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How-To Guides

Onboard a New Client

How to set up a new client workspace in Outercite, add their keywords and competitors, and get reporting running from day one.

This guide walks you through the full process of getting a new client live in Outercite, from creating their workspace to sending the first report.

What you'll learn

  • How to create a client workspace under your parent org
  • How to add keywords and competitors correctly
  • How to enable reporting before the first billing cycle closes

Before you start

Make sure you have Owner or Admin access on your parent organisation. If you are not sure of your role, go to /agency and check the "Team" tab. You will need it to create new workspaces.

Gather the following from your client before you begin:

  • Their primary domain (e.g. example.com.au)
  • A list of 10-30 seed keywords or prompts they want to track
  • A list of 3-10 competitor domains
  • Their preferred report delivery email address

You can always add more keywords and competitors later. Starting with a focused seed list gives the verification pipeline clean data from day one.

Step 1: Create the client workspace

  1. Go to /clients/add.
  2. Enter the client's display name. This appears on all white-label reports, so use the name your client recognises (e.g. "Sunrise Dental Group", not an internal code).
  3. Enter their primary domain.
  4. Choose a billing plan. If you are on wholesale pricing, the margin is applied automatically.
  5. Click Create workspace. Outercite provisions the workspace and adds it to your portfolio at /agency.

A workspace is an isolated environment for one client's data. Each workspace has its own keywords, competitors, citations, and reports. Your parent org is the container that holds all workspaces. See Parent Orgs vs Workspaces for the full model.

Step 2: Add keywords and competitors

After creation, Outercite drops you into the new workspace's dashboard.

To add keywords:

  1. Click Prompts in the left nav, or go to /prompts within the workspace.
  2. Click Add prompt.
  3. Enter a keyword or question prompt. Prompts work best when they match how real people ask AI search engines for help. For example, "best accountant in Brisbane" performs better than "Brisbane accountant services".
  4. Select an intent type from the dropdown (options include types such as local, buying intent, informational, comparison, and branded; check the product for the current list). Outercite's intent classification engine uses this to route each prompt correctly through the verification pipeline.
  5. Click Save. Repeat for each seed keyword.

To add competitors:

  1. Click Competitors or go to /competitors.
  2. Click Add competitor.
  3. Enter the competitor's domain. Add their display name so reports are readable.
  4. Click Save.

Do not add the client's own domain as a competitor. The workspace already tracks the client domain separately. Duplicating it will inflate share-of-voice figures.

Step 3: Trigger the first verification run

Outercite schedules checks automatically, but you can kick off an immediate run to get data faster.

  1. Go to the workspace dashboard.
  2. Click Run audit in the top-right corner.
  3. The verification pipeline begins. It runs across six AI engines: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI, Grok, and DeepSeek.

The first run time depends on the number of prompts. You will see citation data populate in the dashboard as results come in.

Step 4: Configure alerts

Set up surge alerts so you and your client get notified when citation activity spikes or drops.

  1. Go to /settings/notifications.
  2. Click New alert.
  3. Choose a trigger: "Citation rate drops below X%" or "Competitor gains citations for keyword Y".
  4. Enter the notification email. Use the client's email if they want direct notifications, or your agency email if you prefer to triage first.
  5. Click Save alert.

Step 5: Enable reporting

  1. Go to /reports.
  2. Click New report.
  3. Choose Monthly for a first-of-month delivery, or Weekly for a digest-style report.
  4. Set the sender name and reply-to address to match your agency brand. See White-Label Reports for full branding options.
  5. Enter the client's email address in the Recipients field.
  6. Click Schedule report. The first delivery will go out at the next scheduled interval.

You can send a preview report immediately by clicking Send preview after saving. Use this to confirm branding before the client sees it.

Quick-reference checklist

StepDone?
Workspace created with correct domain
10+ keywords added with intent types
3+ competitors added
First audit run triggered
At least one alert configured
Report scheduled and preview sent

Try this in Outercite

Ready to add your next client? Go to Create a new client workspace to get started.

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