The publisher’s handbook.

01 / Prepare your WordPress site

Create a current backup and use a staging copy before changing SEO ownership. Record the current titles, descriptions, canonical URLs, robots directives and sitemap addresses so you can compare output after setup.

Review active SEO plugins. Multiple plugins generating the same titles, schema or sitemaps can conflict. Choose one owner for each output and validate the rendered page before enabling overlapping controls.

• Back up site files and content
• Record existing search metadata
• Test on staging before changing a live publication

02 / Establish publisher identity

Review the setup wizard, publisher details and default settings. Use the publication name readers recognize, a genuine logo and accurate author information. Do not invent credentials or descriptions for author profiles.

Set default metadata as a fallback, then use story-specific titles and descriptions when an article needs a more precise summary. Keep the canonical URL aligned with the page readers should visit.

03 / Review each article

Check that the headline describes the reporting and that the first paragraphs answer the reader’s main question. Review the featured image, accessible alternative text, byline, publication date and useful internal links.

Use the score as a checklist rather than chasing a number. Preview search and social presentation, inspect robots directives and confirm the selected schema reflects the actual article.

• Clear headline and useful summary
• Accurate author and date information
• Relevant links and correctly described images

04 / Validate discovery

Open the sitemap index and relevant child sitemaps. Confirm that intended public pages appear and excluded content stays out. Review News sitemap publication details and article eligibility in Sitemap Health.

Inspect a representative published page in your browser and use Google’s Rich Results Test for supported markup. Submit the correct sitemap to your own Search Console account and review coverage there; sitemap submission alone is not evidence of indexing.

05 / Maintain and troubleshoot

After major theme, caching or plugin changes, recheck rendered metadata and XML output. Use Diagnostics to inspect conflicts, canonicals, structured data and cache behavior.

When a page disappears, investigate the requested path before redirecting it. Send readers to a genuinely equivalent destination; do not redirect every missing story to the homepage. Review a sample of archive content regularly for outdated information and broken editorial context.

06 / Download and install the plugin

Download PublishRank.zip from the latest GitHub release using any Download button on this site. In WordPress, open Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the ZIP, select Install Now and then Activate. Do not unzip the file first.

After activation, open PublishRank → Dashboard and run the Setup Wizard. Confirm your publication name, description, title separator and logo before enabling optional tools. Install on a staging copy before touching a live publication.

• Upload the ZIP exactly as downloaded
• Activate, then review the Setup Wizard
• Check Technical health for conflicts before going live

07 / Titles, descriptions and variables

Open PublishRank → Titles & Meta to edit the shared title separator and the global title and description templates. Templates use variables that resolve per page, so a single template can serve thousands of stories.

Set a sensible default, then override the title or description on individual posts from the SEO Overrides panel when a story needs a more precise summary. Check the rendered page source after changes to confirm only one title and one description are emitted.

• Global templates with dynamic variables
• Per-post custom titles and descriptions
• One configurable separator across titles and breadcrumbs

08 / Social sharing and Open Graph

PublishRank generates Open Graph and Twitter/X metadata from the same publication identity used for search titles, so a shared link carries a consistent name, description and URL.

Technical health recommends a fallback share image. Choose a landscape image around 1200 × 630 pixels that you are authorized to use, so stories without a featured image still look intentional when shared.

09 / Structured data, breadcrumbs and the Schema Aggregator

Use Schema studio to configure your publisher, website and article markup. Choose the article type that fits each story and keep author and publisher details accurate. Breadcrumbs can be placed automatically or manually, with predefined or custom separators and breadcrumb schema output.

The Schema Aggregator publishes a machine-readable feed of the structured data your site emits, which is useful for audits and AI-crawler discovery. If a theme already prints breadcrumbs, use the theme conflict guidance to keep one visible trail and one schema block.

• Validate with Google’s Rich Results Test after template changes
• One breadcrumb trail, one breadcrumb schema block
• Review the aggregator endpoint after theme or block updates

10 / Sitemaps, News sitemap and IndexNow

PublishRank serves a sitemap index with separate sitemaps for posts, pages, taxonomies, authors and news. Open Sitemap health to review endpoints, eligibility and generation status, then submit the sitemap index in your own Search Console account.

The Google News sitemap covers recent articles within the news publication window. IndexNow can notify supported search engines when content changes, but it must be configured, and a notification is not a guarantee of indexing.

• Pretty permalinks must be enabled for sitemap URLs to be served
• Large sitemaps are split into shards
• Exclusions keep private or low-value content out

11 / Google Preferred Sources

The Google Preferred Sources tool generates your preferred-source link from your site address, then lets you choose Google’s official button or a custom styled link. Pick where it appears (top, above, middle, below or footer of content), which page types it covers and the alignment, then save.

You can also place it manually with the shortcode [publishrank_preferred_source]. Google’s official button depends on Google’s own script loading and recognizing your publication; entering a domain does not register or verify it with Google.

• Copy the link or the HTML code from the dashboard
• Preview the button before saving
• Reset everything to defaults at any time

12 / Crawl optimization and robots.txt

Crawl Optimization offers opt-in switches to remove unwanted discovery metadata (shortlinks, RSD, oEmbed links, the generator tag), feed discovery links, low-value internal search URLs and unregistered query parameters. Options stay disabled until you choose them, and the discovery-markup options do not disable the underlying WordPress APIs.

Redirect-based cleanup can affect tracking and site behavior. Test on staging, confirm analytics and preview links still work, and keep a record of what you changed. Robots.txt directives guide crawlers; they do not secure confidential content.

• Enable one group at a time and re-check rendered output
• Known analytics, pagination, preview and REST parameters are preserved
• Add any extra allowed parameters your tools rely on

13 / The Newsroom workspace

The Newsroom module adds a planning board, calendar, activity history, notifications, configuration and roles inside WordPress. Assign editors, reporters and contributors so story ownership and publication handoffs are visible.

If you see a notice that Newsroom attachments are disabled, your server has no writable storage directory outside the public web root. Ask your host to provide a private directory outside DOCUMENT_ROOT before uploading confidential material.

14 / AI discovery and llms.txt

The AI & llms.txt tool helps you review the optional llms.txt file and the discovery links added to your page head. Discovery files describe your site to crawlers; they do not guarantee citations, traffic or inclusion in AI answers.

Review what you expose before publishing, and keep private or excluded content out of every discovery output.

15 / Login protection with WP Hide Login

Move the WordPress login away from /wp-login.php to reduce automated sign-in attempts. Write down the new login address and store it somewhere safe before saving.

This is a hardening step, not a replacement for strong passwords, two-factor authentication or a firewall. If you lose the new address, you can usually recover access by renaming the plugin folder over SFTP or in your host’s file manager.

16 / Error reference

Use this list to resolve the most common installation and runtime messages. Always make a backup before changing server settings.

• “The package could not be installed” or “Unable to create directory” — fix file permissions or free disk space, then upload again.
• “Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error” — check your host’s PHP version, deactivate other SEO plugins, and read wp-content/debug.log with WP_DEBUG_LOG enabled.
• “The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive” — raise upload_max_filesize and post_max_size, or install over SFTP into wp-content/plugins.
• Sitemap returns 404 — enable pretty permalinks, open Settings → Permalinks, press Save to refresh rewrite rules, and clear caches.
• Duplicate titles, canonicals or schema — another SEO plugin or the theme is printing the same tags; choose one owner for each output.
• Preferred Sources button is missing — confirm automatic placement or the shortcode is on, that an ad blocker is not stopping Google’s script, and that the page type is selected.
• Download does not start — open the GitHub releases page and choose PublishRank.zip from the latest release manually.

17 / Back up, export and reset

Use Import / Export to back up and restore PublishRank settings, and Configuration history to review recorded changes and prior values. Settings persist across updates, and defaults are applied for new installations.

Reset controls return a tool to its defaults. Export your settings first, because a reset cannot be undone from the dashboard.

• Export before major configuration changes
• Keep a dated copy with the site release notes
• Test restore procedures on staging

18 / Create an editorial ownership map

Write down who owns publication identity, article defaults, schema templates, sitemap exclusions, redirects, newsroom permissions and incident response. The owner does not have to do every task, but someone should be accountable for the final output.

Keep this map close to the editorial handbook and revisit it after a team change, a theme migration or the installation of another SEO extension.

• Editorial owner for article-level review
• Technical owner for templates and crawl controls
• Archive owner for redirects, corrections and stale content

19 / Measure quality before measuring growth

Before comparing traffic, establish a small baseline: how many representative articles have one canonical URL, one article schema block, an accurate byline, a useful image and the intended sitemap membership. These are controllable signals that reveal process friction earlier than traffic reports.

Review the baseline after releases and record exceptions rather than hiding them. A visible exception is easier to fix than a silent inconsistency.

• Sample new, evergreen and updated articles
• Record exceptions with an owner and due date
• Compare output after theme or plugin changes

20 / Build a quarterly archive review

Set a recurring review for high-value evergreen stories, important topic pages and URLs with strong inbound links. Check facts, authorship, images, internal links, redirects and whether the page still answers the reader’s intent.

Do not update a date or headline solely to appear fresh. Make a substantive change, explain material corrections and keep the URL stable whenever the article remains the same work.