When you’ve used another SEO plugin, it may seem like a daunting task to switch to another SEO plugin. After all, you’ve spent a lot of time setting up all your titles, descriptions, and other metadata within the other plugin.
However, switching to The SEO Framework (TSF) is straightforward and easy; migrating your data should take no longer than 10 minutes for most websites.
How to transfer SEO metadata from another SEO plugin
TSF uses the WordPress Metadata API. This makes the metadata easily accessible for other plugins, like for transporting.
Our plugin was originally meant to extend the theme Genesis Framework, and eventually take over the SEO handling completely.
Now, TSF is a standalone plugin that works with any theme, while still having its roots in Genesis.
Used the SEO of Genesis Framework?
Because this plugin was initially written to extend the Genesis SEO, it uses the same option name values. This makes transferring from Genesis SEO to TSF work automatically.
This applies to posts, pages, custom post types, categories, and tags.
Used another SEO plugin?
Nathan Rice, from StudioPress–developers of Genesis Framework–, created and maintains an awesome plugin to transfer your SEO metadata. It’s titled “SEO Data Transporter”.
Get the SEO Data Transporter plugin
The SEO Data Transporter plugin transfers SEO metadata from popular plugins like Yoast SEO, All in One SEO Pack, and SEO Ultimate. It transfers the most important fields from all posts, pages, and custom post types (like WooCommerce products).
Using the SEO Data Transporter
Before migrating, you should make a database backup. In fact, you should make a daily backup regardless. When using quality hosting, it’s likely your hosting provider has got you covered.
Then, follow the steps below. There’s no need to (de)activate the SEO plugins you’re transferring from or to.
- Install and activate SEO Data Transporter.
- Go to the SEO Data Transporter menu within Tools.
- Select your previous SEO plugin within the first drop-down menu.
- Select Genesis within the second drop-down menu.
- Optionally, click Analyze for extra information about the data transport.
- Click Convert to convert the data.
Data that are transferred
As stated above, the most important fields are carried over from all posts, pages, and custom post types. The following fields are transferred when found:
- Meta titles;
- Meta descriptions;
- Robots meta settings, like “noindex”, “nofollow”, and “noarchive”;
- Custom canonical URLs;
- Custom redirect URLs.
All done!
After you’ve transferred the metadata, be sure to deactivate the other SEO plugin that may prevent conflicts.
Now it’s time to manually adjust categories and tags. These archives often don’t carry a lot of weight in Google Search, so there’s no need to rush this.
Caveats
Because no two plugins are alike, a few minor issues may occur. Luckily, all known issues can be resolved easily with little extra work.
Coming from Yoast SEO? Verify your titles.
Some SEO plugins add the website name to the custom meta title. So, after transferring, look at the SEO Bar for red “T” (Title) sections.
When the tooltip says that the title contains the blog name multiple times, you should remove the duplicated title.
Social metadata isn’t transferred
Less important fields that don’t affect ranking aren’t transferred, like:
- Open Graph metadata;
- Twitter metadata.
However, TSF can fill in these fields “automagically” via its AI.
TSF has unique fields that others don’t have
The SEO Framework also brings various unique fields; they aren’t available in –or act differently from– other SEO plugins. Therefore, these settings can’t be transferred:
- The article type selection brought with our Articles extension;
- The multiple focus keywords brought with our Focus extension;
- Archive exclusion options; they can remove page entries from on-site search results and archives.
How to transfer SEO settings from another SEO plugin
Unfortunately, this isn’t possible. Although all SEO plugins aim for better ranking and beautiful display in the search results, they use different methods for achieving this.
Now, TSF automatically configures its settings for your website. In our other 10-minute guide, you’ll learn how to set up our plugin. You’ll find that there’s little that needs tweaking.