Divi 5 is officially out
As you certainly know, Divi 5 is officially out since February 26th and we have version 5.1.1 available (see Divi 5 Changelog). Since many users of Divi are using RankMath (or is it Rank Math....?) which proved to work great in Divi 4, it's natural that we want to see also the Divi 5 with Rankmath put in perfect harmony.
But how does it look as of beginning of April?
Does RankMath work inside Divi 5?
This is the question now. It does - and it doesn't.
Let's try to see it step by step.
RankMath in Divi 5 Visual Builder
Yes, I have to disappoint you - RankMath is still not to be found anywhere inside teh Divi 5 Visual Builder.
In Divi 4, there's a full integration in place and one can see everything set for SEO - and change watever needed to be changed - right inside the visual builder directly.
In Divi 5, there's no such thing in the moment.
RankMath
I was not able to get any reliable information about the ETA from RankMath.
Since Divi 5 is only out for about a month, they say development is underway, but right now nobody knows exactly when we can expect this level of integration.
When Divi 5 was in Alpha and later in Beta, the info was they'll start developing as soon as Divi 5 comes out of Beta. So this is where we're in at the moment.
Divi 5 with RankMath: The real problem
Don't misunderstand me, please, I'd sure like to see this coming ASAP. But I'm in no hurry, actually. Why?
The RankMath popup is very nice, handy and overall very usable. But hardly the real problem. After all, no matter whether you've built your post with Divi 5 or the default editor, you can easily set all the SEO options inside the standard editor that opens when you click Edit in the post list. You just have to do it before clicking the Edit With The Divi Builder button.
But you won't see any changes no matter what you write inside the SEO settings.
Divi 5 changed the internal format of saving the post data. As far as I know, it should be based on the default block editor format, but I'm not completely sure how different they might be.
Because of this fact, RankMath is not able to read the page content. Hence, it does not know what's there, and can't give you any SEO results or pointers.
Of course, the new format is much better, closer to the WordPress defaults and definitely faster to work with.
But RankMath is not sure about it, and that's the real problem that annoys me when using Divi 5 with RankMath.
Shortly put, I'm blind whenever I write something inside the SEO settings.
Using Divi 5 "correctly"
When used for a blog, the ideal way would be to edit all the posts in the standard Block editor (Gutenberg) or even the classic editor, if you prefer.
Then, we show the posts through a template built with the Theme Builder, using keys and conditional display.
When done this way, you'll always edit posts inside the standard editor, where RankMath works perfectly. You'll know exactly how you're doing.
The drawback of course is it will not show you anything built outside the standard editor, like a custom header or footer, for instance, because these are nuilt with Divi 5 Visual Builder. The result is that the numbers inside the standard editor are usually a bit off, simply because not a single word included in the template is taken into account.
But I believe that for the purpose of answering about using Divi 5 with RankMath, this can be stated as "it works".
Other ways to compose posts
Of course, one can compose posts right inside the Visual Builder - Divi 5 supports it directly. All you have to do is start a new post and click the Use Divi Builder button.
But as I said already, you're on your own if you do that - RankMath will not show you anything, no matter what you write inside the boxes.
Of course, there's no right or wrong way. Which is why I've put the previous title in parenthesys. Whatever suits your needs is ok.
Personally, I prefer the first way - I'm always editing posts with either the Standard Gutenberg or the Classic editor (depends on the needs of the client). What has to be done when using Divi 5 this way is have some plan about how to organize templates inside the Theme Builder, but that's another story alltogether.
Conclusion: Using Divi 5 with RankMath
So if you want to use Divi 5 with RankMath, which I personally believe is a great combo, you'll have to compromise a little bit. That is, until RankMath officially backs Divi 5. I believe this will happen fast, since Divi 5 is widely popular and I can't imagine RankMath being ok about losing so many clients.
We'll just have to wait a little more and find our way around the problem while it's here.
0 Comments