Not a mission critical plugin

  • kbunt

    (@kbunt)


    1 month ago

    I was looking for an alternative. Found SEO Framework. It seemed really great, setup was straightforward, easy to use, features seemed excellent. Installed on my own site, and ran parallel test on another owned site. Installed on a client site where we wanted to increase SERP performance. I was excited!

    Results. Personal site had 0 ranking, xml sitemap failed to load on Google console. Parallel test (hand bombed SEO) ranked #1. Client site… lost SERP page 1 ranking. Free fall to page 2 and beyond. I kept working to turn it around. No luck. Sitemap was found, thank goodness. Here’s the thing, the client didn’t use an SEO plugin on their site… only XML Sitemap Generator for Google and was ranking at top of SERP (page 1 at the top).

    This might be anecdotal, but I think this plugin suffers from trying to do too much (monolithic). In fact, it may be broken. Maybe I missed something? Probably. Getting 0 rank on my own site blew my mind and aligned with my client’s results. Support forum replies are 0 for over 6 months. Therefore, time to uninstall and move on.

    P.S. I notified my client as soon as our ranking was impacted – they appreciated the transparency of the testing process. Glad I didn’t pay for it. I lost a lot of billable hours with this plugin, don’t make the same mistake.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Plugin Author Sybre Waaijer

    (@cybr)

    1 month ago

    Thanks for testing TSF. Sorry to hear about your experience.

    Many of the issues you’ve faced are common to Google’s platform.

    New sites need an initial crawl to get indexed and ranked. Unfortunately, Google is being inundated with AI-generated spam, so it no longer devotes much attention to new sites; they’re being crawled and processed less frequently.

    The ranking situation for the existing site may be due to a Google Core Update — the most recent spam update just completed last week. During these rollouts, ranking fluctuates a lot (for better or worse), and its effects can be observed for several weeks after completion.

    Google does this to clean up its search engine index, and it does so in bulk to prevent people from discovering its ranking factors. Please ensure that your site adheres to Google’s Spam Policies; still, it may have been inadvertently flagged.

    Please note that SEO plugins are meant to guide search engines through routing, indexability, and presentation. Content and site structure are what actually drive rankings. An SEO plugin isn’t required for ranking well, but it helps. Unless misconfigured, they rarely harm ranking. I don’t believe there’s anything broken with my plugin; all of its features have been heavily optimized for performance and accuracy, which means there’s been thorough testing and vetting. Its monolithic design is necessary to cover everything SEO without plugin conflicts. Yet, compared to other popular SEO plugins, TSF is super lean.

    Google Search Console showing false errors is well-discussed all over the internet. For example, regarding the sitemap, they indicate it’s faulty when, in fact, it simply hasn’t been processed yet. You can expect these errors to disappear once their Search and Search Console data are synced up correctly. For established sites, this may take up to 3 days. For new sites with a low crawling budget, the wait time can be up to 4 weeks.

    For completeness, as I frequently encounter this confusion about ranking, the only reliable source for ranking inspection is Google Search Console’s own Performance Report. Any other report from Google or other parties is meant for debugging or research purposes only.

    As for support, I do not feel appreciated by the moderation on this website, hence I stopped providing high-quality content (like my effort to do so with this reply) for free. Instead, you can reach out to me at any time via https://tsf.fyi/contact. I’ve answered over 350 inquiries in the past 6 months there. I’d be happy to review your specific setup and assist with troubleshooting.

    Thread Starter kbunt

    (@kbunt)

    1 month ago

    Sybre, thank you so much for the detailed feedback. It really is very kind of you to do this – and I appreciate it (and you) a lot. I will follow-up with you if needed through your site from now on. Your reply has encouraged me to keep using The SEO Framework. I was a bit harsh, I apologize.

    Your message has cleared up a lot of my concerns and filled in some blanks in my own knowledge (search console). Thanks for the tips! I am actually more inclined to use monolithic solutions (mature) for the same reasons you’ve stated. I don’t understand how I could rank my hand bombed site to a top spot so quickly – maybe it was a fluke. Both WP sites tested have been using TSF for 4+ weeks. My client site is well over 10 years in production – so dive bombing was a big surprise. I’ll dig in on the core update from Google before bothering you further. Probably not the plugins fault. We haven’t adjusted to changes.

    Cheers 🙂

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

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