Issue with Apostrophes in Focus Keywords Affecting SEO Score

Hello Rank Math Team,

I am encountering an issue where using an apostrophe in the focus keyword results in a significant drop in the SEO score. For example, when the focus keyword is set to “frasi sarcastiche sull’amore” (Italian for “sarcastic phrases about love”), Rank Math reports that the keyword doesn’t appear at the beginning of the content, even though it does. Upon removing the apostrophe, the issue resolves.

This situation forces a choice between:

Writing grammatically correct content with the apostrophe, leading to a lower SEO score.

Writing in a way that satisfies Rank Math’s requirements but is grammatically incorrect.

As someone working on an Italian website called Scrivimelo.it — a platform dedicated to helping users write well-crafted phrases and texts for various occasions — I believe this issue could significantly impact the quality of content and SEO.

I understand that certain characters, like apostrophes, are not allowed in permalinks. However, it would be beneficial if Rank Math could ignore such characters when evaluating the focus keyword, ensuring that the SEO score reflects the content’s quality rather than punctuation choices.

Could you please confirm if this is an expected behavior and if there are any plans to address this limitation in future updates?

Thank you for your attention to this matter.