SFTP and SCP are two SSH-based protocols RankGear supports for securely transferring rendered pages or a built site to a remote host. Both ride an encrypted SSH connection, so credentials and file contents are never sent in the clear.
| Term | SFTP and SCP |
|---|---|
| Category | APIs, Reliability and Publishing |
| Also known as | SFTP, SCP, Secure File Transfer |
| Where it appears | Deployment protocol selector |
What it means in RankGear
When you deploy from RankGear, the Deployment protocol selector is where you choose how files reach the destination server. SFTP and SCP are the two SSH-based options in that list. Both authenticate over an SSH connection — with a password or a key pair — and encrypt the transfer end to end. SFTP is the interactive file-transfer subsystem of SSH: it can list, rename, resume, and manage remote files, which makes it the more capable choice for ongoing publishing. SCP is the leaner copy command: it pushes files over the same secure channel with less protocol overhead but fewer remote-management features. Choosing one of these tells RankGear to open a secure session to the host and write your rendered output there.
How to interpret it
Treat the protocol choice as a compatibility and capability decision, not a quality one — neither protocol makes a deployed page rank; they only govern how the files get to the server. Pick the protocol the host actually supports and the credentials you hold match. When a transfer fails, read the visible status, diagnostics, and the credential test before retrying: a timeout or dropped connection is usually transient and worth one bounded retry, while an authentication or permission error is a configuration problem that repeating will not fix. If the host offers SSH access at all, SFTP is generally the safer default because it can resume and verify; reach for SCP when the server or a constrained environment only exposes the simpler copy path.
| Protocol | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| SFTP | Full file-transfer subsystem over SSH — list, rename, resume, and manage remote files. The more capable option for repeat deployments. |
| SCP | Lightweight secure copy over the same SSH channel — less overhead, fewer remote-management features. Useful where only the simple copy path is available. |
Example
Say your built site lives on a VPS that exposes SSH on port 22 with key-based login. In the Deployment protocol selector you choose SFTP, point RankGear at the host and the remote web root, and load your private key. RankGear opens the SSH session, writes the rendered pages, and reports success. If instead the key is wrong, the run stops on an authentication failure rather than retrying — and no repeated paid calls are made — so you fix the credential before deploying again.
Important considerations
- Credentials and remote publishing targets need care: point at the correct host and remote path, and prefer key-based authentication over passwords where the host allows it.
- Connection tests should stay read-only where possible, and secrets — keys, passwords, host details — must remain redacted in logs and diagnostics.
- Distinguish failure types before retrying: a timeout or dropped connection is transient and may warrant one bounded retry; an authorization or permission error is a configuration fault that stops the run instead of repeating it.
- Both protocols encrypt in transit over SSH, but they say nothing about whether a page ranks — the protocol only moves files to the server.
Related terms
Part of the RankGear glossary · how RankGear measures · the 870 factors.