How to Auto-Post RSS to Ghost (and Keep the Canonical URL)

Updated: 2026-09-28

Short answer: in Ghost, go to Settings → Integrations, add a custom integration and copy the Admin API key and your site address. In PostRSS, open Accounts → Add new Ghost account and paste both, then open Cele → Add feed, choose Ghost in Target settings and add your feed under Add source (Type = RSS feed, Link = your feed address). Each item becomes a Ghost post in HTML with the feature image uploaded and a canonical URL pointing back to the original, so search engines keep crediting your source. Ghost is included from the Professional plan.

Ghost is usually the site publishing a feed, not the site receiving one. Pointing a feed into Ghost is the less obvious direction, and the reason to do it is almost always syndication: you publish somewhere, and you want a Ghost site to carry the same article without anyone retyping it.

Why the canonical URL is the whole story

Republishing the same article on a second domain is duplication, and search engines handle duplication by picking one version to rank. Left to guess, they may pick the copy rather than the original — which is the outcome nobody wants when the copy is the syndication target and the original is your own site.

A canonical link removes the guesswork. It is a single tag on the republished post saying "the authoritative version of this lives here", and search engines honour it. PostRSS sets it on every Ghost post it creates, pointing at the original article the feed item came from. That is what makes this safe to run unattended: you are not quietly building a competitor to your own pages.

It matters just as much in the other direction. If you are the Ghost site receiving someone else's feed under an agreement, the canonical link is what keeps the arrangement honest — you get the content and the readers, they keep the search credit.

Setting it up, step by step

1. In Ghost, open Settings → Integrations, add a custom integration, and copy the Admin API key along with your site address. Ghost(Pro) and self-hosted Ghost both work.
2. In PostRSS, open Accounts and choose Add new Ghost account. Paste the site address and the Admin API key. The key is a credential for your whole site, so keep it out of shared documents.
3. Open Targets and click Add feed. One feed going to one destination is one Target.
4. In Target settings, choose Ghost and the account you just connected. This is also where you decide whether items publish immediately or are saved as drafts.
5. Click Add source. Set Type to RSS feed and paste your feed address into Link. Save.
6. Check the first item that arrives. PostRSS checks the feed every 5 minutes (every minute on Enterprise plans), so the wait is short.

What arrives on the Ghost site

• The post body in HTML, built from the feed item's content.
• The feature image, uploaded to your Ghost site rather than hot-linked from elsewhere, so it survives if the original moves.
• A canonical URL pointing at the original article.
• Published or draft, whichever you chose. Drafts turn the pipeline into a queue that a human approves.

The draft option is the one most people should use at least at the start. It costs one click per post and it means a formatting problem in the feed is caught by you rather than by your readers.

What it does not do

PostRSS publishes items that appear in the feed after the Target starts running. Connecting an established feed does not import its back catalogue, which is deliberate — the alternative is a destination flooded with years of archive on day one.

It does not set tags, authors or newsletter segments, and it does not send the Ghost newsletter for you. Those stay in Ghost, where they belong.

Which plan includes it

Ghost is included from the Professional plan. Each destination you connect counts as one Target, and your plan sets how many Targets and how many posts a month you get. An annual subscription is cheaper than paying monthly. The current limits for every tier are on the pricing page, and the full list of 66 networks is on the supported networks page. The Ghost auto-posting page covers the same setup in short form.

Troubleshooting

• Authentication fails. Make sure you copied the Admin API key, not the Content API key — the Content key is read-only and cannot create posts.
• The site address is rejected. Use the full address including https://, and the URL Ghost itself considers canonical rather than a redirecting alias.
• Posts appear without a feature image. The source item carries no image. Check the raw feed first.
• Posts are truncated. The source feed publishes summaries rather than full text. That is a setting at the source, and no destination can restore what the feed never sent.
• The integration was deleted in Ghost. Its key stops working immediately; create a new integration and paste the new key.

Two patterns this actually solves

Mirroring your own site into Ghost. You publish on WordPress, Webflow or a static site, and you want a Ghost property — usually because of its newsletter and membership tooling — carrying the same articles. The canonical link keeps your primary domain as the version search engines rank, and Ghost handles what it is good at: sending the post to subscribers and taking payments.

Receiving a partner's feed. A publication runs a Ghost site and has an agreement to carry a partner's articles. The feed does the delivery, the canonical link keeps the credit with the partner, and drafts give an editor the chance to look at each piece before it appears. Without the canonical link, the same arrangement slowly damages the partner's search performance, which is how syndication deals sour.

How this compares with the alternatives

• Ghost's own import. Ghost can import content, but import is a one-off migration tool: you run it, it brings everything across, and it is finished. It is not a pipeline that keeps running as you publish.
• A Zapier or Make scenario. These can call the Ghost Admin API, and they can work. What you take on is building the scenario, handling the image upload step yourself, remembering to set the canonical field, and paying per run as your publishing volume grows.
• A script against the Admin API. Complete control, no subscription, and a permanent maintenance obligation: token handling, de-duplication, retries, and the day Ghost changes an endpoint.
• Copy and paste. Fine for two articles a month, and the reason most Ghost mirrors quietly stop being updated after the first busy week.

The case for using a general RSS tool here is not that the alternatives fail — it is that the same feed usually needs to reach a dozen other places too, and wiring each of those separately is where the real cost sits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this hurt my SEO by creating duplicate content?

Not when the canonical URL is set, which PostRSS does on every post it creates. The canonical link tells search engines which copy is authoritative, so the original keeps the credit and the Ghost copy is treated as syndication rather than as a competing page.

Do I need Ghost(Pro), or does self-hosted Ghost work?

Both work. The connection uses a custom integration's Admin API key, which exists on Ghost(Pro) and on any self-hosted Ghost install.

Can items arrive as drafts instead of being published immediately?

Yes. The Target setting lets you publish each new item straight away or save it as a draft to review first. For syndicated or licensed content, drafts are usually the right choice.

Is the feature image uploaded or linked from the original site?

It is uploaded to your Ghost site and set as the post's feature image, so it keeps working even if the original article's image moves or is removed.

What is the difference between the Admin API key and the Content API key?

The Content API key only reads published content. Creating posts requires the Admin API key, which is the one a custom integration gives you under Settings → Integrations.

Will connecting a feed import my archive?

No. PostRSS publishes items that appear in the feed after the Target starts running, so an established feed does not backfill years of posts into your Ghost site.

The bottom line

Feeding a Ghost site from RSS is one of the few syndication setups that is genuinely safe to leave running, because the canonical URL is handled for you. Add a custom integration in Ghost, paste the Admin API key into PostRSS, choose published or draft, and point a Target at your feed. It is included from the Professional plan.