Is Rankar Academy completely free?

Yes. Every lesson, every topic, and every certificate is permanently free. No credit card, no trial expiry. All 10 Rankar tools have free plans that cover every exercise.

How long does one lesson take?

Each lesson takes 12 to 18 minutes to read, plus 5 to 10 minutes to complete the hands-on task in the Rankar tool.

Do I need prior experience?

No experience needed. The program starts from absolute zero — Lesson 1 explains what SEO is and assumes you know nothing.

Do the certificates work on LinkedIn?

Yes. Every certificate has a unique ID you can verify at rankar.ai/verify and add to LinkedIn under Licences and Certifications.

Does RankSpy work as a standalone tool?

Yes. RankSpy functions independently but becomes more valuable paired with other Rankar modules. Each module shares data so insights from one show up in the next.

Who has access to RankSpy?

Agency Owners, Managers, and Staff with the right project permissions can use RankSpy. Permissions are configured per project.

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How to Spy on a Domain — RankSpy Setup Guide

Fingerprint any domain in 12-20 seconds with RankSpy. Get performance, AI search readiness, tech stack, ads, social, backlinks, keywords, and on-page audit

Meta Title: How to Spy on a Domain — RankSpy Setup Guide Meta Description: Fingerprint any domain in 12-20 seconds with RankSpy. Get performance, AI search readiness, tech stack, ads, social, backlinks, keywords, and on-page audit. Primary Keyword: how to spy on competitor domain Secondary Keywords: rankspy setup, competitor fingerprint, ai-ready competitor audit, domain intelligence URL Slug: how-to-spy-on-domain-rankspy Featured Snippet Target: To run a RankSpy scan, open Agency Dashboard → Rank Spy, enter any domain in the "Spy on site" field, then click the scan button. RankSpy fingerprints the domain across 8 dimensions (Overview, Keywords, AI Search, Tech Stack, Ads, Social, Backlinks, On-Page) in 12-20 seconds.

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Introduction

RankSpy is the competitor intelligence module inside Rankar.ai's Agency Dashboard. Unlike older competitor tools that require building elaborate keyword lists or seeding backlink data, RankSpy works as a one-shot fingerprint: enter any domain, get an 8-tab report covering performance, AI readiness, tech stack, ads, social, backlinks, keywords, and on-page details. This guide walks through the first scan using https://rankar.ai as the demo URL.

Step 1: Open Rank Spy From the Sidebar

In the sidebar under CORE SEO, click Rank Spy. The URL becomes /agency-dashboard/rank-spy. The empty state shows a single input field and a Spy on site button. The tagline reads "Competitor intelligence — fingerprint any domain in seconds."

Step 2: Enter a Domain

Enter rankar.ai (or any competitor domain). RankSpy accepts bare domains or full URLs.

The empty state shows the help text: "Free crawl: tech, ads, social, on-page · Keywords / backlinks / ad creatives load on demand." This tells you which data is included by default and which costs additional credits if you drill deeper.

Step 3: Click "Spy on Site"

Click the Spy on site button. RankSpy shows a Scanning… loader with the message "Scanning rankar.ai — Crawling homepage, robots.txt, sitemap, sub-pages, plus Core Web Vitals. Usually 12-20 seconds."

The scan covers 8 things in parallel: page render + Lighthouse, robots.txt analysis, sitemap parse, AI engine probes, technology fingerprinting, ad pixel detection, social signal sniff, and on-page tag audit.

Step 4: Read the 4 Top-Line KPI Tiles

When the scan completes, the dashboard renders four headline tiles:

PERFORMANCE — Lab Lighthouse score. For rankar.ai: 76.
AI SEARCH READY — AI readiness score with letter grade. For rankar.ai: 69 (Grade C).
TECHNOLOGIES — Count of fingerprinted technologies. For rankar.ai: 1.
AD PLATFORMS — Number of ad pixels detected. For rankar.ai: 0 (no ad pixels).

Beneath the tiles: BUSINESS MODEL: Mixed / unclear · inferred from tech — RankSpy attempts to classify the business model from the detected tech.

Step 5: Switch Between the 8 Tabs

The tab row across the top:

Overview — KPIs + Core Web Vitals + tech stack summary.
Keywords — what the domain ranks for (loads on demand).
AI Search — AI visibility probe across multiple engines.
Tech Stack — full technology fingerprint.
Ads — ad platforms detected + ad creatives (on demand).
Social — social platform presence and signal volume.
Backlinks — backlink profile (on demand).
On-Page — homepage on-page audit.

Each tab is independent and can be opened without affecting others.

Step 6: The Core Web Vitals Section

Below the KPI tiles: a Core Web Vitals panel labelled "Where you can out-perform them on speed." For rankar.ai:

Performance: 76.
LCP: 3.96s (target: Good ≤ 2.5s).
CLS: 0.1349 (target: Good ≤ 0.1).
INP: 35ms (target: Good ≤ 200ms).

The data source: "Lab data (Lighthouse)" + "Page weight: 596 KB."

Two of three CWV metrics are in the red — exactly the kind of opening you would exploit if you wanted to outrank rankar.ai on a speed-sensitive query.

Step 7: Use the Re-scan Button

The header includes a Re-scan button to refresh the data. Most fields update on every scan; some (keywords, backlinks) only update when explicitly triggered.

What's Next

The first scan is complete. The next article unpacks the AI Search tab — RankSpy's tool for measuring competitor AI visibility across the major LLMs.

Apply This With the Rankar Toolkit

RankSpy works best paired with the rest of the Rankar suite. Spin up the relevant tools: RankTalk • RankOps • RankAudit • RankWriter • RankTracker • RankAIO • RankBridge • RankLinks • RankLocal • RankLaunch • RankSpy • RankUX • RankLead. Each module shares data with the others — fewer tabs, one source of truth.

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