Setting up keyword tracking
Create a Track report from what customers should find the client for, then choose platforms, queries, locations, and a monitoring cadence.
Create a Track report from what customers should find the client for, then choose the platforms, queries, locations, and monitoring cadence that answer the business question.
Before starting, confirm the client domain and brand, the target market, and which search surfaces matter. Tracking is a recurring measurement commitment, so avoid enabling platforms or locations you will not use.
Create a report
Select a client and open Track, then create a report.
Answer What should customers find you for? with one product, service, or category. Each answer becomes its own report with its own history, so create separate reports rather than combining unrelated offerings.
Check the summarized brand context. The client name, domain, recognized names, and default location come from the client's brand settings instead of being re-entered for every report. Use Review recognized names to approve or reject suggested alternate names, former names, and common misspellings; your decisions are saved back to brand settings without leaving Track.
Choose the platforms to track. Nothing is selected for you. The primary choices are grouped as AI answers and Search results, and the remaining platforms are behind Add another platform. Local coverage appears only after you deliberately select Google local results; its grid size and distance between checks are under Customize.
Review the query for each channel. The selected AI platforms share one AI question, and Google Search and local results share one Search query because both test the same customer phrase. Rankability suggests both from your answer, and a query you edit is never overwritten. The two are deliberately different in style: the AI question should read as a natural question someone would ask an assistant, while the search query should be the shorter keyword phrase someone would type into Google. To track more than one phrasing, use Suggest questions and pick from the suggested customer questions; each question you keep becomes its own report with its own history.
If you selected a video platform, supply the client's YouTube channel or TikTok profile URL. Rankability needs the channel or profile address to recognize the client's videos — a link to an individual video is rejected.
Choose Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. The cadence applies to every platform you selected, and per-platform schedules remain available afterward in report settings.
Select Start tracking. Monitoring is enabled and the first scan starts immediately; scheduled scans build history from there.
Before you start, the summary line confirms that tracking begins now and shows what the report will use. On a current plan it shows the cadence and where the new report leaves you against your active tracked prompt allowance. On a protected legacy plan it shows the estimated monthly usage and the number of platforms instead. Review it again after changing platforms, locations, or the Local Pack grid.
A completed setup without a completed scan does not yet contain visibility evidence.
Choose platforms deliberately
Traditional, AI, local, and video platforms measure different kinds of visibility and have different workload impact. Location-aware AI platforms can multiply work across additional locations. Enable only the surfaces you intend to monitor.
Which AI platforms you can select depends on your base plan and any paid platform add-ons. Google Search, local, and video tracking are included on every paid plan. If an AI platform is locked, open Billing to add that platform or compare a plan that includes it. Access begins only after any required payment succeeds. See Understanding billing and usage for the enabled platforms and tracked prompt allowance on your subscription.
Organize tracking
Use topic groups and bulk settings where available to keep related keywords consistent. Turning auto-tracking off stops new scheduled scans for that keyword; you can still run a manual scan.
Use one persisted keyword record for each intended query/client scope. If you import or create in bulk, verify row-level language and location settings before starting scans. Similar keyword text can legitimately exist in different projects or markets, but accidental duplicates waste capacity and fragment history.
Track a running scan
After you start a scan, Rankability returns you to the keyword list and shows the run's state on the project's row. A scan in progress shows Processing, and the list refreshes on its own while any run is still working — you do not need to keep a report page open.
A new report opens only after a scan has covered every platform you selected. Faster platforms can return before the rest, so a row can look busy for a while before it becomes available; that wait is the report being completed rather than a stalled run. Once a report has a completed scan it stays open, so adding a platform later does not take the existing report away while the new one is measured for the first time.
A run that does not finish shows Stuck or Failed, with the recorded reason available on the row. When the run can be retried, select Retry on that row; the project returns to Processing and stays in the list. A scan that stalls is stopped automatically and recorded as failed rather than sitting on Processing indefinitely, so a row that stays busy for a long time is still working. You can also cancel a scan that is pending, running, or stuck; a scan that has already finished cannot be canceled.
Read the first result
After a completed scan, review SPI and its category breakdown, then open the detailed traditional, AI answer, citation, local, or video results that apply to the project.
Common issues
The usage impact is too high — Reduce unnecessary platforms, locations, or grid points before approval. See Supported tracking platforms.
No scan data appears — Check that a run completed and that the selected platform, date, and location match it.
A platform says not tracked — Enable it in the keyword settings and run a new scan; historical runs cannot contain a platform that was not selected.
The keyword already exists — Open the existing tracked keyword and preserve its history instead of creating a duplicate.
Scheduled scans stopped — Check auto-tracking, project state, connection health, subscription state, and any visible error before starting a manual replacement. A lapsed subscription stops automatic scans, and the skipped run records that reason on the row. Scheduled work is otherwise protected from on-demand usage limits.
The result differs from a manual search — Location, device, personalization, time, and provider context can differ. Compare the persisted scan with matching settings.
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