SEO Specialist

Summary#

SEO Specialist is the second mode of the in-app assistant. You describe what you want done in ordinary language, it works out which tool answers that, shows you the exact credit cost, and runs the tool for you after you confirm. The normal assistant is unchanged and is still there.

Purpose#

Using Metric Vault normally means knowing which of the tools you need, finding it in the sidebar, typing the right value into the right box and pressing Run. That is fine once you know the product and slow while you are learning it.

The Specialist removes those steps. "How healthy is my site?" becomes a Site Audit on your own domain without you naming either the tool or the domain.

It is deliberately not a second product. It runs the same tools, through the same endpoints, at the same prices. What it saves you is the navigation, not the credits.

Overview#

The assistant now has two modes and one switch between them:

• Metric Vault Assistant — the existing one. It answers questions and offers shortcut chips to tools. Nothing about it changed.
• SEO Specialist — the task-based one. It plans a tool run, quotes its price and runs it on your say-so.

The switch is the pill in the assistant header: Talk to SEO Specialist, and Back to Assistant to return.

The two keep separate conversations. Switching does not carry your support chat into the Specialist or the reverse, and switching back finds your earlier thread where you left it.

Benefits#

• You do not have to know the tool's name, or that it exists.
• You do not have to know what value it takes. "My site" resolves to the website currently selected in the top bar.
• The price is shown before anything runs, itemised per tool and totalled.
• Nothing is charged until you press the confirm button.
• The result is explained in plain language from the real numbers, not summarised from a guess.

Use Cases#

• You are new. "I want more traffic from search" gets you a real starting report instead of a tour of the sidebar.
• You know the question, not the tool. "Who is beating me on search?"
• You are in a hurry. One sentence instead of four clicks and a form.
• You want a set. "Give me a full picture of example.com" can plan up to three tools, priced together, confirmed once.

Requirements#

• A signed-in account. The Specialist refuses anonymous callers, because the plan it produces names the account that will be charged.
• Credits for whatever it runs, on the same plan rules as running the tool by hand. The zero-credit technical tools work on Free.
• A website selected in the top bar if you want to say "my site" rather than typing the domain.

Permissions#

Any signed-in user can use it. There is no separate role or setting.

If you are switched into a workspace, the run is billed to that workspace's credits, exactly as the tool would be. The Specialist sends the same workspace along with the run.

Cost#

Planning is free. Asking the Specialist what it would do, and having it explain a result afterwards, costs no credits. It is still rate limited under the same hourly fair-use bucket as every other AI call.

Running a tool costs exactly what that tool costs. There is no surcharge and no discount. A Domain Overview run through the Specialist costs 6 credits, the same 6 it costs from its own screen, and if the owner changes a tool's price in admin settings the Specialist quotes the new price.

The confirmation card lists each tool, what it will run on, and its price, then the total. Tools that cost nothing are shown as Free rather than 0 credits.

If a run fails, the platform's usual rule applies: a tool is charged on a delivered result.

Navigation Path#

The assistant is available everywhere in the dashboard:

• The floating bubble in the bottom-right corner, or Ctrl + / (Cmd + /).
• The docked sidebar panel.
• The Analyst AI screen under Get Started.

In any of them, click Talk to SEO Specialist in the header.

Inputs#

There is one input: the message box. Write what you want in plain language.

The Specialist fills the tool's value from what you wrote, from the website you have selected, or by asking you. It runs tools that take a single value: a domain, a keyword, a brand, a topic or a page URL.

Tools that need two values, such as Gap Finder, Competitor Battle and Backlink Gap, are not run automatically. The Specialist names them and you open them yourself, because filling half a comparison is worse than not starting it.

Step-by-Step Guide#

1. Open the assistant and click Talk to SEO Specialist.
2. Type what you want done, for example "check the backlinks on example.com".
3. It replies with what it intends to do and a confirmation card listing each tool, the value it will run on, and the price.
4. Read the total. Press Yes, run it to go ahead, or Cancel to stop. If you cancel, nothing runs and nothing is charged.
5. Each tool runs in turn, with a tick beside the ones that finished.
6. The Specialist then writes the answer from the actual results.

Reading the Results#

The confirmation card is the part worth reading carefully:

• Tool name and value — what will run, and on what. If the value is wrong, cancel and say the right one; do not confirm and hope.
• Price per row — the credits that row costs, or Free.
• Total — what the whole plan costs. This is what leaves your balance.

After the run, ticks mark what succeeded and a warning mark what did not. The written answer that follows is based only on the tools that returned data.

The full report is saved to your Library like any other run, so you can reopen it later without paying again.

Examples#

• "How is my site doing?" plans a Site Audit on your selected website.
• "Find me keywords about running shoes" plans Keyword Explorer on running shoes.
• "Is anyone linking to competitor.com?" plans Backlink Profile on competitor.com and quotes 5 credits.
• "What is domain authority?" runs nothing. It is a question, so you get an answer and no confirmation card.

Screenshots#

Screenshots are not included in this article. The confirmation card appears inline in the chat, directly under the Specialist's message.

Tips#

• Name the domain or keyword if you want to be certain which one it uses.
• Select the right website in the top bar first, then "my site" is unambiguous.
• Ask for one thing at a time if you are watching spend. The Specialist will plan up to three tools when a request genuinely needs them.
• Cancel is free. There is no cost to seeing what a request would run.

Best Practices#

• Read the total before confirming, not the tool names. The total is the number that leaves your balance.
• Use the normal assistant for questions and the Specialist for jobs. Asking the Specialist to explain a concept works, but it is not what it is for.
• Keep the two threads separate on purpose. Switching back and forth mid-task makes both conversations harder to follow.

Common Mistakes#

• Confirming without reading the value. If it picked the wrong domain, the run is still a real run at the real price.
• Expecting it to run everything. Two-value tools are named, not run.
• Expecting a discount. It costs the same as doing it yourself. That is deliberate.
• Looking for the result in the tool's own screen. The run is saved to your Library, and the answer appears in the chat.

Limitations#

• Single-value tools only. Gap Finder, Competitor Battle, Backlink Gap, Content Optimizer and SEO Compare are out of scope for automatic running.
• At most three tools per plan.
• It cannot change settings, add websites, publish anything or spend money in any way other than running a tool you confirmed.
• It does not read your on-screen report the way the normal assistant does. It works from what you tell it and from the tools it runs.
• The written answer is AI-generated from real tool output. Figures come from the tools; the wording around them does not.

Troubleshooting#

The switch is not in the header. Reload the page. The assistant script is cached for up to four hours after a release.

It asks which domain instead of using mine. No website is selected in the top bar. Pick one, or type the domain in your message.

It says it cannot run something. That tool either needs two values or is not in its catalog. Open it from the sidebar and run it there.

Confirming did nothing. Check your credit balance. If you are out, it stops at the first tool rather than failing each one in turn.

A tool shows a warning mark. That run did not return data. The answer is written from whichever runs succeeded.

FAQs#

Does this cost more than using the tool myself? No. It is the same tool through the same endpoint at the same price. Planning and explaining are free.

Can it spend my credits without asking? No. Nothing runs until you press the confirm button, and the price is shown before you do.

Is the price it shows the price I pay? Yes. The figure is calculated on the server from the same table the tool bills against, including any price the owner has changed in admin settings.

What happened to the old assistant? Nothing. It is the default mode and behaves exactly as before.

Do the two modes share a conversation? No. Each keeps its own thread, and both survive switching back and forth.

Which model does it use? GPT-4o, the same as the normal assistant. See AI models used across the platform.