Setup and dashboard · Lesson 1 of 20 · 8 min
Getting Started With RankTracker: Set Up Your First Project
Create your first RankTracker project, choose domain or exact-URL matching, and set the market, language and device. Covers the initial keyword import and first refresh cycle.
Video walkthrough coming soon
This lesson is fully written below. The recorded walkthrough for “Getting Started With RankTracker: Set Up Your First Project” will appear here once it is published.
Performance model
RankTracker course Setup and dashboard
Stage 1
Creating a project
Stage 2
First import
Stage 3
Choosing a refresh schedule
Reading time · unlocks the next lesson
0:00 / 5:00 · pausedThe timer counts only while this tab is open and resumes where you left off.
Creating a project
Open RankTracker and click 'New Project'. You are asked for a domain, a tracking mode (domain or exact URL) and the market you sell in. Domain matching tracks whichever page ranks; exact-URL locks tracking to one page, which suits landing-page work.
Set the country, language and device together — a UK, English, desktop configuration returns a very different SERP to a US mobile one. Get this wrong and every later number is meaningless.
- Click New Project from the workspace switcher
- Choose domain matching for whole-site tracking, exact URL for single pages
- Confirm country, language and device before saving
First import
After the project shell exists, you land on the import screen. Paste keywords line by line or upload a CSV with one keyword per row. RankTracker dedupes automatically and shows a preview count before it spends any credits.
Review the preview table, remove anything irrelevant, then confirm. The first check runs immediately so you have a baseline rather than waiting for the next scheduled refresh.
- Paste or upload keywords
- Review the dedupe preview
- Confirm to trigger the baseline check
Choosing a refresh schedule
Under project settings you set how often positions refresh — daily or weekly. Daily suits volatile, competitive terms you act on quickly; weekly is enough for long-tail or informational keywords where movement is slower.
Where to go next
Once the baseline check completes, head to the Overview Dashboard to see the project summary, then the Rankings tab for the full table. Both are covered in the next guides in this chapter.
Key takeaways
- Match country, language and device to your real audience before importing keywords
- Use domain matching unless you specifically need to pin one URL
- Preview and dedupe imports before confirming
- Reserve daily refreshes for keywords you will act on daily
Practise it now in RankTracker
Track the keywords from this lesson
2h 55m of material in this course · 20 lessons