Rank Math SEO: setup, modules, settings and pricing

This guide is for people who run a WordPress site, or look after one for a client. Think of the owner of a Kanpur sweet shop with a WooCommerce store, the receptionist who updates a Delhi dental clinic's website, or the freelancer who builds sites for Pune coaching centres. You don't need to know any code. You do need admin access to WordPress.

By the end you'll be able to install Rank Math, get through its setup wizard without guessing, and keep only the modules your site needs. You'll set title templates, read the SEO score without being ruled by it, add schema and fix broken links with redirects. You'll also connect Search Console and decide whether PRO is worth paying for.

There are six chapters, about 37 minutes of reading in all. Chapter 1 explains what the plugin is and when you can skip it. Chapters 2 to 5 follow the order you'd set it up in, each with a task to do on your own site. Chapter 6 covers prices, switching from Yoast or All in One SEO, and the alternatives. Prices were checked on 16 October 2026, from Rank Math's own pricing page.

If you haven't decided between plugins yet, read this with our Yoast SEO guide, or go straight to Yoast vs Rank Math.

WordPress on its own doesn't let you write a separate search title for a page, add schema, or redirect an old address to a new one. An SEO plugin fills those gaps. Rank Math is one of the three big ones, next to Yoast SEO and All in One SEO.

What it does, in plain words

Once it's installed, every post and page gets a Rank Math panel in the editor. In that panel you type a focus keyword, the search phrase you want the page to be found for, and Rank Math runs a set of checks against it. The panel is also where you edit the title and description Google may show, pick a schema type, and set a page to noindex.

Behind the scenes, the plugin adds things to the whole site:

• Title and description templates, so pages you never touch still get a sensible title.
• An XML sitemap that updates itself when you publish.
• Schema markup (structured data) that describes the business, the site and each page to search engines.
• A redirect manager and a 404 monitor for broken addresses.
• Pings to search engines that support IndexNow when you publish or update a page.
• A dashboard of Search Console and Google Analytics numbers inside WordPress.

Rank Math's readme on WordPress.org says it is a "Module based system, enable only what you need".^[1] That matters, and chapter 2 shows which modules to switch off.

Who makes it

Rank Math is an Indian product. Its About page gives its headquarters as Gurugram, India, and names three co-founders: Bhanu Ahluwalia, Nimit Kashyap and Suraj Vibhute.^[2] Its terms name the company as ONE.COM INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, with an office in DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon.^[3] The site footer lists one.com, WP Rocket and Imagify among "Our Brands".^[2] The plugin was first listed on WordPress.org on 19 November 2018.^[1]

For comparison, Yoast SEO shows 10 million+ active installations^[4] and All in One SEO 2 million+ on the same directory.^[5] WordPress.org rounds these numbers down into bands, so treat them as rough sizes.

Who it's for

Rank Math fits best when:

• You run a self-hosted WordPress site (WordPress.org software on your own hosting), whether a blog, a business site or a WooCommerce store.
• You want schema, redirects and a 404 log without buying anything. These are in the free version.^[1]
• You want Search Console numbers inside WordPress, which are free, and perhaps a basic rank tracker, which PRO adds.^[6]
• You manage several sites of your own. One PRO plan covers unlimited personal websites, but not client sites.^[6]

When you don't need it

Plenty of sites are better off without it. We'd skip Rank Math in these cases:

• Your site isn't on WordPress. Shopify, Wix and Squarespace have their own title, description and sitemap settings. Rank Math only runs on WordPress.
• You're on WordPress.com without a Business plan. Rank Math's pricing FAQ says WordPress.com sites need the Business plan to use it.^[6]
• Your site already runs Yoast or All in One SEO and works. Our beginner guide gives the same advice: use whichever one your site already has, because switching on a live site is more trouble than it's worth (see on-page basics). Switch only if you need something the free Rank Math has and your current plugin charges for, such as redirects.
• Two SEO plugins at once. Never. They'd both print titles, canonicals and schema, and you'd get duplicates.

What Rank Math can't do

A plugin writes tags. It doesn't research keywords for you (beyond suggestions), it doesn't build links, and it can't make a slow site fast. It also can't see your site the way an outside crawler does. For that, run a crawl now and then: our Free Website Audit checks up to 25 pages for SEO, speed, security and more, and gives a ranked list of fixes.

If you decided Rank Math is the one, chapter 2 installs it and walks through the setup wizard screen by screen.

The wizard takes about ten minutes. Most of it is choosing from drop-downs, and you can run it again later, so nothing here is final.

Before you start

• Take a backup of the site, or ask your host to. You're about to change how every page's head is written.
• Check the plugin's minimums. WordPress.org lists WordPress 6.7 and PHP 7.4 as the lowest versions it needs.^[1] Your host's control panel shows your PHP version.
• If another SEO plugin is active, leave it active for now. The wizard imports from it first, then you deactivate it.

Easy, Advanced or Custom mode

The first wizard screen asks you to pick a mode. Rank Math's setup guide describes three: Easy, Advanced and Custom, and Custom is for PRO users only.^[7]

Why Advanced? Several things this guide uses are hidden in Easy mode. The 404 Monitor module,^[8] the Database Tools^[9] and the Import & Export page^[10] all need Advanced mode, according to Rank Math's own help pages. You can switch modes at any time.^[7]

The wizard, screen by screen

To run the wizard again later, go to Rank Math SEO > Dashboard > Setup Wizard.^[7]

Two link settings we'd change

The Optimization step has two switches for external links. Rank Math's setup guide recommends turning on Nofollow External Links.^[7] We don't, and here's why.

Google's guidance is to use nofollow "when other values don't apply, and you'd rather Google not associate your site with, or crawl the linked page from, your site."^[12] When a Delhi dentist links to the Indian Dental Association or a government health page, that's a link they're happy to stand behind. Nofollowing every outbound link by default sends the opposite message. Leave it off, and mark paid or untrusted links one by one with sponsored, ugc or nofollow.

Open External Links in New Tab/Window is a user experience choice. It has nothing to do with rankings. The plugin's default turns it on.^[13] We'd leave it as it is on most business sites.

Modules: keep only what you'll use

After the wizard, open Rank Math SEO > Dashboard > Modules. Each module is a switch. A fresh install turns on several of them, including Analytics, SEO Analyzer, Sitemap, Schema, Content AI, Instant Indexing and AI Visibility.^[13] The wizard's advanced step is where you turn on 404 Monitor and Redirections.

Every module you leave on adds settings to learn and code to run. When I taught SEO, most of the local business sites my students worked on ran on WordPress with shared hosting, and site speed was the most common problem they hit. That's reason enough not to run features you don't use.

The module names and descriptions are from the plugin's own module list.^[14] For llms.txt, our GEO guide explains why it isn't a Google ranking lever: llms.txt, honestly.

Three checks after setup

1. Open yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml. You should see a list of sitemaps, one per post type.
2. Run your home page and two inner pages through our Noindex Tag Checker. It reads the meta robots tag, the X-Robots-Tag header and robots.txt, so you'll see at once if a setting has hidden a page from Google.
3. Open WordPress Settings > Reading and make sure "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" is unticked. Rank Math's own indexing guide lists it among the things to check when pages aren't indexed.^[15]

Now the plugin is running. Chapter 3 sets the title and description templates and shows how to read the SEO score.

This chapter covers the two places you'll spend most of your time: the site-wide templates and the panel in the post editor.

Title and description templates

Open Rank Math SEO > Titles & Meta. Its sections are Global Meta, Local SEO, Social Meta, Homepage, Authors and Misc Pages. Then there's one section for each post type and taxonomy, such as Posts, Pages, Products and Categories.^[16] Templates set the defaults, and you can override any of them on a single post.^[16]

Templates are built from variables, words wrapped in percent signs that Rank Math swaps for real values. On a fresh install, posts and pages use these:^[13]

So a page called "Kaju Katli 500g" on a site named "Agarwal Sweets Kanpur" gets the title "Kaju Katli 500g - Agarwal Sweets Kanpur". The separator is a hyphen by default, and you can change it under Global Meta.^[13] To see every variable, click the drop-down arrow at the end of a template field.^[16]

The defaults are fine for blog posts. Three changes are worth making on day one:

• Home page: replace the template with a written title and description. It's your most-seen result for brand searches.
• Products (WooCommerce): the default description is the excerpt, which on many stores is a thin or empty short description. Write descriptions by hand for your best sellers, naming the product, the delivery area and one reason to buy.
• Author and date archives: on a one-author site they repeat the blog. Rank Math's own guide says a single-author blog can turn author archives off (or noindex them if more authors may join), and that most sites should turn date archives off,^[16] which a fresh install already does.^[13]

Our beginner guide explains what makes a good title and description, and why Google sometimes rewrites them: on-page basics. The intermediate guide goes deeper: on-page in depth.

The panel in the editor

In the block editor, click the SEO score button at the top right to open Rank Math. In the classic editor, the Rank Math box sits below the content.^[17] The General tab holds the snippet, the focus keyword and the checks. To write a custom title and description, click Edit Snippet.^[17]

What the SEO score measures

The score, out of 100, appears on the editor button and in the posts list. Rank Math colours it green above 80, yellow from 51 to 80 and red below 50.^[17] It's built from tests in four groups: Basic SEO, Additional SEO, Title Readability and Content Readability.^[17] Every test is about the focus keyword you typed. No focus keyword, or a page set to noindex, and the score shows N/A.^[9]

That's the key point. The score doesn't see your competitors, your links, your speed or whether the page answers the search. Rank Math says so itself: its guide calls the tests "a framework or guide, not as absolute answers", and says even a post with a lower score can rank well.^[17]

Which tests to follow and which to ignore

A page at 65 that answers the question beats a page at 95 that repeats the keyword 30 times. We'd be happy with yellow on most pages if the basics on the right are green.

To check the words on a page from outside WordPress, use our Word Counter and Keyword Density Checker. It counts words and shows how often your target phrases appear, which helps you spot a page that repeats itself.

Automatic alt text: leave it off

The Image SEO module can add alt text to images automatically. Its default pattern is the image's file name.^[13] So "IMG_2041.jpg" becomes alt text that tells nobody anything. Google asks for alt text that is "useful, information-rich" and in context, and warns against stuffing it with keywords.^[20] Write alt text by hand for images that matter, and leave the automatic option off.

With titles in place, chapter 4 adds the parts search engines read but visitors don't see: schema, sitemaps and redirects.

None of this shows on the page itself. It's the part of SEO that search engines read in the code, and it's where a free plugin saves you the most work.

Schema: defaults first, then per page

Schema is structured data: code that tells search engines what a page is about, such as an article, a product or a local business. Our intermediate guide explains what it does and doesn't do for rankings: structured data basics.

Rank Math works in two layers. First, each post type gets a default schema type under Rank Math SEO > Titles & Meta, such as Article for posts.^[21] Then, in the editor, the Schema tab opens the Schema Generator, where you can switch one page to another type and fill in its fields.^[21] Rank Math's schema types include Article, Book, Course, Event, Job Posting, Person, Product, Recipe, Restaurant, Service, Video and Local Business.^[1] PRO adds an advanced schema builder, schema templates and import of schema from other websites;^[1] in the free version, the Custom Schema tab is visible but asks you to upgrade.^[21]

Rank Math's guide also points out that not every page needs schema.^[21] A contact page or a privacy policy is fine without its own type; the site-wide Organization or Person markup from the wizard still applies.

After changing schema, test one URL. Google's Rich Results Test shows which rich results a page qualifies for. Our Schema Markup Validator checks JSON-LD from a URL or pasted code for syntax errors, missing @context or @type, and required fields for 18 common types.

Local SEO for a shop, clinic or coaching centre

Turn on the Local SEO module, then open Rank Math SEO > Titles & Meta > Local SEO.^[24] Its fields include business type, address, opening hours, phone number, price range, geo coordinates, and your About and Contact pages.^[24] Rank Math turns these into LocalBusiness schema and gives you a contact info shortcode to show the same details on the page.^[24] One location is free; multiple locations need PRO.^[25]

WooCommerce stores

With WooCommerce active, Rank Math's WooCommerce module adds Product schema and meta tags to product pages automatically.^[1] Its settings live under Rank Math SEO > General Settings > WooCommerce.^[26] At the time of writing, PRO adds a GTIN field and content tests written for product pages.^[26] The plugin's readme also lists GTIN and MPN for variations, custom brands and automatic noindex for hidden products among the PRO WooCommerce features.^[1]

For a D2C brand on WooCommerce, we'd start with the free version. Pay for PRO when you need product identifiers in the schema, or when you run a large catalogue with variations.

The XML sitemap

Your sitemap index lives at yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml, with one sitemap per post type and taxonomy. Settings are under Rank Math SEO > Sitemap Settings.^[27] Three settings matter:

• Links Per Sitemap: 200 by default. Rank Math lowered it from 1,000 and says Google responds better to smaller sitemaps.^[27] Google's own limit is 50,000 URLs or 50MB per sitemap file,^[28] so 200 is Rank Math's own preference, not a Google rule.
• Exclude Posts: type post IDs, comma-separated, for pages that shouldn't be listed, such as a thank-you page.^[27]
• Post types and taxonomies: include only the ones with pages worth finding. Untick tags you never use and theme leftovers like portfolio types.

If you connected Google in the wizard, Rank Math says it submits the sitemap to Search Console for you.^[7] Check under Sitemaps in Search Console anyway. Our beginner guide covers sitemaps in general: your first site setup.

Redirections

A redirect sends anyone who opens an old address to a new one. Open Rank Math SEO > Redirections and click Add New.^[29] You can choose these types:

The module also supports regex rules and a debugger, and PRO adds categories for keeping redirects organised. It won't let you redirect the home page.^[29] Syncing redirects to the .htaccess file is a PRO feature.^[29] One setting to switch on: Auto Post Redirect, under Rank Math SEO > General Settings > Redirections, which creates a 301 every time you change a page's slug.^[31]

The 404 Monitor

A 404 is the "page not found" response. Rank Math's 404 Monitor logs each address that returned one. In Simple mode, each log row shows the address (URI), the number of hits and the last access time.^[8] Advanced mode adds the referring page and the user agent, which tells you where the broken link is and whether a person or a bot hit it.^[8] Rank Math suggests Advanced only while you investigate, because it fills the log fast.^[8] Change the mode under Rank Math SEO > General Settings > 404 Monitor.

We'd resist one common shortcut: redirecting every 404 to the home page. A visitor who wanted a NEET course lands on a page that doesn't mention it. Send each address to its closest match, or let it return 404 or 410. Our advanced guide explains how Google handles status codes and redirects: indexing controls.

Chapter 5 covers the modules that talk to search engines and to Google's data: Instant Indexing, Analytics and Content AI.

These three modules connect your site to outside services. They're the ones where the marketing promises most, so this chapter is about what each one actually does.

Instant Indexing is IndexNow

IndexNow is an open protocol: your site tells participating search engines that a URL was added, updated or deleted, so they can crawl it sooner.^[32] The engines listed on IndexNow.org today are Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver and Yep, plus the Internet Archive and Amazonbot.^[33] Google isn't one of them.

In Rank Math, IndexNow is free. Turn on the Instant Indexing module, then open Rank Math SEO > Instant Indexing > Settings, choose the post types to submit, and save. Rank Math creates the API key and hosts it on your site for you.^[34] From then on, it pings IndexNow whenever you publish or update a post of those types, and skips URLs set to noindex.^[34]

You can also submit by hand. Paste URLs, one per line, in the Submit URLs tab, or use the "Instant Indexing: Submit Page" link and bulk action in the posts list. The History tab shows each submission and its response code, which should be 200.^[34]

We'd turn it on for every site. It costs nothing, and Bing matters more than its search share suggests: Microsoft says Copilot Chat turns your prompt into a short Bing query when it searches the web.^[35] Our Bing Webmaster Tools and IndexNow guide shows how to check that Bing received your URLs.

Google's Indexing API: what it is officially for

You'll see "instant indexing for Google" advertised. Here's what Google says. Its Indexing API documentation states: "The Indexing API can only be used to crawl pages with either JobPosting or BroadcastEvent embedded in a VideoObject."^[36] In other words, job listings and livestream videos. The default quota is 200 publish requests a day per project.^[37] All submissions go through spam detection, Google adds, and attempts to abuse the API "may result in access being revoked."^[36]

Rank Math makes a separate plugin, Instant Indexing for Google, that uses this API. Its own page says Google recommends the API only for job posting and live streaming websites. Then it adds that "it works on any type of website" and asks users to "proceed with caution."^[38]

The Analytics module

The Analytics module pulls your Search Console and Google Analytics data through Google's APIs and shows it under Rank Math SEO > Analytics.^[6] You connect it under Rank Math SEO > General Settings > Analytics, or in the wizard.^[39]

What you get: an overview of search traffic, impressions, clicks, keywords and average position, for the last 30 days by default. There's also an Index Status tab that reads Google's URL Inspection API for each post.^[39] PRO adds a per-post table with SEO score and traffic, the Rank Tracker, top winning and losing keywords and posts, and a filter for traffic from AI platforms.^[39]

Two limits to know. The free version refreshes data less often: Rank Math's Analytics guide says every 3 days, with daily updates in PRO.^[39] Its comparison page keeps Google data for 90 days on free and 180 days on PRO,^[25] and the pricing page shows no limit on Business and Agency.^[6] Search Console itself keeps 16 months,^[40] so it stays the place for year-on-year comparisons. Our intermediate guide shows how to read it: measuring SEO.

Also, Rank Math's "average position" is the same Search Console average, not a live rank check. If Google retires those APIs, Rank Math notes that its Analytics and Rank Tracker stop working.^[6]

Content AI and its usage limits

Rank Math AI is the paid AI side of the plugin. It has three parts. Content AI is 40+ writing and SEO tools inside the editor, AI Link Genius suggests internal links, and AI Visibility tracks how ChatGPT and Gemini mention your brand.^[41] You don't need PRO to buy it, but it only runs inside the Rank Math plugin.^[42]

It used to run on credits. Starter plans had 5,000 credits a month, and free users got 750, with one credit roughly one word written.^[43] From Rank Math SEO 1.0.269 and PRO 3.0.112, credits were replaced by a monthly allowance for each feature.^[43] Each tool now has its own count, and using one doesn't eat into another.

Free plugin users get a small monthly allowance, "typically between one to 5 uses per available feature", and some tools have no free use at all.^[41] The paid plans give these monthly allowances:

Figures are from Rank Math's AI plans guide^[41] and AI pricing page, where "unlimited" is subject to a fair usage policy.^[42] Allowances reset every month and unused uses don't roll over.^[41] PRO, Business and Agency buyers get a 15-day trial of Starter, Creator and Expert respectively.^[41] Prices are in chapter 6.

Is it worth it? For bulk jobs, such as drafting meta descriptions for 300 products, it can save hours. For writing whole articles, we're less keen. Google's guidance says "It is critical to manually factcheck and review all AI-generated content for accuracy and trustworthiness before publishing", including titles, meta descriptions, structured data and alt text.^[44] A 15-article Starter allowance doesn't remove that work. Our intermediate guide covers how to use AI in writing without hurting quality: E-E-A-T and AI-assisted writing.

If you only want to see whether AI tools mention your brand, a free prompt log in a spreadsheet does the basic job first. Our GEO guide explains it: measuring AI visibility.

Chapter 6 puts the prices side by side and helps you decide whether to pay at all.

What the free version already does

Everything in chapters 2 to 4 works without paying: the wizard in Easy or Advanced mode, title and description templates, up to 5 focus keywords per post, the SEO score, schema with default types, single-location Local SEO, WooCommerce product schema, the XML sitemap, redirects, the 404 Monitor and IndexNow.^[1] Search Console data inside WordPress is free too, refreshed less often.^[39]

For a Kanpur sweet shop or a Delhi clinic with 20 to 50 pages, we don't think you need PRO. The free plugin plus Search Console covers the job. Spend the money on photos, a faster host or better pages instead.

What PRO adds that's worth paying for

• Rank Tracker for 500 keywords, using Search Console data, with position history.^[6]
• More schema: a schema builder, templates and import of schema from other sites.^[1]
• Local SEO with multiple locations, for a chain of clinics or coaching branches.^[25]
• News and Video sitemaps, for news sites and video libraries.^[7]
• WooCommerce extras such as GTIN and MPN, including on variations.^[1]
• Daily Analytics updates and longer data history.^[25]

Rank Math prices, checked 16 October 2026

Rank Math's pricing page showed prices in euros to us in India, before taxes, with no rupee option. So the table gives the euro prices from the page and "about ₹" at ₹108 = €1, the X-Rates average for 1 to 16 October 2026.^[45] All plans are billed yearly; the lower price is for the first year, and the plan then renews at the full price every year.^[6]

Prices from Rank Math's pricing page and its FAQ.^[6] The page marks every price "ex VAT" and "+ taxes", so expect tax on top at checkout. It also sells a Rank Math plus WP Rocket bundle at €11.99 a month in the first year.^[6]

Rank Math AI is priced separately:^[42]

A few terms from the pricing FAQ worth knowing before you pay:^[6]

• There's a 30-day refund on new purchases, but not on renewals. Rank Math emails you seven days before a renewal.
• "Personal websites" means sites you own 100%. A client's site, or one you co-own with a partner, needs Business or Agency.
• Sharing a licence or group buying gets the sites blocked.
• Payment is by PayPal, cards or Amazon Pay. Rank Math uses FastSpring for local payment options.
• Keyword tracking stops at the plan limit, counted across all your connected sites.

Switching from Yoast or All in One SEO

Rank Math imports from Yoast SEO, All In One SEO, SEOPress, the Redirection plugin, Schema Pro and All In One Schema.^[7] It brings over SEO titles, descriptions and focus keywords; scores show N/A until they're recalculated.^[9] If you skipped the import in the wizard, it's under Rank Math SEO > Status & Tools > Import & Export > Other Plugins,^[7] in Advanced mode.^[10]

Our Yoast vs Rank Math guide compares the two feature by feature, and covers moving in the other direction too.

Pros and cons

Alternatives, and which one when

Start with what's free and checks the output. A plugin writes tags; our tools show what's actually on the page. Our Meta Tag Analyzer shows the title, description, canonical and Open Graph tags with a Google and social preview. The Schema Markup Validator checks the JSON-LD. The HTTP Status Checker follows redirects hop by hop. The Free Website Audit crawls up to 25 pages and ranks the fixes. Use them with any plugin.

For the plugin itself, the two main alternatives are Yoast SEO and All in One SEO. Yoast Premium is $118.80 a year for one site, before VAT (about ₹11,400 at ₹96 = US$1).^[46] All in One SEO showed us rupee prices: Basic, for one site, is ₹250 a month billed yearly (₹3,000) in the first year, then renews at full price, ₹500 a month (₹6,000 a year). Its FAQ gives the US price as $49.50, renewing at $99.^[47] So each plugin showed us a different currency: Yoast US dollars, Rank Math euros and All in One SEO rupees.

If you'd rather someone else set this up and keep it right, our SEO service does it for WordPress sites, and our web development team handles the speed side. For a price, use get a quote.

Next, test yourself with the quiz below, then open Rank Math on your own site and do the chapter 2 setup.

Test yourself

Ten questions on the whole guide. Pick an answer, check it, and see your score at the end.

Frequently asked questions

Sources