Uninstall Cleanup: What Gets Removed When You Delete the Plugin

When you delete the SEOvault AI plugin from WordPress, you can choose whether to keep your SEO data or remove it completely. By default, the plugin preserves your SEO work so you can reinstall later without losing data. You can also enable full cleanup to remove everything.

Default behavior (data preserved)

By default, deleting the plugin removes only security-sensitive data:

Site key — Your authentication key for the SEOvault AI web app
Connection secrets — API credentials and encrypted connection data
Scoped API keys — Any custom API keys you created

The following data is preserved by default:

SEO titles and meta descriptions
Focus keywords
Canonical URLs
Noindex/nofollow directives
Open Graph and Twitter card data
Schema markup
Redirect rules
404 log entries
Local SEO business locations
Schema templates
Sitemap cache files
Plugin settings and options

This default behavior lets you:

Reinstall the plugin later without losing your SEO work
Switch to another SEO plugin and keep your data intact
Temporarily deactivate the plugin for testing

Enable full cleanup

To permanently delete all SEOvault AI data when uninstalling:

Go to SEOvault AI > General > Tools
In the “Data & Uninstall” section, check Erase all data on uninstall
Click Save Changes

When this option is enabled and you delete the plugin, the following is removed:

SEO metadata

SEO titles
Meta descriptions
Focus keywords
Canonical URLs
Noindex/nofollow directives
Open Graph and Twitter card data
Schema markup

Redirects and 404 data

All redirect rules
404 log entries
Fallback redirect settings

Local SEO

Business locations
Local schema data

Schema

Schema templates
Custom schema configurations

Cache and settings

Sitemap cache files
All plugin settings and options
Site key and connection secrets

Warning: This action cannot be undone. Only enable this if you want to completely remove SEOvault AI and all its data.

What happens during uninstall

When you delete the plugin from Plugins > Installed Plugins:

WordPress calls the plugin’s uninstall hook
If “Erase all data on uninstall” is enabled, the plugin:
- Deletes all custom database tables
- Removes all plugin options from the wp_options table
- Deletes post meta for SEO data
- Deletes term meta for category/tag SEO
- Removes redirect rules
- Clears 404 logs
- Deletes Local SEO locations
- Removes schema templates
- Clears sitemap cache files
If “Erase all data on uninstall” is disabled, the plugin:
- Removes only site key and connection secrets
- Keeps all other data intact

Reinstalling after uninstall

With data preserved (default)

If you reinstall the plugin after uninstalling with the default settings:

Your SEO data is still in the database
The plugin recognizes existing data on activation
No migration or recovery steps needed
Your SEO titles, descriptions, redirects, and settings work immediately

With full cleanup enabled

If you reinstall after enabling full cleanup:

All previous data is gone
The plugin starts fresh with default settings
You’ll need to reconfigure all settings
SEO data must be re-entered or re-imported from another plugin

Switching to another SEO plugin

If you’re switching to another SEO plugin (Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO, etc.):

Keep “Erase all data on uninstall” unchecked (default)
Install and configure the new SEO plugin
The new plugin may import data from SEOvault AI, or you can manually migrate
Once the new plugin is working, you can delete SEOvault AI
Your original SEO data remains in the database as a backup

Temporary deactivation vs uninstall

Deactivation — Turns off the plugin but keeps all data. Use this for testing or temporary changes.
Uninstall — Removes the plugin files. Data cleanup depends on your “Erase all data on uninstall” setting.

If you just want to turn off SEOvault AI temporarily, deactivate it instead of uninstalling.