Indexes in SiteCurve allow you to create customized views of specific keywords and domains within a landscape.
By creating an index, you can analyze subsets of data that align with your goals, such as segmenting by keyword intent, industry-specific topics, or performance metrics. Indexes are powerful tools for creating new views of winners and losers inside your landscape while retaining access to all the historical data from the larger landscape.
What Are Indexes in SiteCurve?
An index is a user-defined group of keywords and domains that helps you zoom in on specific segments within a landscape. SiteCurve auto segments your keywords by category, niche, website type, and business model, but indexes allow landscape admins to define their own segments. Unlike the broader landscape view, which aggregates all keywords and domains you’re tracking, an index focuses on selected subsets of detail.
For example: Imagine you’re a coffee e-commerce brand:
You build a landscape targeting keywords that represent your market and competitors. These might include:
Transactional Keywords:
“Best coffee beans online”
“Buy organic coffee”
“Fair trade coffee subscription”
Informational Keywords:
“How to brew French press coffee”
“Benefits of cold brew coffee”
“What is single-origin coffee?”
Local Keywords:
“Coffee shops near me”
“Best cafes in Seattle”
Brand Keywords (to monitor competitors):
“Starbucks coffee beans review”
“Peet’s Coffee subscription”
Once the landscape is set up and data is collected, you create indexes to analyze specific subsets:
An Informational Index: Focuses on keywords like “how to brew,” “what is,” or “benefits of” to monitor your educational content performance.
A Transactional Index: Tracks keywords like “buy,” “best,” or “subscription” to understand how well your product pages rank and identify competitors.
A Local Index: Looks at keywords tied to specific cities or regions to evaluate how your brand competes locally.
With indexes, you can easily see winners and losers for specific keyword intents, track SERP widget visibility for those subsets, and adapt your strategy accordingly
Indexes provide flexibility in exploring different data segments while retaining access to historical trends and rankings.
How To Create an Index in SiteCurve
Step 1: Start the Index Creation Flow
Navigate to your dashboard or landscape view.
Select the “Create Index” option.
SiteCurve will guide you through the setup process.
Step 2: Name the Index
Choose a name that is clear and meaningful to your objectives (e.g., “Local Competitors” or “Transactional Coffee Keywords”).
You can rename your index later in the admin settings if needed.
Step 3: Select Keywords
Select keywords you want to include in the index. Keywords must already exist in the landscape.
Use available filters to narrow your selection:
Keyword
Device
Language
Location
Monthly Search Volume (MSV)
Cost Per Click (CPC)
SiteCurve will automatically identify all domains ranking for the selected keywords.
Step 4: Select Domains
Choose the domains to track within the index. Domains are drawn from the keywords selected in Step 3.
You can select all domains or filter the list further using these criteria:
Domain Authority
Keywords Ranked
URLs Ranked
Share of Voice (SoV)
Volatility Score (VS)
Google Score (GS)
Curve Score (CS)
If needed, export the domains for offline analysis.
Step 5: Index Summary
Review the summary of keywords and domains you’ve selected.
You can:
Preview: Review your selections before proceeding.
Edit: Go back and adjust keywords or domains (editing keywords will reset the domain list).
Launch: Create the index and add it to your landscape.
SiteCurve will process the data, and you’ll receive an email notification when the index is ready to explore.
What Happens After Index Creation?
Once created, your index becomes a new view within the landscape. From here, you can:
Winners & Losers: See winning and losing websites specific to the keywords and domains in the index.
Analyze performance: Track keyword rankings, domain trends, and widget-specific metrics.
Follow the index: You can add it to a portfolio for quick access in your dashboard.
Set alerts: Get notified about key changes or trends within the index.
Engage in discussions: Collaborate with team members or share insights about the index.
Why Use Indexes?
Custom Insights: Focus on specific data subsets tailored to your goals.
Flexibility: Create new views into the data within your landscape without losing or changing historical data.
Targeted Analysis: Analyze winning and losing websites segmented by keyword intent, business type, or competitive focus.
Collaboration: Share findings with team members or stakeholders within a specific set of keywords or domains.
Best Practices for Using Indexes
Define Your Objectives: Clearly identify what you want to analyze before creating an index (e.g., tracking competitors, monitoring keyword clusters).
Add Comprehensive Keywords to Landscapes: A broad set of keywords ensures flexibility in creating indexes later.
Leverage Filters: Use keyword and domain filters to refine your index for deeper insights.
Use Alerts: Set up alerts for changes in rankings, traffic, or widget visibility within your index.
Experiment with Segments: Create multiple indexes to analyze different aspects of the landscape, such as intent-based keyword clusters or regional performance.
FAQs About Indexes
What is an index, and how does it differ from a landscape?
An index is a custom subset of keywords and domains within a landscape. While landscapes aggregate all data, indexes let you zoom in on specific groups of data for focused analysis.
Can I edit an index after creating it?
Yes, you can edit the name, keywords, or domains in an index via the admin settings. Changes are reflected instantly, with historical data intact.
Will I lose data if I add or remove keywords from an index?
No. Indexes inherit all historical data from the broader landscape, so changes won’t result in data loss. This is what makes indexes incredibly useful and flexible.
Do the location filters work with indexes?
Yes, all location filters work within indexes.
Can I track widget-specific performance in indexes?
Yes, you can include widget-related metrics (e.g., Featured Snippets or AI Overviews) by filtering keywords or domains tied to those widgets.
Can I create multiple indexes within the same landscape?
Absolutely. You can create as many indexes as needed to analyze different subsets of data.
How are discussions tied to indexes?
If discussions exist on domains included in your index, they’ll flow into the index discussions. You can also post discussions directly to indexes.
What are some use cases for indexes?
Segmenting keywords by intent (e.g., transactional vs. informational).
Tracking competitors within specific market segments.
Monitoring performance in regional markets or specific locations.
Can I track all keywords in a landscape and only 5 domains in an index?
Yes, again this is what makes indexes so powerful. You can select all keywords in a landscape then select a subset (i.e., 5) of domains to see how each of these domains performance within the landscape only and who’s winning and losing.