Switching from Yoast SEO or Rank Math
Copy titles, descriptions, keyphrases and settings in one go; your old sitemap addresses keep working.
Core SEO copies everything that matters from Yoast SEO or Rank Math. The other plugin is not changed, so you can check first and switch when you are sure.
How to switch#
- Leave the old plugin active and open Core SEO → Import. It shows Yoast SEO and/or Rank Math when it finds their data, with the number of posts and pages that have SEO data.
- Click Import from …. Tick Replace what is already filled in Core SEO only if you want the old values to win over what you already entered in Core SEO.
- Open a few pages in the editor and look at the Google preview.
- Click Deactivate … (or deactivate it under Plugins). Core SEO takes over immediately.
While another SEO plugin is active, Core SEO shows a banner and prints no tags, to avoid double titles. Google Analytics and Tag Manager from Core SEO keep working either way.
What is copied#
| Copied | |
|---|---|
| Every post and page | SEO title, meta description, focus keyphrase, noindex, nofollow, canonical URL, social title, social description, social image and main category |
| Categories, tags and other terms | SEO title, description, noindex, canonical URL and social image |
| Settings | Separator; home page title and description; title, description and noindex per content type and taxonomy; author, search and 404 titles; date and author archives; media page redirect; organisation or person, name and logo; default share image; X username; social profiles; verification codes |
Variables are converted automatically, for example Yoast’s %%title%% %%sep%% %%sitename%% becomes {title} {sep} {site}. Rank Math’s first focus keyphrase is used.
The import runs in steps of 300 posts and can be started again safely: finished posts are kept.
Redirects#
Redirects are imported by Core SEO Premium, under Core SEO → Redirects → Import & export: from Yoast SEO Premium, Rank Math and the Redirection plugin. See Redirects & 404 log.
Your sitemap in Search Console#
Old sitemap addresses such as /sitemap_index.xml and /sitemap.xml forward to the Core SEO sitemap, so Google Search Console keeps working. You can add the new address /wp-sitemap.xml when convenient.