RankNest

Creating a Content Mapping Batch

Add 3 to 5 competitor URLs, run the scrape, watch each page's sections come in, and add pages to an existing project.

A batch (shown as a "project" in parts of the UI) is one analysis run: a set of competitor URLs that rank for the keyword you're researching, scraped into comparable section outlines. This page covers starting a batch, what happens during the scrape, and adding more pages later.

Before you start, pick your URLs deliberately. Search your target keyword and collect the pages that actually rank for it. Comparing pages that compete for the same query is what makes the outlines meaningful.

How to create a batch

  1. Open the client's Content Mapping page and click New Analysis (or Create First Outline if the client has no batches yet).
  2. Enter a Target Keyword (optional but recommended). It becomes the project's name on the dashboard and is what the search box matches against. Without it the batch is listed as "Untitled Project".
  3. Paste your competitor URLs into Competitor URLs, one per line. The form requires between 3 and 5 URLs; a counter below the field tells you how many you've entered and whether you're ready.
  4. Click Start Analysis.

You can paste URLs with or without https://, since RankNest adds the protocol for you. The form rejects invalid URLs and flags duplicates (including URLs that only differ in formatting) before anything runs, and tells you exactly which lines to fix.

Note: If you've reached your plan's batch limit, RankNest shows an upgrade prompt instead of starting the analysis. A usage warning appears above the form as you approach the limit. See Billing & Usage.

During the scrape

After you start, the progress view appears. It shows an overall progress bar ("X of Y pages analyzed"), counters for Completed, Analyzing, Pending, and Failed pages, and a row per URL with its live status. As each page finishes, its row shows the page title and how many sections were extracted. Most pages take a few seconds each.

When the batch reaches Completed, click View Project to open the results, or Back to Dashboard to leave. The scrape continues either way, and the dashboard row updates as pages finish. See Reviewing Results for what to do next.

If an individual URL fails, the rest of the batch still completes; the failed row shows an error message explaining what went wrong.

Adding pages to an existing batch

You can add competitor URLs to a batch after it's created, up to the 5-URL cap:

  1. Open the project from the dashboard.
  2. Click Add Pages. The button only appears while the project has fewer than 5 pages.
  3. Enter the new URLs in the New URLs field, one per line. The form lists the URLs already in the project and skips any you re-enter.
  4. Click Add N Pages. The new pages are scraped and appended to the project's results.

Managing batches

  • Search: the toolbar search filters the list by target keyword, which is why naming batches after their keyword pays off.
  • Table or cards: use the toolbar toggle to switch layouts. Your choice is remembered.
  • Delete: click the trash icon on a batch row to delete the project and all of its scraped data. RankNest asks you to confirm first; there is no undo.

Tips

  • Aim for 5 URLs when you can. Patterns across five outlines are much more convincing than patterns across three.
  • Compare like with like. Mixing a product page with four blog posts muddies the comparison, so run separate batches per page type if the SERP is mixed.
  • Use the page that ranks, not the site's homepage. The outline of example.com/best-crm-software is useful; the outline of example.com usually isn't.

Troubleshooting

The form won't accept my URLs. Check the error message. It lists the exact URLs that are invalid or duplicated. Each line must be a full page address with a valid domain.

A page failed to scrape. Some sites block automated requests, and pages that load their content entirely with JavaScript may not expose anything to scrape. Try a different competitor page. The failure doesn't affect the other URLs in the batch.

A completed page shows 0 sections. The page's HTML didn't contain headings the scraper could extract, which is common on heavily scripted pages. That page won't have an outline to review, but you can delete-and-replace it by adding a different URL (admins can remove individual pages from the project).

Last updated 2026-07-25