Install Rilea SEO for WordPress.

Before you install

A few minutes of preparation makes the install smooth.

• Check your versions. Rilea SEO needs WordPress 6.0 or later and PHP 7.4 or later. You’ll find your WordPress version under Dashboard, then Updates, and your PHP version under Tools, then Site Health, then Info, in the Server section.
• Take a backup. Most hosts offer one-click backups, and backup plugins work too. You’re unlikely to need it, but it’s good practice before changing any plugin that affects every page.
• Note your current SEO plugin. If you use Yoast SEO or Rank Math, keep it active for now. Rilea SEO’s importer will copy its data before you switch it off.
• Check your role. You need an administrator account to install plugins.
• Clear some time. The install takes a couple of minutes, but allow half an hour if you want to check your settings and a few pages properly afterwards.

Installing the plugin

Upload through the dashboard

This is the easiest method and works on almost every host.

1. Download the Rilea SEO for WordPress zip file. Don’t unzip it.
2. In WordPress, go to Plugins, then Add New, then click Upload Plugin at the top of the screen.
3. Click Choose File, select the zip, then click Install Now.
4. When WordPress says the plugin was installed, click Activate Plugin.

A Rilea SEO menu now appears in your admin sidebar.

Upload by FTP or file manager

If your host limits upload sizes, or the dashboard upload fails, install the plugin manually.

1. Unzip the download on your computer. You’ll get a folder called rilea.
2. Using FTP or your host’s file manager, upload the rilea folder into wp-content/plugins on your server.
3. In WordPress, go to Plugins and click Activate under Rilea SEO.

Updating an existing installation

To install a newer version over an older one, upload the new zip under Plugins, then Add New, then Upload Plugin. WordPress will tell you the plugin is already installed and show the current and uploaded versions. Click Replace current with uploaded. Your settings and SEO data are kept.

Bringing your data across

If you used Yoast SEO or Rank Math before, import your data now, while the old plugin is still active.

1. Go to Rilea SEO, then Tools.
2. Click Import from Yoast SEO or Import from Rank Math.
3. Wait for the import to finish.
4. Go to Plugins and deactivate your old SEO plugin. Leave it installed until you’ve checked everything.

The importer copies titles, descriptions, keyphrases, robots settings, canonical URLs, social data, cornerstone flags, primary categories, category and tag settings, redirects and main settings. It doesn’t change the old plugin’s data. The import guide covers the details.

Refresh your permalinks

Go to Settings, then Permalinks, and click Save Changes without changing anything. This refreshes WordPress’s URL rules so that your sitemap at /sitemap_index.xml and other Rilea SEO URLs work. It takes a second and prevents the most common post-install problem.

Configure the essentials

Rilea SEO’s defaults suit most sites, but a few settings are worth checking straight away. All of them are under Rilea SEO, then Settings.

General

• Title separator. The character between your page title and site name, such as a dash or a vertical bar.
• Analysis. Keyphrase, readability and inclusive-language analysis are on by default. Leave them on unless you have a reason not to.
• Clean-up options. Consider redirecting attachment pages to their parent post, and setting empty category and tag archives to noindex.
• Webmaster verification. Paste the verification codes from Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. You can paste just the code.

Titles & Meta

Check the title and description templates for posts, pages and any custom post types. A common pattern is the post title, the separator and the site name. Set a homepage title and description that describe your site clearly, and decide whether author and date archives should be indexed. On single-author sites, author archives usually duplicate the blog and can be turned off.

Social

Upload a default share image, ideally 1200 by 630 pixels, for pages that don’t have their own. Add your X username if you have one.

Schema

Choose whether your site represents an organization or a person, enter the name, upload a logo or photo, and add your social profile URLs, one per line. Check the default schema type for posts, pages and products.

Sitemaps

Confirm sitemaps are enabled, and leave out any post types or taxonomies you don’t want in search results. Turn on the news or video sitemap if they apply to your site.

Redirects & 404 and IndexNow

Make sure the redirect manager and automatic 301s are on, and turn on 404 logging. Then turn on IndexNow for the post types you publish.

Local SEO and WooCommerce

If you’re a local business, add your business details and locations. If you run WooCommerce, add your shipping country, rate and return window.

Check that it’s working

Open your homepage in a private browser window, view the page source and look for:

• One title tag with the title you expect
• One meta description
• One canonical tag
• Open Graph tags
• One JSON-LD script containing your organization or person, website and page

Then open yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml and check it lists your sitemaps. Finally, run your homepage through Google’s Rich Results Test.

If you see two titles or two schema blocks, another plugin or your theme is still printing its own. Turn that off.

Submit your sitemap

In Google Search Console, open your property, go to Sitemaps, enter sitemap_index.xml and click Submit. In Bing Webmaster Tools, submit the full sitemap URL. You only need to do this once; search engines will check it regularly after that. The sitemaps guide has more detail.

Optimise your first post

Open a post you want to rank and scroll to the Rilea SEO panel:

1. Enter a focus keyphrase, the search you want the post to appear for.
2. Add related keyphrases and synonyms if the post covers close variations.
3. Work through the SEO checks, starting with the title, description and introduction.
4. Check the readability results and break up any long paragraphs.
5. Look at the Google preview on desktop and mobile, and adjust the title and description so they fit.
6. Add internal links from the suggestions.
7. Update the post.

Once you’ve done this for a few of your most important pages, mark them as cornerstone content so they get more internal links over time.

Recommended settings by type of site

A blog

Use Article or BlogPosting as the default schema for posts. Include posts and categories in the sitemap, and consider leaving tags out if most tags have only one or two posts. Turn on IndexNow for posts. Mark your main guides as cornerstone content.

A business website

Use WebPage for pages and Service for service pages. Add your business details in Local SEO, even if you have only one location, so your address and opening hours appear in your schema. Add the address and hours shortcodes to your contact page.

An online store

Make sure products use the Product schema type. Add shipping and returns in the WooCommerce settings, and fill in the brand and GTIN for your best-selling products. Include products and product categories in the sitemap, and turn on image SEO so product images get alt text.

A news site

Turn on the Google News sitemap with your publication name, use NewsArticle for news posts, and turn on IndexNow so new stories reach search engines quickly.

Installing on a staging site first

On a busy or business-critical site, it’s worth installing Rilea SEO on a staging copy first. Run the importer there, check your pages and sitemap, and get your settings the way you want them. Then back up the settings from Rilea SEO, then Tools, install Rilea SEO on the live site, run the importer again, and restore your settings. That way the live site goes straight to a configuration you’ve already checked.

Remember that staging sites are usually set to discourage search engines. Don’t copy that setting to your live site.

If you need to switch back

The importer never changes your old plugin’s data, so going back is simple: deactivate Rilea SEO, reactivate your old plugin and clear your caches. Any SEO changes you made in Rilea SEO in the meantime won’t carry across, so note them first if you want to keep them.

Next steps

With Rilea SEO installed and configured, these guides help you go further:

• Import from Yoast SEO or Rank Math for the details of moving your data
• Set up and submit your sitemaps for news, video and locations sitemaps and IndexNow
• Redirects and 404s for managing moved and missing pages
• Content analysis for getting the most from the checks in the editor
• Support and FAQ if anything doesn’t work as expected

A quick tour of the Rilea SEO menu

After activation, the Rilea SEO menu in your admin sidebar holds everything the plugin does:

• Settings. Site-wide options, organised in tabs: General, Titles & Meta, Social, Schema, Sitemaps, Breadcrumbs, Local SEO, WooCommerce, Image SEO, Redirects & 404, IndexNow and Role Manager.
• Dashboard. An overview of your site’s SEO, with a summary widget on the main WordPress dashboard too.
• Redirects. Add, edit and import redirects, and see how often each is used.
• 404 Monitor. Missing URLs visitors have requested, with one-click redirects.
• Bulk Editor. Edit SEO titles and descriptions for many posts on one screen.
• Link Insights. Link counts for every post and the orphaned content report.
• SEO Analyzer. Audit any URL, on your site or someone else’s.
• Tools. Import from Yoast SEO or Rank Math, export keyphrases, and back up or restore settings.

You don’t need to visit all of them on day one. Settings and Tools cover the setup; the rest are there for ongoing work.

Giving your team access

If other people edit your site, open Rilea SEO, then Settings, then Role Manager, and decide which WordPress roles can change site-wide settings, manage redirects and edit SEO fields on posts. A common setup lets editors and authors work on their own posts’ titles, descriptions and keyphrases, while only administrators change templates, sitemaps and redirects. That keeps everyday optimisation in your writers’ hands without risking a site-wide change by accident.