Rank Math Review: The Ultimate SEO Game-Changer? (2024)

Ease of Use

I would rate the overall ease of use of Rank Math as a 4.2 out of 5.

Here’s why:

• Rank Math shines with its user-friendly setup wizard.
• If you're already familiar with installing plugins, setting up is easy. But having to install an extra plugin for the pro version might feel like an extra step.
• The extensive customization options present a mixed aspect.

Rank Math offers an impressive suite of SEO tools with a user interface that is largely accessible to users of varying expertise levels.

However, improvements could be made to streamline the installation process for an even smoother user experience.

Installation Process

Rank Math follows a free plugin-pro plugin installation process where you must install a separate plugin for the pro version.

If you want to install the free version first to check it out, you can simply search for it in the WordPress plugin repository:

• Go to plugins > add new plugin
• Search for the Happy Addons plugin
• Install and activate the plugin

A screen will show asking if you want to connect to a free account and then the setup wizard will automatically start.

For the pro version, you need to purchase a plan from Rank Math first and then download the pro plugin from your account.

Then do the following steps:

• Go to plugins > add new plugin > upload plugin
• Browse through your files and select the plugin
• Click the install now button

⚠️ Note: After installing the pro plugin, don’t deactivate and uninstall the free plugin. The pro plugin is an add-on only to the free version.

The next part here gets a little tricky especially if you used the free version before and connected it to your Rank Math account.

You need to disconnect your account first:

• Open the Rank Math’s dashboard
• Go to the help tab
• Click the disconnect account button

The button will now change to “connect now” and you have to click it and reconnect with your Rank Math account.

The reason for this is that you need to refresh the license registered in the plugin and reconnect your account so the pro license and updates become available.

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Plugin Settings

As I explained earlier during the free plugin installation, the setup wizard will start as soon as you activate the plugin.

Whether you go through with it or not (which you can actually do later), you will always end up in the Rank Math dashboard.

This is it:

You can see that there are different modules here, that represent features, and if you want to use a deactivated one, you simply have to enable it here.

Besides the modules tab, you will find other tabs here:

• Help
• Setup wizard (next section)
• Import and export

We have talked about the help tab earlier where you can disconnect your account as well as other product support features.

The import and export tab, as its name suggests, is where you can import/export plugin settings, and even import settings from other SEO plugins.

Besides this, there are also menu items under Rank Math SEO in the left-hand panel in the WordPress admin dashboard.

This will take you to settings such as:

• Analytics
• General settings
• Titles and meta
• Sitemap settings
• Instant indexing

If you’re familiar with search engine optimization, I bet you’re already familiar with those terms so I don’t need to point out what each does. 🫡

👉 Related: Best SEO Plugins for WordPress: Free and Paid Options

Setup Wizard

I feel like I need to address this because Rank Math has such an extensive setup wizard that will allow you to configure your website’s SEO optimization.

Now, if you skipped out the setup wizard after activating the free plugin, you can simply go to the setup wizard tab in the dashboard.

This will then open the setup wizard:

There are three choices that you will see:

• Easy
• Advanced
• Custom mode

The main difference between the easy and the advanced mode is that the advanced mode has a lot more options to configure.

⚠️ Note: If you’re using a free plan, you won’t be able to choose the custom mode since it’s exclusive to pro users only.

By the way, the plugin will also scan your website to make sure that it is compatible with Rank Math SEO.

Even if you choose the advanced mode, you will still have to undergo the usual options to set up SEO optimization on your website.

This is the page where you indicate to Rank Math what your website is all about:

• Like what type of website it is
• Its name, alternate name, and company name
• Logo for Google
• Default social share image

If you’re not sure about this, there is actually a “click here” link before the first field where you can watch a guide on the setup tutorial.

The next page is where you can connect Google Search Analytics and Google Search Console easily (involves linking Rank Math with Google).

Anyway, it looks like this:

The next part is where you can configure sitemap configuration and select the type of posts or pages that should be in the sitemaps.

There are three main settings here:

• Site maps
• News sitemap
• Video sitemap

The news sitemap and video sitemap settings are disabled by default, so if you need them, you can enable them here.

The optimization step contains settings that will allow you to automate some of the usual SEO tasks that you would need to do.

Some examples here include:

• Setting empty archives to noindex
• Adding a nofollow attribute to external links
• Adding an attribute to open external links in a new tab

In the final step here, you will be able to enable the auto-update of the plugin, and then proceed to the advanced options.

Currently, there are three additional options found here:

1. Role manager
2. 404 and redirection
3. Schema markup

This is the last part:

Among the many plugins that I used and tested, Rank Math SEO has one of the most exhaustive setup wizard.

Features

I would rate Rank Math's overall features a 4.5 out of 5.

Here’s why:

• Rank Math excels in providing a wide array of SEO tools and features that cater to almost every aspect of optimizing for search engines.
• Rank Math's many features are powerful, but they might overwhelm beginners or those looking for simplicity.
• The image SEO feature makes optimizing images for SEO much simpler, a task often neglected because it's so tedious.

Rank Math's broad and dynamic feature set positions it as a powerful SEO tool for WordPress users.

Its ability to offer comprehensive SEO management in a single package is commendable, earning it a high rating.

1. Post and Page SEO Optimization

If you’re using an SEO plugin, then it’s likely that you will be using it to optimize posts and pages on your website.

In every post and page, you will see a Rank Math button in the top toolbar that will open the tool in the right-hand panel.

It looks like this:

I like the fact that the tool is in the right panel as you would be able to scroll through the article and make the necessary changes.

The general section contains the following elements:

• Preview
• Focus keyword
• Basic SEO (Rank Math SEO score)
• Title readability
• Content readability

There is also a section for advanced options (like robots meta) and another where you can configure the schema markup.

The latter will bring up the schema builder:

Besides that, you can also configure the snippet using the snippet editor (there’s an “edit snippet” button in the general section).

This is where you can edit the post or page’s SEO title, meta description, and permalink, with a bar showing optimization status.

It looks like this:

This is also where you can configure the snippet that will show on social media like Facebook and Twitter (now X).

⚠️ Note: You will see a lot of options here to use AI, which you can. Unfortunately, you will need to purchase a separate plan as Rank Math’s AI tool is a separate product.

2. SEO Analytics Module

Although there are some good plugins that can present information from Google services, you won’t need to install another one with Rank Math.

That’s because they have an advanced analytics module that you can connect to Google Search Console to see interesting analytics data.

It looks like this when properly connected:

I had to use the image from Rank Math since there’s no analytics data on the test website I’m using for this review. 🙂

Anyway, besides the dashboard that shows nice-looking graphics, there are other features in the analytics module:

• Site analytics
• SEO performance
• Keywords
• Rank tracker
• Index status

The most interesting there for me is the rank tracker:

As someone who likes to look at my Google Search Console, I know how hassle it is to switch between queries/keywords and pages.

But with this keyword manager tool in the rank tracker, I’m able to easily see the specific titles that have a hit on specific keywords.

3. Image SEO

As someone who knows how important image SEO can be, I also know how it’s sometimes overlooked simply because it’s a hassle.

This is why the image SEO feature in Rank Math caught my attention — simply because it lets you add missing attributes like ALT and TITLE to images.

Well, I need to address this here:

The automatic feature of filling out missing attributes in images isn’t an AI feature, so it doesn’t scan the image and give it the correct, relevant attributes.

What it does, however, is provide you with a way to configure the attribute format and use different parameters, including custom fields.

Once again, this doesn’t use AI to scan the images and give them accurate images based on those images like the ALT text clearing defining what the images are.

But still, it works out pretty well, especially if you simply want to slap an existing parameter into the attributes. 🙂

4. Other Notable Features

Now, Rank Math has so many features that if I explain them one by one, you would most likely go back to the search page and read another review. 😂

But some examples of other features that I found really interesting:

• Edit .htaccess
• ACF support
• Google index status
• Role manager

Although most robust SEO tools has an HTACCESS editor, the one in Rank Math looks the most modern.

In fact, I’m not even sure if it’s safe. 🤔

But then again, users who have to edit this file most likely know how to do it even without this Rank Math feature.

Another one I want to show you is the Google index status:

This will keep SEOs from always going to the Google Search Console to manually check whether a post or page has been indexed.

What’s better is that you can easily see here whether there are URLs unknown to Google or any post/page returning a server error.

👉 Related: The Ultimate Guide to WordPress Error Troubleshooting

Reliability

I would rate the overall reliability of Rank Math as 4.5 out of 5.

Here’s why:

• Rank Math performs exceptionally well, with low memory usage and minimal impact on page loading times, crucial for SEO and user experience.
• Though Rank Math generally performs impressively, it can have slightly longer execution times in specific tests with the Code Profiler.
• Regular updates show Rank Math's dedication to improving its service, fixing bugs, enhancing compatibility, and adding new features.

Overall, Rank Math presents itself as a highly reliable WordPress SEO plugin choice, promising both efficiency and continual enhancement.

Performance

For performance, Rank Math seems to be doing well, both in memory usage and in page speed inside the website.

WP Hive had data on it when they checked the WordPress plugin (free version) using their own test script.

Here are the results:

The average memory usage is around 22.53 KB, which means it’s optimized, while the average page loading time is increased by 0.08 seconds.

I also tested Rank Math (pro version) using the Code Profiler plugin and I got 0.194 seconds on the front end and 0.074 seconds on the back end.

Let’s compare it with how the others went:

From the results above, Rank Math SEO seems to have the best page speed and average memory usage according to WP Hive’s tests.

On the other hand, Rank Math also seems to have the longest execution time (with mere milliseconds differences) from Code Profiler.

For the actual SEO performance, I believe that most SEO tools have more or less similar effects, and it’s in the features where they mostly vary.

Updates and Maintenance

Now how about the updates and maintenance?

As you can guess, Rank Math has no problems in terms of updates and maintenance as they have a clear changelog of every change they make.

You can check the changelog on this page:

From the screenshot above, you can see that they divided the changelog into the free and the pro version.

Rank Math has been updating both WordPress plugins regularly, with a quick estimation, I would say they’re pushing the updates every 1-2 weeks.

Here are some of my observations with the changelog:

• Rank Math releases updates very frequently, with multiple updates per month (like in January 2024, they had 3 updates).
• The updates often include fixes for compatibility issues without various WordPress setups, themes, and plugins.
• Translations for multiple languages are updated regularly in the releases (Portuguese and German translations were updated several times).

I have also noticed that new features and improvements are consistently added through the updates like new filters for the slugs, thumbnail auto-generation, and more.

These updates reflect Rank Math’s commitment to improving their plugins and existing features in general for better user experience.

Support

I would rate their overall support at 4.3 out of 5.

Here’s why:

• Rank Math's extensive documentation and responsive ticket support system stand out as major positives.
• One area where Rank Math's support could improve is the diversity of direct support channels.
• Rank Math offers many instructional videos on their YouTube channel, but they're not integrated into their knowledge base articles.

Rank Math's support system is robust and largely effective, marked by a strong commitment to comprehensive documentation and responsive customer service.

Customer Service

As you can see from an earlier screenshot, Rank Math has a help tab in the plugin dashboard where you can find product support.

They only listed here two options:

• Online documentation
• Ticket support

For the ticket support, you will first land on a page where you can chat with a bot that’s probably powered by ChatGPT and trained on Rank Math’s data.

Here’s what it looks like:

The bot is quite helpful since it can go through Rank Math’s documentation and give you a concise summary.

But if you can’t find the answer you’re looking for or you might want to contact Rank Math’s support team, there’s a button in the lower-right corner for that in the chat.

Anyway, this will land you on the support ticket page where you can open a ticket:

Now, Rank Math doesn’t mention it, but they’re quite active in answering questions on the WordPress support page of their free plugin.

In fact, I went through it and even checked the unresolved topics, and was quite surprised that they actually replied to every question.

Here’s an example of a post where their support team, aptly named “Rank Math Support” replied to the query:

For a Rank Math user, the fact that they’re willing to answer all the questions would be quite reassuring. 🙂

Knowledge Base

Rank Math is also doing quite well in terms of documentation.

The front page of their knowledge base has a search feature and their knowledge docs are categorized quite well.

This is the front page:

First impressions:

• The page itself looks good
• I can’t believe they have 10 categories 🫡

Their individual knowledge base articles also look really good — they actually look like blog articles.

Here’s an example:

You can see that they have all the elements of a good knowledge base article complete with well-written texts and annotated images.

Rank Math also has an extensive library of videos on their YouTube channel, so I’m quite a bit surprised that they didn’t embed some of their videos in their articles. 🤔

Pricing

I give the overall pricing a rating of 4.4 out of 5.

Here’s why:

• Rank Math's Pro plan is notably affordable, starting at $4.92 per month for unlimited personal websites.
• The renewal cost, which can increase by 20-60% after the first year, might catch some users off guard.
• Rank Math's 30-day money-back guarantee is a strong positive, providing users with a risk-free opportunity to test the plugin.

Rank Math offers a compelling pricing model that is both affordable and packed with value, especially for those managing personal websites.

Cost Breakdown

As you know, Rank Math has a free and a pro version.

Although both are great, the free version is extremely limited to what you can get with the pro addons installed.

You can find the free version on the WordPress plugin repository:

Here are examples of how the free version differs from the pro version:

• The free version doesn’t have advanced features and only limited integration
• No automatic schema implementation in the free version
• No tracking SEO performance of individual posts in the free version

On the other hand, the purpose of the free version is to give a demo (or a taste) of the full potential of the plugin.

Anyway, for the pro pricing, there are three basic plans available:

• Pro: Starts at $4.92/month for unlimited personal websites
• Business: Starts at $20.99/month for 200 client websites
• Agency: Starts at $49.99/month for 750 client websites

⚠️ Note: I’ve taken the information during Rank Math’s spring sale. However, you can see how much each plan renews after a year.

By the way, each plan is billed annually, and you need to watch out for the renewal costs since it would increase the price by 20-60%.

On the bright side, I noticed that the pro plan for personal websites is actually cheaper than the initial plan that other SEO plugins offer.

It’s also important to know that there’s almost no difference in the features that the plans offer, so even the lowest plan is as powerful as the highest tier.

Money Back Guarantee/Refund

Rank Math probably has the best money-back guarantee that I know of:

They offer a clear 30-day money-back guarantee, and they indicated that “not liking the plugin for any reason” counts.

Here’s the full guarantee in their terms and conditions:

This is what their guarantee means:

• They will refund anyone as long as it’s within 30 days of purchase
• Rank Math won’t require or ask about the motivation for the refund
• They ask users to kindly specify the reason, though that’s not required

You would probably understand now what I explained earlier about Rank Math having the best guarantee that I know of. 🙂

Final Thoughts

When considering Rank Math for your website's SEO needs, it's important to weigh the plugin's comprehensive features against its pricing and renewal terms.

The value it offers, especially with the pro version's competitive pricing for unlimited personal websites, is exceptional in the SEO plugin marketplace.

My final recommendation is to take full advantage of the 30-day money-back guarantee:

This allows you to explore all the features and assess the plugin's impact on your site's SEO performance without any financial risk.

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