Do Not Install If You Are Just Testing This Plugin

Hi @lechon,

Thanks for your comment.

Uninstalling Yoast SEO from your website won’t delete the metadata stored in the WordPress database. This allows users to safely remove and reinstall the plugin without losing any SEO data they’ve entered.

We understand that some users may want to remove the plugin completely. They can do so by following this guide.

That being said, we agree with you that it’s always a good practice to install and try any WordPress plugin (not only Yoast SEO) on a staging or testing site before installing it on a production site.

The link you provided has nothing to show. (empty page)

I believe that people are not aware that removing the plugin will leave the tables and data on database server forever.

Just discovered this myself after installing the plugin and having nothing but problems with it. Gave it an hour and went back to All-in-One Seo.

Horrible plugin that leaves data all over the place when removed, and then comes with half-ass instructions as to how to remove that data so you can then spend then next 2 hours of your life trawling through all your files to find the Yoast data its left behind.

Avoid this with a 10 foot pole.

Hi @lechon and @rachel-s,

The problem you’ve experienced is not specific to Yoast SEO but to most plugins in WordPress. When you install a plugin on your site, several fields and tables are usually created in the WordPress database for the correct operation of the plugin. This data is not deleted when you uninstall the plugin from the WordPress admin panel. If you don’t plan to ever use the plugin again, you’ll need to clean up the database manually or through a 3rd-party plugin.

That’s why it’s highly recommended to install the minimum set of plugins you really need on your website and test them on a staging site before installing them on production.

That being said, some time ago a feature request was discussed by our developers to delete metadata created by Yoast SEO upon a plugin uninstall. If you want to add any comments to the request so that our developers can consider re-opening it, please do so on this link: https://github.com/Yoast/wordpress-seo/issues/12012

@monbauza

“not specific to Yoast SEO but to most plugins in WordPress. ”

We are currently using a total of 12 plugins with our site, not a single one of them leave tables, or data installed on the data base after they have been uninstalled and deleted.

While there might be many plugins out there leaving tables and data behind, this is not expected from a premium plugin like yourself, your plugin is not cheap if you have to get all the modules needed.

“Uninstalled and deleted” means exactly that, you do not want any part of the plugins on your site.

There is something terribly wrong when you are recommending a 3rd party plugins to uninstall Yoast, Some plugins available are outdated and even too risky to install like for example.

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/uninstall-yoast-seo/

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/uninstall-yoast-seo-completely/

There is a great majority of people that do not how to deal with cleaning a wordpress database manually, this is just asking for trouble.

Hi @lechon,

We of course don’t recommend using the outdated plugins you’ve mentioned. We’ve referenced this review in the feature request so that our developers can take into consideration your feedback.

Feel free to comment on the GitHub issue if you want to add any additional information to the request.

Thanks!