How to Switch from Rank Math to Prime SEO (Step-by-Step)

Rank Math is a solid SEO plugin. Feature-rich, regularly updated, and genuinely useful for traditional search optimization. No argument there.

But here is the thing: traditional search optimization is no longer the only game in town. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Gemini, and Claude now handle a growing share of search queries. Gartner estimates 25% of search volume will shift to AI-powered engines by late 2026. And Rank Math has no tools to manage how AI crawlers see your site.

If you want llms.txt support, AI bots management, and AI crawler statistics alongside your core SEO setup, you need to look elsewhere. Here is how to switch from Rank Math to Prime SEO without losing a single SEO setting.

What Gets Migrated from Rank Math

Before we walk through the steps, here is the full list of data that Prime SEO imports from Rank Math. This covers both the free and Pro versions.

Post and Page Meta

Every piece of per-post SEO data transfers over:

• SEO titles -- your custom title tags for every post and page
• Meta descriptions -- hand-written descriptions you spent time crafting
• Focus keywords -- primary keywords assigned to each piece of content
• Canonical URLs -- custom canonical tags if you have set them
• Robots meta -- noindex and nofollow flags, including Rank Math's advanced robots settings (max-snippet, max-image-preview, max-video-preview)
• Open Graph data -- Facebook title, description, and image
• Twitter Card data -- Twitter-specific title, description, and image
• Primary category -- the primary category assignment for each post
• Cornerstone content -- pillar content flags transfer as cornerstone markers
• Breadcrumb titles -- custom breadcrumb labels

Term Meta

Category and tag SEO data also migrates:

• Term SEO titles and descriptions
• Canonical URLs for terms
• Robots meta (noindex/nofollow) for categories and tags
• Open Graph and Twitter Card data for terms

Redirection Rules

If you are using Rank Math's built-in Redirections module, those rules come over too. Source URLs, target URLs, redirect types (301, 302, 307), and even hit counts. Prime SEO checks for duplicates during import, so you will not end up with conflicting rules.

Settings

Global settings like your homepage title template, meta description template, and title separator also transfer. Rank Math's template variables (like %title% and %sitename%) automatically convert to Prime SEO's format ({title} and {site_title}).

Step-by-Step Migration

The entire process takes about 2 minutes. Here is what to do.

Step 1: Install Prime SEO (Keep Rank Math Active)

Go to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress dashboard and search for "Prime SEO." Click Install, then Activate.

Do not deactivate Rank Math yet. Both plugins can run side by side temporarily. Prime SEO needs Rank Math's data to still be in the database during migration.

Step 2: Go to Prime SEO > Tools > Migration

Once Prime SEO is active, navigate to Prime SEO > Migration in your admin sidebar. The migration page automatically detects installed SEO plugins by scanning your database for their option keys and post meta.

You should see a card for Rank Math showing up with a red accent color. If Rank Math data exists in your database (even if the plugin is deactivated), Prime SEO will find it.

Step 3: Select "Rank Math" as Source

Click the Rank Math card. Prime SEO will scan your database and show you a preview of what will be imported:

• Number of posts with SEO data
• Number of terms (categories/tags) with SEO data
• Number of redirect rules (if you use Rank Math Redirections)

This preview step lets you see exactly how much data will transfer before committing to anything.

Step 4: Click "Start Migration"

Hit the button and watch the progress. Prime SEO processes each post individually, converting Rank Math's meta keys (rank_math_title, rank_math_description, etc.) to Prime SEO's format (_prime_seo_title, _prime_seo_description).

A backup of your current Prime SEO settings is created automatically before any data is written. If something goes wrong, you can restore the backup from the Tools page.

Step 5: Verify Your Data

After migration completes, spot-check 3 to 5 posts. Open them in the editor, scroll down to the Prime SEO metabox, and confirm:

• The SEO title matches what you had in Rank Math
• The meta description transferred correctly
• Focus keyword is present
• Open Graph data looks right

Also check a couple of category or tag pages if you had term-level SEO data in Rank Math.

Step 6: Deactivate Rank Math

Once you have verified the data looks correct, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and deactivate Rank Math. You do not need to delete it immediately -- the data in your database stays regardless.

Step 7: Check Your Site

After deactivating Rank Math, verify a few things on the front end:

• Sitemaps: Visit yoursite.com/sitemap.xml and confirm Prime SEO's sitemap is generating correctly
• Schema markup: View source on a post and search for application/ld+json -- Prime SEO should be outputting structured data
• Redirects: If you migrated redirect rules, test 2-3 of them by visiting the source URLs
• Robots meta: Check a post you marked as noindex -- view source and confirm the meta robots tag is present

What Is Different in Prime SEO vs Rank Math

Switching plugins is not just about data migration. You are also switching workflows. Here is what changes.

What Prime SEO Has That Rank Math Does Not

AI Settings. This is the big one. Prime SEO includes a dedicated AI Settings page with three features you will not find in Rank Math:

• LLMs.txt generator -- creates and maintains llms.txt and llms-full.txt files that help AI models like ChatGPT and Claude understand your site structure. Learn more about llms.txt.
• AI Bots Manager -- gives you granular control over 16 AI crawlers including GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, and others. Allow, block, or rate-limit each one individually.
• AI Crawler Stats -- shows which AI bots visit your site, how often, and which pages they access. Rank Math has no equivalent to this.

Simpler interface. Rank Math packs dozens of options into every settings panel. Prime SEO takes a different approach -- fewer options, less configuration, faster setup. This is deliberate, not a limitation.

Lighter footprint. Prime SEO's total file size is under 2MB. Rank Math Free weighs in around 18MB, and the Pro version is heavier still. Fewer files means faster load times on shared hosting.

What Rank Math Has That Prime SEO Does Not

Built-in keyword rank tracker. Rank Math Pro includes rank tracking. Prime SEO does not. Use Google Search Console instead -- it is free and the data comes directly from Google.

Content AI. Rank Math Pro offers AI-powered content suggestions. Prime SEO PRO includes its own AI Generator ($59/year) for generating SEO titles and meta descriptions, but the feature set is different.

Advanced Schema types. Rank Math supports more schema types out of the box -- Recipe, Event, Course, Product, and so on. Prime SEO covers Article, Organization, Person, and LocalBusiness. More types are coming.

WooCommerce integration. Rank Math has deep WooCommerce SEO integration. Prime SEO works with WooCommerce (meta box, sitemap), but does not have product-specific schema markup yet.

What Works the Same

Both plugins handle the core SEO fundamentals:

• XML Sitemaps with post type and taxonomy control
• Meta box in the post editor with title/description fields
• Open Graph and Twitter Card output
• Robots.txt editor
• Redirect management
• 404 monitoring
• Breadcrumbs
• Instant Indexing (IndexNow API)

Common Concerns

"Will I lose my Google rankings?"

No. Your meta tags -- the data Google actually uses for ranking -- transfer identically. The title tag and meta description on every post and page will be the same after migration as they were before. Google does not care which plugin generates the HTML. It cares about what the HTML says.

"What about Rank Math's schema markup?"

Rank Math's schema is stored as post meta (rank_math_schema_Article, rank_math_rich_snippet). Prime SEO reads the schema type during migration and maps it to its own schema output. For Article schema, which covers most blog content, the transition is seamless. Prime SEO auto-generates Article + Organization JSON-LD on every post.

"What about my redirect rules?"

Prime SEO has its own Redirects module with a dedicated admin page. All Rank Math redirect rules -- source URL, target URL, redirect type (301/302/307), and hit counts -- transfer directly. You can manage them from Prime SEO > Redirects after migration.

"Can I go back to Rank Math?"

Yes. Prime SEO creates an automatic backup before migration. Your original Rank Math data stays in the database untouched. If you decide Prime SEO is not for you, just reactivate Rank Math and deactivate Prime SEO. Nothing is deleted.

Post-Migration Checklist

Run through this after you have deactivated Rank Math:

• SEO titles appear correctly on 3+ posts (view source, check <title> tag)
• Meta descriptions are present in <meta name="description"> tags
• XML sitemap loads at yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
• Schema markup outputs correctly (check with Google Rich Results Test)
• Redirect rules are working (test 2-3 redirects manually)
• Open Graph tags display when sharing a URL on Facebook or Twitter
• Robots.txt is accessible at yoursite.com/robots.txt
• No PHP errors in your site's error log

If everything checks out, you are done. The migration is complete.

What to Set Up Next

Now that you have moved your existing SEO data, take advantage of the features Rank Math did not have:

1. Set up LLMs.txt -- go to Prime SEO > AI Settings and generate your llms.txt file. Step-by-step guide.
2. Configure AI Bots Manager -- decide which AI crawlers can access your content.
3. Check AI Crawler Stats -- after a few days, see which AI bots are actually visiting your site.
4. Enable Instant Indexing -- submit your most important URLs to IndexNow for faster discovery.

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FAQ

Does migrating from Rank Math to Prime SEO affect my Google rankings?

No. The migration transfers your exact SEO titles, meta descriptions, canonical URLs, and robots meta. Google sees the same HTML output before and after the switch. Rankings depend on what is in the HTML, not which plugin generates it.

Can I keep both Rank Math and Prime SEO active at the same time?

Only temporarily, during migration. Running two SEO plugins simultaneously can cause duplicate meta tags, conflicting sitemaps, and double schema markup. Complete the migration, verify your data, then deactivate Rank Math.

Does Prime SEO import Rank Math's schema settings?

Prime SEO reads Rank Math's schema type assignments (rank_math_rich_snippet) and maps them to its own schema output. Article schema transfers seamlessly. For other schema types like Product or Recipe, you may need to configure them manually after migration.

What happens to my Rank Math data after I deactivate it?

Nothing. Rank Math's data stays in your WordPress database (rank_math_title, rank_math_description, etc.) even after deactivation. If you ever want to switch back, just reactivate Rank Math. Prime SEO does not delete any third-party plugin data.

Is there anything Rank Math does that Prime SEO cannot replace?

Rank Math Pro's keyword rank tracker and Content AI features do not have direct equivalents in Prime SEO Free. For rank tracking, use Google Search Console. For AI content assistance, Prime SEO PRO includes an AI Generator for titles and descriptions. The main feature Prime SEO adds that Rank Math lacks entirely is AI search optimization -- llms.txt, AI Bots Manager, and AI Crawler Stats.