Quick Start Guide

Go from sign-up to your first AI readiness score in under 5 minutes.

No credit card required for free tier

The Free tier gives you 50 AI credits per month and 1 domain — enough to run your first full analysis before deciding to upgrade.

Step 1: Create your account

Go to the signup page

Navigate to rankasanswer.com/signup. Enter your email address and choose a password.

Verify your email

Check your inbox for a verification email from RankAsAnswer. Click the confirmation link to activate your account. If you do not see it within 2 minutes, check your spam folder.

After verification, you are automatically redirected to your Dashboard. This is your command center for all scans, keywords, and citations.

Step 2: Understand the Global Project Switcher

The Global Project Switcher is the dropdown in the top navigation bar that controls which website project is currently active. Every feature in RankAsAnswer is scoped to the selected project — your keywords, citations, reputation data, and authority signals are all tied to a specific domain.

How it works

The switcher shows the currently active project domain (e.g., example.com)
Click it to open a dropdown listing all projects you have created
Select any project to instantly switch context — all data updates to reflect that domain
Use "Scan new website" at the bottom to add a new project by analyzing its URL

Project-gated features

The Entities & Topics, Brand Sentiment Defense, and Entity Authority Suite sections require an active project. If you visit these pages with no project selected, you will see a setup prompt explaining how to create one. Run your first scan to automatically create your first project.

Your first scan creates your first project automatically

When you run the AI Readiness Audit on a URL, RankAsAnswer creates a project for that domain. The Global Project Switcher will immediately populate with it — no manual setup needed.

Step 3: Run your first scan

Navigate to the AI Readiness Audit

Click the Dashboard or Analyzer link in the sidebar. You will see the URL input field at the top of the page.

Enter a URL

Paste any publicly accessible page URL — your homepage, a blog post, or a key landing page. Optionally, enter a target keyword in the second field to contextualize the analysis.

Click Analyze

The analysis takes 15–30 seconds. RankAsAnswer fetches your page, parses the HTML, and runs it through all 28 signal checks. A loading state shows progress: Fetching → Parsing → Scoring → Generating Insights.

Review your results

You are redirected to the results page when complete. Your AI Readiness Score, platform scores, pillar breakdown, and Fix Roadmap are all displayed.

Which URL should I start with?

Start with your most important page — typically your homepage or your highest-traffic service/product page. These are the pages most likely to appear in AI answers about your brand or industry.

Step 4: Read your score

Your results page contains several sections:

1
AI Readiness Score (0–100) — Your overall citation probability score. Above 75 is excellent. 50–74 is good but improvable. Below 50 means significant structural gaps exist.
2
Platform Scores — Individual scores for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude, each weighted by that engine's known signal preferences.
3
Pillar Breakdown — A breakdown showing your scores across Structure (30%), Metadata (25%), Content (25%), and Citation Patterns (20%).
4
Fix Roadmap — A prioritized list of specific improvements, each showing an estimated citation lift percentage and the exact code or content change needed.

Step 5: Apply your first fix

Find the highest-impact fix

In the Fix Roadmap section, look for the fix item with the highest estimated citation lift. FAQ Schema and HowTo Schema typically deliver the largest gains.

Click Generate Fix

Click the Generate button on any fix item. RankAsAnswer calls Gemini to generate exact JSON-LD code tailored to your page's actual content. This costs 1 credit.

Copy the generated code

The generated Schema JSON-LD appears in a modal. Click "Copy" to copy the entire script block, including the script tags, to your clipboard.

Paste it into your website

Paste the copied code inside the <head> section of your page. If you use a CMS like WordPress, paste it using a custom HTML header field or SEO plugin. After deploying, re-scan the URL to confirm the improvement.

Next steps

After your first scan and fix, explore these features to build a comprehensive GEO strategy:

Entities & Topics

Map target keywords to specific pages and run per-keyword citation checks.

AI Citation Checker

Verify if you are cited in real-time Perplexity Sonar answers.

Citation Source Intelligence

Find the exact pages your brand is absent from and get outreach templates to close each gap.

BYOK Power Mode

Unlock unlimited usage with your own API keys.

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