I moved most of my WordPress sites to Rank Math and the free version handles basically everything I used to pay for. Titles, sitemaps, redirects, schema and a 404 monitor in one plugin.
What I actually use:
– The Redirections module. It replaced a separate plugin for me and logs hits so you know which old redirects you can safely drop.
– Schema templates per post type, so every recipe or review gets the same structure without touching each post.
– Turn off the modules you do not need in the dashboard. Fewer active modules means fewer queries and less clutter in the editor.
– The Search Console integration inside wp-admin is handy for writers who never open GSC.
Downside: the content score in the editor pushes people to stuff the focus keyword. I tell my writers to ignore the green number and write for the reader. Also check each update on staging first, it has changed settings on me once.
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