📋 Overview
When you sync content from Content Genius to WordPress, images sometimes fail to appear and text formatting can look different from what you saw in the editor. This usually happens because of how WordPress imports media and how your theme or page builder handles incoming HTML. The good news: almost every case can be fixed with a few settings checks. This guide walks you through the most common causes and how to resolve them.
🤔 Why This Happens
Two separate issues are often grouped together. Understanding which one you are seeing helps you fix it faster.
- Missing images: Images may not transfer because the WordPress connection lacks permission to upload media, the image files are hosted externally and blocked, or your media library upload limits are too low. An outdated Search Atlas WordPress plugin can also cause images to break (see the plugin update step below).
- Broken formatting: Headings, bold text, lists, or spacing can shift when your WordPress theme, block editor, or a page builder (such as Elementor or Divi) re-renders the incoming HTML.
✅ Before You Start
Confirm the basics first. These checks resolve a large share of sync problems.
- Make sure your WordPress integration is connected in Search Atlas under your project settings, and that the connection status shows as active.
- Confirm the WordPress user account linked to Search Atlas has an Administrator role, which is required to connect the plugin.
- Make sure the Search Atlas WordPress plugin is updated to the latest version. An outdated plugin is a known cause of both broken images and incorrect header styling (for example, Elementor styles not applying so all headings render with identical styling).
🖼️ Fixing Missing Images
1. Check media upload permissions
WordPress only accepts images when the connected user has upload rights. If your linked account is set to Author or Editor, reconnect using an Administrator account, which is required to connect the Search Atlas WordPress plugin.
2. Confirm images are embedded, not just linked
Open the article in Content Genius and make sure each image is added directly into the content rather than referenced by an external URL. Embedded images are uploaded into your WordPress media library during sync, while external links can break if the source becomes unavailable.
3. Review your upload size limits
If large images fail silently, your hosting may be blocking them. Ask your host or check your WordPress settings for the maximum upload file size. Increase it if your images exceed the limit, or resize images before syncing.
4. Update the WordPress plugin if images appear broken or show 404 placeholders
A bug that caused inline images to be dropped from the post body during sync — leaving broken or 404 image placeholders on the published post even when permissions and file sizes were correct — was resolved in a 2026 update to the Search Atlas WordPress plugin. If your synced images render as broken placeholders, update the plugin to the latest version and re-sync the article before doing further troubleshooting.
5. Re-sync after changes
After adjusting permissions, limits, or the plugin version, trigger the sync again from Content Genius. Existing posts update in place, so you will not create duplicates.
🎨 Fixing Broken Formatting
1. Identify what changed
Compare the published WordPress post with the Content Genius preview. Note whether the problem is with headings, spacing, lists, or fonts. This tells you whether the issue comes from the theme or the editor.
2. Check your editor type
WordPress handles content differently depending on the editor:
- Block (Gutenberg) editor: Incoming HTML is converted into blocks. Most formatting transfers cleanly. If text looks unstyled, switch the post to the block editor rather than the Classic editor.
- Classic editor: Generally preserves raw HTML well, but may strip certain styling defined by Content Genius.
- Page builders (Elementor, Divi, WPBakery): These often override imported formatting with their own templates. This is the most common cause of formatting differences.
3. Adjust page builder behavior
If you use a page builder, set new posts to use the default WordPress editor for synced content, or create a clean template that does not override headings and paragraph spacing. Page builders apply their own styles last, which can hide the formatting that synced correctly.
4. Review theme styling
Some themes apply custom spacing, fonts, or heading sizes that differ from the Content Genius preview. The content is correct; the theme is simply displaying it with its own design. This is expected behavior and does not require a fix unless the layout is broken.
5. Check for a duplicated title (duplicate H1)
If the article title appears twice on the published post, this is a known sync issue. It happened because the title was added both to WordPress's native title field and to the top of the post body. Since most themes render the title field as an H1 in the page header, a matching H1 at the start of the body produced a second one. This was fixed in a 2026 update to the Search Atlas WordPress plugin — update the plugin and re-sync if you still see a duplicated title.
6. Note for synced pages
Pages (as opposed to posts) published from Content Genius may currently render with a plain article layout instead of your site's intended page template. This is a known issue our team is actively working on. As a workaround, after syncing a page you can open it in WordPress and assign the correct page template manually.
⚡ Quick Troubleshooting Checklist
- Confirm the WordPress integration is connected and active.
- Verify the linked user is an Administrator.
- Make sure the Search Atlas WordPress plugin is on the latest version.
- Make sure images are embedded in the content, not externally linked.
- Check that image file sizes are within your upload limits.
- Confirm whether a page builder is overriding formatting.
- Check for a duplicated title (duplicate H1) on the published post.
- Re-sync the content and review the published post.
🆘 Still Seeing Issues?
If images or formatting remain broken after these steps, gather the following details and contact Search Atlas support:
- The URL of the affected WordPress post.
- The name of your active theme and any page builder you use.
- The version of the Search Atlas WordPress plugin installed on your site.
- A screenshot comparing the Content Genius preview and the published result.
This information helps our team pinpoint whether the problem is with the sync, your WordPress configuration, or your theme, so we can resolve it quickly.