04 - General Settings - Rank Math Crash Course

1The General Settings screen

The short version

General Settings is the site-wide switchboard. You set it once, after the wizard from module 03, and rarely open it again. The tabs that move the needle for a Richmond IT company are Links, Images, Breadcrumbs, Webmaster Tools and robots.txt. The 404 and Redirections tabs get their defaults here and their real work in module 09. Everything else on this screen gets a value and a reason below so you can move on.

Open Rank Math SEO → General Settings. The tabs run down the left. Some only appear in Advanced mode, which you turned on in module 03. Work through them in the order they appear. Each tab has its own Save Changes button at the bottom, so save before you move to the next tab.

The Links tab with the values this module recommends. 1: the tab column, where the 404 Monitor and Redirections tabs appear only in Advanced mode. 2: Strip Category Base left off, for the reason in section 2. 3: external links open in a new tab. Illustration drawn from the Rank Math documentation as read on 2026-09-29. Labels match the plugin; layout is simplified.

2Links tab

This tab decides how WordPress builds URLs and how Rank Math treats links that leave the site. One setting here can break the Hermetic site if you switch it on without thinking, so it comes first.

Links settings for Hermetic
Setting	Value	Why
Strip Category Base	Off	On removes `/category/` from category URLs, so `/category/cybersecurity/` becomes `/cybersecurity/`. The site already has a page at `/cybersecurity/`. Two things at one URL is a conflict you do not want on launch day. Leave the base in place.
Redirect Attachments	On	WordPress creates a bare page for every uploaded image. Those pages have no text and compete with the page the image sits on. This sends each one to its parent page.
Redirect Orphan Attachments	Homepage URL	An image uploaded from the Media Library with no parent page still gets a page. Send those to `https://www.hermeticnetworks.com/`.
NoFollow External Links	Off	Nofollow tells Google to ignore a link. We link to Microsoft, CISA and vendors we trust. Leaving links followed is the normal state for a business site, and Rank Math's own content tests want at least one followed external link on a page.
NoFollow Image File Links	Off	Same reason. Only matters if images link out to other sites, which ours do not.
NoFollow Domains	Empty	Use this later if a page ever has to link to a site we do not vouch for. Nothing today.
NoFollow Exclude Domains	Empty	Only applies when NoFollow External Links is on.
Open External Links in New Tab	On	A visitor reading a service page who clicks a Microsoft link keeps the Hermetic tab open. No effect on ranking. A usability choice.

Category and page slugs

The crawl on 2026-09-29 found a page at /cybersecurity/ and a category at /category/cybersecurity/, and a page at /managed-services/ beside a category at /category/managed-services/. That is why Strip Category Base stays off. If the page map in module 02 retires those page slugs, you can revisit this in module 10.

3Images tab

Google reads the alt attribute of an image to know what it shows. Beaver Builder pages on the Hermetic site carry a lot of images added without alt text. This tab fills the gap at page load, without editing 139 pages by hand.

Images settings for Hermetic
Setting	Value	Why
Add Missing Alt Attributes	On	Any image with an empty alt gets one when the page is served. Images that already have alt text are left alone.
Alt Attribute Format	`%title%`	The page title beats the file name. A stock file called `IMG_2041.jpg` would otherwise become the alt text. On the Managed IT Services page the fallback reads "Managed IT Services Richmond", which is at least true.
Add Missing Title Attributes	Off	The title attribute is the tooltip on hover. It carries no ranking weight and clutters the page. Alt text is the one that matters.
Title Attribute Format	Leave default	Unused while the toggle above is off.
Add Missing Image Caption, casing, avatars, Replacements	PRO, skip	Covered in module 10 if you buy PRO.

The automatic alt text is a safety net. A written alt text on the images that matter, such as the team photo on About Us or a diagram on a service page, still beats it. Module 07 covers writing them page by page.

4Breadcrumbs tab

Breadcrumbs are the trail at the top of a page: Home › IT Services › Managed IT Services. Rank Math adds BreadcrumbList schema when the function is on, which is the structured data Google uses to show a path under a result instead of a raw URL. The homepage already carries BreadcrumbList schema from Yoast, so turning this on keeps what the site has today.

Breadcrumb settings for Hermetic
Setting	Value	Why
Enable Breadcrumbs Function	On	Adds the schema and makes the shortcode work.
Separator Character	›	Any of the presets works. Pick one and keep it.
Show Homepage Link	On	The trail should start at Home.
Homepage Label	Home	Plain word. Not "Hermetic Networks", which repeats the logo beside it.
Prefix Breadcrumb	Empty	"You are here:" adds nothing.
Hide Post Title	Off	The current page belongs at the end of the trail.
Show Category(s)	Off	Posts on the site sit in several categories at once (18 categories for 147 posts). With this on, Rank Math picks one, and it may be `uncategorized`.
Show Blog Page	On	Blog posts show Home › News › Post title, which matches the site's `/news/` page.

Turning the function on does not draw the trail on the page. The Beaver Builder theme has to print it. Check the theme's Customizer for a breadcrumb option first. If there is none, add [rank_math_breadcrumb] in a Beaver Builder text module at the top of the page template, or have whoever maintains the child theme add <?php if (function_exists('rank_math_the_breadcrumbs')) rank_math_the_breadcrumbs(); ?> to the header. The schema is added either way, so a missing visible trail costs you the visitor's benefit, not Google's.

5Webmaster Tools tab

Search engines need proof that you control the site before they show you its data. This tab pastes their verification codes into the page head so you do not have to touch the theme.

Webmaster Tools settings for Hermetic
Field	Value	Why
Google Search Console	Usually empty	Module 06 sets up a Domain property, which verifies through DNS at the registrar and needs no code here. Paste the HTML tag code only if you choose a URL-prefix property instead.
Bing Webmaster Tools	Code from Bing	Bing Webmaster Tools can import a verified site from Search Console. If you use that route, leave this blank. If Bing asks for a meta tag, paste the content value here.
Baidu, Yandex, Pinterest, Norton Safe Web	Empty	None of them bring Richmond businesses to an IT company. Skip.

6Edit robots.txt tab

robots.txt is a text file at the root of the site that tells crawlers which paths not to fetch. It does not hide a page from Google, and it does not remove one from the index. It saves crawl budget and keeps admin paths out of the crawl. The sitemap does the opposite job: it lists the pages you want fetched.

Three files, three jobs. robots.txt says where not to go, the sitemap says where to go, llms.txt describes the site to AI assistants. None of the three removes a page from Google; that is the robots meta tag, set in module 05.

The file on the site today

Read from https://www.hermeticnetworks.com/robots.txt on 2026-09-29. The middle block lists 23 user agents, shortened here:

Crawl-delay: 10

User-agent: Googlebot
User-agent: Bingbot
User-agent: Slurp
User-agent: Yandex
User-agent: DuckDuckBot
User-agent: Applebot
User-agent: GPTBot
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
User-agent: ClaudeBot
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
User-agent: Claude-User
User-agent: PerplexityBot
User-agent: Perplexity-User
User-agent: Google-Extended
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
User-agent: BingAI
User-agent: CCBot
User-agent: Meta-ExternalAgent
User-agent: Amazonbot
Allow: /
Disallow: /install

User-agent: *
Disallow: /install
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://www.hermeticnetworks.com/sitemap_index.xml

Three things to read from it. The site deliberately allows AI crawlers, including the ones that feed ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity answers, and that is the policy this course keeps. The Crawl-delay: 10 line at the top asks crawlers to wait ten seconds between fetches; Google ignores the directive, and Bing honors it, so on Bing it only slows discovery of new pages. And nothing blocks /wp-admin/, which WordPress normally blocks by default.

The recommended file

User-agent: Googlebot
User-agent: Bingbot
User-agent: Slurp
User-agent: Yandex
User-agent: DuckDuckBot
User-agent: Applebot
User-agent: GPTBot
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
User-agent: ClaudeBot
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
User-agent: Claude-User
User-agent: PerplexityBot
User-agent: Perplexity-User
User-agent: Google-Extended
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
User-agent: BingAI
User-agent: CCBot
User-agent: Meta-ExternalAgent
User-agent: Amazonbot
Allow: /
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Disallow: /install

User-agent: *
Allow: /
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Disallow: /install

Sitemap: https://www.hermeticnetworks.com/sitemap_index.xml

What changed: the crawl delay is gone, /wp-admin/ is blocked for everyone, and admin-ajax.php stays open because Beaver Builder and Popup Maker call it from the front end. The AI allow list is unchanged. The sitemap line stays, and it must match the sitemap URL from module 06, which is the same sitemap_index.xml Rank Math uses.

Physical file check

Rank Math's editor writes a virtual robots.txt. It only works when no real robots.txt file sits in the site's root folder. If the tab shows a notice that a physical file exists, the current file was uploaded by hand or by the previous agency. Have your host or whoever has FTP access rename it, then paste the recommended content into the tab and save. Load /robots.txt in a private browser window afterwards and confirm it shows the new text.

7Edit llms.txt tab

llms.txt is a proposed plain-text file that gives AI assistants a short description of the site and a list of its important pages. Google does not use it. Some AI crawlers look for it. Since the site already welcomes those crawlers in robots.txt, publishing the file costs nothing and keeps the policy consistent.

llms.txt settings for Hermetic
Setting	Value	Why
Select Post Types	Pages, Posts	Service pages and blog posts are what an assistant should summarize.
Select Taxonomies	None	Category and tag archives are lists of links with no content of their own.
Posts/Terms Limit	Leave default	Raise it in module 10 once the page map has trimmed the 139 pages to the ones that matter.
Additional Content	The core service pages	Pick Managed IT Services, Cybersecurity, Microsoft 365, Backup and Disaster Recovery, and About Us once module 02 has settled their final URLs.

8Edit .htaccess tab

The .htaccess file controls the web server. A typo in it takes the whole site down. Rank Math keeps a backup before saving, but there is nothing in this course that needs the file edited, and the site sits behind Cloudflare, which handles the usual redirect and caching rules at the edge. Leave this tab alone. If a host or developer ever asks you to add a rule, they do it, not this tab.

9404 Monitor and Redirections tabs

These two tabs hold defaults. The work of building the redirect map for the 139 pages and reading the 404 log happens in module 09. Set the defaults now so the modules are ready when you get there. Both tabs need Advanced mode.

404 Monitor settings for Hermetic
Setting	Value	Why
Mode	Simple	Logs the URL and the time. Advanced adds the referring page and browser, which you only need when chasing one specific broken link.
Log Limit	100	Enough to see patterns after launch without filling the database. Bots probing for `/wp-login.php` variants will fill any log you give them.
Exclude Paths	Empty at launch	Add bot-probe paths after the first week, once the log shows which ones repeat.
Ignore Query Parameters	On	Treats `/old-page/?utm_source=x` and `/old-page/` as one entry, so one redirect fixes both.

Redirections settings for Hermetic
Setting	Value	Why
Debug Redirections	Off	On shows admins a 5-second page before each redirect. Turn it on only while diagnosing a redirect that misbehaves, then off.
Fallback Behaviour	Default 404	A URL with no redirect should say so. Sending every dead URL to the homepage hides broken links from you and from Google.
Redirection Type	301	Permanent. The page map in module 02 retires old URLs for good, and a 301 passes their standing to the new page.
Auto Post Redirect	On	Change a slug in the editor and Rank Math writes the redirect from the old URL. This is the setting that stops a renamed page from becoming a dead link.

10Analytics and Others tabs

The Analytics tab connects Search Console and GA4. That is the whole of module 06, so skip it here. The Others tab holds housekeeping.

Others settings for Hermetic
Setting	Value	Why
Usage Tracking	Off	Sends anonymous usage data to Rank Math. Our policy is to share nothing we do not need to.
Show SEO Score to Visitors	Off	Prints Rank Math's score badge on the public page. A client does not need to see a plugin score on a cybersecurity page.
RSS Before Content	Empty	Nothing to add above a feed item.
RSS After Content	A one-line credit with `%POST_URL%`	Sites that scrape the feed republish the credit and its link. The variable list is shown under the field.
Headless CMS Support	Off	Only for sites that serve WordPress content through a separate front end. Not ours.

The Blocks, Content AI and Podcast tabs are not launch work. Blocks sets the default title of the Table of Contents block, which module 07 uses with its default. Content AI and Podcast are in module 10.

11Do this now

Open Rank Math SEO → General Settings. Confirm the 404 Monitor and Redirections tabs are in the left column. If they are missing, go to Rank Math SEO → Dashboard and switch to Advanced mode, then come back.
On Links, set every row to the value in section 2. Leave Strip Category Base off. Save Changes.
On Images, turn on Add Missing Alt Attributes and set the format to %title%. Leave title attributes off. Save. Open any service page in a private window, view the source, and search for alt=" to confirm the images now carry text.
On Breadcrumbs, set the values in section 4 and save. Then check the Beaver Builder theme Customizer for a breadcrumb option. If none, add the shortcode to the page template. The visible trail can wait for module 09's checklist; the schema is on now.
On Webmaster Tools, leave every field empty for now. Come back after module 06 only if Bing asks for a meta tag.
On Edit robots.txt, look for a notice about a physical file. If there is one, get the file renamed first. Paste the recommended file from section 6, save, and load /robots.txt in a private window to confirm it changed.
On Edit llms.txt, select Pages and Posts and save. Add the core service pages under Additional Content after module 02 fixes their URLs.
Skip Edit .htaccess.
On 404 Monitor and Redirections, set the defaults in section 9. Confirm Auto Post Redirect is on. Save both tabs.
On Others, turn Usage Tracking and Show SEO Score to Visitors off. Save.
Write the date and your initials in the training log for this module, and move to module 05.

12Check yourself

Strip Category Base makes URLs shorter. Why does it stay off on the Hermetic site?
Answer
The site has a page at /cybersecurity/ and a category at /category/cybersecurity/, and the same pair for managed-services. Stripping the base puts the category at the page's URL. Two things at one address is a conflict, and it would land on launch day.
A visitor asks why an image on the About Us page has alt text reading "About Us". What set it, and what should you do?
Answer
Add Missing Alt Attributes with the %title% format filled it in at page load because the image had no alt text of its own. The fix is to write a real alt text on that image in the editor. The automatic one is a safety net for images nobody has reached yet.
You block a page in robots.txt. A week later it is still in Google's results. Why?
Answer
robots.txt stops Google fetching a page. It does not remove a page Google already knows about, and a blocked page can stay indexed with no snippet. To remove a page from the index, set its robots meta to noindex (module 05), and let Google fetch it so it can read the tag.
The Edit robots.txt tab shows a notice that a physical file exists. What does that mean for what you paste in the tab?
Answer
Nothing you save in the tab is served while a real robots.txt file sits in the site root. The server hands out the file. Get the file renamed by whoever has file access, then save the tab, then load /robots.txt in a private window to confirm the virtual one is live.
Why does Fallback Behaviour stay on Default 404 instead of sending every dead URL to the homepage?
Answer
A homepage fallback hides broken links. The 404 Monitor never logs them, Search Console reports them as soft 404s, and a visitor who clicked a link about backup lands on the homepage with no idea why. A real 404 tells you and Google exactly which URL needs a redirect, which is module 09's job.
Which setting stops a renamed page from becoming a dead link, and where does it live?
Answer
Auto Post Redirect, on the Redirections tab of General Settings. When a slug changes in the editor, Rank Math writes a redirect from the old URL to the new one.

13Glossary

Advanced mode: The Rank Math dashboard setting that shows every module and tab, including 404 Monitor, Redirections and Role Manager.
Alt attribute: The text on an image tag that describes the picture. Read by screen readers and by Google.
Attachment page: The bare page WordPress creates for each uploaded file. Redirect Attachments sends it to the page the file belongs to.
Breadcrumbs: The path shown at the top of a page, Home › Section › Page. Carries BreadcrumbList schema when Rank Math's function is on.
Category base: The /category/ part of a category archive URL.
Crawl-delay: A robots.txt line asking a crawler to wait between fetches. Ignored by Google, honored by Bing.
Fallback behaviour: What Rank Math does with a URL that has no redirect: show a 404, go to the homepage, or go to a custom URL.
.htaccess: The Apache web server's configuration file in the site root. A mistake in it takes the site down.
llms.txt: A proposed plain-text file that summarizes a site for AI assistants. Not used by Google.
Nofollow: A link attribute telling Google not to pass any standing through the link.
Orphan attachment: An uploaded file that no page uses. Its attachment page has no parent to redirect to.
Physical robots.txt: A real file in the site root, as opposed to the virtual one Rank Math serves. The physical file wins.
robots.txt: The text file at the site root that tells crawlers which paths not to fetch.
Verification code: A meta tag a search engine gives you to prove you control the site. Pasted in Webmaster Tools.
Virtual robots.txt: A robots.txt generated by WordPress and Rank Math on request, with no file on disk.

14Sources

Rank Math, General Settings: every tab and setting name in this module, and which tabs need Advanced mode.
Rank Math, Image SEO: the alt attribute format variables and what is PRO.
Rank Math, Breadcrumbs: the shortcode, the PHP function and the BreadcrumbList schema.
Rank Math, 404 Monitor: Simple against Advanced mode.
Rank Math, Setting up Redirections: redirect types, fallback, debug mode and Auto Post Redirect.
Google Search Central, Introduction to robots.txt and How Google interprets the robots.txt specification: robots.txt does not remove pages from the index, and Google does not support the crawl-delay rule.
Microsoft Bing, Crawl control: Bing honors crawl-delay.
Site facts from a crawl of www.hermeticnetworks.com on 2026-09-29: the robots.txt content, the page and category slugs, and the schema on the homepage.

Documentation read 2026-09-29. Rank Math changes often; where this page and the documentation disagree, the documentation is current.