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Rank Authority SEO Connector
Rank Authority SEO Connector

Rank Authority SEO Connector

5/5 (3 ratings) 10 active installs Updated Aug 7, 2026
automationcontent syncpublishingrest-apiseo
Download v1.0.61

Rank Authority SEO Connector links your WordPress site to the Rank Authority Dashboard. It provides REST API endpoints for publishing, updating, and deleting blog posts directly from your dashboard, plus IndexNow key-file support for search engine discovery workflows.

This plugin is a connector: the content optimization itself happens in the Rank Authority Dashboard, which is a paid third-party service and requires an account. See the External Services section below for every remote endpoint the plugin contacts and what is sent to it.

New in 1.0.61: The update endpoint no longer accepts a post_meta parameter, which previously allowed an authenticated request to write almost any post meta key with an unchecked value. Restoring a page builder layout now uses a copy the plugin saves when it clears the layout, so values sent with a request can no longer reach meta that page builders render as CSS or widgets.

Previously in 1.0.60: Removed arbitrary CSS handling entirely — the publishing endpoint no longer stores <style> blocks from submitted HTML, and nothing prints stored CSS into the page. Markup returned by the recommendation service is now filtered with wp_kses_post() before it is inserted, recommendations may only set attributes on an allow list, and JSON-LD is hex-escaped so no value can break out of its script block.

Previously in 1.0.59: Plugin display name changed to “Rank Authority SEO Connector” to describe the plugin itself. Hardened bearer-token authentication so an empty stored token can no longer be matched by an empty Authorization: Bearer header, and documented every external service the plugin contacts.

Previously in 1.0.58: SSR link recommendations now fall back to the visible anchor text when their CSS selector does not match the live DOM (parity with content/heading recommendations), improving link-optimization reliability on CMS-connected sites.

Previously in 1.0.57: Added an authenticated GET /ra/v1/content?slug=<slug> route that returns a published post/page body together with its SEO metadata (effective title, meta description, canonical, focus keyphrase) in one call. This lets the Rank Authority scanner audit title/meta-description tags for CMS-connected sites, which the public wp/v2 REST body does not expose. The GET /ra/v1/post/{id} response now also includes seo_title and canonical.

Previously in 1.0.56: RA-driven deletions now unpublish the post to draft (restorable) instead of permanently deleting it, while still serving 410 for the URL. Also added an authenticated GET /ra/v1/inventory route returning paginated published permalinks across all public post types, giving the Rank Authority Dashboard an authoritative URL list for Missing-page detection.

Previously in 1.0.55: GEO page and category templates now render on an explicit light surface (white card with dark base text). Generated GEO content assumes a light background, so themes that force a dark body background (e.g. a custom header with body { background: #000 }) were leaving the text invisible or near-black-on-black — the templates now guarantee readable contrast on any theme.

Previously in 1.0.54: Fixed the one-click self-update (POST /ra/v1/upgrade) leaving the plugin deactivated after a successful update. WordPress silently deactivates a plugin before swapping its files, and the REST-triggered path had no admin redirect to restore it — the plugin now records its active state and re-activates itself after the update (network-active sites included).

Previously in 1.0.53: Hardened server-side rendering (SSR) against page builders. Inline <script>, <style>, <svg>, and <noscript> blocks are now shielded from the HTML parser round-trip, so Elementor/Divi-style HTML widgets whose scripts contain markup (e.g. template literals with </div>) are preserved verbatim instead of leaking into the visible page. JSON-LD is unaffected and still updated in place.

Previously in 1.0.52: Fixed one-click self-update (POST /ra/v1/upgrade) wrongly reporting “already up to date” on sites that were behind — it now checks wordpress.org directly and force-installs the latest package even when the cached update metadata is empty (e.g. a non-rank-authority folder name or a stale update check).

Previously in 1.0.51: Added an authenticated POST /ra/v1/posts/bulk-delete endpoint so the Rank Authority Dashboard can remove multiple posts/pages by slug in one request. Deleted URLs are now recorded and served an HTTP 410 Gone response (instead of a 404) to signal a permanent, intentional removal for faster, cleaner deindexing; the marker is automatically cleared if a URL is later reused by a published post.

Previously in 1.0.50: Publish (POST) now accepts an optional slug parameter so the Rank Authority Dashboard can set a custom post permalink when the user specifies one; WordPress still auto-suffixes collisions as usual.

Previously in 1.0.49: One-click plugin self-update via POST /ra/v1/upgrade, filesystem-method pre-check for FTP/SSH sites, and reverse-proxy HTTPS detection via X-Forwarded-Proto / X-Forwarded-SSL.

Previously in 1.0.47: SEO recommendations are now applied server-side (SSR). The optimized title, meta tags, content, and internal/external links are written directly into the page HTML on the server, so every crawler (including non-JS crawlers and social scrapers) sees the optimized markup. The dashboard toggle now controls whether recommendations are applied — the legacy client-side script is no longer injected. Body-level changes are scoped to the post content region, and the result integrates with full-page caches (e.g. WP Rocket) so it is what gets cached.

Previously in 1.0.46: Maintenance release consolidating stored JSON-LD schema rendering into output_schema_markup(); front-end schema and RankLink output behavior is unchanged from 1.0.45.

Previously in 1.0.45: RankLink front-end performance and accuracy pass—single-pass content scan shared between the schema graph and the head summary meta, cached site host/scheme on link normalization, and per-anchor placement attribution based on the enclosing wrapper instead of attribute-occurrence heuristics.

Previously in 1.0.44: RankLink support—internal-link markers survive sanitization, optional JSON-LD relatedLink / significantLink, REST aliases at /ra/v1/page/{id}, and front-end summary plus ?ra_highlight=1 QA styling.

Key Features

  • Secure Token-Based Authentication: Uses Bearer token authentication for secure API access
  • Publish Posts: Create new blog posts directly from the Rank Authority Dashboard
  • Update Posts: Modify existing published posts with new content
  • Delete Posts: Remove posts from your WordPress site
  • IndexNow Key File Support: Configure and serve the IndexNow key file at /{key}.txt for compatible search engine discovery workflows
  • Dashboard Bootstrap Connection: Let administrators complete first-time dashboard connections through an HTTPS-only bootstrap endpoint
  • RSS / WebSub: RSS 2.0 feeds declare a PubSubHubbub (WebSub) hub link so update-friendly services can discover feed changes faster
  • Server-Side Optimization: When enabled, approved recommendations are applied to the rendered page HTML on the server; no third-party script is loaded in visitors’ browsers
  • Owner Controls: Token owner can manage visibility and regenerate tokens
  • HTTPS Required: All API requests require HTTPS for security

How It Works

  1. Install and activate the plugin
  2. Navigate to WordPress Admin Rank Authority
  3. Copy your unique connection token
  4. Use the token in your Rank Authority Dashboard to connect your WordPress site
  5. Start publishing content directly from your dashboard!

Security Features

  • Bearer token authentication
  • HTTPS requirement for all API requests
  • Token regeneration capability
  • Owner-based access controls

External Services

This plugin relies on the Rank Authority service to optimize your content. The endpoints below are every remote host the plugin contacts, what is sent to each, and when.

1. Rank Authority snippet CDN — https://dc23q3bsr9o1t.cloudfront.net/snippets

  • Purpose: retrieve the approved SEO recommendations and JSON-LD for the page currently being rendered.
  • Data sent: your Rank Authority website ID and a SHA-256 hash of the current page URL (as part of the request path). No visitor data, IP logging, or cookies are sent by the plugin.
  • When: on a front-end page render, only when “Enable SEO Tracking” is on and a website ID is connected. The result is cached in a transient for one hour (15 minutes for a miss), so it does not run on every page view.

2. Rank Authority snippet API — https://backend.rankauthority.com/public/snippet

  • Purpose: fallback lookup used only when the CDN has no snippet for the page.
  • Data sent: your website ID and the cleaned page URL as query parameters (website_id, page_id). Tracking parameters such as utm_*, gclid, fbclid, and msclkid are removed first.
  • When: same conditions and caching as the CDN lookup above.

3. Rank Authority Dashboard — https://rankauthority.com

  • Purpose: the dashboard that publishes and updates your content. It calls into your site’s ra/v1 REST endpoints using the bearer token you copy from the plugin settings; the content you publish and the metadata returned by those endpoints (post bodies, permalinks, SEO title and meta description) travel over that connection.
  • Data sent: only what your dashboard requests, and only after you connect the site with the token.
  • When: on demand, when you act in the dashboard.

4. Google Fonts — https://fonts.googleapis.com

  • Purpose: the Inter webfont used by the plugin’s own settings screen in wp-admin.
  • Data sent: the request is made by the administrator’s browser, which exposes their IP address and user agent to Google.
  • When: only while viewing the Rank Authority settings screen in wp-admin. It is not loaded on the front end.

Rank Authority is a third-party paid service operated by Rank Authority. By connecting your site you agree to its terms:

  • Terms of Service: https://rankauthority.com/terms-of-service/
  • Privacy Policy: https://rankauthority.com/privacy-policy/

The plugin also declares a WebSub hub (https://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/) in your RSS feed so feed subscribers can discover updates faster. The plugin itself sends no data to that hub; it only advertises the link in the feed.

Support

For support, please visit https://rankauthority.com or email [email protected]

Credits

Developed by Rank Authority
Website: https://rankauthority.com