Connections
How data sources connect to a workspace, how often they sync, and what happens when you disconnect one.
A connection is one data source on a workspace. Each workspace has at most one connection per provider, and each connection is bound to one resource on the provider's side: a Search Console property, a Google Analytics property, a Cloudflare zone, a Bing site, a GitHub repository or a GitLab project. Every connection is read-only. RankDebug never asks for access it could write with.
All of them live on the Connections page. Anyone on the workspace except a Viewer can connect, sync or disconnect a source.
Connecting a source
There are two ways in, depending on the provider:
- Sign in with the provider. Search Console, Google Analytics and GitHub send you to the provider to approve access, then back to RankDebug.
- Paste a token. Cloudflare, Bing and GitLab ask for a token or key you create on their side. The drawer that opens shows where to create it and which permissions to give it, and RankDebug checks the token before saving it.
Either way, RankDebug then asks you to choose the resource: the property, zone, site, repository or project that belongs to this website. If you close that list, the card stays Pending with a button such as Choose Property to open it again. Once a resource is chosen the connection turns Active and the first pull starts.
Statuses
- Active means the connection is syncing on schedule. The card shows when it last synced.
- Pending means access was granted but no resource is chosen yet.
- Error means the last sync failed. The card shows the reason, for example a token the provider no longer accepts.
- Disconnected means you disconnected it. Connect it again to resume.
A provider's rate limit or quota is not an error. The sync is retried and the connection stays healthy.
Sync schedule and history
| Source | How often | First pull reaches back |
|---|---|---|
| Search Console | Daily | About 16 months, a week at a time |
| Google Analytics | Daily | About 14 months, a month at a time |
| Cloudflare | Hourly | 7 days, a day at a time |
| Bing Webmaster Tools | Daily | Whatever recent history Bing returns |
| GitHub | Hourly | 90 days, a month at a time |
| GitLab | Hourly | 90 days, a month at a time |
While the first pull runs, the card shows how far it has got. Each scheduled sync also pulls the most recent days again, because providers revise recent data. Sync Now queues a sync outside the schedule.
Disconnecting
Disconnect stops syncing and removes the connection's credentials. The data already pulled stays in the workspace, so charts and past findings keep their history.
The sources
Related documentation
- Guide
How the parts of RankDebug fit together, and where to find each one in the dashboard.
- Search Console
Connect Google Search Console with read-only access. What RankDebug pulls and what it is used for.
- Google Analytics
Connect Google Analytics with read-only access to see what search visitors did after they landed.
- Cloudflare
Connect Cloudflare with a read-only API token to see which crawlers reach your site and what the edge did to them.
- Bing Webmaster Tools
Connect Bing Webmaster Tools with an API key to add Bing search data and crawl statistics.
- GitHub
Connect a GitHub repository so production deploys are recorded on their own, with the SEO-relevant files each one changed.
- GitLab
Connect a GitLab project with a read-only token so production deploys are recorded on their own.
- Deploys
Record each release from CI or a connected repository, and see what it changed on the site and in search.