My Free Rank Math Checklist for SEO and AI Search (GEO)

Disclosure: some links to Rank Math in this post are affiliate links. If you buy through them I may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. I use the free version of the plugin and don’t pay for any Rank Math plan, so everything below is written for the free plugin. Where something is paid, I say so.

techhorizoncity.com runs on WordPress with the free version of Rank Math. In August 2026 I audited the whole blog against Google Search Console data: 379 posts, and only 7 of them were earning organic clicks. That number changed how I think about SEO plugins. A plugin cannot rescue a post nobody searches for. What it can do is remove friction, so the posts that deserve traffic are found, understood and, increasingly, quoted by AI search tools.

This is the checklist I work through on a WordPress blog now that search means Google plus AI answers, using only what the free plugin gives you.

First, a reality check: settings don’t replace content

The audit found three patterns behind the 372 posts getting no clicks: bulk-generated posts with an identical structure, almost no real categorisation, and topics scattered across unrelated subjects. Specific posts about a named tool or a concrete problem were the ones that performed. None of that is fixed by ticking boxes in a plugin, so the checklist below is the last 20% of the job, after you’ve written something worth finding.

Step 1: Switch on Instant Indexing (free)

Rank Math states that IndexNow submission is available in the free plugin. You enable the Instant Indexing module, then choose which post types are submitted automatically under Rank Math SEO → Instant Indexing → Settings (you may need Advanced Mode turned on to see the settings). Per Rank Math’s documentation, URLs set to noindex are not submitted automatically, and you can also submit a batch of URLs by hand.

What I do beyond the dashboard: after a batch of posts goes live I submit the new URLs through the Rank Math REST route on my site (/wp-json/rankmath/v1/in/submitUrls) using a WordPress Application Password, with the URLs sent as one newline-separated string. On 12 October 2026 it answered “Successfully submitted 5 URLs.” I didn’t find that route in the user guide. I found it by listing my site’s REST API index, so it may change between plugin versions, and I check the response every time.

Step 2: Check what schema the free plugin already outputs

Rank Math’s advice for AI visibility includes structured data, and the free plugin already adds a fair amount without any setup. When I looked at the page source of a recent post on my site, I found Organization, WebSite, BreadcrumbList, WebPage, Person and BlogPosting markup. You can check your own by viewing a post’s source and searching for rank-math-schema, or by pasting the URL into Google’s Rich Results Test.

Rank Math does split schema between free and paid: its pricing pages list the full schema generator under paid plans, and I haven’t used those extra types. My advice for the free plugin is simply to make sure the basics are correct (site name, logo, author profile) in Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta, and to only mark up what is actually on the page.

Step 3: Use the editor’s SEO checks as a checklist, not a goal

Rank Math’s guidance on AI search suggests aiming for 80 or higher in its content analyser. I use the checks in the editor to catch things I forgot: a missing meta description, no internal links, a focus keyword that never appears. I don’t chase a perfect score by stuffing keywords. A post can score 90 and still not be worth reading. The exact set of checks you see depends on your plugin version, so look at your own editor.

Step 4: llms.txt is optional, and I haven’t enabled it

Rank Math has a guide to generating an llms.txt file. It is candid that llms.txt is a proposal rather than an official standard, with limited adoption across AI platforms. The guide doesn’t say which plan includes it, and my site doesn’t serve one (/llms.txt returns a 404). If you want to test it, check whether the module appears in your own dashboard first. I wouldn’t expect it to move anything yet.

Step 5: Measure AI visibility without paying (or decide if you want to)

Rank Math’s tool for this is AI Visibility, and it is a paid feature: it needs a Rank Math AI subscription. Based on their documentation it tracks ChatGPT and Google Gemini on a schedule and gives an AI Visibility score from rank, citations, mentions and sentiment. Their AI pricing page showed plans starting at roughly €6 a month on annual billing in October 2026. I haven’t paid for it, so I can’t tell you how well it works.

The free alternative is manual and unscientific, but it’s honest: once a month, ask ChatGPT and Gemini a handful of questions your readers would ask, and note whether your site is cited. Google Search Console, which is free, still shows the clicks and impressions that actually reach you.

Step 6: The parts no plugin does for you

Rank Math’s own advice on improving AI visibility is mostly not about the plugin:

• Answer real questions clearly. Write the post that explains one thing well. Our simple explainers outperformed advanced technical posts in Google Analytics in August 2026.
• Make it obvious who you are. A proper About page and consistent descriptions of what you do.
• Earn mentions elsewhere. Guest posts, reviews and roundups. Rank Math lists no feature for this, because there isn’t one.

Where AI assistants fit in

Rank Math also offers MCP tools that let an AI assistant audit SEO, inspect schema and read settings. Rank Math’s page marks some of them as paid and says the free plugin gets reduced versions of others. If MCP is new to you, I’ve written two guides: What Is MCP? and How to Build Your First MCP Server. I haven’t tested Rank Math’s MCP tools, so I’m only pointing to them.

The checklist in one place

1. Enable Instant Indexing and choose the post types to submit (free).
2. View a post’s source and confirm the schema the free plugin outputs is correct.
3. Use the editor’s SEO checks to catch omissions, not to chase a score.
4. Treat llms.txt as optional until you’ve checked it’s in your plan.
5. Check your AI visibility by hand, or decide whether the paid tracker is worth it for you.
6. Write specific posts that answer one real question well.

If you want to try it, you can get the free Rank Math plugin here. If your site is small, start with step 1 and step 6. The rest only matters once you have posts worth finding.

Sources: Rank Math documentation on IndexNow, llms.txt, tracking AI visibility, improving AI visibility and MCP tools, plus its pricing pages, read in October 2026. These are vendor sources; I found no independent evidence of how much llms.txt, schema or AI visibility scores change AI citations.