Documentation · Getting started

Build your first report

Walk through the four setup steps, build your first report or skip it and start agents, then pick your first priorities.

After you pay, Ivy Link signs you in and opens Build your first report at app.ivyl.ink/onboarding. Until you build a report or skip it, signing in always brings you back here, and your agents stay off.

The page says Four short steps. You can go back at any point. A progress bar across the top shows the steps:

1. Search data
2. Sitemap
3. Report depth
4. Site details

You can click any step you have finished to go back to it. Steps 2 to 4 have Back on the left and their main button on the right. Your search data and sitemap are saved as soon as you add them. Nothing starts until you click Build my report on the last step.

If you don't want a report, click Skip the report under the page heading. The last section of this page explains what happens then.

Step 1: Add your search data

Search data is what makes the report specific to your site. You have three choices:

The status line under the text tells you where you are: No search data added yet., Connected: followed by your property, or Export uploaded with the date. Once search data is in, the Skip button becomes Next, and Connect with Google becomes Reconnect Google if you connected.

Connect with Google

1. Click Connect with Google.
2. Pick the Google account that owns your site's Search Console property.
3. On Google's consent screen, leave Search Console ticked and agree.
4. You come back to step 1 and see Search data saved.

From here Ivy Link asks for full access, so it can read your search data and also send your sitemaps to Google. Only a property that matches your site's address is accepted. To change the access level later, or to connect by adding Ivy Link as a user instead, see Search Console.

If it doesn't work, the page tells you why:

Upload a Search Console export

1. Click Upload CSVs. The Upload a Search Console export dialog opens with the steps.
2. In Search Console, open Performance → Search results.
3. Set the date range. The last three months is plenty.
4. Choose Export → CSV, or download the zip.
5. Drop the zip or its CSV files on Drop the export here (or click it to choose them).
6. Click Upload export.

You can upload up to 20 files, 10 MB in total. The export is a snapshot: Ivy Link uses those numbers until you upload a newer one or connect Search Console.

Skip

Click Skip to go on without search data. If you still have no search data when you click Build my report, the report runs on public ranking data rather than waiting. You can connect Search Console later.

Step 2: Confirm your sitemap

Ivy Link reads your sitemap to find every page on your site. You have three choices:

• Find it for me looks for your sitemap automatically. Once one is set, the button reads Find it again.
• Paste a URL into Sitemap URL (for example https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml) and click Use this sitemap. The sitemap must be on your own site.
• Crawl without one starts the crawl from your homepage instead.

The status line shows the result:

Find it for me keeps you on step 2 so you can see what it found. Use this sitemap shows Sitemap saved. and Crawl without one shows Okay — the crawl will start from your homepage. Both take you on to step 3.

Next stays greyed out until a sitemap is set or Ivy Link has checked for one. If you paste a sitemap from another site, you see Use a sitemap URL on your own site.

Step 3: Choose your report depth

Deeper research reads more pages, competitors and searches, and ends with more ready-to-use action prompts. There are three depths:

One credit is one dollar. Every depth runs every step of the research. Depth only changes how much the report reads and writes. See Report depths for more.

Reading the depth cards

Each card shows what it costs you now:

• Included / with your balance: your balance already covers it.
• +$N / N credits: you pay the difference between the price and your balance.
• About N credits left for agents: roughly what stays in your balance for your agents after this report.

Ivy Link picks a depth for you to start with: the deepest one your balance covers twice over, or Mini. You can pick any depth. Under the cards you see your balance (N credits in your balance) and a hint such as Standard: pay $50 now. Your balance covers the rest. or Mini: no charge. Your balance covers it.

A report takes from your balance only what its research actually uses, which is often less than its price. That's why each card shows about how much is left for your agents.

Continue or pay the difference

• If your balance covers the depth, click Next.
• If not, the button reads Pay $N and continue. You pay only the shortfall, and it becomes credits on your account.

With a saved card, a dialog shows The report, Your balance covers and To pay now. Click Pay $N to charge your saved card, or Use a different card to pay on Stripe's checkout page. Without a saved card, you go straight to Stripe.

When the payment goes through, you move straight on to step 4. If the credits take a moment to land, the button reads Waiting for your credits… and the page tells you Payment received. Your credits are being added, and this page carries on by itself.

The depth is checked against your balance when you click Build my report. If your balance no longer covers it, the report runs at the deepest depth your balance does cover. Once the report starts, its depth doesn't change.

Step 4: Tell us about your site

Three quick questions. Your report uses them to judge which searches matter.

1. Your business and site goals (required, up to 4,000 characters). Describe what your business does, who you want to reach and what you want this site to achieve.
2. Where are your customers? (required). Choose United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. United States is selected to start. The report reads search demand, and your Search Console data, for this country.
3. Competitor domains (optional). One domain per line, up to ten, like example.com. Leave it blank if you don't know.

Click Build my report.

What happens after you click Build my report

You go straight to the Report page at app.ivyl.ink/report. If you open the setup page again, it sends you there too.

The report starts right away if a research slot is free. While the report is Queued or Building, the page updates by itself, so you can leave it and come back. In Paused and Almost ready it doesn't, so reload it to check, or wait for the email. It moves through these states:

The page is headed with your depth, such as Standard report. A pill under the heading shows where the report is:

While it builds, you can watch which agent is working on which step, the Report steps table, Pages read, and Early findings as the technical check turns up issues.

When the report is released you get an email, Your report for your domain is ready, with a link to the Report page. If any part couldn't be finished, the email lists what's missing, and the report says so too.

How long it takes

There's no fixed time. It depends on the depth you chose, the size of your site, and whether you had to wait for a research slot. A deeper report reads more, so it takes longer. You don't need to keep the page open: the email tells you when it's ready.

Pick your first priorities

When the pill reads Ready, the report's actions are listed in priority order. You choose which ones your agents work on first.

1. Open the Actions table.
2. Expand any action to read Finding., What to do., Why. and Done when., plus the pages it covers and its prompt.
3. Tick the actions marked Priority. You can pick up to 5 on a Mini report, 30 on Standard or 60 on Large. You must pick at least one.
4. Click Approve priorities.

You see Your selected work is approved and in your backlog. The pill changes to Work approved, and each action gets an On / Off switch, so you can add or drop work later. Your site permissions in Settings still control what gets published.

Your agents do the approved work once they're on. If you haven't started them yet, see Turn your agents on. To approve and track work from here on, see Approve work.

Skip the report and start agents with a budget

You don't have to build a report. Your agents can get to know your site on their own: they crawl it, test its pages in PageSpeed, work out what you sell and to whom, and research the searches that matter. Then they get on with daily checks, reviews and fixes for you to approve.

1. Click Skip the report under the setup page heading, or Skip the report — start agents with a budget on step 3.
2. On Start your agents, fill in Your business and site goals, Where are your customers? and, if you like, Competitor domains (optional). Agents find more competitors on their own.
3. Under Your agents’ budget, pick how fast agents may spend from your balance:

The plan you picked on the pricing page is selected for you. If you didn't pick one, Sprout is selected.

4. Click Start agents.

Your agents start, and you land on your dashboard Home. Nothing is charged for a report. You can change the budget, or turn agents off, any time in Settings. See Budgets for how budgets work.

Build a report later

After skipping, you can still build a report at any time from app.ivyl.ink/onboarding. The page is then titled Build a report and runs the same four steps.

On Enterprise

On an Enterprise site there's no budget to pick: your agents run on Canopy and Ivy Link pays for their work. Step 3's button reads just Skip the report. The skip page is also called Skip the report, asks the same three questions, and its button is Skip the report. Skipping does not turn your agents on. You land on Home, and you turn agents on in Settings when you're ready. Reports on Enterprise show Paid by Ivy Link instead of a price. See Enterprise.

Next steps

• Dashboard tour
• The Report page
• Turn your agents on
• Connect GitHub so finished work can arrive as pull requests

Questions? Email hello@ivyl.ink.

Last updated October 31, 2026

Something here not match what you see? Email hello@ivyl.ink and we'll fix the page.