When you set up an order, Rank Engine combines your choices with its research to develop the working brief behind each article.
The guided flow walks you through the major decisions in sequence, so you do not need to fill every advanced field to place a strong order.
Use this guide as a quick map of what each decision is for.
Choose or create a Project
A Project is a saved set of settings that you can reuse across orders. Use a separate Project when the client, site, brand or ongoing work needs its own settings.
Projects also help Rank Engine keep placement history together and avoid duplicate sites. Creating a Project does not place an order; it gives the order a reusable home.
Choose the Goal
The Goal tells Rank Engine what the placement should achieve and gives the order a sensible starting setup.
Rank Engine offers four solution paths:
- Reputation Management for shaping what users find first around a brand or person.
- Brand Awareness for credible brand mentions across relevant websites.
- Thought Leadership for expert-led Editorial or Informational articles in first or third person.
- Category Authority for non-branded informational articles or branded competitive listicles.
Choose the goal that best matches the result you want. If placements in the same order need to do different jobs, you can choose their goals separately.
Define the subject
For branded placements, tell Rank Engine who or what the content should feature. This may be a company or brand, an Individual, a product, a service, a profile or another owned asset.
Non-branded Category Authority skips the subject. A branded competitive listicle needs a Company/Brand subject so Rank Engine knows which company to feature in the comparison.
Set audience, TLD and regional context
Audience controls who the article is written for.
TLD targeting controls how closely publisher domain endings should match that audience. You can keep the order broad with global domains, or make it more specific with matching country-code domains.
Regional Focus sets the geographic context for the article. When you use it, Rank Engine draws its examples, comparable brands and research from that location.
Use Regional Focus when local relevance matters for:
- Regional rankings.
- Local audience fit.
- Location-specific examples and sources.
- Country or city-level credibility.
Leave it blank when the article should feel globally relevant.
Choose placement targeting
Rank Engine offers fixed DA tiers and Smart Select™.
DA tiers
Choose DA40+, DA50+ or DA60+ when you need a guaranteed minimum authority tier for reporting, client expectations or campaign planning.
Rank Engine then looks for the best available publishers inside that tier using relevance, traffic quality and editorial fit.
Smart Select
Choose Smart Select when the strongest available opportunity matters more than one strict DA bracket.
Smart Select prioritises relevance, traffic, editorial quality and authority together. DA still matters, but it is not the first filter.
Build the Background
Think of the Background as the material that helps us understand the brand, person, topic or asset behind the order.
For branded orders, a strong Background usually explains:
- Who the subject is and where they work or operate.
- What they do and why they do it that way.
- How their work, product, method or service actually functions.
- Several relevant initiatives, with outcomes, examples or proof points.
If there is something the article should avoid, put it in Exclusions. That keeps the Background focused on the subject and the facts we can draw from.
For non-branded Category Authority work, the Background can be shorter. It should identify the product, service, category or target page and the factual context that makes the destination relevant. A competitive listicle needs enough company information to support a useful comparison; Rank Engine researches relevant alternatives.
Use ARI when the Background is thin
ARI is available while you set up the order to help improve Background material.
For branded Standard or Expanded Backgrounds and Competitive Profiles, Assess identifies useful material and gaps. Research & Integrate builds a revised version and automatically assesses it again. Read the result, check the facts, fill any gaps only you can answer and save the version you want. ARI is not used for brief contextual mentions or non-branded articles.
Use ARI when the Background is rough, incomplete, too vague, or missing the "how" and "why" behind the subject.
Decide how the brand should appear
For branded orders, you can choose how prominently the subject appears.
Choose a brief contextual mention in Informational content, or a Standard or Expanded feature in either Editorial or Informational content.
The right choice depends on the solution:
- Brand Awareness can use a brief contextual mention inside useful informational content or Standard or Expanded coverage in Editorial or Informational style.
- Reputation Management often benefits from a standard editorial feature, citation URLs and stronger association with owned assets.
- Thought Leadership can use Editorial or Informational content in third person or, when the subject is an Individual, in that person's first-person voice.
- Category Authority can stay non-branded in a standard informational article, or feature a Company/Brand inside a competitive listicle.
Set article direction only where needed
Article Topic and Article Brief are optional.
Use Article Topic when you know the subject area but want Rank Engine to develop the angle.
Use Article Brief when you already know the direction and want the article to follow specific points.
Leave both blank when you want Rank Engine to research the subject and market, then develop the angle and working brief from the Background, target page, audience and Goal.
Add optional controls where they improve the order
You can add optional controls for more specific cases.
Citation URLs
When they are available for a branded Editorial article, Citation URLs let one placement support additional owned assets, such as profiles, listings, official pages or supporting resources.
They are especially useful for Reputation Management.
Custom Quotes
Custom Quotes help when the article needs expert language, executive insight or a clearer point of view.
They are especially useful for Thought Leadership.
Generate Quotes
Generate Quotes asks Rank Engine to research and create an informed comment for your chosen spokesperson.
Use Custom Quotes when you already have the wording, or Generate Quotes when you want Rank Engine to develop it. Content Approval lets you review generated commentary with the rest of the article.
Writing Perspective and Author Bio
Thought Leadership for an Individual can use a first-person Editorial or Informational perspective, with an Author Bio generated from the Background. Other articles use third-person writing. The Thought Leadership guide explains the two approaches.
Article Format and researched comparisons
Category Authority supports a standard informational article and a competitive listicle. A listicle features your Company/Brand first in the article, with supported strengths and researched alternatives. See the Competitive Listicles guide.
Custom Images
When they are available for a branded Editorial article, Custom Images let you provide visual assets for the publisher to consider.
They are especially useful for Brand Awareness when the brand, product or setting benefits from stronger visual context.
Context Terms
Context Terms add related concepts around a link or mention so the article has stronger topical context.
Use them carefully. They should add context naturally, not repeat your anchor text or force exact-match phrases.
Use shared or per-placement controls
Many settings can be shared across the whole order or set per placement.
Use shared settings when:
- The order has one clear direction.
- The same choices suit every placement using them.
- You want a faster setup.
Use per-placement settings when:
- One placement needs a different topic, region, asset or control.
- A specific URL needs a specific article direction.
- Some placements need deeper treatment than others.
You can also use shared pools for reusable assets such as topics, quotes or URLs, letting Rank Engine distribute them sensibly.
Set each placement's goal individually when the articles need to do different jobs. They can still remain inside one order.
Choose approvals and delivery
Approvals add review steps before work moves forward.
Content approval gives you an optional, free review of finished articles before publication.
Placement approval lets you review publisher sites before Rank Engine commits to the placement.
Approvals are useful when brand sensitivity, stakeholder review or publisher fit matters. They also extend the delivery window so there is time for review cycles.
Review and checkout
After setting up the order, review it, complete final validation, confirm the terms and continue to checkout.
If anything needs tightening, you can return to the relevant step before payment.
Plan placements that do different jobs
If one order contains articles with different purposes, set the goal and direction for each placement separately. The placement planning guide works through a complete example.
Final takeaway
A strong order brief is not about filling every field.
It is about making the right decisions in the right places: Project, solution preset, targeting, Background, content profile and approvals.
Set the direction clearly. Rank Engine handles the rest.
