Staging to production with RankMath on a longer running production site

#747016
  • Resolved Sascha Koeth

    1 year, 1 month ago

    Rank Math free

    Hi!

    I allready read in these topics:

    https://rankmath.com/kb/using-rank-math-on-staging-site/
    https://rankmath.com/kb/delete-old-analytics-data/
    https://support.rankmath.com/ticket/setup-rankmath-on-secured-staging-test-environment/

    The first and second topic only describes the process where you transfer a staging to a new production site, as you recomment to “delete all old analytics data from the staging site after transfer”.

    Now I am interested on the best practice when you have a woocommerce store with rank math that is allready running a while and has allready produced some relevant SEO Analytics Data. In that case I do an inbetween update by first transfering the production site to a staging site, there I create new pages, posts, products and terms and add your new Rankmatch settings to them and change Rankmath settings on some old pages, posts, products and terms to optimize them. While you do that your live site produces further relevant Analytics data from the ongoing user traffic. Then you want to push back your staging site to your production site.

    And this is the point where I wonder:

    – Is there any kind of SEO relevant data on production site that gathered through user traffic while I was doing my updates on staging, which I lose when overwriting the options table and all datatables that contain “_rankmath”?

    And here are more detailed sub-questions to better understand what I am looking for:

    – Is the best practice here (just in terms of rankmath and the SEO of the production site) to overwrite the options table and all datatables that contain “_rankmath” from staging to production? Or will I lose important SEO data because old settings are overwritten that will decrease my SEO ranking because old pages, posts, products and terms are “SEO wise interpreted as new pages, posts, products and terms and not as optmized old ones”?
    – If I lose important SEO ranking data on old pages, posts, products or terms when just overwriting the optionstable and all datatables that contain “_rankmath”, which tables should I exclude, when I also do transfer completel new pages, posts or terms?
    – Or does it makes sense in that context that I use the rank math settings import export instead of trying to exclude datatables? If yes, which are there any settings to exlude to not overwrite impotant data on production and why does it make more sense to use that way?
    – And with all that in mind, are there any Files or Folders that I should exclude when doing the transfer back from staging to production?
    – And last but not least, are there any other Rank Math settings besides pages, posts, products and term Rank Math settings that I can optimize in staging and then transfer to production which will overwrite data that should not be overwritten on staging in terms of: “Will be registered as new, which will reduce my ranking” or something similar?

    Thanks!

    Sascha

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Great

    1 year, 1 month ago

    Hello,

    Thank you for contacting Rank Math support.

    For your use case, you can create a staging site from your existing site by just duplicating the existing site to another domain (or subdomain) – then you can modify the Rank Math settings on the staging site and then pushing to production site.

    Is there any kind of SEO relevant data on production site that gathered through user traffic while I was doing my updates on staging, which I lose when overwriting the options table and all datatables that contain “_rankmath”?

    The Analytics data you’re referring comes directly from your Google services, and Rank Math imports that data into your site every 7 days (3 days for PRO users). This way, as long as Google is receiving data from Search Console/G Analytics and we’re receiving the data from Google.

    The other data, i.e. SEO scores, etc – these are stored in your database and would be pushed to production alongside your other staging data, but at anytime, you can always recalculate the scores using Rank Math > Status & Tools > Database Tools > Update SEO Scores.

    We hope this helps clarify the issue. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.

    Sascha Koeth

    1 year, 1 month ago

    Rank Math free

    Hi!

    thank you for your answer. Let me rephrase it in my words to see if I understood you correctly:

    The only Rankmath related data that gets “updated” by users on the production site while I work on the staging site are RankMath SEO Scores that are based on the data it loads from Google Services. So while I will overwrite this data when pushing staging to production (with all rankmath related datatables and all files) I can easily reload the correct SEO data from google by using the Update SEO Scores function.

    Correct?

    Thanks!

    Great

    1 year, 1 month ago

    Hello,

    No, I’m afraid not – let me clarify:

    1. The SEO Score data is calculated locally by analyzing your posts against your focus keyword. To recalculate the SEO Score data, you can use the “Update SEO Scores” database tool. Google is not the source of the SEO Score data.

    2. Google provides your SEO Performance, Keyword, and Ranking data, among others. To refresh this data, you can go to Rank Math > General Settings > Analytics > Analytics Database > Update data manually.

    3. When you make changes on your staging site, the changes are stored in your database and will be pushed to the production site.

    That said, you can disable the Analytics module in your staging site and enable it only in your production site.

    Happy to answer any follow-up questions

    Sascha Koeth

    1 year, 1 month ago

    Rank Math free

    Ok. I will try to rephrase again and describe the process for staging to production like this:

    1. After changes on staging are done push all database tables and files from staging to production and then trigger these two options on the production site:
    2. Rank Math > General Settings > Analytics > Analytics Database > Update data manually
    3. Rank Math > Status & Tools > Database Tools > Update SEO Scores

    Google Analytics Data:
    If I disable the Analytics module on staging or not is rather irrelevant because while on staging it will not influence my production site google analytics data as it has a different URL or do I have to make sure by deactivating the Analytics module on staging in the moment I push the data from production to staging initiallybecause although it´s another URL it would still get mixed up with the analytics data from production and staging?

    And although I might overwrite some previously imported Google Analytics information on the production site when I push from staging back to production, as soon as I trigger…
    Rank Math > General Settings > Analytics > Analytics Database > Update data manually
    …on production I will have my “production only analytics data” restored that were recorded by google until the moment where I pushed staging to production and that is uninfluenced by the new settings from staging and will just be updated from that point on by the new content and settings imported from staging und the user interaction with them.

    SEO Scores
    The SEO Scores are updated on production after the push from staging based on the new content and settings imported from staging as soon as I trigger Rank Math > Status & Tools > Database Tools > Update SEO Scores on the production site. I could also have pushed that Rank Math > Status & Tools > Database Tools > Update SEO Scores option on staging shortly before I pushed it to production because it would be based on the same new settings that are pushed from staging to production.

    Great

    1 year, 1 month ago

    Hello,

    Yes, this is correct. After pushing your staging data to your live site, to ensure the integrity of your analytics data you can update your analytics data manually and recalculate your SEO score. Although, it’s not strictly necessary to do so – your analytics data would be automatically fetched from Google every 7 days.

    Google Analytics Data: Yes, you’re right on this as well. Having the Analytics module enabled or disabled on the staging site is not relevant. But, the Analytics on the staging site would show the data of the staging site – not the live site. And since you (and your team) are most likely the only ones visiting the staging site, the analytics data is not really useful, so most people just turn it off.

    SEO Scores: This is also correct, but some of the premises are wrong.

    settings imported from staging as soon as I trigger Rank Math > Status & Tools > Database Tools > Update SEO Scores on the production site.

    The “Update SEO Scores” database option does not import anything from anywhere. It uses your posts and focus keywords to calculate an SEO score for each of your posts. The SEO score is given based on how many tests your post “passed”, i.e. having your focus keyword in your SEO Title, etc. You can see the full list of tests here.

    When you click on the “Update SEO Scores” database option, it will use the focus keyword of each post to calculate the SEO score of each post. See more here: https://rankmath.com/kb/seo-score-not-available/#database-tools.

    Also, using the “Update SEO Scores” database option to recalculate your SEO score is only necessary if you have modified existing posts or changed their focus keyword. Even in this case, the new SEO score of the modified post will also be pushed to your live site, as part of your database. But if you find the SEO score not consistent, you can use the database tool to recalculate the scores.

    We hope this helps clarify the issue. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.

    Sascha Koeth

    1 year, 1 month ago

    Rank Math free

    Thanks!

    Great

    1 year, 1 month ago

    Hello,

    We are glad to hear that this issue has been resolved. Thank you for letting us know. This ticket will be closed now, but you can always open a new one if you have any other questions or concerns. We are here to help you with anything related to Rank Math.

    We appreciate your patience and cooperation throughout this process.

    Thank you for choosing Rank Math.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

The ticket ‘Staging to production with RankMath on a longer running production site’ is closed to new replies.