The account name RankGear sends to authenticate against a configured remote publishing server — the identity half of the credentials that let RankGear connect to a site and push work to it.
| Term | Login |
|---|---|
| Category | APIs, Reliability and Publishing |
| Also known as | Username |
| Where it appears | Domain tables |
What it means in RankGear
Login is the username field you set per site in the Domain tables, where RankGear stores the connection details for each remote publishing target. When RankGear needs to reach that server — to verify the connection or to publish — it pairs this login with the site’s secret to prove who it is. The login identifies the account; it is not the password itself, and on its own it grants no access. Every domain you configure keeps its own login so RankGear can talk to each server under the right account.
How to interpret it
Treat the login as one input to a connection, and read a failed authentication in context rather than retrying blindly. Look at the visible status, any diagnostics, the retry decision, and a read-only credential test together: that combination is what separates a transient fault from a wrong configuration. A server that times out or responds slowly is transient and may justify one bounded retry; an authorization error — a mistyped login, a revoked account, the wrong host — is a configuration problem that should stop the attempt instead of firing the same paid or rate-limited request again. A green credential test confirms the login and secret are accepted; a rejected one points you back to the Domain table entry, not to repeated tries.
Example
You add a WordPress site in the Domain tables and enter editor-bot as the login alongside its application password. RankGear runs a read-only connection test: it authenticates as editor-bot, confirms the account can be reached, and marks the domain ready. Later a publish stalls; because the account authenticated cleanly before, RankGear treats a single timeout as transient and grants one bounded retry — but had the server returned an authorization error, it would stop and flag the login rather than repeat the call.
Important considerations
- The login is only the account name. It must be paired with the correct secret, and by itself it authorizes nothing.
- Credentials and remote publishing targets need care: connection tests should be read-only wherever possible, and secrets must stay redacted in any status or diagnostic output.
- An authorization failure is a configuration signal to stop and fix, not a cue to retry — repeated attempts can lock the account or waste rate-limited and paid calls.
- A successful login reflects that RankGear can reach and publish to a server; it says nothing about how any page ranks or scores — it is a reliability signal, never a ranking one.
Related terms
Part of the RankGear glossary · how RankGear measures · the 870 factors.