If your WordPress.com plan takes plugins, your blog can run itself.
WordPress.com is WordPress with the hosting done for you, so DraftSEO reaches it the way it reaches any WordPress site: through its plugin. The catch is the plan. A free site cannot install plugins at all; on a plan that can, each article arrives as a genuine WordPress.com post with its images kept in your own Media Library.
| Free plan | No plugin installs, no DraftSEO — plugin installs come with paid WordPress.com plans |
|---|---|
| Older Personal or Premium sites | May still need Business — sites already on those plans before WordPress.com opened plugins to them |
| Publishing | Native posts through the plugin — every image uploaded to the site’s Media Library, the category and SEO fields applied |
| Site address | Moves to example.wpcomstaging.com — triggered by the first plugin install; connect after it, using your own domain when there is one |
| Defensive Mode | Its challenge can stop DraftSEO — switching it off is an option on Business and Commerce plans |
Who does what
Nothing per article. With the plugin active on a plan that allows it and the site connected from its final address, posts appear by themselves — or choose draft mode and approve each one in WP Admin.
WordPress.com handles the hosting; DraftSEO handles the writing.
Setup
Check the plan first — everything after that is the ordinary plugin connection.
Connect a site → WordPress.com leads to the plugin connection card, topped with notes written for WordPress.com.
Under a minute
On a plan that installs plugins, open WP Admin → Plugins → Add New Plugin, search for “DraftSEO”, then install and activate it.
~1 minute
Your first plugin install turns on the plan’s hosting features, and the site moves from example.wordpress.com to example.wpcomstaging.com. Carry on from the final address — your custom domain, if the site has one — and from the live site, never a staging copy.
Once
Signed in to DraftSEO in another tab, open the plugin’s settings in WP Admin and press Connect with DraftSEO.ai. With Defensive Mode enabled, its browser challenge can block the connection — Business and Commerce plans can turn it off.
~1 minute
DraftSEO then researches, writes and publishes to your WordPress.com blog on the schedule you set.
Ongoing · zero clicks
FAQ
Yes, as long as your plan can install plugins. WordPress.com is WordPress underneath, so the DraftSEO plugin connects it and publishes real posts with their images saved to your Media Library. The free plan is the exception: it has no plugin installs, so it cannot run DraftSEO.
Paid WordPress.com plans include plugins, but Personal and Premium did not always offer them. A site that held one of those plans before WordPress.com opened plugins to it may still need Business before it can install one — and DraftSEO depends on that install.
Installing your first plugin activates your plan’s hosting features, and that moves a site from example.wordpress.com to example.wpcomstaging.com. Connect DraftSEO after the move, from the address the site ends up on — your own domain, where you have one.
Connect the live site instead. WordPress.com hides staging sites from search engines, so articles published there stay out of search, and syncing staging with production replaces the other site’s database.
With Defensive Mode on, requests to your WordPress.com site must first pass a browser challenge. DraftSEO’s servers call the plugin directly rather than through a browser, so that challenge can stop their requests. If it is on for your site, switch it off — Business and Commerce plans have the option.
No card required. Connect in about two minutes.