Skip to main content
Connecting your site is the first real action you take inside Rankforce, and it’s the step that unlocks everything else — audits, agent recommendations, schema injections, and Autopilot. Rankforce uses native plugins for both WordPress and Framer, so the connection is lightweight, secure, and doesn’t require any custom code. Once connected, the platform reads your site’s content and metadata through the plugin and writes approved changes back through the same channel.

​
Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have the following in place:
  • A Rankforce account. If you haven’t signed up yet, create one at rankforce.co/register.
  • A WordPress site running version 5.0 or later with administrator access, or a published Framer site where you have the ability to install plugins.
  • Your Rankforce API key, which you can find under Settings → API Keys in the Rankforce dashboard.
Each connected site counts toward your plan’s site limit. The Starter plan supports one site. Growth supports three. Scale supports unlimited sites. You can view your current usage at any time under Settings → Plan & Billing.

​
Connect a WordPress site

1

Install the Rankforce WordPress plugin

Log in to your WordPress admin panel and navigate to Plugins → Add New Plugin. Search for “Rankforce” in the plugin directory. When the Rankforce plugin appears in the results, click Install Now, then click Activate once the installation completes.Alternatively, if you prefer to install manually, download the plugin .zip file from Dashboard → Add Site → WordPress → Download Plugin in your Rankforce account. Then go to Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin in WordPress, upload the .zip file, and click Install Now, followed by Activate.
2

Enter your API key

After activating the plugin, a new Rankforce menu item appears in your WordPress sidebar. Click it to open the plugin settings page. In the API Key field, paste the key you copied from Settings → API Keys in the Rankforce dashboard.
If you have multiple sites on your Rankforce account, each site gets its own unique API key. Make sure you copy the key that corresponds to the site you’re currently connecting — you’ll find it listed by domain name on the API Keys page.
3

Authorize the connection

With your API key entered, click Authorize Connection. The plugin sends a handshake request to Rankforce’s servers and, if the key is valid, displays a green Connected confirmation message within the plugin settings panel.Switch back to your Rankforce dashboard. Your site should now appear in the Sites list with a Connected status badge. Rankforce will begin an initial crawl of your site automatically — this typically completes within a few minutes for sites under 100 pages.
If you see a “Connection failed” error after entering your API key, double-check that your WordPress site is publicly accessible (not under maintenance mode or behind a password) and that your server isn’t blocking outbound HTTPS requests to api.rankforce.co. If the issue persists, contact support from the Rankforce dashboard.

​
Connect a Framer site

1

Open your Framer project and navigate to Plugins

Open the Framer project you want to connect in the Framer editor. Click the Plugins icon in the left sidebar (it looks like a puzzle piece) to open the Plugin Manager. If you don’t see it, make sure you’re in the published project view rather than a component library.
2

Install the Rankforce plugin

In the Plugin Manager search bar, type “Rankforce” and press Enter. The Rankforce plugin will appear in the results. Click Install to add it to your project. The plugin installs instantly and opens a configuration panel on the right side of the editor.
3

Authorize with your Rankforce credentials

In the Rankforce plugin panel, click Sign in with Rankforce. A browser window opens prompting you to log in to your Rankforce account if you aren’t already. After signing in, you’ll be asked to authorize Framer access for your Rankforce workspace. Click Allow Access.The plugin panel updates to show your connected workspace name and a list of your existing sites. If this is a new site, click Add This Site to register the current Framer project as a new connected site in Rankforce.

​
Verify the connection in your dashboard

After completing either the WordPress or Framer connection flow, return to the Rankforce dashboard and confirm the following:
  1. Your site appears in the Sites list on the main dashboard.
  2. The status badge next to the site domain reads Connected in green.
  3. The Last Synced timestamp updates — this confirms the plugin has successfully checked in with Rankforce’s servers.
Once verified, click Run Audit to kick off your first full-site analysis. For a guided walkthrough of what to do with your audit results, see the Quickstart guide.

​
Adding additional sites

If you’re on a Growth or Scale plan, you can connect more than one site to your Rankforce workspace. From the main dashboard, click Add Site in the top-right corner of the Sites panel. You’ll be prompted to choose WordPress or Framer and then follow the same connection steps outlined above. Each new site generates its own unique API key automatically — you’ll find it waiting for you in Settings → API Keys as soon as you initiate the new site connection.
If you’ve reached your plan’s site limit and try to add another site, Rankforce will prompt you to upgrade before proceeding. You won’t lose any existing site data during an upgrade.

​
Disconnecting or reconnecting a site

To disconnect a site, go to Sites, click the three-dot menu next to the site you want to remove, and select Disconnect Site. This revokes the API key, removes the site from your dashboard, and stops all agent activity for that site. The Rankforce plugin on your WordPress installation (or the Framer plugin) will become inactive but remains installed — your site content is not affected. To reconnect a previously disconnected site, click Add Site and follow the connection flow again. Rankforce will recognize the domain and restore your previous audit history.
Disconnecting a site permanently revokes its API key. If you reconnect the same site later, a new API key is generated. You’ll need to update the API key field inside the WordPress plugin settings or re-authorize via the Framer plugin to restore the connection.

​
Setting protected pages

After your site is connected, you can tell Rankforce which pages should be excluded from agent activity — for example, checkout pages, private member areas, or pages under active redesign. Go to Sites → [Your Site] → Settings → Protected Pages and add the URLs or URL patterns you want to exclude. The agents will skip these pages during audits and will never apply changes to them, even when Autopilot is enabled.
You don’t need to set up protected pages before connecting. It’s a post-connection setting you can configure at any time, and changes take effect on the next audit cycle.