Old WordPress Plugin

Note: This article applies to version 1.0.0+ and version 2.0.0+ if you choose to uncheck “use latest experience” in the plugin configurations per these instructions: How to Disable New CMS Plugin UI

The Siteimprove CMS plugin is an overlay that, after installation, appears in your CMS platform informing you about issues related to the site/page that you are working on.

The Siteimprove WordPress plugin is the CMS Plugin used specifically with Wordpress. The plugin works like a small version of the Siteimprove Intelligence Platform and shows information about pages that are available to our crawler. 

The Siteimprove WordPress plugin has the added advantage of Siteimprove’s Prepublish check functionality which allows you to check for certain content issues before publishing.

Installation

1. Installing the plugin is easy, and it follows the standards of any other plugin inside WordPress. It can be done in two ways:
   
   Location on the WordPress Menu to install the plugin
   
   a. Installing it by using the search box on the plugin listing page
   
   b. Uploading the ZIP file if provided.
   
   
2. After that, the plugin can be activated in one of two ways:
   
   a. Immediately, by selecting the 'Activate' button on the 'Add New' page.
    
   
   b. By selecting 'Activate' on the 'Installed plugins' listing page.
   
   

Configuration

1. To continue the configuration of the plugin, the user should click on the Siteimprove menu.
   
    
2. The token field is filled automatically and should not be changed unless a new token is needed. If that’s the case, the user should click "Request new token" to generate a new one.
   
    
3. Fields 2 and 3 are the API Credentials for setting up the Prepublish feature. You will need to create an API key following the instructions under How to connect to the Siteimprove API and a Siteimprove subscription to Prepublish in order to use this feature. Contact Siteimprove if you have any questions regarding subscription.
   
   
   Note: It is recommended to create an API key for an generic user for this, with Account Owner or Administrator level permissions and access to the appropriate sites in the Siteimprove Platform, so that it doesn't change with updates to users and cause issues with accessing this feature in the plugin.

4. After filling in the fields, the user should click button 4 (Save Settings) to save the settings.

Usage

Login and Plugin Overlay

After installing, activating, and configuring the plugin, one of the two following cases below will show on the right sidebar of the admin page which is the plugin overlay. Post the initial installation and configuration you will need a Siteimprove User with Account Owner permissions to log into the plugin and approve the terms and conditions. 

Plugin Overlay with user not logged in

Plugin overlay with user logged in

To use the plugin, the user must be logged into the plugin with their Siteimprove user credentials.

If the user is not yet logged in, the sidebar on the right side of the screen will ask them to login. If the user is logged in, only the Siteimprove logo will appear. 

Site Overview and My History Tabs

Click to expand out the plugin overlay on any page to see the following screen, showing global statuses for the current website:

That’s just a global view so the user can see the global overview of the site under 'Site Overview' and view the last checked pages on the 'My History' tab.

This Page Tab

If you are in the 'Editing' view for pages you will see the 'This Page' tab appear in the plugin with more specific details and insights on the particular page from the Siteimprove Platform in the plugin overlay.

You can click 'Re-check page' to have Siteimprove recheck this particular live page. This may take time as Siteimprove redraws your page.

To check what happens if you remove the current page from the website, click 'See unpublish impact.'

View insights on the current page from the last checked published version of the page in the Siteimprove Platform and click on the particular issue areas to view more about those issues on page reports or issue pages in the Siteimprove platform. 

You can also change the location of the overlay or what areas you see in the plugin from the platform under 'Settings.' 

To read more about usage of the plugin you can visit the How to navigate the Siteimprove CMS Plugin article as well.

Prepublish

Click the 'Preview' button on the top of the editor (or sometimes on the right side of the WordPress post/page edit screen) to be redirected to a preview screen showing the page with current unsaved changes:

On the top of the page, if the Prepublish feature is configured per steps above, you will see this button:

Clicking this button on the top bar triggers the live Prepublish check on the current page.

When the Prepublish check finishes running, the user can see the live results in the same window by clicking the "See results" button:

Here the you can expand each section checked to see what needs to be fixed in the content. You can also sometimes highlight the issues directly on the preview page if the eye icon come up for that particular issue. 

You can read even more about Prepublish checks under Prepublish content check: How to ensure quality content on your site.