Improved: Set attachments to noindex after importing settings from Yoast and if the Redirection Attachment option was set to on
Improved: Renamed ‘Media’ tab in the Sitemap settings to ‘Attachments’
Improved: Compatibility with WordPress 4.9 and the users will see a notice in the backend requesting them to update their WordPress to the latest version if someone wants to use the future releases of Rank Math (they might not be compatible)
Improved: Product In Stock value in the Product Schema shortcode will now show Available or Not Available instead of a boolean value
Improved: Enhanced security in some places in the plugin
Replaced: A third-party useragent checking API in the advanced 404 Monitor with a native library
Removed: Missing description tag HTML comment notice from the frontend for admins
Fixed: The status of Elementor’s update button was not updating in some cases which were causing confusion
Fixed: An issue where the AMP plugin by Google was throwing errors for admin-related scripts. Even though it was working fine on the frontend
Fixed: Block Styling was not loading in the backend with the Gutenberg v8.4+ Plugin
Fixed: An issue where using a spacebar while adding a meta description was throwing the cursor to the end of the description entered
Fixed: Compatibility with the Duplicate Post plugin
Fixed: Getting an invalid argument supplied error in class-cmb2.php file on some installations
Fixed: Russian focus keywords were not getting detected in the URL in Rank Math’s tests
Fixed: An error was generating in the backend when the post thumbnail image was removed from the media folder
Fixed: In some cases, invalid was getting added to the Focus Keyword field after updating the post
Fixed: Guided Recipe Schema was throwing an invalid value in the field itemtype when a HowtoSection value was added
Fixed: A PHP warning for missing constant if WordPress version requirement was not met
v1.0.44.1 June 17, 2020
Added: In the WPML config file, added Breadcrumb’s homepage link option
Improved: Hardened security further. Props to Tanner Hodges
Fixed: An issue with the Recipe Schema where the Recipe Instructions field was not respecting the line breaks upon saving a post
Fixed: The Primary Category feature was not working properly when someone changed the default category in the WooCommerce
Fixed: The TOC test was failing on multisite installations when a plugin was activated on the entire network
Fixed: A problem where the custom rewrites were not displaying correctly inside the Canonical URL field in the backend. Though, it was working fine for the search engines
Removed: The sourceMap comments from the CSS files so users won’t get 404 warnings on their site
v1.0.44 June 12, 2020
Added: [NEW!] Added Social share buttons in the Gutenberg publish flow, now you will see the share buttons after publishing the post
Added: Title attribute for the sidebar tabs for better usability
Added: Full compatibility with the WPML plugin [WPML String Translation Plugin is required]
Added: Some missing strings in the translation file
Improved: The variable Product Schema output by replacing Offer with AggregateOffer
Improved: Made the registration step simpler to understand as to why a FREE account is needed and the benefits
Improved: The new UI’s checkbox styling was getting applied in the Classic Editor’s sidebar
Improved: We’ve tinkered with the internal workings and polished some rough edges. The plugin is now better & secure than it was
Removed: The usage tracking option is not needed as the data received was not stored on the servers or utilized
Removed: Unused JS files
Fixed: Option to set custom data in Twitter’s social tab was not working in the Classic Editor
Fixed: The Gutenberg editor was incorrectly displaying the Icon Overlay in the Social preview when the overlay option value was set to off. This was not affecting the frontend output
Fixed: Redirections were not working from the advanced tab of the category/term edit page
Fixed: The URL preview in the Classic Editor was incorrect for languages like Arabic but the output, for the search engines, was correct
Fixed: An issue with the Members plugin where the general settings were not accessible when creating a new role using that plugin
v1.0.43.1 May 29, 2020
Added: Check for the MBstring PHP extension in the Setup Wizard
Improved: Right to Left(RTL) language support with the new design
Fixed: Synced the SEO Score’s color in the posts’ list view with the single post editor view
Fixed: A PHP warning showing up on some installations related to WP_Screen
Fixed: A fatal error occurring on some sites where translation plugins like TranslatePress, Polylang, WPML, etc. were used
Fixed: openssl_decrypt error showing on some websites. You might need to reconnect the Search Console account if you still see the error
v1.0.43 May 27, 2020
Added: [NEW & HUGE!] A completely new design with best in class user experience. Setting and using the plugin can never be more comfortable. Check the preview here
Added: Easy & Advanced modes for better option handling. One can choose between the two to make the interface simpler or advanced. Easy mode is what we would recommend to 99% of the users
Added: A brand new Image SEO module by moving all the image SEO-related options into it
Added: If error logging is turned on a site, the error log’s data shows up inside the System Status page of Rank Math. Will come in handy when debugging issues
Added: A new filter is added to show NoIndexed posts/pages in the Sitemap. It is only for advanced users having an edge-case. For normal users, it is not recommended to use
Improved: Strengthened the plugin’s SECURITY further
Improved: The working of the focus keyword field. Now, as soon as you paste the keyword or click outside the focus keyword area, the keyword gets registered. No more requirement to press the enter key
Improved: The styling of the focus keyword area with long keywords not fitting perfectly in the Gutenberg sidebar
Improved: The confusing layout of the Search Console related options to make it easier to follow by showing just a single button on the first instance
Improved: Added a tutorial link in the Search Console step of setup wizard to let users use their Google App. It is highly recommended to the Agency owners. Read here
Improved: Updated the text inside the options panel to make them easier to understand
Improved: Schema Markup output now limits the title characters to 110. Props to Saijo George
Improved: Query performance related to the Rank Math Variables by running it on only required pages
Improved: Allow only one Focus keyword in the Taxonomy pages(Category/Tag etc.), as there are no tests for the secondary keywords
Improved: Internal linking SEO test now considers relative URLs as well when assigning a score to the page
Improved: Compatibility with the WPML plugin
Improved: Score calculating formula in the SEO Analyzer, you will see the slight score difference on the next run
Improved: Breadcrumbs code by adding better support for accessibility
Improved: SEO Meta can be changed even if a post is set to noindex
Improved: By default, the Elementor page builder’s templates are now set to noindex, this will not affect the posts/pages created using Elementor
Improved: As soon as someone deactivates the plugin, the site connected to the Rank Math’s account also gets removed
Improved: Recipe Schema to include contentURL as a required field in the Recipe Video
Improved: The options panel search is much more meaningful now and shows the options from all the Rank Math related settings
Improved: The Schema type for pages like Home, Contact Us, About Us, etc. will now have None selected by default
Improved: For the page set as the Blog page from the WordPress ‘Reading’ settings, there won’t be any content related tests. They made no sense on that page and users were finding it impossible to get a good score on that page
Removed: Stopwords functionality completely, as it is not relevant anymore due to the updates like BERT
Removed: Multiple Social meta options, as they are not required anymore for the Knowledge Graph by Google & Bing. You should only see the needed options in the Global Social Meta settings page
Removed: Social tests from the SEO Analyzer as those are not needed anymore
Removed: isSimilarTo Schema code from the single WooCommerce products to comply with Google’s demands
Fixed: Score was not updating immediately after adding new Focus Keyword in some cases
Fixed: Keyword density test not working when diacritics were used in the focus keyword
Fixed: URL count was not updating immediately and correctly. It should be displaying the count as expected
Fixed: Text in the contact info Shortcode was not translation-ready
Fixed: Filter to disable Gutenberg Sidebar works fine again. Sorry about this and we would recommend to try and get used to the sidebar version as that is more productive
Fixed: An issue with the lazy loading image scripts, where the automatic ALT & Titles tags were adding gibberish characters instead of the proper values
Fixed: Bulk image ALT edit was not working properly in the Media page[List View]
Fixed: The preview section was showing In Stock status for WooCommerce products even though products were out of stock. Frontend Schema Markup was printing correctly. They should be in sync now
Fixed: For WooCommerce, when the Remove Product Category Base option was enabled, double slashes were incorrectly getting added to the URLs
Fixed: Wrong homepage URL was showing in the Elementor Editor’s preview if the static page was set as the homepage
Fixed: Phone Number label in the Contact Info shortcode was not localized
Fixed: Score and color of the secondary keyword in the Classic Editor was not matching with the Gutenberg Score
Fixed: Yoast’s HowTo Block importer not working from the Status & Tools page. it was working fine from the setup wizard
Fixed: OG & Twitter description tags were missing on the archive pages
Fixed: Conflict with the WPML plugin and Remove Product Category Base option
Fixed: Rank Math was not detecting videos added using the Divi Builder because the builder adds video tag instead of embed tag
Fixed: The output of the %excerpt% variable in the SEO Description field will use custom post excerpt before creating an auto-generated description
Fixed: Some strings were not translating in the Gutenberg(block Editor)
Fixed: The filter to change the Sitemap’s base URL was not working
Fixed: The Classic Editor was not responding when special characters were used in the Permalink field
Fixed: Missing forward slash in the preview area if WPML plugin was active
Fixed: An issue where diacritics were not getting detected in the Power Words test
Fixed: Missing twitter:site tag in single posts added from the Twitter Profile URL was not working
Fixed: Ignore Case option in the Redirection module where it was getting selected automatically for the last source when two or more sources were added
Fixed: Elementor’s preview wasn’t displaying the category slug even though the URL after publishing an article was generating correctly
