Installation & setup

1. Prepare a safe environment

Record your WordPress version, active theme, SEO plugins, caching layers, and the PublishRank release you intend to use. Back up both the database and files, and confirm that you can restore them. A backup without a tested restore path is not a rollout plan.

Use a staging copy for the first configuration. Keep staging inaccessible to search engines, and remove accidental staging URLs from production metadata. Choose a small validation set: a recent news article, an older article, a section page, an author page, and a page with video or images.

2. Install and avoid competing output

Open the PublishRank WordPress.org directory link for the supplied slug publishrank, or use a trusted release package. If the directory redirects to search instead of a plugin detail page, confirm availability with the project before installing. In WordPress, use Plugins → Add New and search for PublishRank only after confirming the correct listing. Confirm the author and version before activating. Follow the controls supplied by your installed release rather than assuming the presence of a specific settings screen.

Identify which component generates titles, descriptions, canonicals, structured data, and sitemaps. Two SEO plugins producing the same signals can conflict. Do not disable an existing plugin until you understand which metadata, redirects, and sitemap URLs depend on it.

3. Establish publisher identity

Review the publication name, production domain, organization identity, logo, author names, and public author profiles. Keep those details consistent with the information visibly published on your site. Use accurate titles and descriptions rather than repeating the same keywords across every story.

Check the intended canonical host, HTTPS usage, permalink structure, and default robots behavior. Configure article and news settings only where they are available in the installed release.

4. Validate representative pages

• View the rendered HTML and confirm one meaningful title, description, and canonical URL.
• Check that production articles are not accidentally marked noindex.
• Open sitemap URLs and inspect the response rather than relying only on a settings confirmation.
• Test structured data with the Rich Results Test and inspect URLs in Search Console.
• Review article social previews and the destination of internal links.

Compare the production output to your staging results after deployment. Purge relevant caches when a settings change does not appear in HTML or XML output.

5. Launch with an ownership checklist

Assign responsibility for metadata reviews, sitemap health, redirect changes, author identity, and plugin updates. Record your release, important configuration decisions, and representative test URLs. Roll out to a small content sample before expanding across an archive.

A healthy setup is a starting point, not a ranking guarantee. Continue with the news SEO guide and the operations handbook.

Reference: WordPress plugin management · Google Rich Results Test