Search Console login details
Grant the access of your account by clicking on Allow button

Google will provide an authentication code. Just copy the code and paste it in the Search console settings and click on Allow.

Choose your blog from the account and click on the save and continue button.
4. Sitemaps
- Sitemaps are the search engine indexing files and it helps you to discover the blog content to index properly.
- In this, you need to choose which files to be included in this file like Posts, Pages, Media (images, Videos, and Audios), Products, categories, and tags.
- Just select the options which you want to include in the sitemap of your blog. Finally, click the Save and Continue button to go for the next step.

5. Optimization
This step helps you to optimize your site as per SEO instructions. It provides great SEO value and saves a lot of time. It has No-follow Image links, No-follow External links, redirect status, and Search engine validation zones. Just choose the options as per your SEO requirements.

6. End of Setup
This is the last step of Rank Math SEO Plugin. Just click the Allow button. Once the site is ready, scroll down and click the link “Return to Dashboard” link for an additional option.

Now Your site ready with Rank Math SEO plugin.
What are the basic options and it’s Rank Math Settings?
The Rank Math WordPress SEO Plugin settings:
1. Dashboard
After installation and activation of this plugin, it will redirect the page to the Plugin Dashboard. This dashboard is having the following options.

- About: This tab gives information about initial guidance.
- Modules: This is the place to Enable/Disable 404 Monitor, Redirections, Rich Snippets, Role Manager, Search Console, SEO Analysis, and Sitemap. You can activate any module as per your site requirements.
- Help: This is a knowledge center. Here, you may get the product support by raising the ticket for technical support.
- System Info: System info tab gives the complete details of WordPress Environment, Server environment, Client Environment, Theme Information, and Installed Plugin details. It is a helpful option.
- Setup Wizard: It helps you to configure the plugin in 6 steps. The wizard designed in 6 steps–Getting Started, Import, Your Site, Search Console, Sitemaps, Optimization and Ready to use.
- Import & Export: You can import and Export your plugin settings from one site to another.
2. Analytics
Rank math Analytics feature is a newly added feature with limited features in free version. The complete version is in development mode. May be this feature will be available in the pro version.

First, you have to connect your blog’s Google search console and Google Analytics accounts by completing their systematic authentication process. After a few steps, you get the complete Analytics dashboard.

The Analytics Dashboard is having 4 different tabs. they are Basic dashboard, Site Analysis, SEO performance and Keywords.
- Basic dashboard: This area gives the overall optimization score, General analytics (Search impressions, Total keywords, Search Clicks and CTR) and keyword positions data. You can check these data from the specified boxes by clicking on Open report link. This data will be sync from your Google Search Console and Google Analytics accounts.
- Site Analysis: This tab explains the SEO score of your existed posts as in the score-wise. It separated the optimized and unoptimized posts. you can concentrate on the unoptimized posts for further improvements.
- SEO Performance: This is the place to know your blog performance in the Search engines by knowing the data like Search impressions, total keywords, search clicks, CTR and Average positions of your content.
- Keywords: This is the place to know the positions of your ranked keywords in the search engines.
let us see more advanced features like adsense integration in their Rank Math pro versions.
3. General Settings
To choose this option got for Rank Math > General Settings. You will reach the General options page. Here all the settings will be organized into tabs. Here is the list.
Links: This is the first tab. Here the settings are available that change the behaviour of links of your blog/website.

Images: This is the tab for image SEO. Here it contains 2 settings. They are “Add missing ALT attributes” (helps you to add ALT text) and “Add missing TITLE attributes” (helps you to create image ALT attribute).

Breadcrumbs: This is having only one setting. Just Enable it. (Recommended). Keep all default settings.

Webmaster tools: This is the place to verify the ownership of the site in the various search engine tools. You can verify your site by entering the verification code for various third-party webmaster tools like Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster tools, Pinterest Verification ID, Norton Safe Web verification ID.

Edit robots.txt: You can edit your Robots.txt file from here virtually. Keep this file’s default settings with no change if you are a newbie. If you have an idea about this file, use it. This file gives the direction of crawling and indexing access to index in the search engines.
Edit .htaccess: It is a configuration file that helps users and a search engine to navigate your site. Better to leave this default setting.

404 Monitor: Every website has 404 errors. This option rectifies 404 error problems. Rank Math’s 404 monitor helps you to resolve this issue.

Redirections: This is a built-in redirection manager feature that helps you get rid of 404 errors.

Others: This tab has some additional options like Usage Tracking, RSS content setup.
4. Titles & Meta
In this page, give the details like Global Metadata, Social Media details, Home Page details, Author details, Miscellaneous Pages, Post–Page – media set up as per Google guidelines and Taxonomies configuration like categories–tags details.
Configure this page carefully. Add titles and meta descriptions carefully by using related keywords as per your blog type (or) niche.

5. Sitemap Settings
A sitemap is a very important file, it sends the signal from your blog to Search engines after update your blog. It helps you to index your blog post content. In this section, you need to choose which one to include in the sitemap like Authors, Post types, and taxonomies. Just choose the options to include which one in the sitemap.
They turn the sitemap feature ON by default. Keep the default settings with no change.

6. 404 Monitor
404 Errors are not a big problem with this plugin. This plugin monitors 404 errors and informs you. You can redirect the page to other pages. It protects from bad SEO.

7. Redirections
You can set up temporary or permanent redirections by using this option. Combined with the 404 monitors, you can redirect fault URLs on your site, or add custom redirections.
If you are getting 404 errors, this option will help you. By using this, you can redirect the error page or broken link to similar or relevant pages without disturbing the reader.
If you want to redirect the broken link or an error page, this is the best option to protect the user bad experience by redirection.

8. SEO Analysis
It is an awesome tool added in this plugin to analyze your site SEO from the WordPress Dashboard. This feature will start the Analysis of your site with a simple click.
On-Page optimization is very important for the article ranking in search engines. It depends on some other factors like caching, URL structure and Pagination. So you need to spend hours to rectify these issues. But this feature will save you valuable time. It scans your site within 5 to 10 seconds and will give complete details about your site SEO.
To start this Analysis, just go to Rank Math > SEO Analysis then click the “Start Site-Wide Analysis” button.

The final Reports is here. by following the instructions, you can improve the site SEO.
9. Import and Export
You can Import your previous backed up settings in this section. You can export the Rank Math Settings for further reuse on another blog. In this section, you will have Export settings, Import Settings, Plugin Importer and Backup section.

- In Export Settings, you can export the panel settings by choosing which settings to export like General settings, Titles & Metas, Sitemap settings, and Role Manager Settings.
- In Import Settings, You can import the plugin settings page from your desktop.
- In Plugin Importer, You can import the existed SEO plugin settings with a simple single click.
How to Optimize Content with Rank Math SEO Plugin?
The Rank Math content SEO and Yoast Content SEO is almost the same. If you are having a great experience with the Yoast SEO analysis tool, you can optimize the content with Rank Math easily.
Here are the 4 parts in the Rank Math SEO analysis tool. This part appears below the post editor. They are
1. General
In the General tab, you will get the complete content analysis tool. Here you can see again 4 places

Focus Keyword:
- This is the major part of Content Analysis. Just add your target keyword to optimize the content.
- You can add multiple keywords (up to 3)
- If you are optimizing your content with multiple keywords, just add those keywords here and select every keyword before optimization you start.
- It shows a preview of the search engine snippet if someone searches with a specific keyword in search engines.
SEO Title:
- Write the Title here with eye-catchy lines.
- When you add the title here, they will show it in the SERPs.
Permalink Structure:
- Permalink means, blog post URL.
- You can edit the blog post URL from here
- Add the focus keyword in the permalink structure.
- Do not add more than 5 words.
- Do not add numbers and special characters
Meta Description:
- In Meta description, what you add they will show it on the SERP page.
- Add 160 character description here.
- Prepare the description by including focus keyword and some related keywords

Here is the Analysing tool interface after optimization. It is optimizing with 4 different aspects like Basic SEO, Additional, Title Readability, and Content Readability.
2. Advance SEO Settings

Under this tab, you can configure Advanced SEO settings. Here you can choose post indexing – deindexing feature, canonical URL addition, Sitemap adding a feature, and Custom redirection setup.
3. Rich Snippets
You can set up a rich snippet feature without messing with Schema and Microdata.

4. Social
You can use this place to configure Social data like Title, Description and featured Image for Facebook, and Twitter.

Rank Math Vs Yoast SEO Vs All-in-One SEO Plugin
Features | Rank Math SEO | Yoast SEO | All In One SEO |
---|---|---|---|
Installs With Optimal Settings | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Setup Wizard | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Site Compatibility Check | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Automatic Canonical URLs | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Integrates LSI Keyword Tool | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Keyword Rank Tracking | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Integrates Google Search Console | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Import From Yoast | ✔ | – | ✔ |
Import From AIO | ✔ | ✖ | – |
Import AIO Rich Snippets | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Advanced SEO Analysis Tool | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
70+ SEO Tests | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Actual SEO Analysis Score | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
SEO Warnings | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
SEO Failed Tests | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Auto Image SEO | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Custom Post Type | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Bulk Edit Titles & Descriptions | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Google SERP Preview | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Analysis Of Content | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Title, Page & Meta Description Control | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Adds Additional Meta Data Automatically | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Focus Keyword | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Robots Meta | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Google Keyword Suggestion | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Optimize 5 Keywords | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Pillar Content | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Internal Link Suggest | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Capitalize Titles | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Google Crawl Error Fix | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
XML Sitemap | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Includes Redirection Manager | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Auto Post Redirect (Changed URL) | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
301, 302, 307, 410,451 Redirects | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Regex Support | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Redirect Attachments To Parent | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Finds All 404’s | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
WP Role Manager | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Google Schema Rich Snippets | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Rich Snippet Types: Article, Book, Course, Event, Job Posting, Local Business, Music, Person, Product, Recipe, Restaurant, Review, Service, Software/App, Video | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
193 Local Business Types | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Optimize Social Media | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Overlay Icons On Social Images | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Open Graph Thumbnail | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Facebook Open Graph | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
FB Authorship | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
FB Open Graph For Homepage | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Twitter Meta Cards | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Default Twitter Card Type | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Social Previews | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Default Image For Sharing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Knowledge Graph Support | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
URL For SERPS: Google+, Linkedin, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, SoundCloud, Tumblr, Myspace | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Represent Site As Person/Company | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Separator Choice | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Modify Global Meta | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Strip Category Base | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Remove Stopwords From URLs | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Verify Site With Google, Bing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Verify Site With Baidu | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Verify Site With Yandex | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Verify Site With Alexa | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Verify Site With Pinterest | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ |
SEO Breadcrumbs | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Advanced Link Options | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Nofollow External Image Links | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Nofollow External Links | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
External Links In New Tab | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Ping Search Engines | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Contact Info Shortcode | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
EDD Compatible | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
PHP-FIG Coding Standards | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Archive Pages Optimization | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Author Pages Optimization | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Robots & .htaccess Editor | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Optimize RSS | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Multisite Compatible | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Detailed Documentation | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Contextual Help | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Round The Clock Support | ✔ | ? | ? |
Pros and Cons of Rank Math WordPress SEO Plugin
PROS
- More Premium SEO features in a single plugin
- Lightweight & Speed Optimized
- Completely Free
- Beginner Friendly User Interface
- Modular Design
- Easy to import all SEO settings from other Plugins
CONS
- Content SEO Analysis need to improve
- Switching to another plugin is a little harder
Final Words on Rank math SEO plugin
Rank Math SEO plugin stores none data within its own servers. It stores the data within your WordPress blog database only. So they protect your data. The team is giving more priority to the web master’s data safety. In the coming versions, the team is adding more features like internal linking, providing the best performing keywords – pages by using Analytics feature to make it the best website ranking tool.
In the last step of the Wizard setup, we are giving permission by clicking the button ALLOW. Here the developers are seeing your Rollbar data only.
The Rollbar is an error tracking and crash-reporting tool. By using this Rollbar data, the developers will suggest you the better options according to your site type for better performance and ranking in search engines.
Note: Personally I recommend this free SEO WordPress plugin for all types of blogs and WordPress sites. From Version 1.0.39, the plugin updated with the FAQ Schema feature. It helps you to display the Question and Answers in the SERPs.
No doubt Rank math WordPress SEO plugin is the best Yoast SEO alternative. Rank math becomes the best SEO tools for a WordPress site in a day by day.
RankMath is one of the finest SEO plugin and creating a buzz with all its fully loaded features. Users are shifting to it from Yoast, as it is offering mode SEO premium features for absolutely free..
Certainly worth giving a try. Thanks Saying, have a great day ahead!
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