A free alternative to Rank Math PRO.

When Rank Math’s free version isn’t quite enough

Rank Math’s free plugin covers a lot. It has a redirect manager, multiple focus keywords, schema and a solid set of on-page checks, so many sites never need to upgrade. People usually start looking at Rank Math PRO for one of a few reasons: they publish news or video and need the dedicated sitemaps, they run a business with more than one location, they sell products and want identifiers such as GTIN in their schema, or they want the analytics and rank tracking PRO adds.

Rilea SEO covers the first three for free, with no plan to buy and no limit on where you use it. It doesn’t replace the analytics and rank tracking. This page explains each PRO feature people upgrade for, how Rilea SEO handles it, and where Rank Math PRO is still the better fit.

The licensing question

Before features, it’s worth understanding the licence. Rank Math PRO covers unlimited websites you own, but client websites are excluded. If you build or manage sites for clients and want PRO features on those sites, Rank Math’s Business or Agency plan is required. Those plans cost more and come with site limits.

For agencies, that’s often the deciding factor. A freelancer with a handful of clients can find that the only Rank Math plan that fits their situation costs several times more than PRO. Rilea SEO is released under the GPL. There’s no licence key, no site count and no difference between your own sites and your clients’ sites.

News sitemap

If you publish news and want to appear in Google News, a dedicated news sitemap helps Google find your latest articles quickly. Rank Math keeps its news sitemap for PRO.

Rilea SEO includes a Google News sitemap for free. You turn it on in Rilea SEO, then Settings, then Sitemaps, set your publication name and choose which post types count as news. The sitemap lists your recent articles at /news-sitemap.xml, and Rilea SEO also offers the NewsArticle schema type for individual posts.

Video sitemap

Sites that embed video can help search engines find and understand it with a video sitemap. Rank Math’s video sitemap is a PRO feature. Rilea SEO includes one for free, and it detects YouTube, Vimeo and self-hosted video in your posts automatically. Turn it on in the same Sitemaps tab, and it appears at /video-sitemap.xml. Individual posts can use the Video schema type with a thumbnail, title, description and duration.

Multiple locations

Rank Math’s free version handles local SEO for a single business. For a business with several branches, offices or stores, the multiple-locations feature needs PRO.

Rilea SEO supports your main business and unlimited extra locations for free. Each location has its own address, phone number, opening hours, service area and LocalBusiness schema, and can have its own public page under a URL slug you choose. Shortcodes display an address, opening hours, a map or a list of all locations anywhere on your site, and Rilea SEO generates a KML file and a locations sitemap so search engines can find every branch.

GTIN and product identifiers

Google uses product identifiers such as GTIN to match your products to the exact items shoppers are searching for. Rank Math’s free WooCommerce features cover a lot, but including GTIN in product schema is part of PRO.

Rilea SEO adds brand, GTIN and MPN fields to every WooCommerce product for free and includes them in full Product schema, alongside one offer per variant, reviews, shipping and returns. Hidden products are set to noindex automatically. On Shopify, Rilea SEO’s app reads GTINs from variant barcodes.

Unlimited keywords

Rank Math’s free version allows up to five focus keywords per post, and PRO allows unlimited keywords. Rilea SEO allows a focus keyphrase, up to four related keyphrases and synonyms, matched across word forms. That’s the same number of distinct phrases as Rank Math free, with synonyms on top, which is enough for nearly every page. If you genuinely need more than five phrases on one page, that’s a sign the page may be trying to cover too many topics.

What Rilea SEO doesn’t replace

Rank Math PRO includes several things that aren’t on-page SEO, and Rilea SEO doesn’t have them:

• Keyword rank tracker. Rank Math PRO tracks your rankings for chosen keywords. Rilea SEO has no rank tracker, so you’d use a separate tool.
• Advanced analytics. Rank Math connects to Google Search Console and Analytics and shows the data inside WordPress, with more detail in PRO. Rilea SEO doesn’t show this data, so you’d use Search Console and Google Analytics directly.
• Content AI. Rank Math offers AI writing help in its paid plans. Rilea SEO has no AI tools.

If those are the reasons you’d pay for PRO, Rilea SEO isn’t a substitute for them. Many people already use Search Console directly and a dedicated rank tracker, though, and only need PRO for the on-page features above.

Features you get on top

Alongside the PRO features, Rilea SEO includes tools that help on any site:

• IndexNow, to notify participating search engines when content changes
• A 404 monitor with one-click redirects
• Internal link suggestions, a link counter and an orphaned content report
• An inclusive-language check alongside the readability analysis
• A bulk editor, SEO Analyzer and role manager for running larger sites
• A free Shopify app, where Rank Math has no official Shopify app at all

Moving from Rank Math

Switching is quick and doesn’t change Rank Math’s data:

1. Install and activate Rilea SEO alongside Rank Math.
2. Go to Rilea SEO, then Tools, and click Import from Rank Math. Titles, descriptions, focus keywords, robots settings, canonical URLs, social data, cornerstone flags, primary categories, category and tag settings, redirects and main settings come across.
3. Deactivate Rank Math, then save your permalinks once.
4. Turn on the features you used PRO for: the news or video sitemap, your locations, or the WooCommerce identifiers.
5. Check a few pages and your redirects, and resubmit your sitemap in Google Search Console.

Your sitemap address stays at /sitemap_index.xml. Your Search Console and Analytics data stay in your Google account, so you can keep using them directly. The import guide explains each step.

Is Rilea SEO the right PRO alternative for you?

Yes, if you’d upgrade to Rank Math PRO mainly for news or video sitemaps, multiple locations or GTIN in product schema, and especially if you’d need those on client sites.

Not yet, if you rely on Rank Math’s rank tracker, its analytics inside WordPress or Content AI, or if you publish mainly in a language other than English, where Rank Math’s analysis is more mature than Rilea SEO’s English-focused readability checks.

Either way, trying Rilea SEO costs nothing. Import your data on one site, run it for a week, and compare. Rank Math’s data stays untouched, so switching back is just a matter of reactivating it.

Setting up the PRO-equivalent features

Once Rilea SEO is installed, each of the features above takes a minute or two to turn on.

News sitemap

Go to Rilea SEO, then Settings, then Sitemaps. Turn on the Google News sitemap, enter your publication name exactly as it appears in Google News, and choose the post types that hold your news articles.

Video sitemap

In the same Sitemaps tab, turn on the video sitemap. Rilea SEO scans your posts for YouTube, Vimeo and self-hosted video and lists them automatically. For more detail on a particular video, choose the Video schema type in that post’s Rilea SEO panel.

Multiple locations

Go to Rilea SEO, then Settings, then Local SEO. Add your main business first, then each extra location with its own address, phone number and hours. If you want each location to have its own page, turn that on and choose a URL slug. Then add the locations shortcode to a page that lists them.

GTIN and product identifiers

Open any WooCommerce product, find the Rilea SEO panel and fill in the brand, GTIN and MPN. For shipping and returns details in your product schema, go to Rilea SEO, then Settings, then WooCommerce, and add your shipping country, rate and return window.

An example: an agency with 20 clients

Picture an agency that manages 20 client sites. Three are news sites, five are local businesses with several branches, and four are WooCommerce stores. On Rank Math, the free version covers the basics on all 20, but the news sitemaps, multiple locations and GTIN schema those twelve sites need are PRO features, and PRO can’t be used on client sites. The agency would need a Business plan, renewed every year, and would have to watch its site limit as it takes on new clients.

With Rilea SEO, those twelve sites get the same features for free, and so do the other eight. When the agency signs a 21st client, it installs the same plugin. When a client leaves, their site keeps every feature it had, and the agency doesn’t need to move or deactivate a licence.

Common questions

Does Rilea SEO work alongside Rank Math?

Only during the import. After that, deactivate Rank Math, because two SEO plugins print two sets of titles, meta tags and schema.

Will my Rank Math schema carry over?

Your site-wide settings, such as whether the site represents an organization or a person, come across with the import. Rilea SEO then builds its own schema for each page from your content and settings, so check a few key pages in Google’s Rich Results Test after switching, and set any custom schema types you need in the Rilea SEO panel.

Are there limits on locations, products or sites?

No. Rilea SEO doesn’t limit the number of locations, products, redirects or sites. The practical limits are your hosting and how many items you want to edit by hand, which is where the bulk editor helps.