🎯 What This Article Covers
Welcome to Search Atlas! This guide is designed for new agencies getting started with multiple clients. You will learn how to structure client projects, resolve common WordPress crawl issues, and get a quick overview of core capabilities including the Backlinks tool.
🗂️ Step 1: Set Up a Separate Project for Each Client
Search Atlas organises all SEO work around Projects. Each client should have their own dedicated project so that data, reports, and settings remain cleanly separated.
- Log in to Search Atlas and click Create Project from the Home dashboard.
- Enter the client's root domain (e.g., https://clientsite.com).
- Select the target country and language for that client.
- Click Create Project. Repeat this process for every client you manage.
You can switch between client projects at any time using the project selector in the top navigation bar. There is no limit on the number of projects you can create under your agency account.
🔗 Step 2: Connect WordPress and Fix Crawl Issues
Connecting WordPress enables Search Atlas to crawl your client's site and surface on-page optimisation opportunities. If the site is not crawling after connection, follow these steps.
- In your client's project, go to Settings → Integrations and confirm the WordPress plugin is installed and activated on the client's site.
- Check that the API key displayed in Search Atlas matches the key entered inside the WordPress plugin settings. A mismatch is the most common cause of crawl failure.
- Verify the client site is publicly accessible. Password-protected, maintenance-mode, or staging sites behind a firewall will block the crawler.
- Ensure the site's robots.txt file is not blocking the Search Atlas crawler. Open https://clientsite.com/robots.txt and confirm there is no Disallow rule targeting all bots or the Search Atlas user-agent.
- Confirm the WordPress permalink structure is set to anything other than Plain. Go to WordPress Admin → Settings → Permalinks and save the current structure to flush rewrite rules.
- After verifying all of the above, return to your project in Search Atlas, open Settings → Integrations, and click Re-sync to trigger a fresh crawl.
If the crawl still does not start within 15 minutes after re-syncing, the issue may be related to server response time or a firewall rule blocking outbound API requests. Check with the client's hosting provider that outbound webhook requests are permitted.
🔍 Step 3: Explore Core SEO Capabilities
Once your client's project is crawling, here is a quick overview of the main tools available to your agency.
- Site Auditor: Runs a full technical SEO audit and groups issues by severity so you can prioritise fixes quickly for each client.
- Keyword Research: Find high-opportunity keywords for your client's niche, analyse search intent, and build topical clusters.
- Rank Tracker: Monitor keyword rankings daily across Google and Bing for each client's target location.
- Content Planner: Generate briefs and outlines aligned with top-ranking content in your client's space.
- OTTO SEO V3 (Content Editor): Optimise individual pages in real time. Access it via Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → SEO Automation or navigate directly to /seo-automation-v3.
- Backlinks: Full backlink intelligence suite — covered in detail in the next section.
🔗 Step 4: Using the Backlinks Tool for Clients
The Backlinks tool gives your agency a complete picture of any domain's link profile — your clients' sites and competitors alike.
- Backlink Analysis: Enter any domain to see its full list of referring domains, anchor text distribution, link authority scores, and whether links are dofollow or nofollow.
- Competitor Gap Analysis: Compare your client's backlink profile against up to four competitors to identify link-building opportunities they are missing.
- New and Lost Links: Track links gained or lost over time to measure the impact of outreach campaigns and catch unexpected drops quickly.
- Toxic Link Detection: Identify low-quality or spammy backlinks that may be hurting your client's domain authority and generate a disavow file if needed.
- Link Prospecting: Search for potential link targets by niche, domain rating, and traffic to feed directly into your agency's outreach workflow.
To access the Backlinks tool, go to Site Metrics → [select your client's project] → Backlinks (Backlinks). All data is scoped to the selected project, keeping each client's backlink intelligence separate.
✅ Recommended First Steps for New Agencies
- Create a project for each client and complete the WordPress integration.
- Run a Site Audit for every client to establish a baseline health score.
- Pull a Backlinks report for each client and their top three competitors.
- Set up Rank Tracking for each client's primary target keywords.
- Use the Content Planner to build a 30-day content roadmap for your highest-priority client.
Working through these five steps in your first week gives your agency a clear, data-backed starting point for every client engagement.
💬 Need More Help?
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.