Entities & Topics

How to track keyword clusters, map Target URLs to specific pages, and use the Magic Wand to send any keyword directly into a focused AI Readiness Audit.

The Entities & Topics page requires an active project. Select a project from the header dropdown before visiting this section — your keywords and citations are scoped to a specific domain.

Overview

Entities & Topics is your keyword intelligence hub. It lets you build a structured map of the queries you want your website to own in AI answers, organize them into semantic clusters, and connect each keyword to the specific page on your site that should be cited for that query.

Each keyword you track is a potential AI citation opportunity. The page answers three key questions: Are you being cited for this keyword right now? Which page should be cited? And what is that page missing to win the citation?

Keyword clusters and hierarchy

Keywords are organized in a two-level hierarchy:

Parent keyword — the broad topic or pillar (e.g., "project management software")
Child keywords — specific long-tail variations and intent sub-types under the parent (e.g., "best project management software for startups", "project management software comparison")

Child keywords are automatically categorized by intent: Informational, Instructional, Comparative, Brand, or Evaluative. Each intent type influences how the AI Readiness Audit should be configured and which schema signals matter most.

Click a parent keyword row to expand and see all child keywords. Use the cluster copy button to copy the entire keyword cluster as a Markdown heading structure — useful for briefing content writers.

Adding keywords

Click the Add Keywords button

The blue "Add Keywords" button in the top-right opens the keyword addition modal.

Enter your topic or seed keyword

Type a broad topic (e.g., "AI SEO tools"). RankAsAnswer generates a semantic cluster of related long-tail keywords automatically, grouped by intent.

Review and save the cluster

The generated cluster is displayed for review. Deselect any keywords you do not want to track, then save. The parent keyword and all child keywords are added to your table.

Target URL Mapping

A Target URL connects a keyword to the specific page on your site that should be winning citations for that query. Without a Target URL, you know a keyword is important — but you have no way to run a focused audit or citation check for it.

Setting a Target URL

Locate the keyword row

Find the keyword (parent or child) in the table. Look for the URL column — it will show a dash or placeholder if no Target URL is set.

Click the pencil (edit) icon

The pencil icon appears in the keyword row when you hover it. Clicking it opens an inline text field for entering the URL.

Enter the URL

Type or paste the target page URL. You can use a full URL (https://example.com/your-page) or a relative path (/your-page) — RankAsAnswer will resolve relative paths against your project domain automatically.

Press Enter or click Save

The URL is saved immediately. It now appears in the keyword row and unlocks the Magic Wand and Citation Check buttons for that keyword.

Domain mismatch warning

If you enter a URL that belongs to a different domain than your active project, a yellow warning banner will appear below the row. This usually happens when copying a competitor's URL by accident. The mismatch does not prevent saving — but it is a signal to double-check you are mapping the right page.

Use relative paths for simplicity

Instead of typing https://yoursite.com/blog/article, you can just enter /blog/article. RankAsAnswer builds the full URL from your active project domain.

Magic Wand (Optimize)

The Magic Wand button (sparkle icon) is the fastest path from a keyword to a focused AI Readiness Audit. It is the direct implementation of the Target vs. Soldier concept — it sends both the page URL and the keyword into the Analyzer simultaneously, so you get a contextual, intent-focused report in one click.

Using the Magic Wand

Ensure the keyword has a Target URL

The Magic Wand only activates when a Target URL is set for the keyword. If the wand icon is greyed out, set a Target URL first using the pencil icon.

Click the sparkle (Optimize) icon

The wand icon appears in the Actions column of the keyword row. Clicking it immediately pre-fills the AI Readiness Audit with the keyword's Target URL and the keyword text.

(If prompted) Confirm the domain

If the Target URL is on a different domain than your active project, a confirmation dialog appears: "This URL is on a different domain. Continue?" Click Continue to proceed with the audit.

Review the focused audit

You are taken to the AI Readiness Audit page with both fields pre-filled. The Target Keyword context banner will appear on the results report, and all Fix Roadmap items will be scoped to that specific query's intent.

The Magic Wand is your daily workflow

For each keyword cluster you track, use the Magic Wand weekly to check whether your page's score has improved after implementing fixes. It is faster than manually re-entering the URL and keyword every time.

Per-keyword Citation Check

Each keyword in your table can be checked for live citation status using the Perplexity Sonar API. This answers the question: "Right now, if someone asks Perplexity this question, does your site appear in the answer?"

Click the Check Citation button

The citation check button appears in the keyword row. Clicking it opens the Citation Check modal and initiates a live Perplexity Sonar query for that keyword.

Wait for the live result

The check takes 5–15 seconds while Perplexity Sonar processes the query. A loading spinner is shown during this time.

Review your citation status

The result shows whether your domain was cited, the full AI-generated answer, and a list of all domains that were cited for this query. If you were not cited, you can see which competitor is in position #1.

After a successful citation check, a green dot badge appears on the keyword row. This badge means a citation check was completed within the last 24 hours.

Citation checks cost 1 credit per keyword

Each live Perplexity query costs 1 credit. To run unlimited citation checks at zero credit cost, add your own Perplexity API key in Settings → API Keys. See the BYOK guide for setup instructions.

Intent categories

Every child keyword is automatically tagged with one of five intent categories:

Intent	Query type	Key schema signal
Informational	"What is X", "How does Y work"	Article Schema, FAQ Schema
Instructional	"How to X", step-by-step guides	HowTo Schema, numbered lists
Comparative	"X vs Y", "Best X for Z"	Table structure, FAQPage Schema
Brand	Branded queries, "[Company] reviews"	Organization Schema, sameAs links
Evaluative	"Is X worth it", "Should I use Y"	Review Schema, opinion-style structure

Intent categories are assigned automatically when a keyword cluster is generated. They influence how the AI Readiness Audit interprets your page when a target keyword is supplied — the Audit checks for the schema types and structural patterns that match that specific intent.

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