With The SEO Framework, we’ll never delete data from your database when you uninstall any of our plugins. Because if you ever need to reinstall the plugin(s), you can continue where you left off.

However, if you must inspect, change, or even delete options from The SEO Framework product family, below, we list where to look. Make a backup of your database before using any of the removal snippets!

The SEO Framework

The SEO Framework is a feature-complete SEO plugin for WordPress. You can get it from WordPress.org. The lists below apply to The SEO Framework v5.0.5 and higher, but most entries also pertain to (much) earlier versions.

Options

WordPress options are stored in table {$prefix}options. Below, we list the option_name column values.

Stale Options

This option is only loaded when requested by the plugin. Otherwise, it is dormant/inert/stale and does not affect database performance whatsoever. Briefly, it means you can safely keep this data on your site forever. However, it is a critical key in the plugin upgrade chain — so, if you clean up your database, remove this too.

Autoloaded Options

WordPress loads all autoloaded options in one single database query. Therefore, these options will always be loaded and can take up a negligible amount of server resources.

Removal

To delete these, add this snippet to your site, and visit your admin dashboard once:

add_action( 'admin_init', function () {
	delete_option( 'the_seo_framework_initial_db_version' );
	delete_option( 'autodescription-site-settings' );
	delete_option( 'autodescription-site-cache' );
	delete_option( 'the_seo_framework_tested_upgrade_version' );
	delete_option( 'the_seo_framework_upgraded_db_version' );
} );

After the options are deleted, you should remove the snippet. If you leave the snippet active on your site, it can affect its performance; but, it won’t cause any harm.

Post Metadata

WordPress post metadata values are stored in table {$prefix}postmeta. WordPress loads all the post’s metadata at once when any value of the post is requested. Below, we list the meta_key column values.

Side notes

Unlike term and user meta settings–which follow a NoSQL-like Key-value store database model–, these entries follow an archaic EAV database model. Under controlled circumstances, neither is worse. However, since we’re sharing the table with other plugins this is prone to collisions, and it’s an overal bad implementation which we need to resolve. Until then, the aforementioned entries apply.

You probably have also noticed that some meta keys have underscore prefixes, and others hold the genesis name. These are discrepancies with a legacy background.

Removal

Due to the complex nature of these entries, and because some keys might be shared with other plugins or themes, we do not recommend removing this data. Precisely this issue is what’s preventing us from moving to the new NoSQL-like system rapidly.

Nevertheless, to remove all these entries, use the code below, and visit your admin dashboard (once).
Warning: This code hasn’t been battle-tested. Make a backup of your database before proceeding!

// Make a backup of your database before using this!
add_action( 'admin_init', function () {
	global $wpdb;

	$rows = [ '_genesis_title', '_tsf_title_no_blogname', '_genesis_description', '_genesis_canonical_uri', 'redirect', '_social_image_url', '_social_image_id', '_genesis_noindex', '_genesis_nofollow', '_genesis_noarchive', 'exclude_local_search', 'exclude_from_archive', '_open_graph_title', '_open_graph_description', '_twitter_title', '_twitter_description', ];
	$like = [ '_primary_term_%', '' ];

	$escsql_map_str = function ( $v ) use ( $wpdb ) {
		return $wpdb->prepare( "%s", $wpdb->_escape( $v ) );
	};
	$escsql_map_like = function ( $v ) use ( $wpdb ) {
		$v = $wpdb->_escape( $v );
		return $v ? $wpdb->prepare( "OR `meta_key` LIKE %s", $v ) : '';
	};

	$wpdb->query(
		vsprintf(
			"
			DELETE FROM {$wpdb->postmeta}
			WHERE `meta_key` IN (%s) %s
			",
			[
				implode(
					', ',
					array_map( $escsql_map_str, $rows )
				),
				implode(
					' ',
					array_map( $escsql_map_like, $like )
				),
			]
		)
	);
} );

After all the post metadata is deleted, you should remove the snippet. If you leave the snippet active on your site, it can affect its performance significantly; but, it won’t cause any (more) harm.

Term Metadata

WordPress term metadata values are stored in table {$prefix}termmeta. WordPress loads all the term’s metadata at once when any value of the term is requested. Below, we list the meta_key column value.

Removal

To delete these, add this snippet to your site, and visit your admin dashboard once:

add_action( 'admin_init', function () {
	delete_metadata( 'term', 0, 'autodescription-term-settings', false, true );
} );

After all the term metadata is deleted, you should remove the snippet. If you leave the snippet active on your site, it can affect its performance; but, it won’t cause any harm.

User Metadata

WordPress user metadata values are stored in (main blog’s only) table {$prefix}usermeta. WordPress loads all the user’s metadata at once when any value of the user is requested. Below, we list the meta_key column value.

Removal

To delete these, add this snippet to your site, and visit your admin dashboard once:

add_action( 'admin_init', function () {
	delete_metadata( 'user', 0, 'autodescription-user-settings', false, true );
	delete_metadata( 'user', 0, 'meta-box-order_toplevel_page_theseoframework-settings', false, true );
	delete_metadata( 'user', 0, 'closedpostboxes_toplevel_page_theseoframework-settings', false, true );
	delete_metadata( 'user', 0, 'metaboxhidden_toplevel_page_theseoframework-settings', false, true );
} );

After all the user metadata is deleted, you should remove the snippet. If you leave the snippet active on your site, it can affect its performance; but, it won’t cause any harm.

Transients

Transients are (often) short-lived, non-persistent database entries. They’re meant to hold data between site sessions. These entries can have an expiry date (we call them “stale transients”), and WordPress periodically checks for these dates to remove them from the database. Transients can also be stored permanently, but we no longer use that feature.

Stale transients

Stale transients expire automatically and are only queried from the database when requested explicitly. So, you do not need to worry about these when you want to clean up your database.

Removal

Since stale transients are volatile, we won’t bother including them in this snippet.

add_action( 'admin_init', function () {
	global $wpdb;

	$wpdb->query(
		$wpdb->prepare(
			"DELETE FROM $wpdb->options WHERE `option_name` LIKE %s",
			$wpdb->esc_like( '_transient_tsf_exclude_' ) . '%'
		)
	);
	$wpdb->query(
		$wpdb->prepare(
			"DELETE FROM $wpdb->options WHERE `option_name` LIKE %s",
			$wpdb->esc_like( '_transient_timeout_tsf_exclude_' ) . '%'
		)
	);
} );

Extension Manager

Extension Manager extends The SEO Framework with extensions. You can get it from our network. The lists below apply to Extension Manager v2.4 and higher, but most entries also pertain to (much) earlier versions.

For summarized context of any of these options, please refer to the descriptions above.

Options

Stale Options

Autoloaded Options

Limbo Options

These options switch between stale and autoloaded–only when they’re filled in, they’re autoloaded. This takes a load off from your database, because when these options are filled in, they might get the same data refilled constantly. However, these options aren’t critical to any public part of your website, so they default to a stale state.

Removal

To delete these, add this snippet to your site, and visit your admin dashboard once:

add_action( 'admin_init', function () {
	global $wpdb;
	
	$wpdb->query(
		$wpdb->prepare(
			"DELETE FROM $wpdb->options WHERE `option_name` LIKE %s",
			$wpdb->esc_like( 'tsfem_i_' ) . '%'
		)
	);

	delete_option( 'tsf-extension-manager-settings' );
	delete_option( 'tsf-extension-manager-active-extension' );
	delete_option( 'tsf-extension-manager-extension-settings' );
	delete_option( 'tsfem_current_db_versions' );
	delete_option( 'tsfem_e_focus_ajax_error_notice_option' );
	delete_option( 'tsfem_e_local_error_notice_option' );
	delete_option( 'tsfem_e_monitor_error_notice_option' );
	delete_option( 'tsfem_error_notice_option' );
	delete_option( 'tsfem_extension_settings_error_notice_option' );
} );

After the options are deleted, you should remove the snippet. If you leave the snippet active on your site, it can affect its performance; but, it won’t cause any harm.

Post metadata

Removal

To delete these, add this snippet to your site, and visit your admin dashboard once:

add_action( 'admin_init', function () {
	delete_metadata( 'post', 0, '_tsfem-extension-post-meta', false, true );
} );

After all the term metadata is deleted, you should remove the snippet. If you leave the snippet active on your site, it can affect its performance; but, it won’t cause any harm.

Term metadata

Removal

To delete these, add this snippet to your site, and visit your admin dashboard once:

add_action( 'admin_init', function () {
	delete_metadata( 'term', 0, '_tsfem-extension-term-meta', false, true );
} );

After all the term metadata is deleted, you should remove the snippet. If you leave the snippet active on your site, it can affect its performance, but it won’t cause any harm.

Transients

All transients in Extension Manager are stale and volatile; they expire, aren’t autoloaded, and WordPress cleans them up automatically.

Site Transients

Site transients are transients that can be accessed globally on a WordPress Multisite network. They act like normal transients everywhere else.

Stale Transients