RankNest

Sharing Reports and Privacy

How the share link, password, expiry and PDF work, and exactly what RankNest records when a client opens a report or an email.

A client's reports are shared through one link. The link always shows the newest approved report, and older reports stay reachable from it, so you send the same address every month. This page covers the link's controls, the PDF, and what RankNest does and does not record about the people who open them.

Where to find it

Open a client, click Client Reports, and look at Share link at the top of the Report settings panel.

Click Turn on link to create one. The link appears with a Copy button. From there you can:

  • Create new link: replaces the address. The old link stops working at once, so anyone who had it, including a client who kept an old email, sees a not-valid page. Use this if a link was forwarded to the wrong person.
  • Turn off link: keeps the address but makes it return a not-valid page until you turn it on again. Scheduled emails pause while it is off.
  • Served from: picks which of your verified report domains the link uses. See Custom Domains.

Only approved reports are on the link. A report waiting for approval is not visible there, and a failed report never is.

The link opens the report page. Add /pdf to the end of the link to get the PDF of the same report, or use the PDF button in the history list.

Note: The share link shows a stored copy of each report. Opening it never calls Search Console, Analytics or any paid data source, so a client who opens it a hundred times costs you nothing and cannot change the numbers.

Set a password of at least six characters under Link password and click Set. Visitors then see a password form before the report. Share the password with your client separately from the link.

  • A correct password sets a cookie in that visitor's browser for that one link. It lasts 30 days, after which the password is asked again.
  • Click Change to set a new password, or Remove to drop it. Either one signs every visitor out immediately.
  • The password applies to the PDF address too.

Pick a date under Link expires and click Save settings. After that date the link and its PDF return the not-valid page. Clear the date to remove the expiry. An expiry does not switch off the email schedule, so set the schedule to Off or clear the date before the next send, or the link inside that email will not open.

PDF for this client

Under PDF for this client you can override the agency defaults for this client's PDFs:

  • Page size: A4 or Letter.
  • Cover page: on or off.
  • Page header and footer: on or off, with page numbers.

Leave a field on Agency default to follow the Branding tab.

The PDF is a print of the report page, so it shows the same sections, the same branding and the same numbers. The first PDF of a report takes a few seconds to build; after that it is served at once until branding changes.

What a view records

When a client opens the report page or the PDF, RankNest records one view. The record is deliberately thin:

  • Visitor: a one-way hash made from the visitor's address and the date. It cannot be turned back into an address, and it changes every day, so the same visitor counts once per day and the value is useless outside that day. No IP address is stored.
  • Browser family: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Opera, Mail or Other. Never the full browser string.
  • Referring site: the hostname the visitor came from, if any.

Link scanners and mail-gateway previews are not counted. The history list shows the total and the date of the last view for each approved report.

What an email records

Each report email to a client carries a small tracking image. When the mail client loads it, RankNest records an open for that report, under the same rules as a page view. Many mail clients block images or load them through a proxy, so open counts are a floor, not an exact figure.

Copies sent to your own contact address and Send test to me emails carry no tracking image and no unsubscribe link.

Unsubscribe

Every client email has a one-click unsubscribe link in the footer, and mail clients that support it show an unsubscribe button in the header. Clicking it removes that address from the client's recipient list. Nothing else is affected.

Tips

  • If a client asks "who else can see this", the answer is: anyone with the link, plus the password if you set one. The link is long and random, but it is a link. Set a password for anything sensitive.
  • Set an expiry on links you share during a pitch or a one-off review, so they do not stay open for ever.
  • Download the PDF before you create a new link if you want to keep a copy of what the client saw.

Troubleshooting

A client sees "This link is not valid or has expired". The link was replaced with Create new link, turned off, past its expiry date, or the client is on a trial or plan that no longer includes reports. Send the current link from the Share link field.

A client says the password does not work. Passwords are case-sensitive, and changing the password signs everyone out. Confirm the password shown as set, or set a new one and send it again.

The view count is lower than I expect. Views are counted once per visitor per day, bots are excluded, and a visitor who reads the report twice in one day counts once.

Last updated 2026-10-16