Adding a Domain

Adding a domain takes a few minutes. Getting the setup right during onboarding saves a lot of pruning later.

Pick the root domain

Track the root domain, not a subdomain or a specific page. If your site is yourbrand.com, enter yourbrand.com (not www.yourbrand.com, not yourbrand.com/product). SurfacedBy normalises the input, but keeping it simple avoids edge cases.

If your product lives on a separate hostname (for example, app.yourbrand.com), you will usually still want to track the marketing root. AI platforms almost always cite marketing pages, not app pages.

Confirm the brand name

Auto-analysis extracts a brand name from the site. Review it before moving on. The brand name is what SurfacedBy looks for in AI responses to detect citations, so a subtle mismatch (for example, "YourBrand Inc." versus "YourBrand") will cost you.

Curate the competitor list

Onboarding proposes a competitor set based on which domains appear in AI answers alongside yours. Review the list:

• Remove any that are not really competitors for your positioning.
• Remove generic domains that slipped through (rare - the default filter catches them, but you will occasionally see one).
• Add any obvious competitors that onboarding missed.

Keep the list focused. A tight set of 5 to 15 real competitors produces a much more useful Share of Voice number than a sprawling list of 50.

Approve the Prompt set

The starting Prompt set mixes category questions, comparison questions, and high-value search-term Prompts. Most users approve the set as-is and let SurfacedBy rotate it over time.

If you know of specific Prompts real buyers ask and they are not in the list, add them manually from Tracked Prompts. They will pin into the Active tab and run on every scan.

Choose a plan

If you have no paid subscription yet, the final onboarding step asks you to pick one. You can change plans later from the workspace upgrade page or Settings -> Workspace; there is no long-term commitment. Pick the tier that covers the AI platforms you care about: Claude and Google AI Mode require Professional or above.

Next steps

After onboarding, the first scan runs automatically. Come back in a few minutes and read the Getting Started guide for what to do next.