WordPress

Rankturn publishes articles directly to WordPress, signing in securely with an Application Password. You can publish each article live or save it as a draft, upload images to the WordPress Media Library, map tags and categories, and — optionally — keep edits in sync in both directions.

This connection works with self-hosted WordPress and any WordPress.com plan that supports Application Passwords.

Prerequisites

Before connecting, make sure you have:

• A WordPress site running WordPress 5.6 or later (Application Passwords are built in from this version).
• The site reachable at https://your-site.com/wp-json/. If a security plugin or host has blocked this address, re-enable it first.
• A WordPress user whose role can create posts (Author, Editor, or Administrator).
• An Application Password for that user — not the normal login password.

Creating an Application Password

1. Log in to your WordPress admin (/wp-admin).
2. Go to Users → Profile (or Users → All Users, then edit the user you want Rankturn to post as).
3. Scroll to the Application Passwords section.
4. Enter a name you'll recognize, e.g. Rankturn, then click Add New Application Password.
5. Copy the generated password. It is shown only once and looks like abcd EFGH 1234 wxyz 5678 9012 (spaces are part of it — paste it exactly as shown).

Connecting

1. In Rankturn, go to Settings → Integrations.
2. Find the WordPress card and click Connect.
3. Fill in the form:

4. Click Connect.

Before saving, Rankturn tests the connection. If it succeeds, you'll see a confirmation that names the connected user; if it fails, the WordPress error message is shown so you can correct the URL, username, or password.

When you connect, Rankturn also detects the post types your site offers (used later for multi-destination profiles). To change settings on an existing connection, use Edit Settings on the card — leaving the Application Password blank keeps the stored one.

Publish Format

When connecting you choose how your article body is added to the WordPress post.

Gutenberg blocks (default, recommended). Rankturn builds the post as native Gutenberg blocks, so it opens as editable blocks in the WordPress block editor. In the rare case a block can't be built, Rankturn quietly falls back to plain HTML rather than failing the publish.

HTML. The body is posted as plain HTML, unchanged. This is the older behavior — useful if your theme or workflow expects classic-editor HTML.

Whichever format you pick, before publishing Rankturn:

• Uploads the article's thumbnail and inline images to the WordPress Media Library and updates the body to point at the new WordPress images.
• Sets the thumbnail as the post's featured image and removes it from the body to avoid duplication.
• Removes a leading top-level heading from the body (WordPress shows the post title separately).
• Keeps inline images within your layout so they don't overflow.
• Adds structured data (Schema.org) so search engines understand the article.
• If a canonical URL is set, writes it to both Yoast SEO and Rank Math fields (those plugins must be active for the value to take effect).

Publish vs. Draft. The publish format chosen on the connection (or on a destination profile) decides whether each post goes live (Published) or is saved as a Draft. Drafts appear in WordPress ready for review and can be published manually there.

Bidirectional Sync

By default, sync is one-way: Rankturn sends articles to WordPress. You can turn on Bidirectional Sync so that edits made in WordPress flow back into Rankturn. With it enabled, two methods keep things current:

1. Hourly check. About once an hour, Rankturn asks WordPress for posts changed since the last check and pulls those updates in. This works on every site with no extra setup.
2. Instant updates (optional). A small PHP snippet on your site notifies Rankturn the moment a post is saved, so changes arrive in seconds instead of waiting for the next hourly check.

For broader concepts (matching, conflict handling), see Bidirectional Sync.

Enabling instant updates

1. On the connected WordPress card, turn on Bidirectional Sync.
2. Click Show Snippet under the instant-updates section.
3. Copy the Webhook URL and the PHP snippet shown.
4. Add the snippet to your site — for example via your theme's functions.php or a code-snippets plugin.

The snippet only sends a notification: when it fires, Rankturn fetches the latest version of the post straight from WordPress before applying it, so the actual content always comes from WordPress.

How changes are reconciled

When Rankturn pulls a post, it matches it to an existing article first by its WordPress post, then by a saved reference, and finally by slug. When the same article has changed in both places, WordPress wins:

• If the post hasn't changed since Rankturn last sent it, the update is treated as an echo of your own change and skipped.
• If the content is unchanged since the last sync, it's skipped.
• If the article was also edited in Rankturn since the last sync, the WordPress version is applied anyway (and the difference is recorded as a conflict).

Importing posts authored in WordPress

There are two ways to bring in posts that originated in WordPress:

• Import New (automatic). When Bidirectional Sync is on, an extra Import New toggle appears. Turn it on so posts written directly in WordPress with no matching Rankturn article are created automatically as drafts during sync. Imports never use up your article generation allowance.
• Import (manual, one-time). The Import button on the card opens a dialog where you can browse your WordPress posts, filter by status, and import all of them or just a selection. This is the easiest way to pull in existing content right after connecting.

Multi-Destination Profiles

A single WordPress connection can publish to more than one destination on your site through publish profiles. Each profile pairs a post type with a default publish format and optional default categories — handy when you publish standard blog posts to one place and, say, news items or a custom post type elsewhere.

In the Destinations area of the connected card you can:

• Add a profile — give it a name, pick a Post Type (e.g. Posts, Pages, or any custom type discovered on your site), choose Publish or Draft, and optionally list Default Categories as a comma-separated list.
• Set a default — the profile marked with a star is used when you publish without choosing one. There is always exactly one default.
• Edit or remove profiles. (You can't remove the last remaining profile.)
• Rediscover post types — if you add a custom post type in WordPress later, click rediscover to refresh the available list.

When publishing through a profile, Rankturn posts to that profile's post type and combines the profile's default categories with any categories on the article. Tags and categories are matched by name, and any that don't yet exist are created. Slugs longer than WordPress's 200-character limit are trimmed automatically.

Troubleshooting

"Connection test failed" / "Invalid credentials" — Double-check the Site URL, username, and Application Password. Use the WordPress username, not your display name or email, and paste the Application Password exactly (including the spaces). Regenerate the Application Password if in doubt.

The connection test or publish can't reach the site — Confirm https://your-site.com/wp-json/ loads in a browser. A security plugin, firewall, or host setting may be blocking access or Application Password sign-in; re-enable them. Rankturn also checks the Site URL and rejects internal or unreachable addresses.

Images don't appear or the body still shows the thumbnail — Make sure the publishing user can upload media (Author role or higher). Rankturn uploads images to the Media Library and sets the thumbnail as the featured image; a permissions issue can leave images missing.

Canonical URL isn't applied — Canonical URLs are written to Yoast SEO and Rank Math meta fields. Install and activate one of those SEO plugins for the value to take effect.

Tags or categories are missing — They're matched by name and created when absent; if a tag or category fails to resolve, it's skipped rather than blocking the publish. Confirm the publishing user can manage terms.

Edits in WordPress aren't syncing back — Confirm Bidirectional Sync is on. Changes you make in WordPress arrive on the hourly check, or near-instantly if you've added the PHP snippet. Brand-new WordPress posts only sync automatically when Import New is enabled; otherwise use the manual Import button.