--- title: "CrawlRaven quickstart" description: "Connect your Search Console data, activate the right property, and reach your first useful report without guessing what to do next." canonical: "https://crawlraven.com/docs/getting-started" markdown: "https://crawlraven.com/docs/getting-started.md" product: "CrawlRaven v2" last_verified: "2026-08-19" --- # CrawlRaven quickstart > Connect your Search Console data, activate the right property, and reach your first useful report without guessing what to do next. This guide documents current CrawlRaven v2 behavior. UI labels are written exactly where relevant. Bounded Search Console rows are evidence, not guaranteed exhaustive totals. ## What CrawlRaven is — and is not CrawlRaven v2 is a read-only search intelligence workspace built around your first-party Google Search Console data. It helps you understand search movement, investigate Queries and Pages, prioritize saved opportunities, maintain a Target Keywords plan, and explain changes with annotations. Eligible accounts can also connect GA4 for outcome reporting and use MCP to let an AI client read an approved subset of CrawlRaven data. | CrawlRaven is | CrawlRaven is not | | --- | --- | | A workspace for analyzing the Search Console data your connected Google account can access. | A web crawler or a live technical SEO audit. The Technical SEO area is currently a coming-soon placeholder. See [Technical SEO status](/docs/technical-seo-status). | | A way to compare Clicks, Impressions, CTR, and Google-reported average Position across supported periods. | A neutral rank tracker or an exhaustive keyword database. Search Console can omit anonymized and lower-traffic rows. | | A planning system for reviewing opportunities, maintaining target keywords, and recording explanatory events. | An autonomous agent that edits your website, changes Google settings, or publishes content for you. | | A product with a read-only MCP integration for approved AI clients and data scopes. | A public REST API or a write-capable automation platform. CrawlRaven v2 does not offer customer REST endpoints. | > **The product supports decisions; it does not make changes:** CrawlRaven organizes evidence and suggests where to investigate. You decide what to change, implement it outside CrawlRaven, and use later reporting to assess the result. Timing and correlation should not be described as proof that a change caused an outcome. ## Before you start CrawlRaven reads Google Search Console data and turns it into site-level reporting, query and page investigation, prioritized SEO opportunities, and a target keyword workspace. You need a Google account with access to at least one Search Console property. Owner, Full, and Restricted property access can be used; an unverified property must be fixed in Search Console first. > **CrawlRaven uses read-only access:** Connecting Google lets CrawlRaven read Search Console data. It does not edit your website, change Search Console settings, or publish anything. - **You need:** A CrawlRaven account and a Google account that can see the intended Search Console property. - **Free setup:** One site can be activated on the free plan. - **Important:** Activating a site uses a permanent site choice, so review the domain before confirming. ## Complete onboarding and activate a site 1. **Create or sign in to your account** — Open [CrawlRaven](https://app.crawlraven.com/login). Continue with Google, or use an existing email-and-password sign-in. 2. **Tell CrawlRaven how you work** — Choose the role that best describes you and the first goal you want to accomplish. Both answers are required before continuing. 3. **Allow Search Console access** — Continue to Google and approve the read-only Search Console permission. You can choose a different Google account from the one used to sign in. 4. **Choose a property** — On Search Console sites, review the domain and Google access label, then select Activate site. 5. **Confirm activation** — Read the permanent-choice message and select Confirm activation only when the property is correct. > **Connecting Google and activating a site are separate:** Connecting discovers every property the Google account can see. No site is activated until you choose it and confirm the activation dialog. ## Finish the site setup CrawlRaven creates a default brand term from the site’s domain when you activate it. Open `Site → Settings` and review that term before relying on the branded split. Add the names and spelling variations people actually search for. A query containing any saved term is classified as branded in Search performance. - Add the company or product name without punctuation. - Add common spacing, spelling, and domain-name variants. - Do not add generic category words that non-brand searches also contain. The new site may show **Preparing reports** while CrawlRaven gets the first report ready. You can return to `Sites` at any time. Open the site when its card is ready; if setup is still running, the status remains visible on the card. ![CrawlRaven Search performance dashboard with KPI cards, chart, queries, and pages](/images/changelog/changelog-private-dashboard-2026-08-02.png) *A ready site opens to Search performance: headline metrics, a comparison chart, and query and page panels.* ## What to do in your first ten minutes 1. Check the date and “updated” label above the report so you know what period is being compared. 2. Select each KPI tile to show or hide Clicks, Impressions, CTR, and Position on the chart. 3. Open `Queries` and use Growing, Declining, New, and Lost to find movement. 4. Open a query row to see the pages ranking for it. On a site with full workspace access, adopt useful terms into Target Keywords. 5. Open `Opportunities` to review the partial preview or full workspace available to your site. > **Recommended next guide:** Learn how every number is calculated and how to read position correctly in [Understand Search performance](/docs/search-performance).