Importing from Google Docs

If you already write in Google Docs, you do not have to move. Paste the document's link and Rankbench brings the article in.

The one requirement

The document has to be readable by anyone with the link. The form says so twice, because it is the thing that goes wrong: "Set the doc to 'Anyone with the link can view', then paste its link."

In Google Docs that is under Share, in the general access section, changed from restricted to anyone with the link. Viewer is enough; Rankbench never needs edit access.

A document left restricted cannot be read, and the import fails with a message saying so rather than producing an empty article.

Doing the import

Pick the destination site, paste the link, and import. If you have not picked a site yet the page tells you to do that first.

The document is fetched, converted, and becomes your draft. You land in the editor with it.

What it keeps

Headings, paragraphs, lists, quotes, bold and italic, and your links with their wording intact. The link wording matters most, because that is what the review step checks and what the live page is checked against later.

Images inside the document come across where they can be fetched.

What it drops

Comments and suggestions. A document full of unresolved suggestions imports as whatever the text currently says, so accept or reject them before importing.

Complex layout: columns, text boxes, drawings and unusual spacing. The article becomes a linear document, which is what a blog post is.

When it does not work

The failures are specific.

The document is not shared, which is the common one. Fix the sharing setting and import again.

The link is not a Google Docs link, or points at a file rather than a document.

The document is empty, or has nothing convertible in it.

The banner names which of these happened rather than reporting a generic failure.

Re-importing after a revision

You can import again. This is the route to take when an editor asks for changes: make them in the same document, then bring the new version in. The old version stays on record, so the editor can see what changed and the history is not lost.

That is also why keeping the article in one document is worth doing. See when the editors ask for changes.

Where to go next

Writing in the Rankbench editor covers what you land in. Review and send is the step after.