# Quickstart: from sign-up to your first data

URL: https://serpel.app/docs/quickstart

Updated: 2026-11-05

This quickstart takes you from a new account to real data: a project for your domain, Search Console, a first crawl, tracked keywords and AI prompts. Every step that costs credits shows its price before it starts, and your 100 welcome credits cover all of them. Plan for a few minutes of clicking plus the time the crawl needs.

**The quickstart at a glance**

1. **Account** (free): Sign up and confirm your email address.
2. **Project** (free): Add your domain with country and language.
3. **Search Console** (free): Connect Google for real clicks and queries.
4. **First crawl** (5 credits): Find the technical issues of your site.
5. **Keywords and prompts** (per check): Track positions in Google and answers in ChatGPT.
6. **Monitoring** (per run): Let Serpel repeat the checks and email a report.

## How do you get started with Serpel?

1. **Create your account.** Sign up on [serpel.app](https://serpel.app/signup) with your email address and a password, or with Google. Once your email address is confirmed, 100 welcome credits arrive on your balance. They never expire.

2. **Create a project for your domain.** Click **Create first project**, or **Project** on the projects page, and enter your domain. Name, country and language are optional; without them Serpel uses Germany and German. Serpel removes `www.` from the domain and keeps a path as the start address for the crawler. The free plan includes 1 project. Nothing runs on its own yet: the project overview shows a checklist with the next steps.

3. **Connect Google Search Console.** On **Search data**, click **Connect**, then **Connect with Google**, and allow read-only access. You then see real clicks, impressions and queries from Google instead of estimates. This is free. You can connect Bing Webmaster Tools there too, with an API key.

4. **Run your first crawl.** On **Issues**, click **Start crawl**. SerpelBot checks up to 100 pages by default, which costs at most 5 credits. When it finishes you see the audit score, every issue with a fix and the affected pages.

5. **Track your first keywords.** Open **Tracked keywords**, click the add button and enter one keyword per line in the **Track keywords** dialog. Adding keywords is free. Select them and click **Check now** to get positions right away, or wait for the next scheduled run, which is cheaper.

6. **Add AI prompts.** On **AI visibility**, add the questions your customers ask ChatGPT. Each check shows whether ChatGPT cites your domain or mentions your brand, and whether Google’s AI Overview cites you.

7. **Switch on monitoring.** In the project settings under **Monitoring**, pick a schedule and an hour and add the email addresses that should get the report. From then on Serpel checks all keywords and prompts on schedule and writes a report after each run.

Illustration: A project overview with monitoring status, the changes since the last run and the trend, shown with demo data.

## What do the first steps cost?

Reading data never costs anything. These are the first paid steps, calculated with the current price list. The [credits guide](https://serpel.app/docs/credits-and-billing) lists every price.

| Step | Credits |
| --- | --- |
| First crawl with 100 pages | up to 5 |
| Keyword research with 100 results | 16 |
| 10 keywords checked right now | 50 |
| Search volume for those 10 new keywords, fetched with the first check | 6 |
| 5 AI prompts with Google AI Overviews | 20 |
| Together | 97 |

New accounts start with 100 credits. Failed checks cost nothing, and a crawl only charges the pages it actually fetched.

> **Find keywords before you track them:** Not sure which keywords to track? Run a [keyword research](https://serpel.app/docs/keyword-research) for your main topic first and add the best results with **Track**.

## Can you do the quickstart from the command line?

Yes. The [CLI](https://serpel.app/docs/cli) covers the same steps, except connecting Search Console, which needs the browser. Sign in with a device login, then create the project and start the checks:

```bash
serpel auth login
serpel projects create --domain example.com --country GB --language en
serpel crawl start --project <id> --wait
serpel rankings add --project <id> --keyword "coffee beans" --keyword "espresso beans"
serpel rankings run --project <id> --wait
serpel ai add --project <id> --prompt "Where can I buy fresh coffee beans online?"
serpel ai run --project <id>
```

Coding agents can read the results through the [MCP server](https://serpel.app/docs/mcp/claude-code), and your own tools through the [REST API](https://serpel.app/docs/api).

## Where to go next

- [Concepts](https://serpel.app/docs/concepts): Workspaces, projects, jobs, credits and monitoring in one page.
- [Site audit](https://serpel.app/docs/site-audit): Read the score, fix issues and compare crawls.
- [Rank tracking](https://serpel.app/docs/rank-tracking): Markets, devices, depth and schedules.
- [Monitoring and reports](https://serpel.app/docs/monitoring-and-reports): Schedules, email reports and webhooks.