Shopify

The Shopify integration lets RankYak publish articles directly to your Shopify store's blog. The connection runs through a small custom app that you create in your own Shopify admin, which keeps the credentials under your control. Setting it up takes a few minutes and requires no technical background; this page walks through every step.

Creating the app in Shopify

First, open the connection dialog in RankYak: go to Settings, then Integrations, and click Connect next to Shopify. Keep it open while you work through the Shopify side.

1. Log in to your Shopify admin and copy your full .myshopify.com domain into RankYak's Shopify store URL field. Your custom domain will not work here; RankYak needs the .myshopify.com address.
2. In the Shopify admin, click Settings in the bottom-left corner, go to Apps, and click Develop apps.
3. Click Build app in the Dev Dashboard, then Create app, enter RankYak as the name, and click Create.
4. In the app's configuration, under URLs, set the App URL to https://shopify.dev/apps/default-app-home if the field is empty. Shopify requires this field, but RankYak does not use it, so Shopify's own default address works.
5. Scroll to Access and paste read_online_store_pages,write_online_store_pages,read_content,write_content into the scopes field. These permissions let RankYak create blog posts on your store.
6. Under Redirect URLs, paste https://rankyak.com/app/auth/shopify/callback as the redirect URL.
7. Click Release to make the app available for use. You do not need to fill in any release details.
8. Open the app's Settings and copy the Client ID and Secret into the matching fields in RankYak.

Copy each value exactly as shown, without a period or a slash at the end. For example, Shopify refuses the connection when the redirect URL differs from the one RankYak sends by a single character.

Connecting in RankYak

With the store URL, Client ID, and Client secret filled in, click Connect. A new window opens in which Shopify asks you to install the app you just created; click Install. Once Shopify shows the confirmation, you may close that window, and RankYak completes the connection automatically.

Choosing a blog and author

After connecting, RankYak opens the integration settings so you may finish the setup.

• Blog selects which of your store's blogs the articles are published to. If your store has no blog yet, create one in the Shopify admin under Content, then Blog posts: click Manage blogs, then Add blog, and refetch the list in RankYak. Sometimes RankYak reports that Shopify refuses access to the blogs. This happens when the permissions of the app changed after you connected the store, because Shopify keeps the permissions of the original connection. Instead, click Disconnect and connect the store again with the same Client ID and secret, and the blogs appear.
• Author name sets the name shown as the writer of the articles. It defaults to your own name.

Of course, you may change either setting at any time by clicking Edit settings next to the connection.

Publishing as drafts

If you would like to review each article before it goes live, enable Publish articles as draft in the same settings. New articles then appear in Shopify as drafts, and you publish them from the Shopify admin on your own terms.

Disconnecting

To stop publishing to Shopify, go to Settings, then Integrations, and click Disconnect next to the connection. The custom app stays installed in your store but no longer does anything, so you may safely uninstall it from the Shopify admin afterwards.