Site Explorer

🔍 Find and Access Previous Site Explorer Audits

📊 Why Site Explorer Shows Zero Traffic With Leads

How to View Site Metric Data in Site Explorer

Site Explorer is Search Atlas's domain intelligence tool. It lets you analyze organic, paid, and backlink metrics for any domain — your own or a competitor's. This article explains how to access those metrics and what each data point covers. 📋 What Site Explorer Shows The Overview panel surfaces the following top-level metrics for any domain: - Organic keyword count — number of keywords the domain ranks for in organic search - Estimated organic traffic — projected monthly visits driven by organic rankings - Paid keyword count — number of keywords the domain is bidding on in paid search - Estimated paid traffic — projected monthly visits from paid (PPC) search campaigns - Backlinks count — total inbound links pointing to the domain - Referring domains count — unique domains linking to the site - Domain Authority — a composite score reflecting the domain's link strength - Position distribution — ranking breakdown across buckets: 1–3, 4–10, 11–20, 21–50, and 51–100 Historical trend data for traffic, keywords, and backlinks is available for up to 12 months. 🔍 How to View Site Metrics 1. Log in to your Search Atlas dashboard and go to Site Explorer (Left sidebar → Site Metrics). 2. Enter the domain you want to analyze in the search bar and press Enter. 3. Open an existing project for that domain or create a new one. 4. The Overview panel loads automatically with top-level metrics displayed at the top of the page. 5. Use the tabs below the overview to explore deeper data: Organic Keywords, Top Pages, Competitors, Position Changes, Subdomains, Backlinks, Referring Domains, Anchor Text, Outgoing Links, Intent Distribution, Trends, and SERP Features. ⚠️ Things to Keep in Mind - Site Explorer works on any domain, not only your own. You can freely use it for competitor research. - Organic keyword counts can appear higher than expected because the same keyword ranking across multiple URLs is tracked per URL before being merged. When reviewing large keyword sets, use the Prev / Next Page pagination controls (Site Explorer → Keywords) rather than relying on the total count display. - Metrics are based on periodic index updates, not real-time data. Expect a typical lag of days to weeks between changes going live and appearing in Site Explorer. - If the Overview panel appears blank or is missing its organic research, paid research, or backlinks sections while data is still visible in the individual tabs below, reload the page. This was a known display issue that has since been resolved. - If you want to track specific target keywords over time, use Rank Tracker (Left sidebar → Keywords → Rank Tracker) — that is a separate tool designed for ongoing keyword monitoring. - Crawl health and indexed page data are available under the Indexed Pages tab, which is separate from organic ranking pages. - Site Explorer metrics can be included in client-facing reports using the Report Builder tool. 💬 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.

🔍 Keywords in Site Explorer

Discover the exact keywords driving your organic and paid traffic, understand rankings, analyze performance trends, and uncover opportunities to grow visibility. 🧭 How to Access Keywords Keywords in the left sidebar Keywords link in the left-side navigation Click Site Metrics in the left sidebar, then click Keywords in the left-side navigation. Enter your domain (for example, nike.com) in the search bar, select Domain, choose a country (for example, United States), and click Search. 🧱 Keywords Module Overview Organic Keywords and Paid Keywords tabs Inside the Keywords section, you'll find two main tabs: Organic Keywords and Paid Keywords. Each tab provides a different perspective on how your domain performs in search. 🌱 Organic Keywords This tab shows all the keywords your domain ranks for in organic (non-paid) search results. At the top of the page, you'll see three key metrics: - Organic Keywords — the total number of keywords your domain ranks for within the top 100 Google results. - Organic Traffic — the estimated number of monthly visits your domain receives from organic search. - Organic Traffic Cost — the estimated cost of acquiring that same traffic via Google Ads (CPC equivalent). 📋 Paid Keywords Similar to organic, but focused on paid performance, including keywords, positions, traffic, volume, CPC, and landing pages. 📈 Keyword Position History Keyword position history chart This chart visualizes how keyword rankings evolve over time. You can toggle between Keyword Position History, Traffic, and Traffic Cost. For organic keywords, positions are grouped into Top 3, Position 4–10, Position 11–20, Position 21–50, Position 51–100, and SERP Features. For paid keywords, groups are Top 3, Position 4–9, Position 9+, and SERP Features. Time ranges include 3M, 6M, 1Y, 2Y, and All time. ⚡ Table Actions When at least one keyword is selected, an Add to dropdown lets you add keywords to a Keyword List or Rank Tracker, and a Create article action opens a Select BrandVault modal so each selected keyword can be used to create a separate article. An Export action downloads the keyword dataset, and columns such as Traffic and Monthly S. Volume can be sorted by clicking their headers. 📋 Keywords Table Keywords table with performance columns Below the chart, the full keyword dataset is displayed with columns for Keyword, Search Intent, Prev, Curr, Diff, Position Serps, Traffic, Monthly S. Volume, CPC, KD, URL, and SERP Feat. - Keyword — the search query your domain ranks for, with a checkbox for bulk actions. - Search Intent — labeled Informational, Navigational, Commercial, or Transactional; a keyword can carry more than one intent. - Position Serps — displays SERP feature type using icons. - Traffic — the estimated organic traffic of the analyzed domain (per country). - Monthly S. Volume — estimated monthly search demand. - CPC — estimated cost-per-click in Google Ads. - KD — Keyword Difficulty score, shown as a numeric badge. - URL — the ranking page for the keyword. 🎛️ Filters and Controls You can filter by reporting month, by keyword (Contains, Word match, Exact match, Begins with, Ends with, Does not contain), by search intent, by position range (Top 3/10/20/50, #1, #4–10, #11–20, #21–50, #51–100, or a custom range), by traffic or search volume range, by CPC range, and by position type (All, Organic, SERP Features). An advanced filter builder lets you combine multiple conditions with include or exclude logic. 🧠 Key Differences: Organic vs Paid - Traffic source: Organic keywords come from SEO (Google rankings); paid keywords come from Google Ads. - Cost: Organic traffic is free (with an estimated value shown); paid traffic has a real spend. - Strategy: Organic relies on content and SEO; paid relies on bidding and ad campaigns. - Metrics: Organic tracks rankings, traffic, and difficulty; paid tracks spend, CPC, and ad positions. 🎯 How to Use Keywords Strategically Filter for keywords ranking in positions 4–20 and optimize pages to push them into the Top 3. Use Search Intent to align content type, and Create Article to scale content production. Analyze high-volume, low-KD keywords to identify gaps in ranking coverage, and use Organic Traffic Cost alongside Paid Traffic Cost for budget and ROI decisions. The Keywords section in Site Explorer gives you a complete view of how your domain performs across search queries, whether through organic rankings or paid campaigns. It lets you track keyword rankings over time, understand traffic potential and value, filter and segment keyword data, and build SEO and PPC strategies based on real performance. 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.

📊 Site Metrics Keywords Tab: Column Definitions Explained

🗺️ Overview The Keywords tab inside Site Explorer gives you a detailed breakdown of the keywords your domain ranks for, along with performance data pulled directly from search engine results. Understanding what each column measures helps you make accurate decisions about your SEO strategy. To reach this view, go to Left sidebar → Site Explorer and select the Keywords tab from the top navigation within the page. 📋 Column Definitions at a Glance The Keywords tab contains several columns, each measuring a distinct aspect of keyword performance. Here is what each one means: - Keyword — The search query for which your domain has a tracked or detected ranking. - Position SERP — The organic ranking position your page holds for this keyword in the standard, unpaid search results (the classic blue-link listings). A value of 1 means your page appears first in organic results. This number reflects only where your page sits in the core organic listings, not in any special result format. - SERP Features — Indicates whether your page or domain appears inside one or more enhanced result formats on the same search results page. These are non-standard placements such as Featured Snippets, People Also Ask boxes, Image Packs, Video Carousels, Local Packs, Site Links, and similar formats. A keyword may show a Position SERP of 4 but also carry a SERP Feature badge if your content was pulled into a Featured Snippet at the top of the page. - Traffic — The estimated organic traffic of the analyzed domain (per country) for this keyword. It is an estimate, not a direct measurement from your analytics account. - Search Volume — The average number of times this keyword is searched per month across all users. - Keyword Difficulty (KD) — A score from 0 to 100 indicating how competitive it is to rank organically for this keyword. Higher scores mean more competitive. - CPC — The average cost per click advertisers pay for this keyword in paid search. Useful as a signal of commercial intent. - URL — The specific page on your domain that holds the ranking for this keyword. 🔍 Position SERP vs. SERP Features: Key Differences These two columns are closely related but measure completely different things. Confusing them is one of the most common misreads in this tab. - Position SERP tells you where your page ranks among standard organic listings. It is a single number reflecting your place in the traditional ranked list of results. - SERP Features tells you whether your page or domain appears in any enhanced or special result format on that same page. This is not a ranking position — it is a presence indicator for non-standard placements. A practical example: Your page may rank at Position SERP 6 for a keyword, meaning it is the sixth organic result. At the same time, the SERP Features column may show a Featured Snippet icon, meaning your content also appears at the very top of the page inside an answer box. Both facts are true simultaneously because they measure different elements of the same results page. This distinction matters because SERP Features can drive significant traffic even when your organic position is not in the top three. Always review both columns together when evaluating a keyword's true visibility. 📈 Understanding the Traffic Estimate The Traffic column shows an estimated monthly visit count, not a live analytics figure. It is produced by this calculation: 1. Take the keyword's average monthly Search Volume. 2. Apply the average CTR associated with your current Position SERP. Pages at position 1 receive a much higher CTR than pages at position 10. 3. The result is the estimated monthly organic sessions attributable to that keyword. Because CTR benchmarks vary by industry, device, and whether SERP Features are present on the page, treat this number as a directional indicator rather than an exact count. It is most useful for comparing keywords against each other and prioritising optimisation efforts. 💡 Tips for Using These Columns Effectively - Sort by Traffic (descending) to find the keywords currently driving the most estimated visits, then check their Position SERP to identify quick-win opportunities where you rank between positions 4 and 15. - Filter for keywords that have active SERP Features to understand where your content is already being surfaced in enhanced formats — and where competitors might be displacing you from those features. - Use Position SERP alongside Search Volume to find high-volume keywords where your ranking has slipped and where improving your position would yield a meaningful Traffic increase. - Combine insights from this tab with Left sidebar → Keywords → Rank Tracker to monitor position changes over time for your most important keywords. 🆘 Need 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.

📊 Site Metrics Keywords Tab Column Definitions

📋 Overview The Keywords tab inside Site Explorer gives you a detailed breakdown of how your tracked domain ranks across search results. Each column surfaces a different dimension of keyword performance. This article explains what every column means so you can interpret your data with confidence. 🧭 How to Access the Keywords Tab 1. In the left sidebar, click Site Explorer. 2. Select your target domain from the list. 3. Click the Keywords tab at the top of the page. 📖 Column Definitions 🔑 Keyword The exact search query for which the domain holds a ranking URL. This is the term a user typed into Google that triggered your page to appear in the results. 🌐 URL The specific page on your domain that ranks for the keyword. One keyword maps to one ranking URL at a time. 📍 Position The organic ranking position of your URL for that keyword in the standard (blue-link) search results. Position 1 is the top organic result. This number reflects only the traditional organic listing — it does not account for any enriched SERP features shown on the same page. 🏆 SERP Features A separate indicator that shows which enriched result types appear on the search results page for that keyword — and whether your domain owns one of them. SERP Features are special result formats Google displays in addition to standard organic links. Common examples include: - Featured Snippet — a boxed answer pulled directly from a page. - People Also Ask — an expandable question-and-answer block. - Image Pack — a row of images surfaced inline. - Site Links — additional deep links shown beneath a main result. - Video Carousel — a row of video thumbnails. - Local Pack — a map and business listings block. The column tells you two things at a glance: which features exist for the keyword, and whether your domain is currently capturing any of them. Winning a SERP Feature can significantly increase visibility even if your standard organic Position remains unchanged. 🔍 Position vs. SERP Features — Key Difference Position measures where your URL sits in the numbered organic list. SERP Features measures whether your domain appears in any of the enriched, non-standard result blocks on the same page. A page can rank at Position 5 yet still own the Featured Snippet at the very top — making SERP Features an equally important metric for true visibility. 📈 Volume The estimated average monthly search volume for the keyword in the selected country. Higher volume means more potential searchers; use it alongside Position to prioritise which keywords are worth optimising first. 💡 Difficulty A score from 0–100 indicating how competitive it is to rank for the keyword organically. Lower scores signal easier ranking opportunities; higher scores indicate strong competition from authoritative pages. 🚦 Traffic The estimated number of monthly organic visits your domain receives from this keyword. Traffic is calculated by combining the keyword's search volume with the expected click-through rate (CTR) for your current Position. Because CTR drops sharply as positions move further down the page, a high-volume keyword at Position 10 may actually deliver less traffic than a lower-volume keyword at Position 2. Use this column to identify which keywords are genuinely driving visitors — not just impressions. 💰 CPC (Cost Per Click) The average amount advertisers pay per click when bidding on this keyword in Google Ads. A high CPC signals strong commercial intent and indicates that the keyword attracts audiences likely to convert. Even if you are focused on organic SEO, CPC is a useful proxy for a keyword's business value. 🔎 Intent A classification of the likely purpose behind the search query. The four common intent types are: - Informational — the user wants to learn something. - Navigational — the user is looking for a specific website or brand. - Commercial — the user is researching before making a purchase decision. - Transactional — the user is ready to take an action, such as buying or signing up. Matching your page content and calls-to-action to the correct intent improves both rankings and conversions. 💬 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. Additional Notes Traffic — the estimated organic traffic of the analyzed domain (per country). It is an estimate, not a direct measurement from analytics. Also: Search Volume and Keyword Difficulty (KD) column definitions.

🗑️ Delete Duplicate OTTO Site Explorer Projects by Region

🔍 Why Duplicate Regional Projects Appear When setting up a website in OTTO Site Explorer, it is possible to create multiple projects for the same domain. If you only need one version, the duplicate can be safely deleted without affecting your remaining project. 📋 Before You Delete Take a moment to confirm the following before removing a project: - Identify the correct project to keep. Review your existing projects in OTTO Site Explorer and confirm which one you want to retain before proceeding. - Check for linked OTTO automations. Note which project is linked to any active OTTO SEO session before proceeding, so you delete the correct one. - Save any data you need. Download any reports you want to keep before deleting, as deleted project data may not be recoverable. 🗑️ How to Delete the Unwanted Project To remove a duplicate project, follow these steps: 1. Log in to Search Atlas and navigate to Site Metrics > Site Explorer. 2. Locate the duplicate project in your project list. 3. Open the project's settings or options menu (typically accessible via a three-dot or gear icon next to the project name). 4. Select the Delete or Remove option. 5. Confirm the deletion when prompted. If you do not see a delete option, or if the option is unavailable for a particular project, please contact our support team for assistance. When you reach out, please have the following ready: - The domain name associated with the duplicate projects - Which project you want to delete - Which project you want to keep - Whether either project is linked to an active OTTO SEO session ✅ After Deleting Once the unwanted project is deleted: - Confirm that only your preferred project remains in your OTTO Site Explorer project list. - If you use OTTO SEO, verify that your active session is still correctly linked to the project you kept. 💡 Tips to Avoid Duplicate Projects - Before creating a new project, always check your existing OTTO Site Explorer project list to see if a project for that domain already exists. - When setting up a project, double-check all settings before saving to avoid creating unintended duplicates. 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.

📊 Understanding Site Metrics vs GA4 and GSC Data

🔍 Why the Numbers Look Different It is completely normal to see different traffic figures across Site Metrics, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), and Google Search Console (GSC). Each tool measures a different thing using a different methodology. They are not designed to match — and comparing them directly will almost always produce mismatched numbers. Here is a quick summary before we go deeper: - Site Metrics — shows estimated organic traffic modelled from keyword rankings and click-through-rate data. - GA4 — records actual sessions or page views tracked by the Google Analytics JavaScript tag on your site. - GSC — counts clicks on your URLs as logged directly in Google Search. 📈 What Does Site Metrics Actually Measure? The traffic figure you see in Site Metrics is a keyword-based organic traffic estimate. It is not pulled from your GA4 property or your GSC account. Instead, Search Atlas calculates it by: 1. Identifying the keywords your site ranks for in organic search. 2. Applying the average click-through rate (CTR) for each ranking position. 3. Multiplying that CTR against the estimated monthly search volume for each keyword. 4. Summing the results across all tracked keywords to produce a total estimated visit count. This model is widely used across the SEO industry and is designed to give you a broad directional view of your organic search potential — not a precise session count. 📉 Why GA4 Shows a Lower Number GA4 tracks real user sessions using a JavaScript snippet installed on your website. Its count is lower than the Site Metrics estimate for several common reasons: - Ad blockers and privacy tools — a significant portion of users block analytics scripts entirely, so their visits are never recorded in GA4. - Bot and crawler filtering — GA4 attempts to filter non-human traffic, removing visits that the Site Metrics model may still factor in. - Sampling and attribution windows — GA4 uses its own session definition and attribution logic, which can reduce the reported count. - Tag implementation gaps — if the GA4 tag is missing from certain pages, those page views are simply not counted. 🖱️ Why GSC Shows an Even Lower Number GSC clicks represent only the moment a user clicks your link in Google Search results. This number is almost always the lowest of the three because: - It counts clicks, not sessions — one user clicking two different results generates two clicks but potentially one session. - It only covers Google Search — Bing, DuckDuckGo, and other search engines are excluded. 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. Data source: SEMrush, a third-party SEO data provider. Update frequency: Updated periodically based on SEMrush's own crawl and index cycles, not in real time. Also includes a real-world numeric example: Site Metrics 2,978 vs GA4 727 vs GSC (partial).

🔍 Why Site Explorer Shows No Data

🧭 Overview If you open Site Explorer for a domain and see no data — no traffic estimates, no keywords, no backlinks — this is not always a technical error. In many cases, empty results reflect the site's actual organic search footprint. This article explains why this happens and what you can do next. 📋 What Site Explorer Data Is Based On Site Explorer pulls data from Search Atlas's organic search index. This index is built from crawled web data, third-party clickstream signals, and tracked keyword rankings. For a domain to appear with populated data, it must meet certain thresholds: - Recent organic traffic: The domain must have generated measurable organic search traffic within a recent crawl window. - Indexed keywords: At least some of the domain's pages must rank for keywords that Search Atlas tracks. - Crawl coverage: The domain or its pages must have been discovered and processed by the index. If a domain does not meet these thresholds, Site Explorer will return empty or near-empty results. This is expected behavior, not a system error. 🏪 Low-Traffic and Niche Domains Domains with very low organic traffic — such as regional storefronts, subdomain shops, or sites that rely primarily on paid or direct traffic — frequently show no data in Site Explorer. This is because: - Their pages may not rank for any keywords in the Search Atlas tracking database. - Clickstream and crawl signals may be too sparse to meet the minimum data threshold. - A subdomain (e.g., shop.example.com) is indexed separately from the root domain and may have little to no independent organic presence. In these situations, clearing a backend cache will not change the results. There is no cached data to refresh — the index simply has no qualifying data for that domain at this time. 🔎 How to Confirm This Is Expected Behavior Before concluding there is a technical problem, try the following checks: 1. Search the root domain: Enter the root domain (e.g., valvolineglobal.com instead of shop.valvolineglobal.com) in Site Explorer. Subdomains are tracked independently, and the root domain may have significantly more data. 2. Check a high-traffic domain for comparison: Enter a well-known domain to confirm Site Explorer is loading and returning data normally. If data loads for other domains, the issue is specific to the domain you searched — not a platform outage. 3. Review the domain's known traffic profile: If the site primarily uses paid ads, direct traffic, or social channels rather than SEO, it is expected that organic data will be minimal or absent. 4. Try related tools: Navigate to Left sidebar → Keywords → Keyword Magic or Left sidebar → Keywords → Rank Tracker (Keyword Rank Tracker) to see if there is any keyword data associated with the domain through other entry points. 📅 When Data Becomes Available Data availability in Site Explorer is not static. A domain that shows no data today may appear with data in the future if: - It begins ranking for tracked keywords as its SEO efforts grow. - It generates enough organic traffic signals to cross the minimum index threshold. - Search Atlas expands its crawl coverage to include previously unindexed pages. There is no manual override or cache-clearing process that can populate data for a domain that has not yet generated qualifying organic search signals. ⚠️ When to Suspect a Real Technical Issue Empty data is expected for low-traffic domains, but there are situations where a technical problem may be the cause. Contact support if: - A domain that previously showed rich data in Site Explorer has suddenly gone blank with no change in the site's SEO profile. - High-traffic, well-established domains return no data when searched. - Site Explorer fails to load entirely or shows an error message rather than an empty state. 💬 Still Have Questions? 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.

🔀 Sort and Export Competitors in Site Explorer

🗺️ Overview Site Explorer's Competitors feature lets you discover which domains compete with your target site in organic search. Before exporting that list, you can sort and filter the competitors table so your export contains exactly the data you need — ordered the way you want it. 🔍 How to Access the Competitors Table 1. In the left sidebar, click Site Metrics → Competitors. 2. Enter a domain in the search bar and press Enter to load the site report. 3. View the Competitors page. The competitors table will populate with domains that share keyword rankings with your target site. 📊 How to Sort Competitors by Traffic You can sort the competitors table by any available column — including organic traffic — before exporting. To sort by traffic amount: 1. Locate the Traffic column header in the competitors table. 2. Click the column header once to sort competitors in descending order (highest traffic first). 3. Click the column header a second time to sort in ascending order (lowest traffic first). An arrow indicator next to the column header confirms the active sort direction. You can apply the same click-to-sort method to any other column in the table, such as Domain Authority, Common Keywords, or Referring Domains. 🔎 How to Filter the Competitors Table In addition to sorting, you can narrow the table using available filters before exporting: - Traffic range — set minimum and maximum organic traffic thresholds to focus on competitors within a specific traffic band. - Domain Authority range — filter by domain strength to compare like-for-like competitors. - Common Keywords — filter by the number of keywords your site and the competitor both rank for. Apply your preferred filters using the filter controls above the table. The table updates in real time as you adjust each filter. 📤 How to Export the Sorted and Filtered Competitors List Once your sort order and filters are set, export the table in its current state: 1. Confirm the table is sorted and filtered the way you want. 2. Click the Export button located in the top-right area of the competitors table. 3. Choose your preferred file format (CSV or Excel) when prompted. 4. The downloaded file will reflect the current sort order and any active filters — only the rows visible in the table are included in the export. Tip: If you want all competitors without filtering, clear any active filters before exporting so no rows are excluded. ✅ Quick Reference - Sort by traffic: Click the Traffic column header in the competitors table. - Sort by any metric: Click the corresponding column header — toggle between ascending and descending. - Filter before export: Use the filter controls above the table to set traffic, authority, or keyword ranges. - Export reflects current view: Your sort order and filters carry through to the downloaded file automatically. 💬 Need 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.

🌍 View Full Country Data in Site Explorer

🔍 Overview When reviewing a site's traffic breakdown in Site Explorer, Search Atlas displays a summary of the top countries by default. The remaining countries are grouped under an Others category. This article explains how to expand that data and view the complete country-by-country distribution for any site. 🗺️ Where to Find Country Distribution Data Country distribution data is located inside the Site Explorer report for any domain you are analysing. Follow these steps to get there: 1. In the left sidebar, click Site Metrics (Site Explorer). 2. You will land on the Site Explorer list at /site-explorer/list. 3. Click on the domain you want to analyse, or enter a new domain in the search bar. 4. Scroll down to the Country Distribution section on the site's overview page. 📊 Understanding the Default Country View By default, the Country Distribution section shows only the top-performing countries for the selected site. Any countries that fall outside this top group are combined into a single Others row. This keeps the report clean and scannable, but it means you may not immediately see the full geographic breakdown. ✅ How to See All Countries Including Others To expand the country distribution and view every individual country, including those grouped under Others, follow these steps: 1. Navigate to the Country Distribution section within the site's Site Explorer report. 2. Look for the View All button or the Others row at the bottom of the country table. 3. Click View All (or click directly on the Others row) to expand the full list. 4. The table will now display every country contributing traffic to the site, along with its individual share of visits, keywords, and other available metrics. You can scroll through the expanded table or use the built-in sort and filter controls to organise the data by traffic share, keyword count, or any other available column. 💡 Tips for Working with Country Data - Sort by traffic share to quickly identify which smaller markets are growing in importance. - Export the data using the export button in the report header if you need to analyse country breakdowns in a spreadsheet. - Compare domains by opening multiple sites in Site Explorer and comparing their expanded country tables side by side. - Keep in mind that countries listed under Others individually may have small traffic volumes, but together they can represent a meaningful share of a site's overall reach. ❓ Frequently Asked Questions Why are some countries grouped under Others? Search Atlas groups lower-traffic countries into the Others category by default to keep reports easy to read. Clicking View All reveals the full breakdown without any data being hidden or excluded. Is the data in the expanded view complete? Yes. The expanded view shows every country for which Search Atlas has data for that domain. No country data is removed — it is simply collapsed for display purposes until you choose to expand it. Can I filter the expanded table to a specific region? You can sort and filter the expanded country table using the available column controls. Regional grouping filters may vary depending on your plan and the current version of the platform. 🆘 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.

🗑️ Delete a Duplicate Site Explorer Project

🔍 Overview If you created two OTTO Site Explorer projects for the same website — for example, one targeting the US and one targeting the UK — and you no longer need one of them, you can delete the duplicate from the Site Explorer area. This article explains what to expect when removing a duplicate OTTO Site Explorer project by region. Important: OTTO Site Explorer projects are managed under Site Metrics (Site Explorer) in the left sidebar. This is a separate area from Website Studio (also called Web Studio). If you are trying to delete a Website Studio project, please refer to the relevant article for that product. 📋 Before You Delete Keep the following in mind before removing a project: - Deleting a project is permanent. All historical data, tracked metrics, and configurations associated with that project will be removed and cannot be recovered. - Make sure you are deleting the correct regional version. Double-check the target country or region assigned to the project before proceeding. - Only delete the project you no longer need — in this example, the US version — and confirm the project you want to keep (the UK version) is still active and correctly configured. 🧭 How to Find Your OTTO Site Explorer Projects 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. In the left sidebar, click Site Metrics (Site Explorer). 3. You will land on the project list page, which displays all your OTTO Site Explorer projects. 4. Locate the two projects for the same website. You can identify the regional difference by the country or region label shown on each project card. 🗑️ How to Delete the Duplicate Project 1. On the Site Explorer project list page, find the OTTO Site Explorer project you want to remove (for example, the US version). 2. Look for the delete or remove option available on the project entry. 3. Select the option to delete the project and follow any on-screen prompts to confirm your choice. 4. Once completed, the deleted project will no longer appear in your project list. Your remaining project — in this example, the UK version — will be unaffected and will continue to retain all its data and settings. Note: If you are unsure how to locate the delete option for your OTTO Site Explorer project, or if the option does not appear as expected, please reach out to the support team for guidance specific to your account. ✅ Confirming the Right Project Remains After deletion, take a moment to verify everything looks correct: - Return to Site Metrics (Site Explorer) in the left sidebar. - Confirm only one project for your website is listed. - Click into the remaining project and check that the target region (for example, United Kingdom) is correctly set. - Review any active tracking — such as rank tracking or keyword data — to confirm it is intact. 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.

📊 Understanding Site Metrics Pillar Display Logic

🔍 Overview Site Explorer uses a dynamic display system that adjusts the number of visible pillars based on your website's data availability. If you've just added a brand-new website, you may notice only 2 pillars instead of the full 4 pillars. This is expected behaviour — not a bug. This article explains why this happens and what you need to do to unlock the complete view. 📋 What Are the 4 Pillars? The Site Explorer dashboard is organised into four key pillars that give you a comprehensive picture of your website's SEO health: - Pillar 1 – Authority Metrics: Domain Rating, backlink profile, and referring domains. - Pillar 2 – Traffic Metrics: Estimated organic traffic and top-performing pages. - Pillar 3 – On-Page Health: Technical SEO issues surfaced by a Site Audit. - Pillar 4 – Keyword Performance: Ranking keywords, positions, and visibility trends. 🆕 Why Brand-New Websites Only See 2 Pillars When a website is first added to Search Atlas, the platform has not yet collected enough data to populate all four pillars meaningfully. To protect data accuracy and avoid displaying empty or misleading metrics, Site Explorer intentionally limits the view to Pillar 1 (Authority Metrics) and Pillar 2 (Traffic Metrics) until the additional requirements are met. Showing incomplete pillars for a site with no crawl history or keyword data could lead to incorrect SEO decisions. The gated display ensures every metric you see is backed by real, verified data. ⚙️ What You Need to Unlock All 4 Pillars To see all four pillars in Site Explorer, your website must meet the following requirements: 1. Run a Site Audit: Navigate to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit and launch a Site Audit for your domain. This crawl collects the on-page and technical data needed to populate Pillar 3. A Site Audit must be completed at least once — this is a new requirement introduced alongside the updated display logic. 2. Have Keyword Data Available: Pillar 4 requires at least some keyword ranking data. This is gathered automatically over time or can be accelerated by adding keywords to your Rank Tracker (Left sidebar → Keywords → Rank Tracker). Once both conditions are satisfied, the remaining two pillars will appear automatically on your Site Explorer dashboard — no page refresh or manual action is needed beyond completing the steps above. 🔄 Why the Site Audit Requirement Is New Previously, Site Explorer displayed all four pillar containers regardless of whether a Site Audit had been run, which sometimes resulted in empty sections or placeholder data for new websites. The updated logic was introduced to improve data quality and give you a cleaner, more reliable dashboard experience. The Site Audit requirement ensures Pillar 3 always reflects a real crawl of your site rather than showing an empty or estimated state. 🚀 Step-by-Step: Getting to 4 Pillars 1. Go to Left sidebar → Site Explorer (URL: /site-explorer/list) and confirm your domain is listed. 2. Go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit and select your domain. 3. Launch a Site Audit and wait for the crawl to complete. 4. Optionally, go to Left sidebar → Keywords → Rank Tracker and add target keywords to speed up Pillar 4 population. 5. Return to Left sidebar → Site Metrics (Site Explorer) — all 4 pillars will now be visible once the data requirements are met. 💡 Tips and Common Questions - How long does the crawl take? Site Audit crawl times vary by site size, but most complete within a few minutes to an hour. - Does this affect existing websites? No. Websites that already had a completed Site Audit and keyword data will continue to show all 4 pillars as before. - What if I ran a Site Audit but still only see 2 pillars? Make sure the audit has fully completed (status shows as done in OTTO SEO → Site Audit) and allow a few minutes for the dashboard to refresh. - Can I use Keyword Magic or Keyword Gap while waiting? Yes. Left sidebar → Keywords → Keyword Magic and Left sidebar → Keywords → Keyword Gap are available independently of the pillar display logic. 🛠️ Need 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.

📊 Site Metrics Domain vs Page-Level Reporting

🔍 What Site Explorer Is Designed to Show Site Explorer is a domain-level reporting tool. It aggregates SEO performance data — such as organic traffic estimates, keyword rankings, and backlink authority — across your entire domain as a single unit. Think of it as a high-level health dashboard for your website overall, not a page-by-page breakdown. This means that even if the crawler has crawled all 44 pages of your site, Site Explorer will still display consolidated metrics at the domain level rather than listing individual URL performance. This is expected behaviour, not a bug. 📄 Why You Only See Homepage-Level Data When you visit Left sidebar → Site Metrics (Site Explorer) (URL: /site-explorer/list), the primary metrics displayed — including organic keywords, estimated traffic, and domain authority signals — are calculated for the root domain as a whole. The homepage is often the reference point shown because it represents the domain's canonical entry point. The crawler completing its crawl of all 44 pages confirms your site structure has been indexed internally, but that crawl data feeds into different tools rather than generating per-URL rows inside Site Explorer. 🗺️ Where to Find Page-Level URL Analysis To analyse performance at the individual URL level, use these tools within the platform: - Keywords → Rank Tracker — Track how specific URLs rank for targeted keywords over time. You can add individual pages and monitor their position changes. - Keywords → Keyword Magic — Research which keywords are relevant to specific pages and uncover opportunities at the page level. - Keywords → Keyword Gap — Compare keyword coverage between your domain and competitors, which can surface page-level content gaps. - OTTO SEO (Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation), URL: /seo-automation-v3) — Use AI-driven recommendations to optimise individual pages. This tool works at the page level and surfaces actionable improvements for specific URLs across your crawled site. ✅ Recommended Workflow for Full Site Analysis If your goal is to understand how all 44 crawled pages are performing, follow this workflow: 1. Go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) to review page-level SEO scores and recommendations for each crawled URL. 2. Use Left sidebar → Keywords → Rank Tracker to add and monitor the specific URLs you want to track keyword rankings for. 3. Use Left sidebar → Keywords → Keyword Gap to identify which pages are missing keyword coverage compared to competitors. 4. Return to Left sidebar → Site Metrics (Site Explorer) periodically to monitor how your domain-level authority and traffic estimates trend upward as page-level optimisations take effect. 💡 Quick Reference: Domain vs Page Level - Site Explorer (domain level): Overall traffic estimates, domain authority, top keywords for the whole site. - Rank Tracker (page level): Keyword positions for specific URLs you choose to track. - OTTO SEO (page level): Individual URL audits, on-page scores, and optimisation tasks for crawled pages. 🙋 Still Have Questions? 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.

📊 Run Site Audits and Generate Proposal Reports

🎯 Overview Search Atlas gives you two powerful ways to gather the data you need for client proposals: a full Site Audit that uncovers technical SEO issues across a domain, and Site Metrics reports that surface traffic, keyword, and ranking data. This article walks you through both workflows so you can build compelling, data-driven proposals quickly. 🛠️ Step 1: Run a Full Site Audit The Site Audit scans a domain at a technical level and identifies issues that affect search performance — broken links, crawl errors, page speed problems, and more. 1. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO, then All Sites (SEO Automation). 2. Select or create a project for the domain you want to audit. 3. Navigate to OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Overview (Website Overview) within your project. 4. Click Audit Site (or Recrawl Site if one already exists) and confirm the domain URL. 5. Wait for the audit to complete — processing time depends on site size. You will see a progress indicator on screen. 6. Once finished, review the audit summary. Key sections include Errors, Warnings, and Notices, each ranked by SEO impact. 7. To export audit findings for a proposal, use the Export to Docs button at the top of the results page (OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Overview (Website Overview)) to save a PDF or CSV. Tip: Focus on high-impact Errors first when summarising findings for a client — these represent the clearest quick wins and are most persuasive in a proposal context. 📈 Step 2: Pull Site Metrics for the Domain Site Metrics gives you a snapshot of a domain's organic performance — estimated traffic, top keywords, backlink profile, and more. This data adds context to your audit findings and strengthens the case for your proposed work. 1. In the left sidebar, click Site Metrics. 2. On the Site Metrics list page (/site-explorer/list), enter the target domain in the search bar and press Enter. 3. Review the overview dashboard, which includes estimated organic traffic, domain authority signals, and top-performing pages. 4. Use the sub-sections for deeper data: - Keyword Magic — discover keyword opportunities relevant to the domain's niche. - Rank Tracker — check current keyword ranking positions. - Keyword Gap — compare the domain against competitors to identify untapped keyword opportunities. 5. Export the data you need by clicking the Export button available in select sub-pages (Site Metrics → Pages, Subdomains, Position Changes, Backlinks, Competitors, or Google Ads). Most of these views support CSV export for easy inclusion in proposal documents. 📄 Step 3: Build Your Proposal Package With your audit report and site metrics exports in hand, you have everything needed for a comprehensive proposal. Here is a simple structure that works well: - Executive Summary — a brief overview of the domain's current SEO health using the audit score and key metrics. - Technical Issues — pulled from the Site Audit export, prioritised by severity. - Organic Performance — traffic estimates, top keywords, and ranking data from Site Metrics. - Competitive Gap — insights from the Keyword Gap report showing where competitors outperform the client. - Recommended Actions — your proposed scope of work tied directly to the issues and opportunities identified. Combining audit findings with live metrics gives clients a clear picture of where they stand today and why your proposed work will move the needle. 💡 Tips for Faster Proposal Workflows - Save the domain as a project in OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) so you can re-run audits easily and track improvements over time after the client signs on. - Use the Keyword Gap report to name specific competitors in your proposal — this personalises the pitch and increases urgency. - Schedule regular audit re-runs for existing clients so you always have fresh data ready for quarterly reporting or upsell conversations. 🆘 Need 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.

🌍 View All Countries in Site Explorer Reports

Overview The country distribution report in Site Explorer shows where a site's traffic and backlinks originate. By default, the report displays the top countries by traffic or backlink share, with remaining countries grouped under an Others category. This article explains what to expect when reviewing the full country breakdown. How to View the Full Country List 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. In the left sidebar, navigate to Site Metrics (Site Explorer). 3. Enter the domain you want to analyse and open the site detail view. 4. Locate the Country Distribution section within the report. 5. Review the country list displayed. The report shows the top contributing countries; any remaining countries are grouped under the Others category. If the Others category appears in the list, this means those remaining countries individually account for a very small share of traffic or backlinks and are aggregated together by the platform. The individual country names within Others are not broken out further in the current report view. What to Have Ready If You Need Support - The domain name you are analysing. - The specific report section you are viewing (for example, traffic distribution or backlink country breakdown). - A description of what you expected to see versus what is currently displayed. - A screenshot of the report section if possible, to help our team identify the correct information for your view. 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.

🔗 Migrating Site Explorer Projects from a GHL Sub-Account to a Native Search Atlas Account

When you move from a GoHighLevel (GHL) sub-account to a native Search Atlas account, your existing Site Explorer projects cannot be transferred. Each project must be recreated from scratch in the new account, and historical crawl and audit data stored in the GHL-managed account does not carry over. ⚙️ Why Site Explorer Projects Cannot Be Transferred Site Explorer projects are bound to the account in which they were created. GHL sub-accounts and native Search Atlas accounts use separate account structures with no built-in migration path between them. Project settings, crawl schedules, historical audit snapshots, and trend data all remain in the source GHL account and cannot be moved to a native account. 📊 What Data Is Lost and What You Can Save Before your GHL sub-account is closed — for example, if you are leaving an agency relationship or switching to a direct Search Atlas subscription — understand exactly what does and does not migrate. Data that does not transfer to the native account: - Past crawl snapshots and audit history - Page-level issue trends and audit score history over time - Scheduled crawl configurations and any custom crawl rules Data you can preserve manually before migrating: - Export each audit report as a CSV directly from the GHL sub-account (PDF export availability may vary by account type — contact support to confirm). - Record your crawl settings — frequency, scope, and device type — so you can replicate them quickly in the new account. 🚀 How to Recreate Your Site Explorer Projects in a Native Account Complete these steps for each domain that was active in your GHL sub-account. 1. Log in to your native Search Atlas account. 2. In the left sidebar, go to Site Metrics → Site Explorer (Site Explorer) and click New Project. 3. Enter the domain you want to audit. 4. Configure your crawl settings: crawl frequency (daily, weekly, or monthly), crawl scope (number of pages or sections to include), and device type (desktop or mobile). If you are setting up the project in a GHL context, note that the Worldwide location option is not available — select a specific country or region instead. 5. Click Recrawl Site to run the first audit under the new account. 6. Repeat for every additional domain previously managed under the GHL sub-account, adding them sequentially rather than all at once. The first crawl typically completes in 5–30 minutes depending on site size. Once it finishes, your native account has a clean baseline from which you can track all future improvements. 🚧 How to Fix a Quota Exhausted Error If you receive a Quota Exhausted error when adding projects — even when slots appear available — contact Search Atlas support. An agent can review and reset your on-page audit quota. Add projects sequentially and allow each crawl to complete before starting the next. ⚠️ Export Everything Before Your GHL Access Ends Your GHL sub-account remains active until your agency formally closes or transfers it. Export all audit reports and note all crawl configurations before that access ends — audit history cannot be retrieved after the account is closed or revoked. Tip: Before your agency closes or transfers your GHL sub-account, request at least 30 days of continued read access so you can complete all exports. Contact Search Atlas support if you need guidance on timing. 💡 What Starting with a Fresh Baseline Means for Reporting Your native account begins with no historical trend data from the GHL period. This is expected. The first crawl immediately surfaces all current site issues, so you can start measuring and tracking improvements from day one. If you need a documented record of past performance, your exported CSV (or PDF, if available) reports from the GHL account serve as your historical reference. 🎯 With your projects recreated in your native Search Atlas account, you have full ownership of your crawl data and audit history going forward. If you have questions about your account transition or need help configuring Site Explorer for the first time, contact Search Atlas support or reach out to your account manager.

🔍 Understanding Site Explorer Search History and Usage Logs

What Is Site Explorer Search History? Every time a domain or URL is analyzed using Site Explorer, Search Atlas logs that query in your account's search history. This creates a running record of all sites that have been looked up under your workspace, making it easy to revisit previous research without re-entering domains manually. You can access your Site Explorer history within the Site Explorer section of your Search Atlas account, where all previously searched domains are listed. Why Are Unfamiliar Sites Appearing in Your History? Seeing domains in your Site Explorer history that you don't recognize can be surprising. One common reason is that other team members or users on your account may have performed those searches — if your Search Atlas workspace is shared with colleagues, any domain they search may appear in the shared history. What You Should Do If You See Unexpected Sites If you notice domains in your history that you don't recognize, here are some recommended steps: 1. Check with other users on your account to see if they recently searched those domains. 2. If activity appears truly unauthorized or suspicious, contact your account administrator to review user access and permissions. 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. Additional Notes Two distinct types of history: 'Search activity history' (manually searched domains/URLs) vs 'Crawl data for your own sites' (metrics from domains added for ongoing monitoring). Navigation path: Left sidebar → Site Metrics (Site Explorer) (/site-explorer/list). The history panel displays all team searches, not just your own properties.

🔍 Site Explorer Showing No Data for Your Site

🧭 Overview If you open Site Explorer and see zeros, blank charts, or missing keyword and traffic data for your domain, you are not alone. This is a known behaviour that most commonly affects low-traffic, newer, or niche domains. This article explains why it happens and walks you through the steps to get your data populating correctly. ❓ Why Does This Happen? Site Explorer pulls data from Search Atlas's proprietary index. For a domain to display populated metrics, that domain must have enough crawl history and search visibility for our systems to have indexed it. The most common reasons data appears empty include: - Low organic traffic: Sites with very few monthly visitors may fall below the threshold required for our index to surface detailed keyword and traffic data. - New or recently launched domains: Domains that are new to the web or recently rebranded may not yet have sufficient crawl data available. - Regional or niche domains: Sites that target a narrow geographic market or highly specific niche may have limited data in our global index. - Data processing delay: New domain lookups can take two or more minutes to load as our system fetches and processes data in real time. - Cache or sync lag: Occasionally, a domain's overview panel may display zeros while the Keywords tab already shows data. This is a display sync issue that resolves automatically. 🛠️ Steps to Troubleshoot 1. Wait and refresh: If you just entered a domain for the first time, wait at least two to three minutes, then refresh the page. Real-time lookups for obscure or low-traffic domains take longer to process. 2. Check the Keywords tab directly: Navigate to Left sidebar → Site Metrics and open your domain's report. Click the Keywords tab. If keywords appear there but the Overview shows zeros, this is a known display sync issue and the data will reconcile shortly. 3. Verify the domain format: Make sure you have entered the domain without a trailing slash and in the correct format (for example, shop.valvolineglobal.com rather than https://shop.valvolineglobal.com/). Subdomain and root domain results are indexed separately. 4. Try the root domain: If you searched a subdomain and see no data, try searching the root domain (for example, valvolineglobal.com) to see if data is available at that level instead. 5. Check back after 24–48 hours: For genuinely low-traffic or new sites, our index refreshes periodically. Data that is not available today may appear after the next crawl cycle. 📊 What to Expect for Low-Traffic Sites Search Atlas Site Explorer is powered by a large-scale organic search index. Sites that receive fewer than a few hundred monthly organic visits may show limited or no keyword data. This does not mean the tool is broken — it reflects what is available in our index for that domain at that time. As the site grows its organic presence, more data will become available automatically. The metrics most likely to appear first for smaller sites are backlinks and referring domains, since those are indexed differently from keyword and traffic data. If you need backlink data specifically, check More Features → Backlinks → Backlink Research. ⚠️ Known Display Issues Our engineering team has identified and resolved several related display bugs, including: - Overview showing 0 organic keywords while the Keywords tab shows thousands of results. - Project cards showing zero backlinks even when backlink data exists inside the report. - Historical data appearing to stop at a specific date due to a domain history sync delay. - Shareable links not displaying metrics for certain domains. If you experience any of these symptoms, a page refresh or waiting a short period usually resolves the display. Underlying data is not lost. 💬 Still Seeing No Data? If you have followed all the steps above and your domain still shows no data after 48 hours, our support team can investigate whether a manual data refresh or cache clear is needed for your specific domain. 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.

⚠️ Site Explorer Competitors — Sort Icon Misalignment on Common Keywords Column

A visual display issue on the Site Metrics → Competitors page causes the sort icon for the Common Keywords column to appear next to the SE Keywords header instead of its own column. Sorting is fully operational — this is a display-only bug with a fix actively in progress. 🔍 What's Happening On the Site Metrics → Competitors page, the sort icon (↕) for the Common Keywords column header renders out of position. When the header text wraps onto multiple lines at certain screen widths or zoom levels, the icon shifts and appears next to the SE Keywords column header — making it visually unclear which column is sortable or currently sorted. - Affected page: Site Metrics → Competitors - Affected element: Sort icon on the Common Keywords column header - Environment: Production - Affected browsers: Under investigation — appears to occur broadly across modern browsers - Trigger conditions: Under investigation — appears related to column header text wrapping at narrower viewport widths or lower browser zoom levels - Impact: Visual only — sort functionality works correctly 🛠️ Workaround Steps Sort functionality is not affected. Use either approach below while the fix is being deployed: 1. Click anywhere within the Common Keywords column header cell — the sort action is bound to the entire header cell, not just the icon. Sorting applies correctly regardless of where the icon appears visually. 2. Increase browser zoom to 110% or higher using Ctrl + + (Windows/Linux) or Cmd + + (Mac) until the column header stops wrapping and the sort icon returns to its correct position. 📡 Engineering Status Our engineering team has identified the root cause and is actively working on a fix. The fix will be deployed in an upcoming release — no action is required on your end. This article will be updated when the issue is resolved. 📞 When to Contact Support This issue is known and actively tracked. Contact our support team if: - Clicking the Common Keywords column header does not trigger sorting - You encounter additional functionality issues on the Competitors page beyond this visual misalignment 🌀 Our engineering team is actively working on a permanent fix — no action is required on your end. In the meantime, clicking the Common Keywords column header sorts the column correctly as expected.

📊 Why Site Explorer Shows Zero Traffic or Flat Chart

🔍 Overview If Site Explorer is showing a flat traffic chart, 0 organic traffic, or only 1 organic keyword for your domain, you are not alone. This is a known display issue that can affect certain domains under specific conditions. This article explains the most common causes and what you can do right now. ⚠️ Common Reasons for Zero or Flat Data There are several reasons Site Explorer may show low or missing data for a domain: - New or low-authority domain: Domains with very little indexed content or few backlinks may genuinely have minimal organic visibility in our data sources. - Data indexing delay: Newly added domains or recently crawled sites may not yet have fully populated data. It can take 24–48 hours for metrics to reflect accurately. - Temporary data sync issue: Occasional backend sync delays can cause metrics to appear as zero even when real keyword data exists. This is resolved automatically once the sync completes. - Search type or filter mismatch: An active filter (such as country, date range, or search type) may be excluding most of the domain's data from the view. - Domain format issue: Entering the domain with or without www, a trailing slash, or the wrong protocol (http vs https) can return incomplete results. 🛠️ Steps to Troubleshoot 1. Check the domain format. In the Site Explorer search bar, try both racernationofficial.com and www.racernationofficial.com to see which returns more data. Make sure there are no extra characters or spaces. 2. Clear all active filters. Reset any date range, country, or keyword filters to their default settings. A narrow filter can suppress the majority of results. 3. Switch the search type. If you selected a specific search type (such as Exact URL), try switching to Domain or Prefix mode to capture all pages under the domain. 4. Wait and refresh. If the domain was just added or recently updated, wait 24–48 hours and reload the page. Indexing delays are temporary. 5. Cross-check with the Keywords tab. Navigate to the Keywords tab within Site Explorer. If keywords appear there but the Overview chart still shows zero, this confirms a temporary display sync issue — not missing data. 6. Try a different browser or clear cache. Occasionally, a cached page can display outdated zero-state data. Clear your browser cache or open the page in an incognito window. 💡 What the Flat Chart Means A completely flat line on the organic traffic chart typically indicates one of two things: the domain has had consistently zero tracked traffic over the selected time period, or there is a temporary data rendering issue. If you have confirmed that keywords do exist under the Keywords tab, the chart will correct itself once the backend data sync resolves — usually within a few hours. 📋 Known Platform Behaviour Our engineering team has previously identified and resolved several related issues, including cases where the Site Explorer Overview showed 0 organic keywords and traffic while the Keywords tab correctly displayed thousands of keywords. These were backend sync issues and were fixed at the platform level. If you are seeing this discrepancy today, it may be a recurrence of a similar temporary sync delay. 🚀 Next Steps if the Issue Persists If you have followed all the steps above and Site Explorer still shows zero traffic or a flat chart for a domain that should have visibility data, please reach out to our team directly. 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.

🗺️ Redesigned All Sites Page in Site Explorer

The redesigned All Sites page in Site Explorer shows each project's key metrics right in the list, so you can scan and compare your full domain portfolio without opening projects one by one. 📊 What metrics the All Sites page shows The All Sites page now surfaces important metrics directly in the list view. You can see these data points at a glance for every domain: - Domain Power - Brand Signal - Backlinks - Organic traffic - Keywords - AI Visibility (formerly LLM Visibility) tracking status If you manage multiple domains, this redesign lets you compare your entire portfolio in a single view instead of switching between projects. 🧭 How to use the redesigned All Sites page 1. In the left sidebar, go to Site Metrics. 2. Open All Sites (Site Explorer). 3. Review Domain Power, Brand Signal, backlinks, organic traffic, keywords, and AI Visibility (formerly LLM Visibility) tracking status for each domain directly in the list. 4. Use the LLM-V toggle to switch AI visibility tracking on or off for a domain without opening the project. You'll see every project's metrics side by side, ready to compare. ⚙️ What to expect from the new columns The new columns appear automatically in the All Sites list, so there's no setup required. The LLM-V toggle controls AI visibility tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, and you can enable it directly from the list rather than from inside each project. 🎯 You now have a single, scannable view of Domain Power, Brand Signal, backlinks, traffic, keywords, and AI Visibility (formerly LLM Visibility) for every project via Site Metrics → All Sites (Site Explorer). Open the All Sites page to compare your portfolio, and contact our support team if you have questions.

🔍 How to Look Up Online Profiles in Search Atlas

🧭 Overview Search Atlas does not offer a personal profile lookup tool that searches for an individual by name across the web. If you are trying to research a business profile, a backlink profile, or local citation listings for a specific person or brand, Search Atlas may have tools to help — but the right approach depends on exactly what you are trying to find. 📋 What Kind of Profile Are You Looking For? Before reaching out for help, try to identify the specific type of profile or data you need. Common use cases in Search Atlas include: - Business or local profiles — Finding and managing Google Business Profile (GBP) listings and local citations for a business. - Backlink profiles — Analysing the backlink profile of any website or domain. - Competitor gap analysis — Comparing backlink profiles between domains to find link-building opportunities. If your request falls outside these categories (for example, finding personal social media accounts), that is not a supported feature in Search Atlas. ⚠️ If You Are Unsure Which Tool to Use Because profile lookup requests can mean different things depending on your goal, a member of our support team can help identify the right tool or confirm whether your use case is supported. To help the team assist you as quickly as possible, please have the following information ready before reaching out: - A clear description of what type of profile you are trying to find or analyse (e.g. a business listing, a domain's backlink data, a competitor's online presence). - The name, domain, or URL of the profile or entity you are researching. - Any specific data or metrics you are hoping to see (e.g. referring domains, citation listings, local rankings). - The name of the Search Atlas project this relates to, if applicable. 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.

🔍 How to Access the Bulk URL Analyzer Tool

📋 Overview The Bulk URL Analyzer is a powerful tool inside Search Atlas that lets you analyze multiple URLs at once — ideal for auditing competitor pages or reviewing a large set of URLs for key SEO metrics. If it seems to have disappeared from the interface, don't worry: the tool is still available, but it may be in a less obvious location than you'd expect. 📍 Where to Find the Bulk URL Analyzer The Bulk URL Analyzer is not listed in the left sidebar like most tools. Instead, it is accessed from the apps-grid icon in the top-right corner of the Search Atlas platform, then selecting More Features → Bulk URL Analyzer. 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. Click the apps-grid icon in the top-right corner of the platform interface. 3. Select More Features → Bulk URL Analyzer. 4. The Bulk URL Analyzer panel will open, ready for you to enter your URLs. Because this entry point sits outside the main navigation sidebar, it is easy to overlook — especially after a UI update or if you haven't used the tool in a while. 🛠️ What the Bulk URL Analyzer Does The Bulk URL Analyzer allows you to paste or upload a list of URLs and retrieve SEO metrics for all of them simultaneously. Common use cases include: - Competitor analysis: Evaluate multiple competitor pages in one go to benchmark their authority and performance. - Bulk SEO checks: Quickly review domain authority, backlink counts, organic traffic estimates, and other key metrics across a large set of URLs. - Content audits: Assess the SEO health of your own pages in bulk without running individual checks. This tool is sometimes referred to as the bulk competitor tool or bulk SEO checker by customers — they all refer to the same Bulk URL Analyzer feature. 💡 Tips for Using the Bulk URL Analyzer - Enter one URL per line to ensure each address is processed correctly. - Include the full URL format (for example, https://example.com/page) to avoid errors. - Use the results to prioritize which competitor pages or content gaps deserve the most attention in your SEO strategy. 🔗 Related Tools You May Also Find Useful If you are researching competitors or analyzing site performance, these tools in the left sidebar complement the Bulk URL Analyzer well: - Left sidebar → Site Explorer — Analyze individual domains and URLs, track rankings, and explore keyword opportunities. - Left sidebar → Keywords → Keyword Gap — Identify keyword opportunities your competitors rank for that you do not. - Left sidebar → Keywords → Keyword Magic — Research and expand your keyword lists based on competitor and niche data. 🆘 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.

🔑 Keywords & Site Explorer Update July 2026

The Keywords and Site Explorer tools received a set of targeted fixes and improvements in this release, making filters more reliable, keyword data more accurate, and key features available to every user. ✨ What's New This release ships two meaningful improvements to the Keywords tools: - Keyword location data now sourced from keyword-metrics: Keyword detail pages read location information directly from the keyword-metrics source, ensuring the data shown is accurate and consistent. Additionally, the keyword list cap has been raised from its previous limit to 200 keywords, giving you more coverage in a single view. - Watchlisted Keywords open to all users: The Watchlisted Keywords feature is no longer restricted to internal or legacy accounts — it is now fully available to all Search Atlas users, so you can track and monitor your most important keywords without any account-level limitations. 🛠️ How to Use It 1. Navigate to Keywords from the left sidebar. 2. Use Keyword Magic and apply range filters (e.g. volume, difficulty) — boundary values are now correctly included in results. 3. Open Keyword Gap and select a project — column headers will now correctly reflect your current project from the moment data loads. 4. Go to Keywords → Rank Tracker (Keyword Rank Tracker) and open the Watchlist tab — columns are now properly aligned, visibility settings are respected, and filter state is preserved as expected. 5. To use Watchlisted Keywords, select any keyword and add it to your watchlist — this feature is now available on all accounts. 📋 What to Expect - Range filters in Keyword Magic previously excluded the exact boundary values you entered (e.g. entering a minimum of 100 would omit results with exactly 100). This is now fixed — boundary values are included. - Keyword Gap column headers were showing the previous project's name on initial load due to a stale state issue. Headers now reflect the correct, current project immediately. - KRT Watchlist column had alignment inconsistencies, visibility setting issues, and filter state not persisting correctly — all three have been resolved in this update. - The keyword list cap increase to 200 applies within the keyword detail view and does not affect other list limits across the platform. 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.

⚡ Site Metrics Pillar Display Logic and Requirements

Overview Site Metrics includes a display logic change related to pillar display requirements. In some cases, you may notice that fewer pillars are visible than expected. This article explains what is known about this change and how to get additional help if needed. What Are the Site Metrics Pillars? Site Metrics organises website data into pillars. Why Fewer Pillars May Be Shown A display logic change has been made to Site Metrics pillar behaviour. If you are seeing fewer pillars than expected, this is related to updated pillar display logic and requirements. What to Do If you are seeing fewer pillars than expected for a website property, we recommend reaching out to our support team so they can review your specific account and property and provide guidance based on the latest pillar display requirements. 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.

🔍 Understanding Brand Insights Citations and Site Metrics

📌 What Is the Citations/Site Metrics Section? The Citations / Site Metrics section inside Brand Insights does not show websites that mention your business. Instead, it shows the external domains that AI search engines (such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews) cite when answering queries related to your topic or specialty. Think of it as a map of the web sources AI engines trust and reference for a given subject — regardless of whether those sources have ever mentioned your brand. This is intentional by design and provides competitive and contextual intelligence about the information landscape your brand must compete in. 🤔 Why Do Unrelated or Competitor Domains Appear? Because the section reflects AI citation behavior for your topic, not your brand's own mentions, you will commonly see: - Reference or authority sites — e.g., medical associations, government health portals, or well-known directories that AI engines treat as trusted sources for the topic. - Competitor websites — other businesses in your niche that AI engines already cite when answering relevant queries. - Informational or editorial domains — news outlets, blogs, or encyclopedic resources covering your subject area. For example, if your business is eastbayobgyn.com, the Citations section will surface domains that AI engines reference when users ask questions about OB-GYN care, women's health, or related topics — even if none of those domains link to or mention your practice directly. This is expected and correct behavior. ⚙️ How Is This Data Populated? The Citations / Site Metrics section is automatically populated by Search Atlas. There is no manual setup, import, or configuration required on your part. The platform continuously analyzes AI engine responses for queries matching your business's topic profile and surfaces the domains those engines cite most frequently. This means: - Data appears as soon as your Brand Insights profile is active. - You do not need to add or approve any domains yourself. - The list updates automatically as AI citation patterns change over time. 💡 How to Use This Information Strategically Understanding which domains AI engines cite for your topic gives you a clear picture of the competitive reference landscape. Here is how you can act on this data: 1. Identify authority gaps — If high-authority reference sites appear repeatedly, consider whether your content addresses the same questions those sites answer. 2. Study cited competitors — Review what competitor domains are doing that earns them AI citations, and use those insights to strengthen your own content strategy. 3. Track changes over time — As you publish more authoritative content, monitor whether your own domain begins appearing in AI citations for your topic. 4. Prioritize outreach — Domains that are frequently cited by AI engines are worth targeting for backlinks, partnerships, or content placements. 🔎 How This Differs from Other Brand Mentions Features It is important to distinguish the Citations / Site Metrics section from other Brand Insights data points: - Citations / Site Metrics → External domains AI engines cite for your topic (not your brand). - Brand Mentions → Instances where your business name is specifically referenced across the web or in AI responses. - Visibility Score → How prominently your brand appears in AI-generated answers for relevant queries. If you are looking for websites that specifically mention your business, refer to the Brand Mentions section within Brand Insights instead. ✅ Quick Summary - Citations / Site Metrics shows domains AI engines cite for your topic, not your brand. - Seeing unrelated or competitor domains is normal and expected. - The section is auto-populated — no setup is needed. - Use this data to understand the AI citation landscape and inform your content and outreach strategy. 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.

🔍 Diagnosing Ranking Drops After Business Pivots

🧭 Overview When a business expands its services — for example, a salon that adds a head spa — the website's keyword targeting, content structure, and internal linking often need to change too. If those changes are not managed carefully, Google Search Console (GSC) rankings can drop sharply. This article walks you through a structured process to diagnose what went wrong and build a recovery plan using Search Atlas. ⚠️ Why Business Pivots Cause Ranking Drops A service expansion is not just a business change — it is an SEO event. When new services are added, several things can go wrong at once: - Keyword dilution: New service pages compete with existing pages for similar terms, splitting authority and confusing search engines about which page to rank. - Topical authority gaps: Google evaluates a site's expertise by topic. Adding a new service category without supporting content signals weak authority in that area. - Internal linking misalignment: Links that once pointed clearly to core service pages now split between old and new pages, reducing the ranking power of both. - Content cannibalisation: If the original service page was updated to include the new service instead of creating a dedicated page, the page may now rank for neither topic effectively. These issues often compound each other, which is why ranking drops after a pivot can appear sudden and severe even when the changes seemed minor. 🔎 Step 1 — Identify the Affected Keywords Before you can fix the drop, you need to know exactly which keywords lost rankings and when. 1. Go to Left sidebar → Keywords → Rank Tracker. 2. Filter the keyword list by the client's domain and set the date range to cover at least 90 days before and after the pivot date (in this case, early June). 3. Sort by Position Change to surface the largest drops first. 4. Tag keywords into two groups: original service keywords (e.g. salon-related) and new service keywords (e.g. head spa-related). This separation is critical for diagnosis. 5. Export the list for reference in later steps. Look for a pattern: if original service keywords dropped at roughly the same time new service keywords were added to the site, you are likely dealing with dilution or cannibalisation rather than an algorithm issue. 🕳️ Step 2 — Check for Keyword Gaps and Cannibalisation 1. Go to Left sidebar → Keywords → Keyword Gap. 2. Compare the client's domain against one or two competitors who already offer both services successfully. 3. Identify keywords where competitors rank but the client does not. These are likely the topical authority gaps created by the pivot. 4. Go to Left sidebar → Keywords → Keyword Magic and search for the new service category (e.g. "head spa"). Review search volume and keyword difficulty for terms the client should be targeting but currently lacks dedicated content for. If you find that a single page is being used to target both the original and new service, that is a strong cannibalisation signal. The fix is to create a separate, dedicated page for the new service with its own targeted keyword set. 🏗️ Step 3 — Audit the Content and Internal Linking Structure A business pivot requires a deliberate content architecture update. Work through the following checks: - Dedicated pages: Does each service now have its own standalone page with a unique primary keyword, title tag, and meta description? If not, create them. - Pillar and cluster structure: Is there a clear parent page (e.g. "Our Services") that links to each individual service page? Flat structures without hierarchy lose topical authority signals. - Internal links updated: Do blog posts, location pages, and the homepage link to the new service page? New pages with no internal links receive minimal crawl priority and rank poorly. - Anchor text relevance: Are internal links using keyword-relevant anchor text for each destination page, rather than generic phrases like "click here" or "learn more"? 📍 Step 4 — Review Local Signals if Applicable For local businesses, service expansions must also be reflected in local SEO signals. Inconsistent local data amplifies ranking drops. 1. Go to Left sidebar → GBP Projects → Overview to review the client's local profile health at a glance. 2. Go to Left sidebar → Local → Local Citations and check that the new service is reflected in business category listings and description fields across citation sources. 3. Go to Left sidebar → Local → Posts (GBP Posts) and schedule Google Business Profile posts that explicitly mention the new service. Fresh posts signal relevance to Google for the expanded category. If the business's GBP category still only reflects the original service, update it to include the expanded offering. This is often an overlooked factor in local rank drops after pivots. 🛠️ Step 5 — Build the Recovery Plan Once the diagnosis is complete, prioritise fixes in this order: 1. Resolve cannibalisation first — separate conflated pages before doing anything else, or further optimisation efforts will be undermined. 2. Create missing service pages — use the Keyword Magic research from Step 2 to build pages with clearly defined primary and secondary keywords. 3. Update internal linking — add contextual links from high-traffic existing pages to the new service pages. 4. Build topical support content — publish two to four supporting articles or FAQs around the new service to establish topical authority signals. 5. Update local citations and GBP — ensure all local data reflects the full, expanded service offering. Track keyword position changes weekly in Rank Tracker after each change is deployed. Recovery from a structural pivot issue typically takes four to ten weeks depending on crawl frequency and content volume. 💬 Need 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.

🔍 Choosing Site Auditor vs Site Metrics for Proposals

🎯 Overview When building a client proposal, Search Atlas gives you two powerful tools: Site Auditor and Site Metrics. These tools are not alternatives — they are complementary, and the strongest proposals use both. This article explains what each tool does, when to use it, and how to combine them into a complete proposal workflow. 🛠️ What Each Tool Does Site Auditor performs a deep technical crawl of a domain. It surfaces on-page errors, broken links, crawlability issues, duplicate content, missing metadata, and other technical SEO problems. Use Site Auditor when you need to show a client exactly what is wrong with their site and why it is holding back organic performance. Site Metrics provides high-level competitive and keyword intelligence for any domain. Navigate to it via Left sidebar → Site Metrics. It shows estimated organic traffic, keyword rankings, backlink data, and visibility trends. Use Site Metrics when you need to demonstrate a site's current market position, benchmark it against competitors, and identify keyword opportunities. 🧭 Which Tool Should You Start With? Use this simple decision guide to choose your starting point: - Need to show technical problems and quick wins? Start with Site Auditor. It is best for prospects who ask why their rankings have dropped or why their site is underperforming. - Need to show market opportunity and growth potential? Start with Site Metrics. It is best for prospects who want to understand where they stand versus competitors before committing to SEO. - Building a full proposal? Use both. Site Auditor provides the problem diagnosis; Site Metrics provides the opportunity context. Together they give the client a complete picture. 📋 Recommended Proposal Workflow 1. Run a Site Metrics snapshot first. Go to Left sidebar → Site Metrics and enter the client's domain. Review their estimated organic traffic, top-ranking keywords, and visibility score. This gives you the performance baseline for your proposal narrative. 2. Explore keyword gaps and ranking opportunities. From Site Metrics, navigate to Left sidebar → Site Metrics → Keyword Gap to compare the client's keyword coverage against competitors. Navigate to Left sidebar → Keywords → Keyword Magic to identify high-value keyword targets. Use these findings to frame the growth opportunity section of your proposal. 3. Run a full Site Auditor crawl. Enter the client's domain in Site Auditor and start a full audit. Once complete, review the issues by severity. Focus on critical and high-priority issues for your proposal, as these represent the fastest wins and clearest justification for your engagement. 4. Export both reports. Download the Site Auditor report and the Site Metrics overview. These documents form the evidence base of your proposal — one showing what is broken, one showing what is possible. 5. Build your proposal narrative. Lead with the Site Metrics data to establish stakes (this is where you are now and where competitors are). Follow with Site Auditor findings to establish urgency (these are the issues preventing growth). Close with your recommended action plan. 📊 Quick Reference: Tool Comparison - Site Auditor — Technical crawl, on-page errors, site health score, crawlability issues, metadata gaps. Best for: diagnosing problems. - Site Metrics — Organic traffic estimates, keyword rankings, backlink overview, competitor benchmarking, keyword gap analysis. Best for: showing opportunity and market position. - Keywords → Rank Tracker (Keyword Rank Tracker) — Track keyword position changes over time. Best for: demonstrating progress in ongoing client relationships or showing a prospect their ranking trends. 💡 Tips for Stronger Proposals - Always pull Site Metrics data for at least two or three competitors alongside the client's domain. Side-by-side comparisons make the opportunity gap immediately visible to decision-makers. - In Site Auditor, prioritise issues flagged as Critical in your proposal. Avoid overwhelming prospects with every minor warning — focus on what has the highest business impact. - If a prospect's domain is brand new or has very low traffic, Site Metrics data may be limited. In this case, lead with a competitor analysis using Site Metrics and use Site Auditor to demonstrate the technical foundation needed before any rankings are possible. 🤝 Need 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.

📊 View Your Site Explorer Quota Usage

📋 Overview Site Explorer includes quota tracking so you can monitor how many analyses you have run and how many remain in your current plan period. This article explains how to locate and read your quota usage information. 🗺️ How to Navigate to Site Explorer 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. Locate Site Metrics (Site Explorer) in the left sidebar. 3. Open Site Explorer to access your domain analysis tools. 📈 How to View Your Quota Usage 1. Once inside Site Explorer, look for a quota or usage indicator within the interface. This area displays information about how many analyses you have consumed and how many remain in the current plan period. 2. Review the figures shown for consumed and remaining capacity to understand how much quota is available for domain power and brand signal analyses. 3. If you run a domain lookup and the remaining count appears reduced, that analysis has drawn from your quota. Return to the quota indicator within Site Explorer to confirm the updated figures. 💡 Tips for Managing Your Quotas - Prioritise high-value domains. Focus your lookups on competitor domains or target sites that directly inform your strategy. - Monitor usage regularly. Check your quota usage periodically during active research phases to avoid unexpected limits. ❓ Frequently Asked Questions When does my quota reset? Quota resets depend on your specific plan. To confirm your exact reset date, check your account settings or contact our support team for details about your current plan period. 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.

🗺️ Local Competitive Analysis in Site Explorer Without GBP

🎯 Who This Article Is For This guide is for SEOs and agency users who need to run a local competitive analysis or prospect audit but do not have access to a Google Business Profile (GBP) for the site they want to analyze. You do not need a GBP, an active GBP Projects entry, or any special location settings to follow this workflow. 🧠 Understanding the Right Tool for This Job Search Atlas has several tools that touch on local SEO, so it helps to know which one fits your situation: - GBP Projects (left sidebar → GBP Projects): Manages GBP projects, posts, reviews, citations, and media for locations you own or manage. Requires GBP access. - Local SERPs: Simulates search results from a specific geographic location. Useful for rank tracking, but still tied to a project or keyword set. - Site Explorer → Topical Dominance: Compares any two URLs head-to-head across topic clusters — no GBP, no project, no location restriction required. This is the correct tool when you cannot access a competitor's or prospect's GBP. If the location field in Site Explorer defaults to USA and you are analyzing a local business, Topical Dominance still gives you meaningful competitive insight because it evaluates organic topical authority, not a location-locked data set. 🔍 How to Use Topical Dominance for Local Competitive Analysis 1. From the left sidebar, navigate to Site Metrics (Site Explorer). 2. Enter the client or prospect URL in the primary search field and run the report. 3. Inside the report, locate and click the Topical Dominance tab. 4. In the comparison field, enter a competitor URL you want to benchmark against. 5. Review the topic clusters where your client leads, is tied, or is outranked by the competitor. 6. Repeat step 4 for each additional competitor to build a full competitive picture. Because Topical Dominance works at the URL level, it does not require either site to have a verified GBP or an active GBP Projects entry in Search Atlas. The comparison is based entirely on indexed content and organic keyword data. 📊 What You Can Learn From This Analysis Topical Dominance surfaces competitive gaps and strengths across content categories. For local businesses, focus on these signals: - Topic clusters the competitor dominates: These are content areas where your client has the greatest opportunity to publish or improve. - Topic clusters your client already leads: Reinforce these with internal linking and fresh content to protect the advantage. - Clusters where both sites are weak: Early-mover opportunities — producing authoritative content here can establish dominance before competitors act. - Service and location-specific topics: Even without geo-filtering, local businesses naturally rank for city- or region-specific queries. Topical Dominance will surface these clusters if the content exists. 🏢 Auditing Prospects Without GBP Access Agencies frequently need to audit a prospect's website before winning the account — meaning there is no GBP access yet. Topical Dominance is purpose-built for this scenario: 1. Enter the prospect's URL in Site Explorer. 2. Identify 2–3 of their strongest local competitors by searching for their primary service keywords and noting who ranks consistently. 3. Run a Topical Dominance comparison against each competitor URL. 4. Export or screenshot the results to include in your pitch deck or audit report. This workflow gives you a data-backed content gap analysis you can present to the prospect without ever needing their login credentials or GBP access. ⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid - Using Local SERPs as a substitute: Local SERPs simulate geographic search results but are not designed for URL-to-URL content authority comparison. They work alongside Topical Dominance, not instead of it. - Assuming USA default limits the analysis: The location default in Site Explorer affects keyword volume display, not the topical comparison itself. The competitive gaps identified in Topical Dominance are valid regardless of the default location setting. - Skipping multiple competitor comparisons: Running the analysis against only one competitor gives an incomplete picture. Compare against at least two or three local rivals to identify consistent patterns. 💬 Need 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.

🔍 Understanding Site Explorer Search History Logs

🗺️ Overview If you notice domains you do not recognise — such as competitor sites, social platforms like Facebook, or video tools like Loom — appearing in your Site Explorer history, this is expected behaviour. These entries are not errors or security issues. They reflect searches that members of your team have run inside Site Explorer, not sites that were automatically added to your account. 📂 Two Types of History in Site Explorer Site Explorer records two distinct types of data, and it is important to understand the difference between them: - Search activity history — A log of every domain or URL that any team member has manually searched inside Site Explorer. This includes external sites such as competitor domains, partner websites, or any URL entered into the search bar for research purposes. - Crawl data for your own sites — Metrics and page data gathered from domains you have added to your account for ongoing monitoring. This is separate from the search activity log and only covers sites you explicitly manage. When you open Site Explorer at Left sidebar → Site Metrics (Site Explorer) (URL: /site-explorer/list), the history panel displays all searches performed by your team — not just searches for your own properties. 👥 Why External Domains Appear in Your History Any team member with access to Site Explorer can search any domain or URL. Common reasons external sites show up in your history include: - A team member researched a competitor's domain to review its backlink profile or organic keywords. - Someone looked up a reference site, such as a content source or industry publication. - A team member checked a social platform or third-party tool domain as part of a link-building or outreach workflow. - A colleague searched a client's competitor sites during an audit. All of these actions are logged under your account's search history because they were performed while signed in to your workspace. 🔎 How to Review Who Searched What To identify which team member searched a specific domain, follow these steps: 1. Navigate to Left sidebar → Site Metrics (Site Explorer). 2. Locate the domain in question within your search history list. 3. Check the associated timestamp and, if visible, the user attribution column to identify which team member ran the search. 4. Cross-reference with your team's current projects or outreach tasks to confirm the context of the search. If your account has multiple users, we recommend establishing a brief team guideline on when and why to search external domains, so the history log remains easy to interpret for everyone. ⚠️ This Is Not a Security or Crawl Issue Seeing an unfamiliar domain in your history does not mean: - An external site has been added to your monitored properties. - Search Atlas has crawled or indexed that domain on your behalf. - Your account has been accessed without authorisation. - Any CMS pages or internal URLs have been auto-generated. The history log is a read-only record of manual searches. No data from those external searches is applied to your site's reports or monitored dashboards unless you explicitly add that domain as a tracked property. 🧹 Managing Your Search History If your history log has become cluttered with searches you no longer need, you can clear or remove individual entries directly from the Site Explorer list view. This keeps your workspace tidy without affecting any tracked site data or reports. 💡 Best Practices for Teams - Brief new team members on the fact that all searches — including competitor research — are logged in the shared history. - Use consistent naming or labelling conventions when researching multiple client competitors so searches are easy to attribute later. - Periodically review the history log as a team to ensure it reflects active projects and remove outdated entries. 🆘 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.

🔍 Local Competitive Analysis Without GBP Access

🎯 What This Article Covers You do not need access to a competitor's or prospect's Google Business Profile (GBP) to run a meaningful local competitive analysis. Search Atlas's Site Explorer lets you research any domain's organic performance, backlink profile, and keyword rankings — all without any GBP permissions. This article walks you through how to do it effectively. 🗺️ Understanding the Location Field Default When you open Site Explorer and enter a competitor's domain, the location field defaults to USA. This is intentional — the USA database is the largest and most comprehensive starting point. However, if your client or prospect operates in a specific local market, you should update this field to match their target location for the most relevant results. - Why it matters: Keyword rankings and search volumes vary significantly by location. A competitor may rank #1 in Chicago but not appear in the top 10 nationally. - What to do: Use the location selector in Site Explorer to choose the correct country, state, or city before pulling data. 🛠️ How to Audit a Competitor or Prospect Without GBP Access Follow these steps to build a complete local competitive picture using only publicly available data inside Search Atlas. 1. Open Site Explorer: Navigate to Site Explorer from your dashboard and enter the competitor's or prospect's root domain (e.g., example.com). 2. Set the correct location: Click the location dropdown and select the country or region relevant to the business. For hyper-local analysis, narrow it to a specific state or city where available. 3. Review organic keywords: Check which local-intent keywords the site ranks for — terms like "plumber in Austin" or "best pizza near downtown" signal local SEO strength. Note ranking positions, search volumes, and keyword difficulty. 4. Analyze top pages: Identify which pages drive the most local traffic. Service area pages, location landing pages, and blog content targeting local queries are strong indicators of SEO strategy. 5. Check backlink profile: Navigate to More Features → Backlinks → Backlink Research and enter the competitor's domain. Look for local citations, directory links, and regional news mentions that reinforce their local authority. 6. Run a Link Gap Analysis: Go to More Features → Backlinks → Link Gap Analysis to compare the prospect or competitor against your client's domain. This surfaces link-building opportunities your client is missing. 7. Document findings: Compile keyword gaps, top-ranking pages, and backlink opportunities into a prospect audit report. This forms the basis of your local SEO pitch or strategy. 📊 What You Can Learn Without GBP Access Even without GBP credentials, Site Explorer gives you a clear picture of a business's local SEO health. Here is a summary of what each data point tells you: - Organic traffic estimate: Indicates how much search visibility the site has overall and locally. - Local keyword rankings: Reveals which geographic and service-based terms the site targets successfully. - Backlink sources: Shows citation quality, local partnerships, and domain authority signals. - Top-performing pages: Highlights the content types and page structures driving local conversions. - Keyword gaps: Uncovers opportunities your client can target that competitors are already winning. 💡 Tips for Accurate Local Analysis - Always change the location field away from the USA default when analyzing a business in a specific city or region. - Use exact-match location keywords (city + service) when filtering the keyword table to surface hyper-local ranking data. - Cross-reference backlink data with the Backlink Gap Analysis tool to prioritize citation and outreach opportunities for your client. - For ongoing prospect monitoring, save the competitor domains you analyze most frequently so you can revisit them quickly. 🙋 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. Additional Notes Site Explorer → Topical Dominance: Compares any two URLs head-to-head across topic clusters — no GBP, no project, no location restriction required. Step-by-step: enter client URL, open Topical Dominance tab, enter competitor URL, review topic clusters where client leads/ties/trails. Repeat for each competitor.

⚠️ "Add a page" Modal Not Translating on Filter by URL Page

We're aware that the 'Add a page' modal in Semantic Analysis and KBT (Knowledge Base Tool) tabs displays in English rather than your selected language (French and Spanish) on the Filter by URL page. As a temporary workaround, you can switch your project language to English to complete this task. We're working to resolve this localization issue. 📍 What's Happening When you open the 'Add a page' modal in the Semantic Analysis or KBT tabs on the Filter by URL page, the modal text appears in English regardless of your project language setting. This affects users working in French and Spanish. The rest of the Search Atlas interface displays correctly in your selected language—only this specific modal is unaffected. 🛠️ Workaround Steps Follow these steps to use the 'Add a page' modal while we fix the localization: 1. Go to your project settings. (Project settings are accessible regardless of your selected interface language.) 2. Change your project language to English. 3. Navigate back to the Filter by URL page. 4. Open the Semantic Analysis or KBT tab. 5. Click 'Add a page' and complete your task. 6. Return to project settings and switch your language back to your preferred language (French or Spanish). Your project data and settings remain unchanged during this process. ⏳ Engineering Status Our team is aware of this translation issue and investigating a permanent fix. We're prioritizing this localization problem to ensure the modal displays correctly in all supported languages. 🆘 When to Contact Support If the workaround doesn't resolve your issue, or if you encounter English text in other areas of Search Atlas, please contact support. We're here to help—we're committed to fixing this localization issue quickly. 🎯 You now understand the scope of this translation issue and can use the workaround to complete your task. For additional help or if you encounter related localization problems, reach out to our support team.

🕵️ Site Explorer & 📊 Reports Builder Training

🌟 Introduction This session covers how to: - Use Site Explorer to analyze domain performance across SEO pillars (Content, Authority, Technical, UX). - Build automated, customizable Reports Builder dashboards for client reporting. 📝 Agenda 1️⃣ Intro to Site Explorer – Track KPIs and SEO health. 2️⃣ Navigating the SEO metrics & keyword reports. 3️⃣ Competitors, backlinks, ad copy visibility. 4️⃣ Creating automated Reports Builder reports. 5️⃣ Customizing layouts, integrations, and delivery schedules. 6️⃣ Final Q&A. 🔍 Site Explorer Overview 🎯 Purpose Site Explorer is a domain monitoring tool used to: - Track SEO KPIs for any domain. - Investigate organic traffic trends. - Research competitors, backlinks, and keywords. 📊 Core Metrics - Domain Power (SearchAtlas proprietary metric). - Domain Rating & Domain Authority. - Trust Flow, Referring Domains, Backlinks. - Brand Signals & AI Overviews. - URL Page Rank. 🌐 Key Insights Available - 📈 Organic vs. Paid Traffic Trends (with visual tables). - 🌍 Traffic by Country distribution. - 🔑 Keyword Research - Positions, intent, search volume, CPC, traffic. - Branded vs. non-branded keyword breakdown. - Competitor overlap by keywords. - 💰 Paid Keywords & Ad Copy (Google + Facebook). - 🔗 Backlink Profiles - Historical totals, link types, link attributes. - 📉 Keyword Position Changes (track rank movements). ✅ Tip: Run Site Explorer for your domain and competitors for the best market insights. 📊 Reports Builder 🏗️ Purpose Generate white-label, automated reports combining Site Explorer data with other integrations. Perfect for client reporting. 🛠️ Setup Steps 1. Open via three dots → Report Builder. 2. Enter domain. 3. Select Site Explorer project, location, and date range. 4. Choose integrations (Auto Projects, Keyword Rank Tracker, Heatmaps, etc.). 5. Define recipients, frequency (weekly, monthly, quarterly). 6. Select layout (default or custom). 🎨 Customization Options - Toggle SEO metrics on/off (e.g., hide traffic or trust flow). - Add custom text boxes. - Save layout for reuse or apply per-client. - Configure who receives the report. ✅ Tip: Start with default layout → refine based on client needs. 💡 Best Practices - 🔎 Use Site Explorer to monitor & investigate domains. - 📑 Use Reports Builder to communicate progress to clients. - 🧩 Combine with other modules (Auto Projects, Heatmaps, Rank Tracker) for complete reporting. - 🔄 Review and adjust layouts per client preferences. 👉 Watch the full training recording to see live demos of Site Explorer and Reports Builder setup.