Earlier this year, I got a chance to speak with Bhanu Ahluwalia from Rank Math about this fast-growing SEO plugin for WordPress. I was interested in learning more about what makes Rank Math unique and what it provides its users.
Learn more in our interview below.
Q. How did the idea for Rank Math come about?
Back in 2015 – at a time when we had already been running MyThemeShop and various other sites, we found that none of the SEO plugins available on the market were truly complete solutions that had everything that we as well as other WordPress users needed.
So, since we had the capacity to do so and saw the potential benefit purely for our own internal use, we decided to start building it as a solution to be used internally. Just over three and a half years after we had been developing it to be used in-house, the demand for us to release the plugin was quickly growing.
We eventually decided to do so in late 2018. And, ever since, we’ve been incredibly grateful for how well-received it has been by the community, having recently surpassed 1M+ active installations.
Q. Rank Math has been getting a lot of traction recently. Why do you think it’s superior to other familiar SEO plugins such as Yoast or All In One SEO?
Great question! And a very reasonable one given that we get a lot of users switching over from these plugins to us every single day & being beyond excited about making the switch.
Firstly, I’d say that purely by virtue of the fact that we came onto the market later, going through the process of solving issues for user stories from scratch (with a fresh set of eyes) and then subsequently launching in a competitive market to a user-base that we knew wouldn’t necessarily be interested in making a change from something that “already works”, really forced us to not only push the mark on a lot of new functionality that SEO plugins hadn’t previously thought to include (many of which they now also do) but also to rethink the way foundational features were previously implemented.
A great example of this is our workflow improvements powered by integrations with various page builders including Elementor and also Divi. This, of course, is taken even further with the recent launch of Content AI with tons more to come on that front, specifically the way our Advanced Schema Markup generator in Rank Math PRO works to serve even the most complex of use-cases as opposed to just simple setups.
Q. How does Rank Math help content writers in their day-to-day tasks?
Rank Math simplifies the process of optimizing content for search and ensuring that you’re well on track to satisfy search intent with the help of our Content AI functionality. This provides suggestions tailored to the specific focus keyword entered and content that is currently ranking for that keyword.
Q. What are some of the best features that Rank Math offers for site-wide SEO?
In terms of settings that Rank Math is able to apply site-wide, we’d say that what stands out is that we put a lot more of the control into the hands of the user all while pre-configuring the settings. These standard settings are what we recommend for most setups.
However, as people are guided through our installation & setup wizard, they’re able to quickly review a lot of the site-wide settings. Users have the ability to select the settings that align with what they want for their site.
Q. What are some of the most compatible plugins that work seamlessly with Rank Math?
Rank Math works well with virtually all WordPress plugins, but if we’d have to highlight the compatibility of any plugins specifically, it would definitely have to be the page builder integrations that we have with Elementor, Divi, and others (more to come on this front soon too).
Q. Is it easy to migrate your website from another SEO plugin to Rank Math?
Definitely!
We doubt anyone would want to undertake switching something if there’s a chance it could go wrong. Our team has made it incredibly easy to migrate all of your data over to Rank Math (so that you can confidently do so before removing your old SEO plugin).
And, in the unlikely event that you run into absolutely any issues – our 24/7 support team is standing by to step in and help.
Q. Does Rank Math slow down your site speed?
Absolutely not.
Rank Math was built from the ground up with performance in mind. After introducing new features – we consistently dedicate development time to rethinking any part of our implementation that can be improved in any way to improve performance even further.
Q. How does the Rank Math-Google Search Console integration work?
Rank Math’s Google Search Console integration allows you to connect your Google Search Console properties to pull that data into Rank Math’s Analytics module (in your WordPress installation) and pull out actionable insights.
The connection also makes it possible to automatically submit sitemaps to Google.
Q. What’s included in the Premium version of the plugin?
Upgrading to one of our paid plans comes with a range of benefits including:
- Keyword rank tracking,
- Access to the most advanced Schema Markup generator,
- Better ways to track the performance of your content,
- The all-new Content AI,
- and more!
Q. What’s next for Rank Math?
We’ve only just recently rolled out our Content AI functionality, and have big plans for the future of that area of the product largely as a result of how closely it relates to our ability to help people get better results from their efforts.
And beyond that, we always have a lot in the pipeline that I’d love to share now but is too early – so, stay tuned!
