WP Engine is usually a managed WordPress host, this means it commonly protects things like back ups, changes, and to protect you (see here for the distinctions involving provided and managed web hosting service). WP…
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If you don’t want to use Yoast SEO, see this post for a comparison of Yoast SEO plugin and its main alternative. I should therefore consider finding an alternative and re-testing, or deactivating any other…