Markets and locations

Target markets tell sourcesignal where your buyers are. You pick them when you create a project and can change them any time in the project's settings. The first country on your list is where every prompt is actually checked, so it decides which AI answers, competitors and cited pages you are measured against. Your markets, in the order you list them, and the US states you serve shape how the tracking plan phrases buyer questions and which competitors it proposes.

You come back to this screen when you expand into a new country, when you start serving new states, or when the Ahrefs Brand Radar card warns that prompts are filed under the wrong country.

Where to find it

• When you create a project (the "Your brand" step of the setup wizard), the form carries the "Target markets" chooser. Creation needs at least one market: "Pick at least one target market. The first decides which country every prompt is checked in."
• Afterwards, open the project's Settings. "Project details" is the first card, with "Project name", "Brand name", "Industry or niche (optional)" and "Target markets". Any member who can open the project can edit it.
• During setup, the "Your brand" card (on the setup page, and on the wizard's "Your brand" step when you return to it) holds the same form behind "Edit". It also needs at least one market.

What you see

The Target markets chooser is an ordered list, not a drop-down:

• A counter reading "None chosen yet" or "N chosen · first is primary".
• A ranked list of the markets you chose, each with its flag. On a wider screen, the first country carries the note "prompts are checked here" and Worldwide carries "the plan is not shaped to one country".
• On every row, arrows for "Higher priority" and "Lower priority" and an X to "Remove".
• An "Add:" row of chips for the markets not yet on the list: Worldwide, United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
• The helper line: "In priority order. The first country is where every prompt is actually checked. It changes which AI answers, competitors and cited pages you are measured against. The rest shape the tracking plan."

States you serve appears only while the United States is on the list:

• A counter reading "None picked · nationwide" or "N chosen · in priority order", and the line "Nationwide (all US states)" when none are picked.
• An "Add states" disclosure with a "Find a state…" box and a chip for each remaining state ("No state matches." when the search finds nothing). The list covers the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
• The helper line: "Shapes how buyer questions are phrased (“best … in Texas”) and which competitors are proposed, in this order. Prompts are still checked country-wide."

An older project may show a warning instead of a list: "Saved as “EMEA”, which is not a market we check. Prompts fall back to the US until you choose one below." Pick a market from the chips and save to clear it.

What the first country changes

The first real country on your list is the project's primary market. Three things follow from it:

• The AI answers. Your prompts are asked as a searcher located in that country. When you open a captured answer, the line under its title shows the date, the engine and, when recorded, the country.
• The answer feed. Ahrefs Brand Radar files each prompt under one country. On a report the platform manages for you, the Ahrefs Brand Radar card (the Visibility tracking section of Settings) says which one: "Prompts written here sync under GB (this project’s target market, United Kingdom)." With no market set, the card says prompts sync under US "because this project has no target market set" and asks you to set one above. See The answer feed and data updates.
• Competitors and cited pages. The brands your competitor roster suggests, and the pages that become opportunities, come from those answers. Change the country and you are measured against a different set of both.

What your markets and states shape

Your markets, in the order you list them, and the states you serve shape the buyer questions and competitors that the setup wizard and the site read propose. The wizard reads your site, maps the service areas it offers and drafts a group of questions for each one, phrased for your markets in priority order. States shape the wording and the competitors proposed, so a business serving Texas can get questions like "best … in Texas".

Local questions

A local question gets its place from its own words. The plan can phrase its drafts for the states you serve, and you can type a city or state into any question you add on the Prompts page. That question is still asked as a searcher in the primary country. No setting pins a prompt to a state or city: prompts are checked country-wide.

How to change your markets

1. Open the project's Settings and find the "Project details" card.
2. Under "Target markets", press an "Add:" chip for each market you sell into.
3. Order them with the arrows ("Higher priority" and "Lower priority"). The first country is where prompts are checked.
4. Remove a market with its X.
5. If the United States is on the list, open "Add states", search with "Find a state…", press the states you serve and order them the same way. Leave the list empty for nationwide.
6. Press "Save changes". You see "Project updated".

A refusal appears under the form and as a toast: "Unknown market", "Each market once" or "Unknown state code". Removing the United States drops the states you picked when you save; add it back to pick them again.

After a change: re-file your prompts

Prompts you already track stay tracked. On a platform-managed Brand Radar report, prompts that sit under the old country are flagged on the Ahrefs Brand Radar card.

Markets elsewhere in the app

• Projects page and switcher. Each project card reads brand name · industry · primary market, and the switcher tip shows the same line.
• Setup page. The "Your brand" card lists your markets with the states in brackets, for example "United States (Texas, California)".
• Opportunities. Once pages have been located, the "Filters" panel has a "Location" group listing the locations found among your cited pages: "Global / no market", the six countries, "Europe", "North America", "Other market" or "Not classified yet". "Match this project’s markets (United Kingdom, United States)" checks the ones that fit your markets, plus pages that name no market and "Not classified yet". The detail panel's "Location" line names the market, the place when known, and how it was read. See The queue, views and filters.
• Keywords. Each keyword is tracked in a market of its own: "Project default" or one of the six countries. A chip shows it only when it differs from the project default. See Keywords.

Limits

You can list as many of the seven markets as you sell into, but prompts are checked in one country per project. The pricing table shows this as "Primary markets". For the rest of your plan's limits, see Plans and limits.

Good to know

• "Industry or niche (optional)" sits on the same card and is "Context for AI summaries and briefings. Does not affect what is checked."
• The free AI visibility report offers the same seven markets, and a report on Worldwide is also asked from the United States.
• The markets you choose during setup feed the proposals you approve before anything is added; see Set up your first project.