On your first login, RankScan opens “Set up a new property”. Setup runs as a dialog: RankScan asks, you answer. On the right, “Your progress” shows where you are. All you need is your website address. RankScan suggests the rest.

How to proceed #

  • Website Enter your website address. RankScan reads the website.
  • Country and language RankScan derives both from the domain. Confirm with “Looks right” or adjust. Under “More precise, optional” you can narrow down a target market, for example a region.
  • Topics RankScan shows the offers it detects on your website. Choose what you want to be found for. Mark your most important topic with the star. If one is missing, type it in.
  • Brand Enter your brand name and, if needed, other spellings.
  • Positioning Say who your offer is for (B2B, B2C or both), what sets it apart and which requests you do not want. You can skip this step.
  • Proposal RankScan puts together A keyword is the search term users enter into a search engine to find information, products or providers. Keywords are the basis against which rankings and visibility are measured.Open glossary entry → and prompts for each topic. This takes about a minute. On each card you can add or replace keywords and prompts.
  • Competitors Enter competitors as “Name, domain.com”. You can skip this step and add them later.
  • Finish Check the overview and click “Start first scan”.

What happens next #

The first scan takes a while because RankScan queries real search results and AI answers. When it is done, you get an email. Scores appear on the morning after the first measurement, the history from the second one on.

If a member without admin rights sets up the property, an admin must confirm it. Only then does the scan start.

You can adjust what RankScan measures later, see Configure Scans.

Setup dialog with the “Topics” step and the “Your progress” panel
Setup dialog with the “Topics” step and the “Your progress” panel

Tip #

Start lean: two or three topics are enough for the first scan. That way you see sooner whether your topic structure works.

Next step #

Before you add many topics, read Define Topics That Produce Useful Insights. The topic structure decides the quality of every analysis.