Migration Guide

Import your SEO data from Yoast SEO, Rank Math, AIOSEO, or SEOPress with one click.

On this page

Overview

Switching to Prime SEO from another SEO plugin? The built-in Migration Tool imports your existing SEO data so you don't lose any optimization work. All titles, meta descriptions, focus keywords, and other SEO data are preserved.

Navigate to Prime SEO → Migration (visible only when SEO data from another plugin is detected).

Supported Plugins

Plugin Detected By Supported Versions
Yoast SEO _yoast_wpseo_ meta keys All versions
Rank Math rank_math_ meta keys All versions
All in One SEO _aioseo_ meta keys All versions
SEOPress _seopress_ meta keys All versions

Prime SEO automatically detects if you have SEO data from any of these plugins in your database, even if the plugin is no longer installed.

What Gets Imported

Data Description
SEO Title Custom page/post titles
Meta Description Custom meta descriptions
Focus Keyword Primary keyword for each post
Canonical URL Custom canonical URLs
Noindex Pages marked as noindex
Nofollow Pages marked as nofollow
Open Graph OG title, description, image
Twitter Card Twitter-specific meta data
Note
Migration imports post/page-level SEO data. Plugin-wide settings (like sitemap configuration or redirect rules) need to be reconfigured manually in Prime SEO.

How to Migrate

Install and activate Prime SEO Keep your old SEO plugin active or deactivated — either works. Prime SEO can detect data regardless of the source plugin's status.
Navigate to Prime SEO → Migration This page appears automatically when SEO data from a supported plugin is detected in your database.
Select the source plugin Choose the plugin you want to import data from. If multiple plugins are detected, you can select any one of them.
Click "Start Migration" The migration process begins immediately. A progress bar shows the current status as data is imported.
Wait for the process to complete The duration depends on how many posts and pages you have. Most sites complete in under a minute.
Review the results summary After completion, you'll see a summary showing how many items were imported, skipped, or had issues.
Warning
Always create a database backup before migrating. While the migration tool is safe and doesn't delete source data, a backup is always good practice.

After Migration

After migration is complete, follow these steps to ensure everything transferred correctly:

  • Verify key pages — check a few important pages to confirm titles and descriptions were imported correctly
  • Check noindex settings — ensure pages that were marked as noindex retained that setting
  • Deactivate your old SEO plugin — if not already done, deactivate it to avoid duplicate meta tags on your pages
  • Review Prime SEO settings — go to Prime SEO → Settings to configure module-level features like sitemaps, schema, and redirects
Tip
Prime SEO will detect if another SEO plugin is active and show a conflict notice. It's safe to run both temporarily during migration, but deactivate the old plugin afterward.

Troubleshooting

Migration option not visible

The Migration page only appears when Prime SEO detects SEO data from a supported plugin in your database. If you don't see it, the old plugin's data may have been cleaned up or removed during uninstallation.

Some data missing after migration

Check that the source plugin used standard meta keys. Some premium addons or custom configurations store data in non-standard formats that may not be recognized by the migration tool. In these cases, you can manually set the SEO data using the Prime SEO metabox on each post or page.

Duplicate meta tags

This happens when both SEO plugins are active simultaneously. Each plugin outputs its own set of meta tags, resulting in duplicates. The solution is simple: deactivate the old SEO plugin after migration is complete.

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