# Quickstart This page walks you through the shortest path from sign-up to your first data: sign in → create a project → wait for the first monitoring run → read the Dashboard. **What to expect**: setup takes about 10 minutes — AI generates most of the configuration for you, so your job is mostly to review and tweak. After you create a project, the first monitoring run starts automatically, and **data appears only after that first run completes** — it flows in on its own once the run finishes, and you can follow the run’s progress under **Monitor → Monitor History**. 1. ## Sign up and log in **Why**: all monitoring data belongs to your account. Signing in is signing up — there is no separate registration flow; your account is created the first time you log in. Open the MaxAEO login page and pick either method: - **Google**: click **Sign in with Google** for one-click access. - **Email + verification code**: enter your email, click **Send Code**, then enter the code from your inbox and click **Sign Up / Log In**. You may occasionally be asked to complete an image captcha. 2. ## Create a project **Why**: a project is the unit of monitoring in MaxAEO. It defines three things — **who** to track (your brand and its competitors), **what** to ask AI (your monitor Prompts), and **which AI platforms** to ask. No project, no monitoring. (In the app UI, projects appear under the **Brand** label.) On your first login you’ll see a **Get Started** prompt. Click it to enter the project creation wizard, which has 4 stages: - **Stage 1 · Brand input**: enter your brand/product name and website URL (at least one; both makes analysis more accurate), then pick your target market’s country/region and language — this determines the language of your monitor Prompts and the default platform set. Click **Start Analysis**. - **Stage 2 · AI analysis**: AI identifies your brand, extracts a description and key features, discovers competitors, and generates a first batch of monitor Prompts across the awareness/consideration/decision layers. Just let it run; retry if it fails. - **Stage 3 · Four-step review**: confirm what AI generated, step by step — **Brand Knowledge → Competitors → Monitor Prompts → Platforms**. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity are selected by default for international markets. A quick pass to remove anything obviously wrong is enough; you can refine everything later. - **Stage 4 · Done**: click **Start Monitoring**. MaxAEO selects your new project and takes you to the Dashboard, and the first monitoring run kicks off automatically. For field-by-field guidance on each stage, see the [New Project Wizard](/content/docs/setup/new-product-wizard/index.html). 3. ## Wait for the first monitoring run **Why**: MaxAEO gets its data by actually asking each AI platform your monitor Prompts and analyzing the responses. That takes time — so an empty Dashboard right after creation is expected, not a problem. The first run starts **automatically** after you click **Start Monitoring**. While it runs: - Data pages such as the Dashboard show a radar-scan animation (“Full Analysis in Progress” / “Scanning AI Platforms”) until the run completes. - To check progress, open **Monitor → Monitor History** in the sidebar. It lists every run with its run time, status (In Progress / Completed / Failed), duration, Prompt count, and platform count. - When the run completes, data flows into every analytics page automatically — no refresh of your configuration needed. From then on, monitoring runs automatically every day and your data keeps accumulating. 4. ## Read your first data **Why**: your first Dashboard visit shows a lot of charts. Start with the three KPIs at the top — together they answer the three core questions about your brand in AI search. - **Mention Rate** — does AI mention you at all? The percentage of monitored AI responses that mention your brand. If 40 out of 100 responses mention you, your Mention Rate is 40%. See [Mention Rate](/content/docs/metrics/mention-rate/index.html). - **Competitive Rank** — how do you stack up against competitors? Your Mention Rate’s position among all monitored brands (yours plus competitors). Ranked 2nd out of 6 brands means only one competitor gets recommended more often than you. See [Competitive Rank](/content/docs/metrics/competitive-rank/index.html). - **Avg Position** — when mentioned, how early do you appear? The average recommendation position when AI mentions your brand; lower is better. An Avg Position of 2.5 means you typically show up as the 2nd or 3rd recommendation. See [Avg Position](/content/docs/metrics/avg-position/index.html). Each KPI card shows its change vs. the previous period. Below them you’ll find the Mention Rate Trend, Brand Ranking, Platform Performance, Sentiment Overview, and more — explore at your own pace. ## Next steps Get comfortable with the four core metrics — everything else in MaxAEO builds on them: [Mention Rate](/content/docs/metrics/mention-rate/index.html) The share of AI responses that mention your brand — the core visibility metric. [Competitive Rank](/content/docs/metrics/competitive-rank/index.html) Where your Mention Rate ranks among your brand and its competitors. [Avg Position](/content/docs/metrics/avg-position/index.html) The average recommendation slot you occupy when mentioned; lower is better. [Sentiment Score](/content/docs/metrics/sentiment-score/index.html) How positively, neutrally, or negatively AI talks about your brand. Once monitoring is running, the [Dashboard](/content/docs/insights/dashboard/index.html) is where your daily data check starts. Stuck on something? Check the [FAQ](/content/docs/faq/index.html) first.