Migrating from SEOPress to CrawlWP

This guide explains how to move your SEO data from SEOPress or SEOPress Pro to CrawlWP. You will learn how to import your SEO titles, meta descriptions, robots settings, and redirects, and what to check before turning off SEOPress.

The importer is included in the free version of CrawlWP. It reads your SEOPress data and copies it to CrawlWP. It does not change or delete anything in SEOPress.

Before you start

• Install and activate CrawlWP.
• Make sure CrawlWP’s on-page SEO features are enabled. Go to CrawlWP > Settings. If you see an SEO Features tab instead of Title & Meta, open it, select Enable all on-page SEO features on this website, and click Save Changes. The Import SEO Data screen will only appear after these features are enabled.
• Keep SEOPress installed until the migration is finished. CrawlWP can only import data that is still stored in your WordPress database.
• If you used redirects with SEOPress Pro, keep SEOPress Pro active during the import. SEOPress Pro stores redirects separately, so CrawlWP needs it to be active to import them.
• Back up your WordPress database before starting.

SEOPress does not have SEO fields for individual authors, so there is no author data to import.

Run the import

1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to CrawlWP > Settings.
2. Make sure the Settings tab is selected, then click Import SEO Data in the left-hand menu.

CrawlWP will show SEOPress and the number of posts, terms, authors, and redirects it found. A count of 0 means there is nothing in that category to import.

3. Choose whether to enable Overwrite existing CrawlWP values. Leave it unchecked if you want to keep SEO values already set in CrawlWP. CrawlWP will then only import data into empty fields. Check it if you want SEOPress values to replace existing CrawlWP values whenever SEOPress has a value. If you have not added any SEO data to CrawlWP yet, you can leave this unchecked.
4. Click Import next to SEOPress, then click OK to confirm.
5. Wait until the log says Import complete. Do not close or leave the page while the import is running.

Imported shows how many items CrawlWP added or updated. Skipped shows how many items had SEOPress data but were not changed in CrawlWP.

You can also run the import from the Setup Wizard. Click Launch Setup Wizard on the same screen and follow the Import SEO Data step.

Check the imported data.

1. Click Bulk Editor in the left-hand menu. You can review the imported SEO titles and meta descriptions for your posts and pages. SEOPress variables are converted to the matching CrawlWP variables. For example, %%post_title%% becomes {{ post.title }}, while %%sep%% becomes {{ sep }}.

2. Open the Title & Meta tab. Check your Homepage title and description, along with the templates for your post types and taxonomies.
3. If you imported redirects from SEOPress Pro, open Redirects from the left-hand menu under the Settings tab. Imported redirects are marked Imported from SEOPress. Redirects that were disabled or not published in SEOPress Pro are imported with Enable turned off.
4. Open a few posts on the front end of your site and view the page source. Make sure the page title and meta description are correct.

Deactivate SEOPress

While both plugins are active, your pages may output two sets of SEO tags. After you have checked the imported data, deactivate SEOPress Pro first, then SEOPress from the Plugins screen. If you used the Setup Wizard while SEOPress was active, you can also deactivate it in the wizard’s final step.

It is a good idea to keep SEOPress installed but deactivated for a while. This makes it easier to run the import again if needed. To import redirects again, you will need to reactivate SEOPress Pro.

Running the import more than once

• When Overwrite existing CrawlWP values is unchecked, CrawlWP only fills fields that are empty. It checks each field separately.
• When it is checked, CrawlWP replaces existing values with SEOPress values wherever SEOPress has data. Empty SEOPress fields do not replace existing CrawlWP values.
• Redirects are skipped when CrawlWP already has a redirect for the same URL.

For a full list of the SEOPress data that CrawlWP imports, see What gets imported and what doesn’t.

If the import does not work

SEOPress shows “No data”. CrawlWP looks for SEOPress title settings and SEO post meta in your database. If the SEOPress data was removed when you deleted the plugin, you will need to restore a database backup from before it was deleted.

The redirects count is 0. You may not have used SEOPress Pro’s redirect feature, or SEOPress Pro may be inactive. Activate SEOPress Pro, reload the Import SEO Data screen, and check the count again.

The log says “Import failed. Please try again.” Reload the page and run the import again. Any values that were already imported will remain in CrawlWP.

Your pages show two meta descriptions. This usually means both plugins are still active. Deactivate SEOPress.

A post keeps its existing CrawlWP value instead of the imported SEOPress value. Overwrite existing CrawlWP values was not enabled, so CrawlWP kept its existing value. Run the import again with this option enabled.