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Switch from Yoast SEO to OnlyAI SEO, step by step

How to move your titles, descriptions, focus keywords and settings from Yoast SEO to OnlyAI SEO safely: what carries over, what does not, and the order to do it in.

You can move from Yoast SEO without losing anything and without a risky "big switch". OnlyAI SEO reads Yoast SEO's saved data directly, shows you a preview, and only writes when you say so. Yoast keeps its data in your posts' custom fields, so the old plugin does not even have to stay active for the import to work.

Before you start

• Take a backup. Nothing in this guide should hurt, but a backup makes it a calm job.
• Leave Yoast SEO active for now. OnlyAI SEO can run beside it: it scores your posts straight away, and it prints title and description tags only once the other SEO plugin is switched off, so nothing is printed twice.
• Write down anything you set by hand that is not a title or description: redirects, custom schema, category or tag SEO settings. Those are not copied (see below).

Step 1: install OnlyAI SEO

1. Download the plugin from the home page.
2. In WordPress open Plugins, Add New, Upload Plugin, choose the zip, press Install Now, then Activate.
3. The setup guide opens. You can follow it now or skip it; the import is available either way.

Step 2: preview the import

1. Open OnlyAI SEO, Settings, Import.
2. Pick Yoast SEO and press Preview.
3. Read the list. It shows, post by post, what would be copied. Nothing is written yet.

What is copied: each post's SEO title, meta description, focus keyword, noindex and nofollow flags, canonical URL and social card. Extra keywords are copied too where the other plugin has them. What is never overwritten: a field you have already filled in in OnlyAI SEO.

Step 3: import

When the preview looks right, press Import. On a big site you can do the same with WP-CLI: wp onlyai-seo import yoast --dry-run first, then the same command without --dry-run.

Step 4: bring your redirects

If you use Yoast SEO Premium and have redirects there, open OnlyAI SEO, Redirects. A button for Yoast SEO Premium appears; one click copies the rules with the same checks as one you type (no loops, no chains). Yoast keeps its own copy. Rules that depend on login, browser or referrer are skipped and listed, and rules that were switched off arrive paused. Without Premium, there are no Yoast redirects to move.

Step 5: switch the old plugin off

1. Check three or four posts in OnlyAI SEO's sidebar: the SEO title, description and focus keyword should be there.
2. Open Plugins and deactivate Yoast SEO (do not delete it yet).
3. Open your home page and one post, choose View source in your browser and look for <title> and <meta name="description". Each should appear once.
4. Open /sitemap_index.xml on your site. It should load. If your old plugin built a sitemap, submit the new address in Google Search Console (Sitemaps).
5. Wait a few days. If everything is as it should be, you can delete Yoast SEO.

What is not copied

• Structured data you set up by hand. OnlyAI SEO prints its own Article, FAQ and breadcrumb data and has rich-result panels for the rest. Set them up again where you need them.
• Category and tag SEO settings. Open a category or tag's edit screen: OnlyAI SEO has its own SEO title, description and "hide from search results" box there.
• Settings of the old plugin's own modules (local SEO, social profiles, sitemaps on or off). Set these in Identity & business and Titles & social.

If something looks wrong

• Titles look different from before. Your post's own SEO title always wins; a template only fills in where there is none. Check Settings, Titles & social.
• Two titles or descriptions in the page source. Yoast SEO is still active, or a cache is serving an old page. Clear the cache and check again.
• A post has no keyword after the import. The old plugin had none saved for it. Add one in the editor sidebar, or let 1-click SEO suggest one.