Troubleshooting

Scan fails immediately / "Unable to fetch page"

• Confirm the URL starts with https:// (not http)
• Ensure the page is publicly accessible (not behind a login or VPN)
• Check that the page does not block crawlers via robots.txt
• Some pages behind Cloudflare's aggressive bot protection may fail — try a different page on the same domain
• Pages under construction or returning a 4xx/5xx HTTP status will fail

Scan completes but score seems unusually low

• Pages under 300 words produce unreliable scores — add more content before scanning
• JavaScript-heavy SPAs (React, Angular, Next.js) may render minimal HTML at parse time — enable server-side rendering on your page for accurate results
• Check the "Content" pillar details — if word count shows 0, your page's content may be JS-rendered

Scan is stuck in loading state

• If loading persists beyond 2 minutes, refresh the page — the result may have completed and the UI just needs a refresh
• Check your History page — completed scans are always saved there even if the UI didn't update
• If the URL produces consistent timeouts, contact support with the URL so we can investigate

"Insufficient credits" error

Your monthly credit allocation is exhausted. Options: (1) wait for the 1st of the month for credits to reset, (2) upgrade your plan, or (3) add a BYOK API key to run unlimited operations. See the BYOK guide.

Paid but plan didn't upgrade

Wait 5–10 minutes and refresh your dashboard. If your plan still shows as the old tier, email support@rankasanswer.com with your Razorpay payment ID (starts with "pay_") found in your receipt email.

Credits not resetting on the 1st

Credits reset at midnight UTC on the 1st of each month. If it's already the 2nd in your timezone but still the 1st in UTC, you may see the reset happen slightly later in your local time. If credits have not reset by the 2nd, contact support.

Key shows "Active" but credits are still being deducted

• Ensure you saved the key (click the Save button after pasting)
• Try removing the key and re-adding it
• Check that the specific key corresponds to the right service — a Gemini key only bypasses Gemini-related credits; Perplexity key only bypasses citation check credits

"Invalid API key" error when saving

• Verify you copied the complete key including any prefix (AIza... for Gemini, sk-... for OpenAI, pplx-... for Perplexity)
• Ensure there are no trailing spaces or line breaks in the pasted key
• Check that the API key is still active in the provider's dashboard — keys can be revoked or expire
• For OpenAI: ensure the key belongs to an account with active billing (keys from accounts with $0 balance may reject)

Perplexity key error: "insufficient_balance"

Your Perplexity API account has run out of prepaid credits. Log in to perplexity.ai, go to Settings → API, and add more credits. Perplexity Sonar queries typically cost $0.001–0.005 each.

Can't log in / "Invalid credentials"

• Use the "Forgot Password" link on the login page to reset your password
• Ensure you are using the email address you signed up with (check for typos)
• If you signed up with Google OAuth, use the "Continue with Google" button — you won't have a password for this account

Session keeps logging out

• Ensure cookies are enabled in your browser — our auth system uses cookies
• Disable browser extensions that clear cookies automatically (common with privacy extensions)
• Try a private/incognito window to rule out extension conflicts

Citation check returns "No results" or errors

• Check your credit balance — citation checks require 1 credit
• Ensure the keyword has at least 3 words — very short keywords may not trigger retrieval in Perplexity
• If using BYOK Perplexity key, verify your Perplexity account has sufficient credits

Citation check shows a competitor I've never seen before

This is expected — Perplexity's live retrieval often surfaces niche or newer websites that dominate for specific long-tail queries. These are your real AI search competitors, which may differ entirely from your traditional SEO competitors. Add them to your competitor tracking list.