Tim, there seem to be a number of people using RM who would be interested in switching. Perhaps it would be useful to clarify which features of RM you have dropped.
Agreed. Watch this space…
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Differences between Rank Math and Classic SEO (note new name).
| Included | Not included |
|---|---|
| 404 Monitor | Setup Wizard |
| Support for ACF | Support for AMP |
| Link Counter | Support for bbPress |
| Local SEO / Knowledge Graph | Support for BuddyPress |
| Redirections | Search Console |
| Rich Snippets | Webmaster tools |
| XML Sitemap | SEO Analysis |
| WooCommerce | Ability to edit .htaccess |
| Role Manager | Ability to edit robots.txt |
| Social meta: Support for Facebook, Twitter, Google Places, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube | Social meta: Removed support for Yelp, FourSquare, Flickr, Reddit, Pinterest, SoundCloud, Tumblr and Myspace |
| Support for Classic Commerce to be added |
One of my key aims, which I stated at the outset, was to keep the plugin as small and as lightweight as possible. Things like Search Console, in my view, adds unnecessary bloat. It’s only showing you the same info you see when logging into GSC.
Similarly, does anyone actually use AMP? That’s another Google offering for which we are eternally hateful (again, imo).
The SEO Analysis tool was removed largely because this requires a RM account so that’s a non-starter.
Support for bbPress and BuddyPress was removed because it’s highly unlikely they’ll continue to work with ClassicPress for too much longer.
If there is anything I have removed that anyone feels is a “must have” before they will consider using Classic SEO, please do let me know.
Thanks.
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Why not use a la “Core plugins” concept in ClassicSEO? As I understand, RankMath does similar, just deactivation instead of uninstallation of modules.
For example, if I didn’t need ACF or Redirection, I just uninstall these modules and my code will be even smaller.
Search Console is quite handy. Duplicated? Yes, but you have all info in one place, no need to go to google.
Ability to edit .htaccess ant robots.txt can be attractive for some users. I’d leave it.
SEO Analysis functionality is an unnecessary bloat, IMHO.
I didn’t have any CP testing site right now, but will test as soon as I have one.
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Thanks @LinasSimonis Classic SEO is quite modular already in as much as features can be disabled or enabled. All features listed in the “Installed” column above can be switched on or off depending on your needs.
If the Search Console and .htaccess / robots.txt edit features are considered useful, then I will add them to the next release.
Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?
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File editors are bad. If you want to edit files on your site then this is what SFTP and friends are for.
For robots.txt maybe it is less of a concern, but still doesn’t seem like a great idea. With .htaccess a mistake can easily lock you out of the entire site, and you’d have to drop back to (S)FTP to fix this anyway, so I would definitely leave that out.
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Agree about risks. But not all hosts allow SFTP. I know at least two people, who use this feature in RM, because of hosts’ restrictions.
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That’s exactly why I chose to omit that feature. If anyone really needs this ability, there are existing plugins such as this that allow editing of htaccess. However, the first item in their FAQ is I’ve killed my site! Help!?, their response to which is “use FTP”.
I agree that SFTP is often not available - for reasons known only to the hosting company - but I think most hosts do at least allow FTP. In addition, many hosting control panels (whether cPanel, bespoke or whatever) do also have a basic file editor built in.
All in all, I think I’d rather not have to put a “I’ve killed my site! Help!?” question in my FAQ. 
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