WordPress

Publish EarlySEO articles to your self-hosted WordPress site using the EarlySEO Sync plugin.

The WordPress integration uses the EarlySEO Sync plugin to pull articles from EarlySEO into WordPress. It syncs automatically every 5 minutes, preserves formatting, imports SEO metadata for Yoast/Rank Math, and brings featured images across.

Need the WordPress extension? Install it here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/earlyseo-sync

Prerequisites

A self-hosted WordPress site (WordPress.org, not WordPress.com) running WordPress 5.8+
PHP 7.4 or higher
Admin access to install plugins
An EarlySEO account with at least one site

For WordPress.com hosted blogs, see the WordPress.com integration instead.

Setup

1. Create the integration in EarlySEO

Go to Integrations in your EarlySEO dashboard
Click Add Integration and choose WordPress
Select your publish mode: Draft (recommended) or Publish immediately
Click Create — EarlySEO generates a unique API key (format: wp_xxxxx_xxxxx)
Copy the API key — it is only shown once

If you lose the API key, create a new WordPress integration to generate a fresh key.

2. Install the WordPress plugin

Option A (recommended):

Go to the plugin listing: https://wordpress.org/plugins/earlyseo-sync
Click Download
In WordPress Admin, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
Choose the downloaded zip and click Install Now
Click Activate

Option B (direct zip):

Download: https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/earlyseo-sync.1.0.0.zip
Upload and activate using Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin

3. Connect your site

In WordPress Admin, go to Settings → EarlySEO Sync
Paste your API key from Step 1
Click Test Connection — you should see a green "Connected!" message with your integration name
Configure settings (recommended defaults below)
Click Save Changes

4. Sync articles

The plugin checks for new articles every 5 minutes automatically. You can also click Sync Now on the settings page to pull immediately.

Recommended settings

Setting	Recommended	Why
Post Status	Draft	Review before publishing
Default Author	A content editor	Consistent ownership
Default Category	Your SEO/Content category	Keeps imports organized
Auto Sync	On	Keeps new articles flowing

Plugin Settings

Setting	Options	Description
API Key	`wp_xxxxx_xxxxx`	Your unique API key from EarlySEO Integrations
Auto Sync	On / Off	Automatically sync articles every 5 minutes
Post Status	Draft, Pending Review, Published	Default status for newly synced articles (can be overridden by EarlySEO publish mode)
Default Author	Any WordPress user	Author assigned to imported articles
Default Category	Any category	Category assigned to imported articles

Features

Automatic & Manual Sync

Auto sync runs every 5 minutes via WP-Cron
Manual sync available from the settings page — click Sync Now
The admin bar shows the last sync time for quick status checks

Incremental Sync

The plugin only syncs new or updated articles — it tracks which articles have already been imported and won't create duplicates.

SEO Plugin Support

The plugin automatically sets SEO metadata for both Yoast SEO and RankMath:

Meta description
Focus keyword

Confirm the API key was copied completely without extra spaces — the format is wp_xxxxx_xxxxx
Your hosting or a security plugin may be blocking outbound HTTPS requests — see Cloudflare Troubleshooting

Articles not appearing

Check if WP-Cron is running — some hosts disable WP-Cron. Try clicking Sync Now from the settings page
Confirm the API key is valid by clicking Test Connection
If post status is Draft or Pending Review, articles will appear in those sections, not in the Published posts list

Duplicate posts

The plugin tracks synced article IDs — duplicates should not occur
If they do, check whether multiple integrations are configured with the same API key

Plugin won't activate

Ensure you are running WordPress 5.8+ and PHP 7.4+
Check that the plugin zip was not corrupted during download