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Content Management

Importing & Exporting Data - ContentMK Docs

Get content into ContentMK from WordPress, sitemaps, or CSV files, and export anytime.

ContentMK provides multiple ways to import existing content and several formats for exporting your data. Import and export are core features available on all plans.

WordPress Sites: Use WordPress Sync

If you manage a WordPress site, the WordPress Sync Engine is the recommended way to bring content into ContentMK. It connects to your site’s REST API and keeps your articles synchronized automatically — new posts, updates, and status changes all stay in sync without manual effort.

Manual import (described below) is best for non-WordPress sites, one-time bulk loads, or situations where the WordPress API is not available.

Accessing Manual Import

To reach the import tools:

  1. Navigate to your site using the sidebar
  2. Click Sync in the sidebar navigation
  3. Scroll down and expand the Manual Import section (it is collapsed by default — click the header to open it)

From here you can run a CSV or Sitemap import, and view your import history.

Import Methods

CSV Import

Upload a CSV file to import articles from any source — Google Sheets exports, Airtable downloads, exports from another CMS, or a hand-built spreadsheet. The CSV wizard walks you through the entire process.

How it works:

  1. Upload your file — Drag and drop a CSV file into the upload area, or click to browse. The file is read locally and never uploaded to a server.
  2. Column mapping — ContentMK scans your column headers and auto-detects which fields they correspond to using fuzzy matching. For example, a column called “Article Title” maps to the title field, “Page URL” maps to url, and “Publish Date” maps to published_date. If the auto-detection gets something wrong, you can override any mapping manually from a dropdown.
  3. Preview — A preview screen shows the detected mappings alongside sample rows from your file so you can verify everything looks right before committing.
  4. Duplicate handling — Choose how to handle articles whose URL already exists in the site (see Duplicate Handling below).
  5. Import — Click Import and ContentMK creates articles from each row in your file.

CSV import works with exports from virtually any system that can produce a spreadsheet. If your data lives in Google Sheets or Excel, just export to CSV first.

Sitemap Import

Sitemap import discovers all published pages on a website by reading its sitemap files. You only need the site’s URL.

How it works:

  1. Paste a URL — Enter the website URL or a direct sitemap URL. ContentMK auto-detects sitemaps by checking robots.txt and probing common paths like /sitemap.xml and /sitemap_index.xml.
  2. Sitemap discovery — If the site uses a sitemap index (a sitemap that points to other sitemaps), ContentMK follows the chain and collects URLs from all child sitemaps.
  3. Duplicate handling — Choose how to handle articles whose URL already exists (see Duplicate Handling below).
  4. Import — ContentMK creates an article entry for each URL found in the sitemap.

Optionally, ContentMK can fetch page content for each URL during import. Rate limiting is built in so the target server is not overwhelmed. Sitemap import works with any website regardless of the CMS behind it.

Duplicate Handling

Both CSV and Sitemap imports use URL-based duplicate detection. When an imported article has the same URL as an article that already exists in the site, you choose one of two strategies before the import runs:

  • Skip — The existing article is left unchanged and the incoming duplicate is skipped. Use this when you want to preserve any local edits you have already made.
  • Update — The existing article is overwritten with the imported data. Use this when you want to refresh your records with the latest information from the source.

The strategy you select applies to every duplicate encountered in that import. This makes re-importing safe — you will not end up with double entries regardless of which option you choose.

Import History and Undo

Every import is recorded in the Import History table at the bottom of the Manual Import section. The history shows:

  • Date — When the import was run
  • Source type — Which import method was used (CSV or Sitemap)
  • Articles imported — How many new articles were added
  • Duplicates skipped — How many articles were skipped because they already existed

Each row includes an Undo button. Clicking it removes all articles that were added by that specific import. A few things to keep in mind about undo:

  • Articles that existed before the import are never affected.
  • Articles that were updated (not created) by the import are not reverted to their previous state.
  • Undo only removes articles that the import originally created.

This makes undo a safe way to roll back an import that pulled in the wrong data or used incorrect settings.

Export Formats

Export your data at any time in four formats:

FormatBest For
JSONProgrammatic access, backups, data migration
CSVSpreadsheets, other tools, bulk analysis
PDFReports, sharing with stakeholders
HTMLWeb-ready reports, archival

Export Availability

Export is always available regardless of your subscription status. Even if your plan lapses and the app enters read-only mode, you can still export all your data. Your content is never locked away.