Rank Math Discussion

More reviews: Rank Math - Product Information, Latest Updates, and Reviews 2023 | Product Hunt

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I’m sorry, this is not a review of Rankmath, but a post against Yoast by none other than… wait for it… the same person who instigated the whole Yoastcon controversy earlier this year.

I mean, by no means I’m a fan of Yoast, the person or the software, but when we’re going to link to reviews, then let’s please call things what they are.

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Some of us see that whole situation very differently. And it doesn’t negate his opinions on how the plugins work. The response to the review also gives information on privacy policies with Rank Math. There is useful information in that review and I stand by my post.

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Come on, the response of the review is by the plugin author!

There is nothing objective about that post and IMHO it has nothing to do with a review.

The other link you posted is both a review and very informative :slight_smile:

Well yes, the response to the review is the plugin author answering his questions about Rank Math’s privacy policy. And I find that very informative and helpful, also something that readers here would find helpful. I don’t understand where that snark came from.

I guess we’ll have to just agree to disagree because I thought it fit right in with the thread here and complaints about Yoast that people have been making, not just the plugin itself but arrogance coming from that direction. Such as 3 days ago, the customer service dept’s nasty reply re: Classic Press. Such arrogance from Wordpress people is the biggest reason why I switched to CP.

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I see that Yoast has updated that article now but the web doesn’t lie (often) http://web.archive.org/web/20170707175350/https://yoast.com/why-we-dont-support-old-wordpress-versions/. Neither does the source code as per image below.

I’m having issues with Yoast Premium on a WP4.9.9 site and was intending to get in touch with support but realise there’s no point now. I’ll just roll back to an earlier version of Yoast that I know works with 4.9.9.

But I’m struggling with the concept of moving to Rank Math. I’m no fan of Yoast at all but things like this don’t impress me much either.

Plus, I’ve had two spam emails from the developer of Rank Math asking me to leave a review on Product Hunt – and I don’t even use it and never have!

So I’m afraid I’ll need a lot of convincing before even considering Rank Math.

If there’s anyone brave enough – and clever enough – to fork Yoast, that would do nicely.:grinning:

6 1-star reviews vs. 182 5-star reviews for a 4.8 avg rating actually sounds pretty good for a new plugin like Rank Math. I read all the 1-star reviews, and I haven’t experienced any of the problems they talked about.

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I agree–I just looked over those reviews and I don’t have those same problems. And there were only 6.

Did chuckle a bit at how Yoast changed the wording of their page. It used to be very condescending and arrogant; now it’s much more diplomatic. lol

It wasn’t so much the volume of 1* reviews as the nature of them and it made me question how much trust I can put in the 5* reviews. Plus, the fact that I got spammed by the developer didn’t exactly help matters. But, I guess there’s only one way to find out…

Looks like Yoast / Joost is an avid reader of these forums then lol

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Comparing to Yoast, yes, head and shoulders above.

I’ve been a MyThemeShop customer for years now, and something that they have a history of doing is breaking themes/plugins when pushing updates (even their own updater plugin).

For example, they may add a feature on a plugin, and just flat out kill compatibility w/ your current setup. This has happened several times, on several diff plugins.

‘Most’ work fine, and their support is decent, but def something to keep in mind before going all in, esp this early in the lifecycle of this plugin.

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I recall having to block Yoast updates for quite a while because some flashy new feature (using Javascript, I think) made my editor go all googly. It was some time before they fixed it.

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This is all useful info. As I’ve got nearly 30 sites to support, going all in is definitely something to be avoided. I do still have reservations but I’ll install it on one of my simpler sites and give it a test for a while. Thanks everyone.

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Use Rank Math

Have they formally confirmed their commitment to continued support for the Classic Editor in the years to come?

No. But they confirmed that as long as it will be compatible with WP 4.9, it will work. And because RM is a better SEO plugin, reason is to fork RM, not Yoast, if you want to do that.

But my gut says, with RM will be less problem than with any other SEO plugin.

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Thanks.

I haven’t really heard of RankMath before this tread so keen to know why you think it’s superior to Yoast?
What aspects of SEO is it doing better than Yoast and what aspects is it missing?

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There are some design flaws (maybe just for me, I am sensitive to UI quirks), but overall, you will have premium Yoast features plus more for free. You can install it and see yourself. During installation it asks to register an account, but you can skip it.

On Facebook they have very active group and are quick with support there. You can join and ask about supporting CP. This is recommended, as it increases chances that RM will support CP one day.

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Rankmath. Why I use it? Oh…
5 keywords for free.
REAL advices to better SEO and gain consistency.
I love their approach to UI, I find it less confusing… All in one place under the post in a clear way.
The wizard at the start guides you better than yoast one.
SEO efficiency measured with a number (yoast does it with three colors. They go granular, 67/100 is better than 50/100, since they have full explanation of the why you can better your SEO one post at the time). And, oh…did I mention they SEO everything (not only pages and posts! Also images) for FREE.
…and much more.
So, yes… It’s a better option to fork rankmath than yoast.

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Just want to chime in on supporting SEO by Rank Math. I’ve just tried it on a couple of builds and I found it way more intuitive in guiding me through the initial-setup and individual page/post/custom post SEO process. Not to mention having features I usually only see on premium plugins. Gotta love the 4.9 backwards support as well (instantly a good sign for us Classic Press users).

I’d highly urge anybody to give it a try.

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I actually had a really great conversation with one of the guys over at RankMath – I posted about it here: Is Yoast Toast? - #55 by BlueSkyPhoenix

They are watching and cheering us on; I expect they’ll continue to be supportive.

My developer has been in touch with them a couple of times with a couple of minor issues, which they fixed promptly. The Facebook group is active and helpful. Really – how much more can you ask for? At least they’re not using scare tactics to try to get you to upgrade.

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I must confess to still being a little hesitant in using Rank Math. As I mentioned in this post they didn’t get off to a good start for me. Then I read this SCAM ALERT: Rank Math SEO (WordPress Plugin Review) - LittleBizzy and also found out that the developers of Rank Math are on the SlickStack Permanently Banned Plugin Vendors blacklist for “Ethical-Technical Reasons”.

That being said, it’s interesting to note that Yoast SEO and Joost de Valk are on the SlickStack “Not Recommended Plugin Vendors (Possibly Banned In The Future” blacklist, which I kinda like :wink:

I don’t use LittleBizzy or SlickStack and know very little about them so generally I would take their opinions and “advice” with a huge pinch of salt. But, it’s just that I have first-hand experience of Rank Math’s unethical practices and I’m struggling to get past that.

As for Yoast trying to scare people into upgrading, that’s equally unethical in my view, but not at all surprising. There’s no doubt in my mind that Yoast SEO will introduce some kind of breaking change in the next release or two.

All in all, SEO is still a big uncertain area for me.

So…I wonder if some SEO features should be built into the CP core? Essential features such as being able to edit the page title and meta description as well as auto XML sitemap generation. Any thoughts on that?

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