# Projects and settings

> How to create, configure, compare and delete projects, and what each project setting changes.

## What a project is

A project is one website, optionally linked to one business on Google Maps. Every report in Rankfinity belongs to the project selected in the picker at the top of the left menu. Keywords, map scans, AI prompts, site crawls, competitors and reports are all stored per project.

How many projects you can have depends on your plan. The current numbers are in **My account › Billing › Compare plans**.

## Creating a project

Click **＋ New project** under the project picker. The form opens in **Settings › Project**. The first project can also be created from the onboarding screen ([Getting started](/docs/getting-started)).

The top of the form holds only the essentials: **Basics**, **Where your customers search**, **Google Business Profile** and **Keywords**. Everything else — the map grid, automation, devices, Daily watch, client branding, the project goal, report emails, project memory, client links, integrations, recently deleted projects and **Delete project** — is in one folded section, **Advanced settings for this project**. A line under its title sums up what is chosen (for example "Rank checks off · Map re-scan off, 7×7 · Crawl off · Daily watch off · Reports off"). Click it to open; Rankfinity remembers whether you left it open. In these docs, "Settings › Project › Advanced settings › Automation" means that section.

**Settings** is always about the selected project (Project, Team, Alerts). Your personal settings — profile, security, notifications, connected apps, billing, activity and your data — are in **My account** ([Account, billing and privacy](/docs/account)).

### Basics

- **Website domain** — the site you want to track, for example `oak-and-iron.example`. Use the domain without `https://`.
- **Project name** — how the project appears in menus, reports and emails.
- **Business type** — Local business, Online store, SaaS / software, Content / media, Agency or Other. It shapes keyword ideas and the questions we suggest for AI visibility.

### Where your customers search

- **Language** — the search language for rankings, keyword data and AI prompts.
- **Target location** — a country or a city. Rankings are checked as if someone searched from there. Pick the city if your customers are local; pick the country for a national business. The ⓘ next to the field explains the difference.

### Google Business Profile

Tick **This business has a Google Business Profile** to unlock map tracking. Then match the business:

1. **Find the business** — type its name and click **Search**. Pick the right listing.
2. **Or paste a Maps link** — open the business on Google Maps, copy the link from the address bar and paste it.

The match is what tells us which pin on the map is yours. If it is wrong, every map number is wrong, so check it once.

### Grid (map projects only, in Advanced settings)

- **Grid** — the number of points per side: 3×3, 5×5 or 7×7 (7×7 is the largest). New projects start at 5×5.
- **Shape** — Square, Circle, Diamond, Cross or Ring. New projects default to Circle, which drops the corner points that are usually outside your service area.
- **Map scan** — **Full grid** or **Smart scan (cheaper)**. See [Map grid scans](/docs/map-grid).
- **Point spacing** and **Cover a radius of** — how far apart the points are. **Fit the grid** sets the spacing to cover the radius you type (a neighbourhood is about 4 km, a mid-size city about 13 km).
- **Re-scan the map** — Off, Weekly, Every 2 weeks or Monthly, with a day, a time and whether scheduled scans use Smart scan or the full grid.

Below the grid you see a breakdown "points × keywords" and the price of one scan. When a cheaper setup exists (a smaller grid, a circle, a less frequent schedule), a **Make it cheaper** suggestion shows the alternative.

### Keywords

One keyword per line. **Autofill keywords** reads your site and suggests keywords you already appear for, plus ideas based on your services. You choose which to add; nothing is added on its own. The price is on the button.

### Automation (in Advanced settings)

- **Track rankings** — how often rank tracking runs (Off, Daily, Every 3 days, Weekly, Every 2 weeks, Monthly).
- **Crawl the site** — how often the site audit crawls, with a day and a time.
- **Rankings depth** — how deep each check looks: Top 20 up to Top 100. Deeper costs more.
- **Rank tracking devices** — Desktop + Mobile, Desktop only, or Mobile only.
- **Take a screenshot with every rank check** — keeps a picture of every results page. Off by default.
- **Daily watch** — a cheaper daily check on top of your normal schedule. See [Daily watch](/docs/daily-watch).

Every schedule is off for new projects and every schedule shows its estimated monthly cost before you save. Keywords covered by your plan's included checks say "Included in your plan · N of M keywords" and only the part above the allowance is priced in credits; the first check of a new keyword is charged once. See [How credits work](/docs/credits).

### Client branding (in Advanced settings)

For agencies. **Client (white-label)** is the client's name on reports. **Accent colour** colours the reports and the share link. **Hide the "Rankfinity" signature** removes our signature.

### Other blocks (in Advanced settings)

- **Project goal** — a target (for example "10 keywords in the top 3") with a due date. It shows on the dashboard.
- **Project memory** — what the business is, the current goal, positioning, writing preferences, competitors, key pages and research already done. AI assistants connected over [MCP](/docs/mcp) read it first, so they do not start from zero.
- **Report emails** — scheduled reports for this project. See [Client reports and sharing](/docs/reports).
- **Client links** — read-only links you can give to a client.
- **Integrations** — connect Google Search Console and Google Analytics for this project, and set up the [WordPress plugin](/docs/wordpress-plugin).

## Fill the dashboard (project setup)

When you create a project with **Fill the dashboard now** ticked, or click **Fill the dashboard** on an empty dashboard, Rankfinity runs one bundle: a domain overview, a backlinks summary, referring domains and a site crawl. You pay one price for the bundle instead of four separate buttons.

- Projects included in your plan get the setup at no cost. The form says "Included in your plan (1 of 5 projects)" or similar.
- Deleting a project and creating a new one does **not** give the included setup back. The count is of setups used, not of live projects.
- If every step fails, nothing is charged and an included setup is returned. If some steps succeed, you pay only for what was filled.
- The map scan and AI visibility are not part of the bundle; they have their own buttons.

## All projects

**Projects › All projects** shows every project you can see as a table:

| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Project | Favicon, name, domain and a link to the site |
| Location | Flag and target location |
| Organic | Traffic (Search Console clicks for 28 days if connected, otherwise the estimate from your last saved domain overview, marked "est."), keywords in the top 10 and the change |
| AI Visibility | The latest AI visibility run and the change from the previous comparable run |
| Local | Average map position (ARP) and top 3 coverage, only for projects with a Business Profile |
| Last updated | The newest of: rank check, AI run, map scan, domain overview |

You can search, sort by any column (missing values always sort last), choose 10/25/50/100 rows per page and **Export CSV**. A dash with a tooltip means "Not measured" or "No map for this project". The **⋮** on each row offers Scan, Open, Edit, Email me and Delete. Tick several rows to **Delete selected**.

On a phone the table becomes cards showing traffic, AI visibility, top 10 and map ARP.

## Deleting and restoring

Delete a project from the **⋮** menu in All projects or with **Delete project** at the bottom of **Advanced settings for this project**. You type the project name (or DELETE for several) to confirm.

Deleted projects move to **Recently deleted** (in Settings › Project › Advanced settings) and stay there for 30 days. Click **Restore** to bring one back with all its data. After 30 days the project and all its scans, AI answers and crawls are deleted for good.

## Common questions

**I changed the target location. What happens to old results?**
They stay as measured. New checks use the new location, so expect a jump in the charts at the change.

**Can two people work on the same project?**
Yes. Invite them in **Settings › Team** and choose which projects they see. See [Team and client access](/docs/team).

**Why is "Map competitors" grey in the menu?**
The project has no Business Profile. Clicking it opens the project settings where you add one.

**Does adding a keyword start a paid scan?**
No. Adding keywords is free. Rank checks and map scans start only when you click a scan button or when a schedule you turned on runs.