When you’ve used another SEO plugin, switching SEO plugins may seem like a daunting task. After all, you’ve spent a lot of time setting up all your titles, descriptions, and other metadata using the other plugin.
Switching to The SEO Framework (TSF) is easy. Migrating your data should take no longer than a few minutes for most websites.
Still, TSF generates metadata automagically via symbolic and logical interpretation (AI). Hence, migration is necessary only when you wish to retain your custom SEO work. Particularly if the site you manage has only a few pages, we suggest not to bother migrating the SEO data. Instead, we recommend starting fresh with The SEO Framework and follow our plugin setup guide.
How to transfer SEO metadata from another SEO plugin
TSF uses the WordPress Metadata API. This robust API allows plugins and themes to read, change, and delete post and term metadata.
Used another SEO plugin?
We developed a free extension called Transport. It can migrate SEO metadata from Yoast SEO and Rank Math by moving all recognized fields from every post, page, attachment, custom post type (like WooCommerce products), category, tag, and custom term (like WooCommerce product tags).
We bundle Transport with our free Extension Manager plugin.
Using Transporter
Before migrating, you should make a database backup. To be clear, you should make a daily backup regardless. If you use quality hosting, your hosting provider will likely handle this for you.
After you’ve made a backup, follow the steps below. There’s no need to (de)activate the SEO plugins you’re transferring from.
- Install and activate Extension Manager.
- On the connection screen, select “Save a few bucks.”
- Activate the Transport extension.
- Hit the “Settings” link that appeared in the extension card, or refresh the page and go to “SEO > Transport” in the admin sidebar.
- At “Importer,” select the plugin from which you wish to transport.
- Hit “Import” to migrate the metadata.
Data that are transferred
Transport transforms and migrates meta titles, descriptions, robot directives (noindex, nofollow, etc.), canonical URLs, and social metadata. Transport also cleans up the database of useless metadata; this cleanup improves the performance of your website. When migrating, you can follow the progress in real-time on your screen.
- Learn more about transforming;
- View what data is transported from Yoast SEO;
- View what data is transported from Rank Math.
- View what data is transported from SEOPress.
Migration support for “All In One SEO Pack” (AIOSEO) is underway.
All done!
After you’ve transferred the metadata, be sure to deactivate the old SEO plugin to prevent conflicts.
Caveats
Because no two plugins are alike, a few minor issues may occur. Luckily, all known issues can be resolved quickly with little extra work.
Coming from Yoast SEO or Rank Math? 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.
You should update the title manually when the tooltip says that the title contains the blog name multiple times or that untransformed markup syntax is found.
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, you can’t transfer the following settings:
- The article type selection brought with our Articles extension;
- The multiple focus keywords brought with our Focus extension;
- Archive exclusion options that can remove page entries from on-site search results and archives.
Used Genesis Framework SEO settings?
We initially built TSF to extend the Genesis Framework theme’s SEO features with automated descriptions (hence the plugin name is “autodescription”); therefore, TSF uses Genesis Framework’s metadata names. So, if you used Genesis Framework’s SEO features, transferring to TSF works automatically.
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.
TSF automatically configures its settings for your website. In our following 5-minute guide, you’ll learn how to manage the plugin’s settings and find that little needs tweaking.