When you set up an order, your direction becomes the brief Rank Engine needs to create, place and report it.
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 is the outcome you want the order to support.
Rank Engine currently supports 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 placements shaped by insight and quotes.
- Category Authority for non-branded search campaigns around products, services, topics or search themes.
This choice matters because the brief adapts around it. Reputation Management, Brand Awareness and Thought Leadership orders focus on a named subject. Category Authority focuses on a non-branded category, topic or search theme. You do not need to choose a separate Mention Type.
Define the subject
For branded Goals, tell Rank Engine who or what the content should feature. This may be a brand, person, product, service, profile or other owned asset.
Category Authority skips this step because the order supports a topic or category without featuring the brand in the article.
Set audience, TLD and regional context
Audience controls who the article is written for.
TLD targeting controls how closely publisher domains should match that audience. You can keep the order broader with global domains, or make it more region-specific with matching country-code domains.
Regional Focus is separate. It tells Rank Engine where the article world should be rooted. When it is set, examples, comparable brands, expert context, research direction and article framing should be based in 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
Background is the raw material Rank Engine uses to understand the brand, person, topic or asset behind the order.
For branded orders, a strong Background usually explains:
- Who the subject is.
- What they do.
- How their work, product, method or service actually functions.
- Which outcomes, examples or proof points matter.
- What should be avoided or handled carefully.
For non-branded Category Authority work, the Background can be shorter. It should explain the product, service, category or target page clearly enough for Rank Engine to understand what the article should support.
Use ARI when the Background is thin
ARI is available while you set up the order to help improve Background material.
It can assess whether the Background is strong enough, identify gaps, research supporting context and help create a cleaner version for the order.
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.
The brand may use a brief contextual mention, a standard editorial feature, or an expanded editorial feature.
The right choice depends on the solution:
- Brand Awareness can use a brief contextual mention inside useful informational content or a standard or expanded editorial feature.
- Reputation Management often benefits from a standard editorial feature, citation URLs and stronger association with owned assets.
- Thought Leadership can use a standard editorial feature for one focused expert-led section or an expanded editorial feature for a fuller point of view, often supported by Custom Quotes.
- Category Authority does not feature the brand inside the article.
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 develop the direction from the Background, targeting and Goal.
Add optional controls where they improve the order
You can add optional controls for more specific cases.
Citation URLs
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.
Custom Images
Custom Images let you supply visual assets that Rank Engine can use where suitable.
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 rules apply across compatible placements.
- 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.
Choose approvals and delivery
Approvals add review steps before work moves forward.
Content approval lets you review article drafts.
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.
Final takeaway
A strong order brief is not about filling every field.
It is about making the right decisions in the right places: Project, Goal, targeting, Background, content direction and approvals.
Set the direction clearly. Rank Engine handles the rest.
