# Markets and locations

> Choose the countries you sell into, in priority order. The first country is where every prompt is checked; the rest, and any US states you serve, shape how your tracking plan is phrased.

sourcesignal documentation, Tracking. Updated 2026-10-18. The page for people: https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/tracking/markets-and-locations. Every article: https://www.sourcesignal.ai/llms.txt

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](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/tracking/the-answer-feed-and-data-updates.md).
- **Competitors and cited pages.** The brands your [competitor roster](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/tracking/competitors.md) suggests, and the pages that become opportunities, come from those answers. Change the country and you are measured against a different set of both.

> **Note:** Worldwide is a market like any other on the list, but it cannot be the check country. It tells the plan not to phrase questions for one country; the first real country on the list still decides where prompts are checked. A project with only Worldwide chosen is checked from the United States.

## 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](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/tracking/prompts.md) 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.

> **Heads up:** The warning reads "3 prompts in this report are filed under GB, not US. They are being checked against the wrong country and will not show in a US view. Run Sync prompts now to re-file them, then delete the old copies in Ahrefs." Press "Sync prompts now"; the toast confirms, for example "1 prompt had been filed under another location: re-added under US; remove the old copies in Ahrefs".

## 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](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/opportunities/the-queue-views-and-filters.md).
- **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](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/tracking/keywords.md).

## Limits

| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Market options | 7 (Worldwide plus six countries), each at most once |
| States you serve | 51 (the 50 states and the District of Columbia), each once, only while the United States is listed |
| Primary markets per project | 1 on Brand, Growth and Agency; custom on Enterprise |

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](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/pricing) shows this as "Primary markets". For the rest of your plan's limits, see [Plans and limits](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/account-and-billing/plans-and-limits.md).

## 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](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/free-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](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/getting-started/set-up-your-first-project.md).

## Related

- [Prompts](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/tracking/prompts.md): The Prompts page holds the questions buyers ask AI engines and shows, for each one, how often the answers named you over the last 30 days. Add, import, classify, remove and restore them here.
- [The answer feed and data updates](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/tracking/the-answer-feed-and-data-updates.md): Connect one Ahrefs Brand Radar report, managed for you or your own, and the daily data update brings in AI answers, cited pages and visibility every morning. The Data tab keeps every run, the full schedule and the way to fix a feed that stops.
- [Competitors](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/tracking/competitors.md): Build the roster of brands AI names instead of you, compare your share of AI answers with theirs, and see where each one wins and which sources carry it.
- [The queue, views and filters](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/opportunities/the-queue-views-and-filters.md): The Opportunities table lists every page AI engines cite for your prompts, ordered by priority. Narrow it with filters, quick chips and saved views, sort it, export it, and follow a prompt straight to the pages it cites.
- [Plans and limits](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/account-and-billing/plans-and-limits.md): What Brand, Growth, Agency and Enterprise include, how each limit counts and what happens when you reach one. When a plan is smaller than what you track, nothing is deleted: you choose what stays and the rest is paused.