SEO overview
Create your SEO project, run a free site audit, follow SEO Coach, and learn which tools are free and which use your own provider account.
The SEO module checks your website for problems, tracks how it shows up in search, and turns what it finds into a prioritized to-do list. This page is for business owners and marketers setting up SEO for the first time. It shows you how to create your project, what each menu does, and what costs money.
Before you begin
- Your website's address, for example
example.com. Use the public site, not a staging copy. - Permission to audit the site. Let your developer or web host know before a large crawl.
- Optional connections: access to Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools for the site, if you want real search data. See Connect search data and providers.
- Cost: the site audit, crawler, workstream, SEO Coach, and up to 25 tracked keywords per domain are free. Live rankings, keyword research, backlinks, competitors, and AI visibility use your own DataForSEO account and always ask you to confirm first.
Create your SEO project
Until you create a project, the SEO menu items show Create your SEO project first to use this menu option.
- Open SEO in the sidebar.
- Under Create your SEO project, enter your Website domain.
- Optional: add a Project name (optional), such as your company name.
- Select Create free SEO project.
What you should see: the Overview opens with your On-page SEO score, Open opportunities, AI visibility readiness, and Tracked keywords. Until you run an audit, the score says Run your first audit.
Next, run your first audit from SEO → Audit site → Site Audit by selecting Audit now, or run a crawl. See Site Audit and crawler.
Find your way around
| Menu | What's inside | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | Scores, next actions, SEO workstream | See where you stand and what to do next. |
| SEO Coach | Do this next | Get your three highest-value actions, ranked from data already saved in your project. |
| Audit site | Site Audit, Quick Wins, Crawled Pages, Crawled Links, Crawled Images | Find and fix technical problems. |
| Find keywords | Keyword Explorer, Keyword Research, Organic Keywords, Organic Pages, Competitor Research, SERP Analysis | Choose topics people search for. |
| Improve content | Content Optimizer, Content Map, SEO Workstream | Improve pages for a target search and track tasks. |
| Track search | Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster, Rank Tracking, Index Status | Watch clicks, positions, and whether pages are indexed. |
| Backlinks | Authority and link data | See who links to you. |
| Monitor SEO | SEO Activity, AI Visibility, Traffic Analytics, Core Web Vitals, SEO Automations | Watch progress and schedule checks. |
| Reports | All Reports, SEO Progress | Share results and compare before and after. |
| Settings | SEO Settings, Integrations | Manage domains, project context, and connections. |
Tell SEO Coach about your business
SEO Coach uses your business context to rank recommendations.
- Open SEO → SEO Coach.
- Under Give every recommendation the right context, select Edit project context.
- Add your business goal, audience, markets, and priority pages, then save.
Do this next then lists Your three highest-value actions. Building this plan is free: it makes no provider request and uses no AI credits. Select Review action or the linked tool to fix each item.
Add or switch domains
Each domain keeps its own audit history, tracked keywords, crawl data, and workstream.
- Open SEO → Settings → SEO Settings.
- Under Add another domain, enter the Website domain and optional Project name (optional), then select Add domain.
- Under Your domains, select Set active on the domain you want to work on.
You can also switch from the domain switcher at the top of SEO (Switch SEO domain). The active domain applies everywhere in SEO: audits, crawls, search data, and reports. Always check it before you run anything.
Delete domain removes the domain from SEO. Your provider connections stay connected.
Use the workstream
Most tools have Add to workstream or Add recommendations to workstream. The SEO workstream is one ordered list of fixes. Select Mark complete when a fix is live, then re-run the audit or crawl to check it.
Free, connected, and paid data
| Data | Needs | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Site audit, crawler, Quick Wins, Content Optimizer, Index Status scan, workstream, Coach | Nothing | Free |
| Website authority from the public web graph | Nothing (Included) | Free |
| Google clicks, impressions, and positions | Google Search Console | Free |
| Bing search performance | Bing Webmaster | Free |
| Traffic and bot visits | A read-only Cloudflare token | Free from Spacebrain |
| Core Web Vitals | A Google PageSpeed Insights API key | Uses your Google quota |
| Rank checks, keyword research, competitors, backlinks, AI visibility | Your DataForSEO account | DataForSEO bills you; Spacebrain adds no data charge |
Before any DataForSEO request runs, a confirmation shows the domain, what will be fetched, and the estimated maximum. After it finishes, the actual provider cost is saved with the result.
Worked example
Leo owns a plumbing company. He creates a project for leosplumbing.com and runs Audit now. SEO Coach lists three actions: fix 12 broken internal links, add missing page titles to service pages, and add his priority pages in project context. He adds all three to the workstream, fixes them in his website builder, marks them complete, and runs another crawl. SEO Progress now shows the issues as Issues fixed.
If something goes wrong
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| Create your SEO project first to use this menu option. | Create your project on SEO → Overview first. |
| Numbers look wrong or empty | Check the active domain in the domain switcher. |
| Connect provider appears on a tool | That tool needs a provider. See Connect search data and providers. |
| Could not switch domains. Please try again. | Refresh the page and switch again. |
FAQ
Does an audit issue always mean something is broken?
No. Some redirects, noindex tags, or canonicals are deliberate. Look at the page and your site's setup before changing many pages at once.
Do SEO automations monitor uptime?
No. They schedule SEO checks only: crawls, search data syncs, Core Web Vitals, and rank checks.
Can AI visibility show my share of all AI answers?
No. It measures mentions and citations for the prompts and models in a specific run only.
Next step
Next step
Keep moving
Open the relevant Spacebrain screen or contact support if you need help.
Last updated on
Classes, bookings and attendance
Create gym classes, schedule single or weekly sessions, set booking cutoffs and waitlists, check in attendees, cancel sessions and correct attendance.
Site Audit and crawler
Run a free site audit and crawl, read the findings, fix pages, links, and images, and check your fixes with a new crawl.