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Rank Math is a popular and one of the best SEO plugins for WordPress that helps optimize websites for search engines. It offers comprehensive features like like on-page SEO analysis, keyword tracking, XML sitemaps, rich snippets, and more to enhance sites’ SEO, making it easier for content to rank higher in search results.
Table of Contents
Prerequisites
Before installing Rank Math, ensure you have the following:
- A WordPress website
- Administrative access to your WordPress dashboard
- A basic understanding of SEO concepts (helpful but not necessary)
Installing Rank Math
1. Login to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to ‘Plugins’ and click on ‘Add New Plugin’.
2. Search for Rank Math in the search bar, the plugin should appear in the search results. Click the ‘Install Now’ button next to the Rank Math plugin.
3. Once the installation is complete, click on ‘Activate’ to activate the plugin.
Initial Setup and Configuration
1. After activation, you need to connect your account to Rank Math, click on ‘connect Your Account’ to do that.
Login to Rank Math If you are already a member, if not register your account by clicking on ‘Register Now’.
After login or registration, click on ‘Ok Activate now’ to link your website to Rank Math free plan.
2. After connecting your website, Rank Math will launch its setup wizard to guide you through the initial configuration.
2.1. Getting Started: Rank Math can import your existing settings If you’re migrating from another SEO plugin, but this option is only available in the PRO version. Choose your preferred option and click ‘Start Wizard’.
2.2. Your Site: Fill in your site’s details such as website type and logo, and click ‘Save and Continue’
2.3. Analytics: Connect your Google account by clicking on ‘Connect Google Services’ to enable Rank Math to access your Google Search Console and Analytics data.
Fill in the required details, you can only add Adsense account with the pro version.
2.4. Sitemap: Configure your sitemap settings. Rank Math will automatically generate XML sitemaps for your website and content if the sitemaps option is enabled.
2.5. Optimization: Enable options to optimize your website’s settings, such as noindexing empty category archives.
2.6. Ready: Review your settings and click ‘Return to dashboard’.
You will be redirected to your WordPress dashboard, where u can access your Rank Math dashboard, here you can activate the Rank Math SEO features you need and deactivate the Rank Math SEO features you don’t need.
Configuring Basic SEO Settings
Once the initial setup is complete, you can configure additional SEO settings.
1. Titles and Meta: Go to Rank Math > Titles & Meta > Global Meta. Here you can set default SEO titles and meta descriptions for your posts, pages, and other content types.
2. Social Meta: Configure how your content appears when shared on social media platforms by navigating to Rank Math > Titles & Meta > Social Meta.
3. Sitemap Settings: An XML sitemap helps search engines understand your website’s structure and find all your pages, Rank Math automatically generates and updates your XML sitemap.
Configure how your content appears on search engines under Rank Math > Sitemap Settings, here you can customize which content type from posts, pages, categories, and tags to include in your XML sitemap by clicking on the content and enabling the ‘Include in Sitemap’ option.
Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster to help search engines crawl and index your site more efficiently.
How to submit sitemap to Google|How to submit sitemap to Bing.
You can view your sitemap to verify that it is generated correctly by clicking on the link at the top of the settings page in Sitemap Settings > General.
Advanced Configuration
For more advanced SEO configurations, explore the following options:
Note: Features like ‘404 monitor’ and ‘Redirections’ need to be enabled from the Rank Math dashboard to be used.
1. Instant Indexing: Rank Maths’ Instant indexing auto-submit your content directly to search engines like Google and Bing for immediate indexing. This feature ensures that your new posts or updates are shown in Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) within minutes rather than taking hours or days to be visible on search engines, this helps you gain more visibility and attract more traffic to your website.
To ensure this feature works correctly, navigate to Rank Math > Instant Indexing > Settings. Click on the ‘Check key’ button and you will be redirected to a new tab containing your API key, if the API key is displayed on the new page it means the instant indexing feature is working, if not you need to manually insert the API key into your WordPress site to allow instant indexing.
To do that copy and save your API key in <yourapikey>.txt format, upload the file to the main root of your WordPress site, or contact your hosting provider for assistance in placing the file.
Type yourdomainname.com/yourapikey.txt in the browser to check if your API key has been uploaded correctly, if a page displaying your API key is shown then Rank Math instant indexing feature has been configured correctly.
You can also select the type of content you want to be auto-submitted for instant indexing from the Instant Indexing > Settings page.
2. 404 Monitor: A 404 error occurs when a page is not found, these errors can negatively impact user experience and SEO. Rank Math’s 404 monitor helps you identify and fix broken links.
Track and identify 404 errors on your site from Rank Math > 404 Monitor.
Fix and manage 404 errors by navigating to Rank Math > General Settings > 404 Monitor.
3. Redirections: Set up and manage URL redirections from Rank Math > Redirections > Add New, to fix broken links by adding redirects to relevant pages and improve user experience.
4. SEO Analysis: Navigate to Rank Math > SEO Analyzer > Start SEO Analyzer, to perform a detailed SEO analysis of your site to identify areas for improvement.
Using Rank Math for SEO Optimization
With Rank Math configured you can start optimizing your content for search engines. When creating or editing a post/page, click the Rank Math icon in the upper right corner. This will open the Rank Math content analysis feature of your content.
1. Content Analysis: Rank Math provides an SEO score and improvement suggestions for Basic SEO, title readability, and content readability. Make sure to complete as many tasks as possible to increase the SEO score of your post.
2. Keyword Optimization: Enter your focus keyword and follow Rank Math’s recommendations to optimize your content.
3. Schema Markup: Add rich snippets to your content to enhance its appearance in search results, by clicking on ‘Edit Snippet’
Here you can set the meta title, meta link, and meta description.
4. Internal Linking: Rank Math will suggest internal links to enhance your SEO as you write or edit content. Use descriptive and keyword-rich anchor text for internal links to improve site structure and SEO.
Conclusion
Rank Math is invaluable for any WordPress website owner looking to improve their search engine rankings. Feel free to customize the settings according to your specific needs and keep exploring Rank Math’s features to maximize your website’s SEO.
Learn more on Rank math’s features and uses here.
