Post-Onboarding Automation: What Happens After You Complete Setup

Automatic Background Tasks

After you click "Complete Setup" on Step 6, ILLIXIS triggers a sequence of discovery and data-gathering tasks. These run silently in the background while you explore the dashboard.

Task Schedule (Staggered for System Stability)

| Time After Completion | Task | What It Does |
|-----------------------|------|--------------|
| 1 minute | Keyword Discovery | Expands your core keywords into 50-100 related opportunities |
| 2 minutes | Entity Mapping | Builds a semantic topic cluster around your core keyword |
| 3 minutes | GSC Opportunities | Finds quick-win keywords from Search Console (if connected) |
| 4 minutes | Rising Searches | Identifies trending topics in your industry via Google Trends |
| 5 minutes | Content Arbitrage | Discovers competitor keywords you could target |
| 6 minutes | Content Gaps | Finds related topics your competitors cover that you don't |
| 7 minutes | AI Query Opportunities | Identifies gaps in AI citation coverage for your topics |
| 8 minutes | Holiday Calendar | Populates your calendar with US holidays for the next year |
| 9 minutes | Trend Intelligence | Runs deep research for industry trends |
| 10 minutes | Pillar Content Ideas | Generates 5 link magnet recommendations |

All tasks complete within 15-20 minutes. You don't need to wait for them.

First Content Generation

While you reviewed your brand profile on Step 5, ILLIXIS started generating your first article in the background. This "background generation + distraction" strategy reduces perceived time-to-first-content from 15 minutes to about 5 minutes.

What happens:

1. The system selects your best target keyword (based on volume, difficulty, and brand relevance)
2. Creates a full content brief with SERP analysis
3. Generates a complete article

Where to find it: Navigate to Content Hub. Your first article appears as a draft with an "Onboarding" label.

If generation fails: You'll see a notification in the dashboard. The system logs the error but doesn't block your access. You can create briefs manually from Strategy Hub.

Data Sync Initialization

Google Search Console (If Connected)

GSC syncs once daily at 5:00 AM UTC. The first sync pulls 90 days of historical data:

• Search queries and rankings
• Click and impression data
• Page-level performance
• Query-to-page mapping

What to expect: Data won't appear until the next scheduled sync. If you complete onboarding at 2:00 PM, your GSC data appears the following morning.

Google Analytics 4 (If Connected)

GA4 syncs alongside GSC. Historical data includes:

• Traffic sources
• Pageviews and engagement
• Conversion events (if configured)

Preference Learning Initialization

Preference learning starts immediately but doesn't activate until you make 20 decisions (approve/reject briefs, select opportunities, publish content).

Initial state:

• Model status: "Not initialized"
• Signal count: 0
• Accuracy: N/A

What counts toward the 20 signals:

• Approving a brief
• Rejecting a brief
• Selecting an opportunity in Strategy Hub
• Rejecting an opportunity in Strategy Hub
• Publishing content from a brief

What doesn't count:

• Viewing briefs without action
• Dashboard visits
• Settings changes

First 24 Hours Checklist

1. Connect Google Search Console (if you haven't)

• Navigate to Settings > Integrations > Analytics & Search
• Click Connect on the GSC card
• Select your property

2. Review your first article

• Go to Content Hub
• Open the draft marked "Onboarding"
• Edit if needed, then schedule or publish

3. Connect your CMS

• Settings > Integrations > Publishing
• Choose WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, or Payload
• Complete OAuth flow

4. Make your first decisions

• Visit Strategy Hub
• Review 5-10 opportunities
• Approve or reject each one (don't ignore)
• This accelerates preference learning

5. Introduce yourself to Maya

• Click the chat icon (bottom-right)
• Ask Maya about your brand's strengths or content opportunities
• Maya uses your brand profile from onboarding

First Week Milestones

Day 1-2:

• First GSC sync completes (if connected before 5 AM UTC)
• Content arbitrage and gap analysis results appear in Strategy Hub
• Entity map populates in Discovery section

Day 3-4:

• Rising search trends appear in Discovery
• AI query opportunities show up (if brand keywords are configured)
• Trend intelligence recommendations surface in Maya

Day 5-7:

• Preference learning reaches 20+ signals (if you've been approving/rejecting)
• First model training runs (nightly at 3:15 AM)
• Recommendations start personalizing

End of Week 1:

• Check preference learning status: Settings > Preference Learning
• Review signal count and model status
• Verify GSC data appears in Content Decay and Rank Tracking

Skipping or Redoing Onboarding Steps

To Skip Onboarding Entirely

If you're migrating from another system or want to configure settings manually:

1. Complete Step 1 (brand name) with any value
2. Complete Step 2 (website URL) with your actual URL
3. Skip Step 3 (social bios are optional)
4. Wait for analysis to complete
5. On Step 5, edit all fields manually
6. Complete onboarding

You can edit any setting later in Settings > Brand.

To Redo Onboarding

If your brand changed or you want to re-extract your profile:

1. Go to Settings > Brand
2. Click "Re-run AI Analysis"
3. Confirm the action

This resets your onboarding state and redirects you to Step 1. Your existing content, briefs, and analytics data remain intact. Only your brand profile settings update.

What resets:

• Brand description, tone, persona
• Target audience
• Brand keywords and core head term
• Competitor detection

What doesn't reset:

• Published content
• Existing briefs
• Analytics history
• Preference learning model

To Add Missing Information Later

You can update any onboarding field without rerunning the full wizard:

• Settings > Brand: Edit all profile fields
• Settings > Content: Adjust keywords, themes, constraints
• Settings > Integrations: Add/remove platform connections

If Tasks Don't Run

Rare, but possible if background task workers are down or overloaded.

Symptoms:

• Strategy Hub shows "No opportunities yet"
• Discovery section is empty after 30 minutes
• No notifications appear in the bell icon

Fix: The system includes a daily catch-up task that checks for tenants who missed initial discovery. If tasks failed, they'll retry automatically within 24 hours.

For immediate results:

1. Go to Discovery > Keywords
2. Click "Run Discovery" to trigger manual keyword expansion
3. Go to Discovery > Trends
4. Click "Scan Now" for trend detection

Related Guides

• Preference Learning - How ILLIXIS learns your content preferences
• Google Search Console Integration - GSC connection and data usage
• Content Calendar - Scheduling your first articles
• Maya - Getting recommendations from your Chief Growth Officer

Questions? Email support@illixis.io or ask Maya (bottom-right chat icon).