Autopilot: Automated SEO Monitoring and Insights
Last updated 11 March 2026
What Is Autopilot?
Autopilot is RnkRocket's automated monitoring and recommendations engine. Each run checks your website for issues, spots changes in your rankings, and generates prioritised suggestions for what to work on next.
It is designed for business owners who do not have time to log in and check their SEO every day. Turn on a schedule and Autopilot does the checking for you.
Autopilot is available on all RnkRocket plans.
What Autopilot Does Automatically
Each time Autopilot runs, it:
- Checks for new SEO issues: Scans for missing metadata, slow pages, and other technical problems that may have appeared since the last run
- Monitors your keyword positions: Detects significant ranking changes and flags keywords that have dropped or improved
- Refreshes competitor data: Updates your competitor keyword profiles so your gap analysis stays current
- Checks whether previous fixes are holding: If you fixed an issue in a previous cycle, Autopilot confirms it has not reappeared
- Updates your Knowledge Graph: Incorporates new content and search trends into your topic map
- Generates AI insights: Produces a prioritised list of actions based on everything it has found
How Often Autopilot Runs
Autopilot runs once, automatically, when you finish onboarding. After that it repeats only if you turn on a schedule: in the Autopilot settings, choose Daily or Weekly and the time (and day, for weekly) you want it to run. The schedule starts as Off (Manual only).
You can run it yourself at any time by clicking Run Autopilot on the Autopilot page, which also shows when it last ran and your run history.
Insights and Actions
After each Autopilot run, you will see a list of Insights and Actions:
- Insights are observations about your site's performance. For example: "Three pages that were ranking in the top 10 last month have dropped to page 2. They all target local service keywords."
- Actions are specific, prioritised tasks. For example: "Add your town name to the H1 heading on your Services page to strengthen local relevance."
Actions are ranked by their likely impact, so you can work through them in order without needing to decide what to prioritise yourself.
Autopilot vs Manual Analysis
Both do similar things, but with different purposes:
| Autopilot | Manual Analysis | |
|---|---|---|
| When it runs | After onboarding, on your daily or weekly schedule if you turn one on, or when you click Run Autopilot | When you click Run |
| Best for | Ongoing monitoring and catching new issues | Deep dives after major site changes |
| Insights | AI-generated, contextual | Issue list only |
With a schedule turned on, Autopilot handles routine monitoring while manual analyses are reserved for before and after significant website changes.
What Autopilot Cannot Do
Autopilot identifies issues and suggests fixes, but it does not make changes to your website directly. All fixes are applied by you (or your web developer) on your site. This keeps you in control of what changes are made and when.
Tips for Getting the Most From Autopilot
- Turn on a schedule: Autopilot only repeats if you choose Daily or Weekly in its settings. Without one, click Run Autopilot whenever you want a fresh check.
- Check insights weekly: Review its insights at least once a week to stay on top of changes.
- Act on high-priority actions first: The prioritised action list is sorted by likely impact. Working through it in order gives you the best return on your time.
- Use it alongside manual analysis: Run a manual analysis before and after major site changes (new pages, redesigns, hosting moves) to complement Autopilot's scheduled checks.
- Watch for competitor alerts: If Autopilot flags that a competitor has started ranking for one of your target keywords, check your competitor analysis for the full picture.
If Autopilot flags an issue you are unsure about, check our common issues guide for quick fixes.
For background on what Autopilot checks, see how SEO analysis works.
Getting Started With Autopilot
Autopilot's first run starts automatically when you finish onboarding. After that, it repeats only if you turn on a daily or weekly schedule in its settings. Otherwise, click Run Autopilot whenever you want a fresh check.
You can view Autopilot history and all generated insights from the Autopilot section of your dashboard.
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