Frequently Asked Questions

The Researcher is Rankability's keyword discovery and analysis hub. It helps you find, evaluate, and organize keyword opportunities for any client with five tabs: Discover keywords, Analyze keywords, Explore domain, Find keyword gaps, and Manage lists.

Discover keywords generates hundreds of keyword ideas from a seed topic using AI expansion. Analyze keywords lets you paste or enter specific keywords for detailed metrics. Explore domain shows what keywords any competitor domain ranks for. Find keyword gaps compares your client's domain against competitors to identify keywords they rank for that you don't. Manage lists lets you save, organize, filter, and manage keyword collections by project and client.

Each keyword shows search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC, search intent classification (informational, commercial, transactional, navigational), trend data, a KO Score (weighted combination of volume, difficulty, CPC, and intent), and an Opportunity Score (balance of high volume, low difficulty, and strong commercial intent).

The KO Score (Keyword Overview Score) is a proprietary weighted score that combines search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC value, and search intent to rank keyword opportunities. A higher KO Score means the keyword is more strategically valuable.

The Opportunity Score highlights keywords with the best balance of high volume, low difficulty, and strong commercial intent. A high Opportunity Score means the keyword is both valuable and achievable — an easy win.

Yes. When you run a Discover keywords research, the system automatically groups related keywords into semantic clusters so you can plan content around topics rather than individual terms.

Yes. From any Researcher project, select the keywords you want approved and generate a shareable link. Your client receives a branded page showing every keyword with metrics. They can approve, reject, or leave comments on individual keywords. Share links support white-label branding, email notifications, and expiration controls (7, 14, 30, 90 days, or never).

The Researcher uses credits. A full keyword research costs 500 credits. Cached results are free. The number of keywords you can research depends on your plan's credit allocation: Starter gets 25,000 credits/month, Core gets 25,000, Team gets 75,000, and Agency gets 200,000.

Beyond standard keyword research, Rankability offers specialized research modes: Trending (Google Trends + velocity data, 750 credits), Reddit/Forums (community scanning, 750 credits), YouTube/Video (video keyword research, 750 credits), and E-commerce (Amazon, Walmart, eBay keywords, 750 credits).

Yes. The Discover keywords mode integrates with your client's connected Google Search Console data and Knowledge Base for highly personalized, data-driven keyword suggestions. GSC import costs 1,500 credits per import.

The Copywriter is an end-to-end content creation system that takes you from a keyword to a publish-ready, SEO-optimized article through a guided wizard. It researches competitors, generates a brief, writes an AI draft, and scores your content in real time.

Five distinct modes: Standard (Create New) — full guided wizard from topic to draft. Manual Draft ('Write it myself') — skip AI draft generation and write manually with real-time scoring and optimization sidebar. Optimize — import an existing URL and optimize it with research-backed recommendations. YouTube Script — generates structured video scripts for YouTube. Quick Mode — skips outline and draft, giving you just NLP keywords, entities, and competitor data for briefing human writers. A Listicle content route is also available for roundup-style articles.

Four content types, each designed for a different stage of the buyer journey: Educate (how-to guides, explainers), Discover (best-of lists, tool roundups), Compete (head-to-head comparisons, alternatives), and Convert (local service pages, landing pages). Rankability auto-suggests a content type based on your keyword's intent signals.

The Copywriter analyzes top-ranking competitors through five automated steps: analyzing search results, scanning AI platforms, extracting competitor data, identifying keywords and entities, and building a content brief. Research takes 2–3 minutes and analyzes both traditional SERP results and AI platform responses from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, Gemini, Google AI Overview, and Google AI Mode.

The content score is a 0–100 rating with two components: Coverage (85% weight) — measures how many recommended keywords appear in your draft — and Placement (15% weight) — checks whether your primary keyword appears in five key positions: title tag, H1, first 100 words, meta description, and early H2/H3.

Aim for 70 or above. The score measures topical completeness, not a ranking guarantee. Focus on covering recommended keywords naturally rather than forcing a specific number.

Yes. The 'Write it myself' (Manual Draft) option lets you skip AI draft generation and write manually while still using keyword tracking, content scoring, and the optimization sidebar. You can also switch to AI generation at any time by clicking the 'Generate draft' banner.

Quick mode skips outline and draft generation to give you just the NLP-extracted keywords, entities, and competitor data. It's ideal for creating briefs for human writers. Quick mode costs 1,200 credits (vs. 2,100 for a full brief + draft).

Yes. YouTube Script mode generates fully structured video scripts designed to rank on YouTube Search, Google Video Packs, AI Overviews, and AI platforms. Scripts include hook markers, B-roll cues, call-to-action placements, chapter headings with timestamps, optimized descriptions, and tags.

Yes. Enter a keyword like 'FreshBooks vs QuickBooks' and the Copywriter automatically detects the versus format. It scrapes both products' websites, extracts pricing and features, and generates a structured comparison with a quick verdict, head-to-head table, category-by-category breakdowns, and a decision framework.

Six formats: Google Docs, HTML (developer handoff), Markdown, Microsoft Word, WordPress, and Webflow CMS. Available formats depend on your plan — Starter and Core include Google Docs and HTML; Team adds Word and Markdown; Agency adds WordPress and Webflow.

The HTML export produces a structured, annotated file designed for developers and AI coding agents. It includes semantic section classes, component-ready transforms, and a developer manifest with implementation hints. You can give it directly to tools like Cursor, Windsurf, or Replit Agent as a build spec.

Yes. Use the Optimize mode on the Copywriter start screen, or use 'Import from URL' in the editor's More actions menu. Enter a URL and the system extracts the main article content into your editor. You can also use the API's optimize mode to rewrite existing pages.

Yes. Every draft is auto-saved. Click More actions > Version history to see saved versions with date/time and word count. You can restore any previous version or manually save snapshots. Auto-saved versions expire after 30 days.

Yes. Click Share in the content editor and toggle 'Enable shared link.' The generated URL allows viewing and editing. You can disable the link at any time.

A Brief only costs 1,800 credits. A Brief + AI draft costs 2,100 credits. Quick mode costs 1,200 credits. Regenerating a draft costs 800 credits.

Yes. The Topic & Intent step includes a custom instructions field (up to 3,000 characters) where you can provide specific guidance like 'Mention 24/7 availability and licensed technicians' or 'Do not mention competitor brand names.'

While editing, you can select any text and use inline AI actions to rewrite, expand, shorten, or improve the selected passage. The editor also includes a full formatting toolbar with headings, bold, italic, lists, links, images, tables, and more.

The Reporter monitors how a brand appears across both traditional search engines and AI platforms. It tracks keyword rankings, produces an SPI (Search Performance Index) score, and generates shareable client-facing reports.

SPI is a composite score from 0–100 that measures overall brand visibility across four categories: Traditional search (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, Local Pack), Video (YouTube Search, Google Video Pack), AI mentions (ChatGPT, AI Overview, AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, Claude), and AI citations (pages cited as sources by AI platforms). Ratings: Strong (70+), Moderate (40–69), Weak (below 40).

Up to nine AI platforms depending on your plan. Starter, Core, and Team plans include 4 AI platforms: ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Perplexity. The Agency plan includes all 9 AI platforms: the above four plus Google AI Overview, Claude, Grok, Brave Summaries, and Bing Deep Answers.

Four traditional search engines: Google organic, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Brave. Google Local Pack is tracked separately as a local search platform and requires plan support.

Yes. Reporter tracks YouTube Search rankings and Google Video Pack carousel results. YouTube Search scanning runs weekly. Video Pack scanning runs daily alongside organic scans at no extra credit cost (0 credits).

Scan frequency depends on your plan. Starter, Core, and Team plans run scans weekly. The Agency plan runs scans daily. You can also trigger on-demand scans at any time.

A 0–100 score with three supporting metrics: Mention rate %, Average position, and Platform coverage %. It measures how often and how prominently AI platforms mention your brand.

Yes. Click Share on any tracking project to generate a view-only shareable link. Reports can be password-protected with sessions lasting 7 days. Shared reports include SPI trends, keyword performance, Search Console data, Google Analytics traffic, and key wins highlights.

Yes. Configure a report schedule (weekly or monthly) in client settings. Add recipient email addresses and optionally CC yourself. Reports are sent as branded emails with a snapshot of key metrics and a link to the full report.

Yes. Shared reports and report emails use your agency's branding — your logo, agency name, and accent color. Clients see your brand, not Rankability's.

Reporter is billed per keyword per platform per check. Traditional search engines and AI Overview/AI Mode/Perplexity cost 10 credits each. ChatGPT costs 30 credits. Gemini, Claude, and Grok cost 20 credits each. Local Pack costs 10 credits per location. YouTube Search costs 10 credits. Google Video Pack costs 0 credits (free). Citation analysis costs 50 credits per page.

Yes. Select Local Pack as a platform and set a target location. The Reporter includes interactive map visualization showing rank distribution across geographic locations, color-coded by position. Local Pack availability depends on your plan: Starter has no Local Pack access, Core gets 1 location, Team gets 5 locations, and Agency gets 25 locations.

Tracking keyword limits depend on your plan: Starter allows 5 tracking keywords, Core allows 15, Team allows 25, and Agency allows 100.

The Advisor is an AI-powered strategic advisor that answers questions about your client using their knowledge base and connected data sources. Use it to extract insights, build strategy, analyze performance data, and get tool recommendations.

Five connections: Google Search Console (keyword rankings, CTR data), Google Analytics 4 (traffic, user behavior), Google Business Profile (reviews, local insights), YouTube Channel analytics, and Reporter tracking data (auto-connected).

Four types: Upload file, Paste text, Website URL, and Import from website. When you create a new client, Rankability automatically scans the client's website for pages to import.

Chat has message limits that vary by plan: Starter allows 50 messages/month, Core allows 150 messages/month, Team allows 500 messages/month, and Agency has unlimited messages. No credits are consumed for conversations — the limits are based on message count. Credits are only consumed for enrichment actions: URL import (50 credits per page), Google Reviews import (10 credits per batch), Deep research (30 credits per run), and Contradiction scan (25 credits per source).

Built-in quick prompts include: Key services, Target audience, Unique value, Recommend a tool, and Prompt library. The Prompt library includes categories like Business & Offer Clarity and Fulfillment & Execution, each with Copy and Run buttons.

The Data insights tab analyzes connected performance data (GSC, GA4, GBP, YouTube, Reporter) to surface top keywords, striking distance opportunities, low-CTR pages, content gaps, AI visibility trends, position changes, and competitor landscape analysis. It also includes a 'Generate weekly plan' button for a Mon–Fri action plan.

Yes. Hover over any response and click the Save (bookmark) icon. Review saved insights via the Saved button in the Advisor header.

Yes. Conversations are saved automatically per client. Click History in the Advisor toolbar to see and resume past conversations. Each client has its own conversation history.

The limit depends on your plan: Starter allows 10 URLs (total), Core allows 15 URLs (total), Team allows 25 URLs per client, and Agency allows 50 URLs per client.

The Auditor is a tool suite for automated SEO audits. It includes a site crawler for technical SEO audits and a Google Business Profile (GBP) auditor for local SEO audits.

The site crawler performs a full crawl using Firecrawl (handles JavaScript rendering and anti-bot protections), maps internal link structure, and discovers technical issues like broken links, thin pages, and missing metadata. The internal link graph reveals orphan pages and poor link distribution.

The GBP Auditor evaluates a Google Business Profile across every dimension that matters for local SEO: profile completeness, business description quality, opening date, categories, photos and videos, Google Posts activity, Q&A coverage, and website NAP consistency. Each checkpoint gets a pass, warning, or fail status.

Yes. It pulls local competitors from Google's local pack results, extracts their business categories, and benchmarks your client's profile against them with visual bar charts comparing review counts, ratings, photo counts, and post frequency.

Yes. For any GBP checkpoint that needs improvement, the auditor can generate AI-powered suggestions — better business descriptions, review replies, Google Post ideas, Q&A answers — grounded in your client's knowledge base, brand voice, and website content. Fixes can be applied directly to the profile via the GBP API.

Yes. Generate a shareable link to send GBP audit results to clients. The shared report shows all checkpoints, scores, and competitor benchmarks.

The Page Auditor analyzes how well a single page is optimized for a specific target keyword. It includes on-page optimization scoring, Core Web Vitals measurement, and technical health checks (meta tags, heading structure, content depth).

The Promoter is Rankability's backlink profile monitoring tool. It tracks your domain's backlinks, referring domains, anchor text distribution, and top pages by backlink volume. Access it from the 'Promote' tab in the client sidebar.

The Promoter tracks domain authority score, total backlink count, referring domain count, anchor text distribution, and top pages ranked by number of backlinks pointing to them.

Yes. The Promoter shows historical backlink and referring domain trends over configurable time ranges so you can track growth or spot drops in your backlink profile.

Yes. You can filter the backlinks list to a specific target URL on your domain to see which external sites link to individual pages.

Three active plans for new signups: Core ($199/month or $1,990/year), Team ($399/month or $3,990/year), and Agency ($799/month or $7,990/year). A legacy Starter plan ($149/month) exists for v1 migrators but is not available for new signups. Annual billing saves approximately 17% compared to monthly billing.

Every action that uses external APIs or AI processing consumes credits from your account. Each plan includes a monthly credit allocation. Credits reset each billing cycle — unused included credits do not roll over. You can purchase additional credit packs at any time, and purchased credits never expire.

Copywriter: Brief only — 1,800 credits. Brief + AI draft — 2,100 credits. Quick mode — 1,200 credits. Regenerate draft — 800 credits. Keyword research: Full research — 500 credits. Specialized modes (Trending, Reddit, YouTube, E-commerce) — 750 credits each. Researcher: Batch analysis — 75 credits/keyword. Domain explorer — 600 credits. Gap analysis — 750 credits/competitor. GSC import — 1,500 credits. Reporter: Traditional search engines — 10 credits/check. ChatGPT — 30 credits/check. Gemini/Claude/Grok — 20 credits/check. YouTube Search — 10 credits/check. Google Video Pack — 0 credits.

You receive a notification when approaching your limit. Once reached, you cannot start new analyses or content jobs until your next billing cycle or until you purchase additional credits. A 500-credit grace buffer allows in-flight operations to finish. All existing articles, reports, and data remain fully accessible.

Yes. Purchase credit packs at any time from Settings > Billing. Five packs are available: 5,000 credits for $50, 10,000 credits for $100, 27,500 credits for $250 (includes 10% bonus), 60,000 credits for $500 (includes 20% bonus), and 130,000 credits for $1,000 (includes 30% bonus). Purchased credits never expire and carry over between billing cycles indefinitely.

No. Purchased credits carry forward indefinitely across billing cycles. Only your plan's included monthly credits reset each cycle.

No. Included credits from your plan reset at the start of each billing cycle. Unused included credits do not carry over.

Annual subscribers receive all 12 months of credits upfront at the start of their billing cycle. Annual pricing saves approximately 17% compared to monthly billing (e.g., Core: $1,990/year vs. $199/month × 12 = $2,388).

Viewing reports, editing content, navigating the platform, and accessing cached keyword data cost zero credits. Advisor chat is included in your plan's message allocation and does not consume credits.

Additional clients can be purchased and added to your account. Contact the Rankability team for additional seat options beyond your plan's included allocation.

Monthly plans are billed month-to-month with no long-term commitment. Annual plans are billed upfront for the full year.

Four Google integrations: Google Search Console (available on all plans), Google Analytics 4 (Team and Agency), Google Business Profile (Team and Agency), and YouTube Channel (Agency only).

Open the Advisor page for any client, click Connections, and click the Google Search Console dropdown to authenticate through Google's standard OAuth2 flow. You need admin access to the GSC property.

Same process as GSC — go to Advisor > Connections and click the Google Analytics dropdown. GA4 integration is available on Team and Agency plans.

Yes, on Team and Agency plans. Connect via Advisor > Connections. GBP data enriches Reporter insights, Advisor recommendations, and enables the GBP Auditor.

Yes, on the Agency plan. Connect your YouTube channel via Advisor > Connections. YouTube data informs Advisor recommendations and can be used with the YouTube Script content mode.

Yes. You can export content directly to WordPress from the Copywriter. Click Export and select WordPress, then follow the authentication prompts. Available on the Agency plan.

Yes. You can export content directly to Webflow CMS from the Copywriter. Available on the Agency plan.

You can export keyword data and Reporter data as CSV files which can be imported into Google Sheets or Looker Studio for custom reporting.

Yes. The Rankability Agent API is a RESTful API that covers three core modules: Copywriter (create content, poll status, fetch artifacts, export), Reporter (create tracking projects, read SPI scores, trigger scans), and Clients (create and manage client profiles).

Yes. API access is available on all plans including Starter. Rate limits vary by plan: Starter gets 15 requests/minute, Core gets 30, Team gets 60, and Agency gets 120.

Go to Settings > API keys, click Create API key, give it a name, select scopes, optionally set an expiration date, and click Create. Copy the full key immediately — it starts with rk_live_ and is only shown once.

Seven scopes: copywriter:run (create/delete jobs), copywriter:read (poll status, fetch artifacts), reporter:read (list projects, fetch SPI), reporter:run (trigger scans), reporter:write (create/update/delete projects), clients:read (list/get clients), and clients:write (create/update/delete clients).

Yes. Send a POST request with a topic, intent, and mode (auto or stepped). In auto mode, the full pipeline runs end-to-end — research, brief, and draft. In stepped mode, it pauses after the brief for review before generating the draft. Poll for completion, then fetch structured artifacts including outline, draft, SEO metadata, entities, FAQs, FAQ schema JSON-LD, and content score.

Auto mode runs the entire pipeline without stopping (queued → researching → generating_draft → completed). Stepped mode pauses at brief_ready so you can review the brief and partial artifacts before approving it to continue to draft generation.

Yes. The API can be integrated with automation platforms like n8n, Make, or Zapier to trigger content jobs and track rankings from events. Common use cases include bulk content pipelines, CMS publishing automation, and custom dashboards.

Yes. Rankability supports MCP, letting you connect your SEO data to AI assistants like Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Windsurf. Your assistant can read clients, SPI scores, content project status, and ranking results — and can create content jobs and trigger scans. Two connection methods are available: hosted HTTP endpoint (for Cursor/Windsurf) and local stdio transport (for Claude Desktop).

Ask your AI assistant questions like 'How is Acme Corp performing?' or 'Which keywords dropped this week?' and it pulls live data. You can also create content jobs, approve briefs, and trigger rank tracking scans through natural conversation.

Yes. Rate limits use a sliding-window limiter: Starter gets 15 requests/minute, Core gets 30, Team gets 60, and Agency gets 120. Keys that generate excessive errors or violations are automatically suspended.

Yes. Rankability supports 32 languages for content generation. When you set a language, the entire pipeline — SERP results, brief, outline, draft, title tag, meta description, entities, and FAQs — is generated in that language.

English (US), English (UK), Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

Yes. Set the language to Portuguese (pt) and the location to a city in Brazil. The Copywriter will research Portuguese-language SERPs from Brazil and generate the entire article — headings, title tag, meta description, keywords, and body — in Portuguese.

Yes. Set the language code to ja. The system fetches Japanese-language search results and generates the full article in Japanese, including all metadata and entity extraction.

Yes. Both the Researcher and Copywriter accept location targeting. Enter a city, state, or country (e.g., 'Austin, TX', 'London, UK', 'São Paulo, Brazil') to get location-specific SERP data and content recommendations.

Yes. When setting up a tracking project, you can set a target location for Local Pack tracking. The Reporter will monitor your rankings as if searching from that specific location.

Yes. For example, you can set language to Spanish (es) and location to 'Mexico City' to get Spanish-language SERP data from Mexico and generate content in Spanish optimized for that market.

Yes. The Discover keywords mode supports location-aware filtering to ensure keywords match your target market. Set your target location and language before running research.

Go to Settings and invite team members by email. You can assign roles and control which clients each member can access.

Rankability supports role-based access control. Available roles vary by plan: Starter and Core include Owner and Writer roles. Team adds the Strategist role. Agency adds all roles plus Client Viewer (read-only dashboards). You can give team members access to specific tools (like Copywriter only) while restricting admin functions like billing and API key management.

Starter includes 2 seats, Core includes 3 seats, Team includes 5 seats, and Agency includes 15 seats.

Yes. Client access can be configured per team member, so you can restrict each person to only the clients they work on.

Client limits depend on your plan: Starter allows 3 clients, Core allows 5, Team allows 15, and Agency allows 50. Additional clients can be purchased.

Yes. Shared reports, keyword approval pages, and automated report emails use your agency's branding — your logo, agency name, and accent color. Clients see your brand, not Rankability's.

Yes. Every automated report email uses your agency's white-label branding. Your logo, agency name, and accent color appear prominently, with a snapshot of key metrics and a link to the full report.

Yes. Keyword approval share links automatically pick up your agency branding — logo, name, and brand color. If you have a client display name configured, the page shows 'Prepared for [client name].'

Yes. The Refer & earn program lets you earn cash rewards for every new customer you bring in. Visit the Refer & earn page to grab your unique referral link.

Rewards escalate: your first successful referral earns $100, second earns $150, third earns $200, and every referral after that earns $300 or more. There is no cap.

Any customer with an active paid subscription. No separate signup is required — your referral link is generated automatically.

When someone signs up using your link and pays their first invoice, you earn a reward. Your Refer & earn dashboard tracks lifetime earnings, pending payouts, and the status of every referral.

Yes. Use the built-in email invite form to send personalized referral invitations. You can add multiple email addresses at once and include a personal message.

Check the keyword sidebar. Keywords marked red (0 uses) are missing from your content — add them naturally. Also check the KW checklist to make sure your primary keyword appears in the title tag, H1, first 100 words, meta description, and early H2/H3.

Click 'Check status' to refresh. Research typically takes 2–3 minutes. If it's been longer than 5 minutes, try starting a new project with the same topic.

The first scan may still be running. Check the 'Last scan' date on your tracking project. If no scan has completed yet, wait for the first scan to finish. You can also trigger an on-demand scan.

Yes. AI platforms may not mention your brand for every keyword, especially if you're a newer or niche brand. This reflects the current state of AI-generated responses. Focus on building authority and content to increase AI mentions over time.

You need admin access to the Google Search Console property. Make sure you're authenticating with a Google account that has admin permissions on the GSC property you want to connect.

The site may block crawlers or use client-side rendering. Add sources manually via Advisor > + Add source. You can upload files, paste text, enter website URLs, or import from specific pages.

Highlight colors may not carry over to all export platforms. Headings, lists, bold, italic, and links are preserved. For the most faithful reproduction, use the HTML developer handoff export.

No. Content type cannot be changed after research begins. You'll need to start a new project with the correct content type.

Confirm the share toggle is set to ON. If you recently disabled and re-enabled it, a new URL may have been generated — send the updated link. If the client sees an error, toggle it OFF and ON again to generate a fresh link.

Individual platform checks have timeouts so one slow API doesn't block the entire report. Failed platforms can be retried individually. Click Retry on the failed platform.

Rankability uses a consistent user-agent string for all crawling features — Advisor source imports, Copywriter research, site audits, and domain discovery. It does not change based on your agency name or branding settings.

Manage your subscription from Settings > Billing. Monthly plans can be canceled at any time. Your access continues until the end of the current billing period.

All your existing articles, reports, keyword research, and client data remain accessible through the end of your current billing period. After that, data is retained for a limited time in case you resubscribe.