How to Correctly Use the GSA SER Global Site List

The global site list is one of the settings GSA Search Engine Ranker users most often get wrong. We see it every day: we look after GSA SER on our customers’ VPS servers, and we hear the same questions from people who buy our link list or our done-for-you projects.

This guide explains what the global site list is, what the four checkboxes really do, how to load several link lists at once, and how the global site list differs from target URLs. I updated it in October 2026.

Where is the GSA SER global site list?

In the main GSA SER window, click Options and open the Advanced tab. The global site list settings are there.

By default GSA SER saves the lists in your Windows APPDATA folder, but you can change each location to any folder you like.

What is the global site list used for?

The global site list holds target sites that GSA SER can post to when it builds your backlinks. Any project can use it, whatever its niche.

When you first install GSA SER, the lists are empty. You can fill them in three ways:

• Let projects scrape search engines with GSA SER’s built-in scraper
• Import a list through the Tools menu
• Point a slot at a bought list that is synced to your server through Google Drive or Dropbox

GSA SER does not need a bought list, because it can scrape its own targets. A good list just makes it much faster. When you create a project you can choose to post to sites from the global site list:

What do the Identified, Submitted, Verified and Failed checkboxes do?

This is the setting most people get wrong. Most users think the checkboxes switch a list on or off, so they tick all four. That is not what they do.

Each checkbox gives GSA SER permission to write to that folder:

Checkbox	What GSA SER writes to that folder when it is ticked
Identified	Sites it finds when projects scrape search engines
Submitted	Every site any project has submitted to
Verified	Every link any project has verified
Failed	Every site it could not post to

Should you tick the checkboxes?

My advice is to leave all four unticked, especially if you use a bought list or build your own. There are three reasons:

1. Bought lists shared through Google Drive or Dropbox are normally read-only, so GSA SER wastes resources trying to write to a folder it cannot change.
2. GSA SER already saves every link a project submits and verifies in that project’s own data, so a second copy only fills your disk.
3. If you do not write to the slots, you are free to use all four of them to load four different lists, which is covered below.

To see the submitted, verified and failed URLs of a project, right-click the project and choose Show URLs.

What are the folder paths next to each slot?

Each of the four slots has a folder path. That is where the list for that slot lives. GSA SER creates an empty folder for each one inside APPDATA, which is awkward to find, so use the Open Folder option next to each slot as a shortcut.

You can change any path to another folder on your computer or VPS, or to a shared network drive.

How do you use several link lists at the same time?

Because the slot names only matter when GSA SER writes to them, you can ignore the names completely and use the four slots as four list loaders.

1. Install the sync app your list provider uses (Google Drive or Dropbox) on your VPS, and let the list folder sync.
2. In Options > Advanced, click the drop-down next to a slot and browse to that list’s folder.
3. Repeat for up to four lists, for example an identified list, a verified list, a second provider’s list and your own list.
4. Leave all four write checkboxes unticked.

Our GSA SER verified link list comes as an identified list and a verified list, so it fills two slots and leaves two for other lists or your own. It currently holds 92,393,141 identified URLs and is synced once a day through Google Drive. See how to access the link list through Google Drive for the setup.

How do you set a project to use the global site list?

In each project’s Options tab, tick Use URLs from global site lists if enabled and then tick the slots that hold the lists you want this project to use. If your lists are in the Identified and Verified slots, tick those two. The project then pulls its targets from those folders.

When you order our done-for-you GSA SER projects, we set this up for you.

What is the difference between the global site list and target URLs?

	Global site list	Target URLs
What it is	A general list of sites GSA SER can post to	URLs scraped for one specific project
Niche	Any niche	Related to that project’s keywords
Used by	Every project that has it enabled	Only the project you import them into
Where it lives	The four global site list folders	Inside the project
Examples	Bought link lists, your own saved lists	Results from Scrapebox or another scraper using keyword plus footprint searches

To add target URLs, right-click the project and import them. GSA SER accepts plain .txt files and its own .sl site list format.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the global site list in GSA SER?

Open Options in the main GSA SER window and go to the Advanced tab. The four global site list slots, Identified, Submitted, Verified and Failed, are there, each with its own folder path.

Do the global site list checkboxes turn a list on or off?

No. The checkboxes only give GSA SER permission to write new links into that folder. Whether a project uses a list is set in the project’s own Options tab.

Should I tick the Identified, Submitted, Verified and Failed boxes?

Usually not. Bought lists synced through Google Drive or Dropbox are read-only, and GSA SER already stores each project’s submitted and verified links. Leaving the boxes unticked also frees all four slots for loading lists.

Can I use more than one link list in GSA SER?

Yes. Point each of the four global site list slots at a different list folder, leave the write boxes unticked, and tick the slots you want in each project. You can run up to four lists at the same time.

What is the difference between target URLs and the global site list?

The global site list is a general pool of sites that any project can use. Target URLs are scraped for one project’s niche and imported only into that project.