Switch From Yoast or Rank Math Without Losing SEO Data

Yoast SEO and Rank Math are both mature, widely used plugins, and plenty of sites run happily on them for years. People switch for ordinary reasons: they want a different interface, fewer features they never use, a particular free feature, or a plugin from a team closer to home. Whatever the reason, the risk is the same. Your SEO plugin quietly controls every title tag, meta description, canonical URL and noindex flag on your site, and a careless switch can change hundreds of them at once.

This guide shows you how to migrate from Yoast or Rank Math to a free SEO plugin without losing data. The preparation steps apply whichever plugin you move to. The import steps use Impex Rank SEO, the free plugin we make.

Before you switch

Do this preparation even if the move looks simple. It is what lets you prove nothing was lost.

1. Take a full backup

Back up the database and files with your host's backup tool or a backup plugin, and confirm you can restore it. SEO data lives in the database, mostly as post meta, so the database backup is the important part.

2. Record what is live today

You need a "before" picture to compare against:

• Crawl the site with a desktop SEO crawler and export the URL, title, meta description, canonical and meta robots columns to a spreadsheet. Many crawlers have a free mode that covers small sites.
• Or use your sitemap. If you cannot run a crawler, save a copy of your current sitemap so you at least have a list of indexable URLs.
• Save Search Console data. Export the last three months of the Pages and Queries reports in Google Search Console so you can spot changes later.

3. List everything that is not per-post data

Importers usually handle the SEO fields on individual posts and pages. Settings that live elsewhere need writing down:

• Redirects. If your old plugin manages redirects, export them (both plugins offer a way to export or view them) or copy them into a spreadsheet.
• Noindex rules for whole post types, archives, tags or author pages.
• Category and tag SEO titles and descriptions.
• Title templates and the separator you use.
• Schema settings: organisation or person, logo, social profiles, local business details.
• Verification codes for Google, Bing and others (they are in your old plugin's settings, or in the webmaster tools themselves).
• Custom robots.txt rules.

Importing with Impex Rank SEO

Install and activate Impex Rank SEO from Plugins → Add New. Leave your old plugin active for now; the importer reads its data from the database.

1. Go to Impex Rank SEO → Tools and find Import from another SEO plugin.
2. The screen detects whether Yoast SEO or Rank Math data is present and selects it.
3. Run the import. A notice tells you how many items were updated.

What transfers

For every public post, page and custom post type, in any status:

Two safety rules are built in. The import is additive: if a post already has a value in Impex Rank SEO, it is left alone, so running the import twice does no harm. And it never deletes anything from the old plugin, which is what makes rollback easy.

What does not transfer

Be clear about the gaps so nothing is lost by assumption:

• Redirects. Re-create them under Impex Rank SEO → Redirects & 404. It supports 301, 302, 307 and 410, plus regex rules for patterns.
• Category, tag and other taxonomy SEO. Re-enter titles and descriptions for the terms that matter.
• Global settings: title templates, schema and organisation details, social profiles, verification codes and sitemap choices. Set these on the Titles & Metas, Schema, Social, Sitemaps, Local SEO and Tools screens. The Setup Wizard covers the essentials in a couple of minutes.

A note on title variables

Impex Rank SEO title templates use double-percent variables such as %%title%% and %%sitename%%, the same style Yoast SEO uses. Rank Math uses single-percent variables such as %title%. If any of your per-post Rank Math titles contain variables, they are copied as plain text and will show literally. After the import, open the Bulk Editor, scan the title column for % signs and rewrite those titles. Most sites have only a handful.

Deactivate the old plugin

Once the import is done, deactivate Yoast SEO or Rank Math. Do not delete it yet.

Never leave two SEO plugins active together. Both will print a title tag, a meta description, a canonical and a schema block, and search engines will see conflicting signals. That is worse than having no SEO plugin.

Verify

Now compare the new state with your "before" records.

1. View source on a few key pages. Search the HTML for <title, name="description", rel="canonical" and application/ld+json. Each should appear once.
2. Re-crawl and compare. Run the same crawl and compare titles, descriptions, canonicals and robots against your spreadsheet. Differences should be only the ones you intended.
3. Check noindex pages you recorded earlier are still noindexed.
4. Test your redirects, especially the high-traffic ones.
5. Resubmit your sitemap. Your sitemap address changes to /impex-sitemap.xml. In Search Console, open Sitemaps, submit the new URL and remove the old one. If the new sitemap returns a 404, go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save once.
6. Test structured data on a few live URLs with Google's Rich Results Test or the Schema Markup Validator.
7. Watch Search Console for the next few weeks for spikes in "Not found" or "Excluded" pages.

Rollback plan

If something looks wrong and you cannot fix it quickly:

1. Deactivate Impex Rank SEO.
2. Reactivate your old plugin. Its data was never touched, so it picks up where it left off.
3. If you changed the sitemap in Search Console, submit the old one again.

When you are confident, a few weeks later, you can delete the old plugin. Some plugins remove their data on deletion, so keep that database backup.

Moving from All in One SEO or SEOPress?

The importer currently covers Yoast SEO and Rank Math only. If you are on All in One SEO or SEOPress, the preparation steps above still apply, and you can copy titles and descriptions across with the Bulk Editor. Tell us which plugin you use; requests decide what we automate next.

Frequently asked questions

Will I lose my rankings if I change SEO plugins?

Not if the same titles, descriptions, canonicals, noindex settings and redirects are in place after the switch. Rankings drop when those things silently change, so export them first and compare afterwards.

Can I run two SEO plugins at the same time during the move?

No. Two active SEO plugins print duplicate title tags, meta descriptions, canonicals and schema. Import first, then deactivate the old plugin before you check the front end.

Does the Impex Rank SEO importer move my redirects?

No. It imports per-post SEO data: titles, descriptions, focus keywords, canonicals, social overrides and noindex flags. Export your redirects from the old plugin first and re-create them under Redirects & 404.

How do I roll back if something looks wrong?

Deactivate Impex Rank SEO and reactivate your old plugin. The importer copies data and never deletes anything from Yoast SEO or Rank Math, so their settings are still there.

Can I import from All in One SEO or SEOPress?

Not automatically yet. Tell us through the contact form on wprank.in which plugin you use, because requests decide what is added next.

Ready to move?

Install Impex Rank SEO free from WordPress.org, or search for "Impex Rank SEO" under Plugins → Add New. The full migration notes are in the docs, and the switching page explains what is different. Afterwards, see how to submit your new sitemap to Google Search Console.

Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO and SEOPress are trademarks of their respective owners and are named here only to describe compatibility.