Draftdrop – Markdown Importer with Front Matter & SEO Fields

Draftdrop lets you publish written articles without copying and pasting. Upload one or more .md files, check the preview, and create drafts in one step.

What it does

• Reads front matter: title, slug, category, tags, excerpt, SEO title, meta description, focus keyphrase, featured image and image alt text.
• Converts the article to native Gutenberg blocks (paragraphs, headings, lists, quotes, code, tables, images, separators). Anything unusual stays as a Custom HTML block, so nothing is lost. If your site uses the Classic editor, clean HTML is saved instead.
• Saves the SEO fields in the format used by Yoast SEO.
• Shows a preview with checks (missing description, title or description too long, duplicates) before anything is created.
• Skips files that were already imported or whose slug already exists.
• Saves everything as a draft (or “pending review”). Nothing is published automatically.

Safe by design

• Capability checks (edit_posts, upload_files) and nonces on every action.
• Article HTML is sanitized with the same rules WordPress uses for post content. Scripts and iframes are removed.
• Uploaded files are read from the temporary upload location and are not stored on your server.

File format

---
title: Car Rental in Tenerife: Complete Guide
slug: car-rental-tenerife-guide
category: Guides
tags: [tenerife, car rental]
seo_title: Car Rental in Tenerife (2026 Guide)
meta_description: Everything you need to know before renting a car in Tenerife.
focus_keyword: car rental tenerife
featured_image: https://example.com/images/tenerife.jpg
image_alt: Rental car on a coastal road
---

The article body in Markdown.

Only title is required.

External services

Draftdrop makes no external requests on its own. The only exception: if a file contains a featured_image URL, the plugin downloads that image once, when you confirm the import, using the WordPress HTTP API (wp_safe_remote_get). No data about you or your site is sent.

Third-party libraries

• Parsedown 1.8.0-beta-7 by Emanuil Rusev, MIT license. Included in lib/ (the class is renamed Draftdrop_Parsedown to avoid clashes with other plugins; otherwise unmodified). Source: https://github.com/erusev/parsedown