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Quick Start Guide

🎯 Quick Summary​

  • Get started with UnrealSEO in 5 minutes or less
  • Simple step-by-step process from signup to your first insights
  • No technical knowledge required - designed for non-technical users
  • Immediate access to citation tracking and AI visibility metrics

📋 Table of Contents​

  1. Prerequisites
  2. Step 1: Create Account
  3. Step 2: Add Your Website
  4. Step 3: Configure Topics
  5. Step 4: Run Initial Scan
  6. Step 5: Review Dashboard
  7. Next Steps
  8. Troubleshooting

🔑 Key Concepts at a Glance​

  • Domain Verification: Confirming you own the website you're tracking
  • Topic Selection: Choosing which subjects/keywords to monitor for AI citations
  • Initial Scan: First-time analysis establishing your baseline LLM visibility
  • Citation Rate: Core metric showing how often AI systems cite your content
  • Dashboard: Central hub for all your LLM visibility metrics

🏷️ Metadata​

Tags: quick-start, tutorial, getting-started, setup Status: %%ACTIVE%% Complexity: %%SIMPLE%% Max Lines: 350 (this file: 340 lines) Reading Time: 5 minutes Last Updated: 2025-01-18

Prerequisites​

What You Need​

✅ A website or domain you want to track ✅ Access to email (for verification) ✅ 5 minutes of your time ✅ Basic knowledge of your industry/topics

Optional (But Helpful)​

  • List of competitors to benchmark against
  • Keywords/topics important to your business
  • Goals for LLM visibility (what success looks like)

Step 1: Create Account​

Sign Up​

1. Visit UnrealSEO Go to unrealseo.com and click "Get Started Free"

2. Choose Sign-Up Method

Options:
├─ Email + Password (recommended)
├─ Google Sign-In
├─ GitHub Sign-In
└─ SSO (Enterprise only)

3. Fill Out Registration

  • Email address
  • Password (min 8 characters)
  • Company name (optional)
  • Role (SEO, Content, Marketing, etc.)

4. Verify Email Check your inbox for verification email and click the link.

⏱ Time: 1 minute

Choose Your Plan​

Free Tier:

  • 1 domain
  • 10 topics
  • 100 queries/month
  • Perfect for testing

Pro Tier ($99/month):

  • 5 domains
  • 50 topics
  • 5,000 queries/month
  • Competitor tracking
  • Historical data

Enterprise:

  • Unlimited domains
  • Unlimited topics
  • Custom query volume
  • White-label reports
  • API access

💡 Tip: Start with Free tier to test, upgrade when you need more capacity.

Step 2: Add Your Website​

Domain Setup​

1. Click "Add Domain" From your dashboard, click the "+ Add Domain" button.

2. Enter Your Website

Example formats that work:
✅ unrealseo.com
✅ www.unrealseo.com
✅ https://unrealseo.com
✅ blog.unrealseo.com (subdomain)

Invalid formats:
❌ unrealseo.com/blog (path - track the root domain)
❌ unrealseo (missing TLD)

3. Verify Ownership

Choose verification method:

Option A: DNS Record (Recommended)

Add TXT record to your DNS:
Name: _unrealseo-verify
Value: unrealseo-verify-abc123xyz456

Option B: Meta Tag

Add to your <head> section:
<meta name="unrealseo-verify" content="abc123xyz456">

Option C: HTML File Upload

Upload verification file to:
https://yoursite.com/unrealseo-verify.html

4. Click "Verify" UnrealSEO will check for the verification signal (takes 10-30 seconds).

⏱ Time: 2 minutes

Verification Troubleshooting​

DNS not detected?

  • Wait 5-10 minutes for DNS propagation
  • Check DNS records at dnschecker.org
  • Ensure no typos in TXT record

Meta tag not found?

  • Clear your site cache
  • Check tag is in <head>, not <body>
  • Test with View Source (Ctrl+U)

Step 3: Configure Topics​

Choose What to Monitor​

1. Industry Selection Choose your primary industry:

Categories:
├─ SaaS & Technology
├─ E-commerce & Retail
├─ Finance & Insurance
├─ Healthcare & Wellness
├─ Marketing & Advertising
├─ Education & E-learning
├─ Media & Publishing
└─ Other (custom)

2. Topic Input

Option A: Auto-Suggest (Easiest)

  • UnrealSEO analyzes your website
  • Suggests relevant topics automatically
  • Review and approve suggestions

Example for a CRM company:

Auto-detected topics:
✅ CRM software
✅ Customer relationship management
✅ Sales pipeline tools
✅ Contact management
✅ Email automation

Option B: Manual Entry Enter topics one-by-one:

Format examples:
- "project management software"
- "best email marketing platforms"
- "how to improve customer retention"
- "what is conversion rate optimization"

3. Topic Prioritization

Assign priority levels:

  • 🔴 High: Core business topics (monitor daily)
  • 🟡 Medium: Important but secondary (weekly checks)
  • 🟢 Low: Nice-to-have visibility (monthly checks)

⏱ Time: 1 minute

Topic Best Practices​

✅ Do:

  • Include question-based topics ("how to...", "what is...")
  • Mix brand terms ("YourBrand vs Competitor")
  • Cover your full product/service range
  • Include problem statements users search for

❌ Don't:

  • Use single keywords (too broad)
  • Ignore question-format queries
  • Forget competitor comparison topics
  • Overlook adjacent/related topics

Step 4: Run Initial Scan​

Baseline Visibility Check​

1. Review Configuration Confirm:

  • ✅ Domain verified
  • ✅ Topics selected (minimum 3 recommended)
  • ✅ Priority levels set

2. Start Initial Scan Click "Run Initial Scan"

What happens:

UnrealSEO will:
1. Generate 50-200 test queries based on your topics
2. Query ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity
3. Analyze responses for citations of your domain
4. Calculate baseline Citation Rate and AI Share of Voice
5. Identify competitor citations

⏱ Time: 30-90 seconds (automatic processing)

Scan Status​

Progress indicator:

Scanning LLM Platforms...
[████████░░] 80%

✅ ChatGPT: Complete (23/50 citations)
✅ Claude: Complete (18/50 citations)
✅ Gemini: Complete (15/50 citations)
⏳ Perplexity: In progress...

3. Review Scan Summary

Once complete, you'll see:

  • Overall Citation Rate: X% across all platforms
  • Platform Breakdown: Performance by LLM
  • Top Cited Topics: What you're known for
  • Gaps: Where competitors dominate instead

Step 5: Review Dashboard​

Understanding Your First Report​

Dashboard Overview:

1. Citation Rate Card

Your Citation Rate: 18.5%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Industry Avg: 22.3%
↓ 3.8 percentage points below average

💡 Insight: Focus on content optimization

2. AI Share of Voice

Your ASoV: 12%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
You: ████░░░░░░░░░░░░ 12%
Competitor A: ████████░░░░░░░ 35%
Competitor B: ██████░░░░░░░░░ 28%
Others: █████░░░░░░░░░░ 25%

3. Platform Performance

PlatformCitation RateRank
ChatGPT24%Good ✅
Claude19%Average ⚠️
Gemini15%Below Avg 🔴
Perplexity16%Below Avg 🔴

4. Topic Performance

🟢 Strong Topics (cited >40%):
   - Customer relationship management
   - CRM integrations

🟡 Moderate Topics (cited 15-40%):
   - Sales automation
   - Contact management

🔴 Weak Topics (cited <15%):
   - Email marketing automation
   - Lead scoring

5. Quick Wins

🎯 Recommended Actions:
1. Add FAQ schema to product pages (est. +8% citations)
2. Create comparison content vs top competitors
3. Strengthen author bylines for E-E-A-T

Explore Advanced Features​

Citation History

  • View trends over time (when you have data)
  • Track impact of optimizations

Competitor Analysis

  • See who's getting cited in your place
  • Identify their content strategies

Query Examples

  • Review actual AI responses that cited you
  • Analyze context and positioning

Next Steps​

Immediate Actions (Today)​

1. Review Quick Wins Implement the top 3 recommendations from your dashboard.

2. Set Up Alerts

Navigate to Settings > Alerts
Configure:
├─ Weekly summary email ✅
├─ Citation rate drops >5% ✅
├─ New competitor detected ✅
└─ Optimization opportunities ✅

3. Add Competitors

Dashboard > Competitors > Add
Enter competitor domains to benchmark against

Learning Path (This Week)​

Day 1: ✅ Complete Quick Start (you're here!) Day 2: Read Core Concepts Day 3: Study Traditional SEO vs LLM-SEO Day 4: Start Content Optimization Guide Day 5: Implement first optimizations

Content Optimization (This Month)​

Week 1:

  • Audit your top 10 pages
  • Add FAQ schemas where appropriate
  • Strengthen E-E-A-T signals

Week 2:

  • Create answer-optimized content for weak topics
  • Implement structured data markup
  • Update author bylines

Week 3:

  • Build comparison content vs competitors
  • Optimize meta descriptions for AI
  • Add definition lists for key terms

Week 4:

  • Review citation improvements
  • Refine strategy based on data
  • Plan next month's optimizations

Troubleshooting​

Common Issues​

❓ Domain verification failing

  • Solution: Wait 10 minutes for DNS propagation, try again
  • Alternative: Use meta tag or HTML file method instead

❓ No citations found in initial scan

  • Reason: Your domain may not be in LLM training data yet
  • Solution: Focus on RAG-based platforms (Perplexity) first
  • Action: Optimize content and wait for next training cycle

❓ Low citation rate ( under 5%)

  • Diagnosis: Content not optimized for AI discovery
  • Fix: Follow Content Optimization Guide
  • Timeline: Expect improvements within 2-4 weeks

❓ Competitors have much higher ASoV

  • Analysis: Review their cited content
  • Strategy: Study Competitor Analysis Guide
  • Action: Identify gaps and create better content

Need Help?​

Support Channels:

  • 💬 Live Chat: Click bottom-right widget (9 AM - 6 PM EST)
  • 📧 Email: info@unrealseo.com
  • 🌐 Community: community.unrealseo.com
  • 📖 Docs: Search above or browse sections

Helpful Resources:

📚 Related Topics​

Continue Learning:

Optimization Guides:

🎯 You're All Set!​

Congratulations! You've completed the UnrealSEO quick start.

Your next steps:

  1. ✅ Implement Quick Win recommendations
  2. ✅ Set up weekly email alerts
  3. ✅ Read Core Concepts
  4. ✅ Start optimizing content

Questions? Our team is here to help:

Last updated: 2025-01-18 | Edit this page | Report issue

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