Integrations
Level 3 / MethodFlowpane for WordPress
Flowpane for WordPress is a plugin that tells Flowpane what WordPress knows about your pages, so it can compare that with your sitemaps and the live site. Every request is signed with a key that never leaves your site, your content is never sent, and nothing changes without your approval.
During the beta, connectors are switched on for testers platform by platform. Tell us your platform when you apply and we will prioritise it.
Join the betaWhat it tells Flowpane
What your CMS knows, without your content.
Once connected, the connector reports three things by default. None of them includes a title, a line of text or an author.
01
Content changes
A signed, sequenced record of each item's ID, type, publication status and last-modified time. Gaps in the record are detected, and you can resynchronise.
02
A page report
Daily, and soon after changes: every public page with its type, publication state (published, scheduled, expired or restricted), public URL and explicit robots values, with site-wide settings such as the global robots setting, the canonical domain and sitemap hints.
03
Robots changes
A change to a robots setting is reported soon after it is made, so drift shows up before the next scheduled check.
What Flowpane shows you
Three views of every page, side by side.
The Pages view puts what your CMS says beside the sitemaps that list each URL and what the public page actually does. Where they disagree, you get a finding.
Layer 1
What your CMS says
Publication state and robots values, from the page report.
Layer 2
What your sitemaps list
Which sitemaps list the URL, and which tool produces them.
Layer 3
What the live page does
What Flowpane's own public check receives, from the status code to the robots directives.
Findings include
- The CMS allows indexing but the live page says noindex, or the reverse.
- Published in the CMS, but the live address returns 404 or 410.
- More than one robots setting applies to the same page.
- A sitemap lists a URL that is noindex, blocked, redirecting or unavailable.
Connector findings are review warnings, kept apart from the site score.
Which tool produces each file
Flowpane shows which tool produces each governance file where it can tell. From public signatures, it identifies sitemaps made by Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, RSSeo!, OSMap, JSitemap and WordPress core. Every other file is checked just the same.
What it can change
Only with your approval.
Changes are opt-in, a person approves each one, and each is made only where the platform allows.
Page directives
- Adds noindex or nofollow to the pages you choose.
- Never removes anyone else's noindex, and never edits your content, settings or SEO tool settings.
- A noindex on the homepage needs a second confirmation.
- Disconnecting stops the directives.
Flowpane's own sitemap
- Served beside your existing sitemaps, at /flowpane-sitemap.xml where the platform allows, with up to 50,000 URLs.
- You review a preview before each publication.
- Other sitemaps are never changed, and nothing is submitted to Google.
robots.txt
On WordPress, the plugin observes robots.txt and does not change it.
Proof and records
Every change is checked in public.
Checked after every change
Flowpane checks the public result after each change, retrying when a cache is stale. It never purges your cache.
Paused until proven
If Flowpane cannot prove a change applied, further changes pause until it can.
Revisions that stay put
Revisions are immutable. Restoring an old one creates a new revision.
A full trail
Every action appears in Flowpane's activity and audit trail.
Security and privacy
Your key never leaves your site.
The connector and Flowpane talk only through signed requests, and only the site's administrators can use it.
A key made on your site
An Ed25519 key is generated on your site and sealed with the site's own secret. It is never sent, shown or logged.
Signed in both directions
Every request is signed over its method, path, body digest, a single-use nonce and a short time window. Flowpane's replies are signed too.
What is never sent
Titles, body text, authors, comments, users, custom fields, orders and plugin configuration.
Administrators only
Only the site's administrators can use it.
How it works
How it works on WordPress
Flowpane for WordPress is a plugin.
WooCommerce is covered by the WordPress plugin: product and category pages are reported with the rest of the site.
Connect it
- 1
Download Flowpane for WordPress from Flowpane.
- 2
Upload the plugin in WordPress and activate it.
- 3
Start the connection in Flowpane.
- 4
Confirm it in WordPress, which shows what Flowpane may change.
Files on this platform
- robots.txt
- WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt unless a real file exists in the site root.
- Sitemaps
- WordPress core publishes sitemaps at /wp-sitemap.xml, and SEO plugins often replace them with their own.
- Page-level robots
- The Discourage search engines setting applies site-wide, and SEO plugins add robots settings per page.
Works alongside
Keep the tools you already use.
Flowpane does not replace them. It works alongside them, shows which tool produces each file where it can tell, and checks the live result either way.
SEO plugins
- Yoast SEO
- Rank Math
- All in One SEO
- SEOPress
- The SEO Framework
Sitemap tools
- XML Sitemap Generator for Google
- WordPress core sitemaps
- The WooCommerce features of Yoast SEO and Rank Math
External services
- Pro Sitemaps (pro-sitemaps.com)
- XML-Sitemaps.com
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider sitemap export
- Cloudflare's managed robots.txt
In detail
More about Flowpane for WordPress
- Covers posts, pages, public custom post types, taxonomy and post-type archives, and menus, up to 5,000 items.
- Catches changes with WordPress hooks, and a daily full audit catches direct database edits.
- Reads robots values from the Discourage search engines setting, Yoast SEO or Rank Math.
- Detects the block, classic and Elementor editors, WooCommerce products and WordPress core sitemaps.
- Reports a changed robots setting within about a minute.
- Adds page directives when each page renders.
- Adds an admin area inside WordPress, with Overview, Artefacts, Automation, Settings and Diagnostics. It shows Flowpane's signed view with Open in Flowpane links, and nothing is edited from inside WordPress.
- Only users with the manage_options capability can use it.
Requirements
- WordPress 6.4 or later
- PHP 8.1 to 8.5, with the sodium extension
- MySQL 8.0 or later, or MariaDB 10.6 or later
Running, updating and removing
- It runs on WP-Cron, and also wakes when Flowpane sends a signed request.
- To update, upload the new package. The connection is kept.
- Uninstalling removes every Flowpane table, the key and the scheduled tasks. Your content is untouched.
Questions
Asked often, answered plainly.
Does Flowpane for WordPress work with my SEO plugin?
Yes. It works alongside Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, SEOPress and The SEO Framework, and never changes their settings. The plugin reads robots values from Yoast SEO or Rank Math, and Flowpane identifies sitemaps made by Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO or WordPress core. Flowpane shows which tool produces each file where it can tell.
Do I have to replace Yoast SEO or Rank Math?
No. Flowpane works alongside Yoast SEO or Rank Math and shows which tool produces each file where it can tell. Keep using what you use today.
Does it change my content?
No. Flowpane for WordPress never edits your content, settings or SEO tool settings. Where WordPress allows, it can add noindex or nofollow to pages you choose and serve Flowpane's own sitemap beside yours, and a person approves each one. On WordPress, the plugin observes robots.txt and does not change it.
Does it cover WooCommerce?
Yes. WooCommerce is covered by the WordPress plugin. Product and category pages are reported with the rest of the site, up to 5,000 items in all, and the plugin works alongside the WooCommerce features of Yoast SEO and Rank Math.
What happens if I remove it?
Removing Flowpane for WordPress ends the connection, and any page directives it added stop. Uninstalling the plugin removes every Flowpane table, the key and the scheduled tasks. Your content is untouched, and Flowpane carries on checking the site from the outside, as it does for any site.
Does it submit anything to Google?
No. Neither Flowpane for WordPress nor Flowpane submits anything to Google, including Flowpane's own sitemap. Search Console access, if you connect it, is read-only.
Can I use Flowpane without the plugin?
Yes. Flowpane checks any site from the outside, over public HTTPS, with nothing installed. The plugin adds what only WordPress knows, such as publication states and robots settings, so Flowpane can compare them with your sitemaps and the live site.
See what your sites are claiming.
Add an origin and get a score, the gaps, and the evidence behind each one. Then Flowpane keeps checking, so the answer stays current.
Free during the beta. Flowpane never signs in to your site.