This guide takes about five minutes to follow. Members: the download button is in your members area. Not a member yet? Plans are here.

What you need

• A Windows PC or VPS where GSA Search Engine Ranker runs: Windows 10, 11, or Windows Server 2016 or newer.
• Your members-area email and password. Same login as the website. No keys, no codes.
• About 10 MB of disk space for the folders (they grow slowly) and an outbound internet connection. Nothing inbound.
• An active subscription. One licence covers one PC; a second machine is $5 via a ticket.

Step 1 · Download it, then give it a permanent home

Download SERVL_Sync.exe from your members area. It’s a single 67 MB file; there is no installer and nothing to unzip.

Before you run it, move it to a permanent folder. Create the folder C:\SERVL_Sync\, move SERVL_Sync.exe into it, and double-click it there. Don’t run it from Downloads or the desktop. Start with Windows remembers the exact place the app was started from, so if the file is later deleted or moved, it quietly stops starting after the next reboot and your lists stop updating.

Keep the app out of C:\SERVL\. That folder holds the lists SERVL Sync manages, and GSA SER reads it. C:\Program Files\SERVL Sync\ also works if you prefer, but copying a file there needs administrator rights.

“Windows protected your PC”

Because SERVL Sync is new, Windows SmartScreen hasn’t seen it on enough PCs yet and shows a blue warning on first run. This is Windows being cautious about any new program, not a verdict on the file. Click More info, then Run anyway. You’ll see it once.

If a firewall or antivirus asks what to do, allow it. The app makes outbound HTTPS connections to our feed server only (feed-k7m2qx9d.serverifiedlists.com), and it writes to the folder you choose. It doesn’t open a port, doesn’t listen for anything, and never uploads from your machine. A signed build is on the roadmap; until then this is the one extra click.

Step 2 · Sign in

Enter your members-area email and password and press Sign in. Leave Remember me on this PC ticked so the app signs itself in after a reboot. The footer shows your PC name and a short device ID — that’s the machine the licence is now bound to.

Don’t touch Advanced unless support asks you to. It holds the feed address, which is already correct.

If sign-in fails: the password is the one for serverifiedlists.com (reset it from the login page if you’ve forgotten it), and the subscription has to be active. “This PC is not licensed” means the licence is already in use on another machine; open a ticket and we move it.

Step 3 · Let it clone the folders

The first sync starts on its own. Under a minute later the Folders tab fills in with four rows:

The columns are what they say: FILES, SIZE, TARGETS and DOMAINS (unique) in the folder right now; NEW TARGETS and NEW DOMAINS are what the latest update added; UPDATED is when that update arrived. Hover any number for the detail. The header totals the lot — on a fresh install that’s about 137,000 targets across 57,000 unique domains — and counts down to the next sync.

Open folder jumps to the files on disk. Sync now forces a check straight away; otherwise the app checks every two hours while it’s running.

Step 4 · Settings worth setting

• Local folder. Default C:\SERVL. Each list folder is mirrored as a sub-folder of this path. Change it before the first sync if you want it elsewhere; changing it later just re-clones into the new place.
• Start SERVL Sync with Windows — tick it. The app then starts minimised in the tray on boot and keeps syncing. If it’s unticked, syncing stops after a restart until you open the app again. On a VPS that’s the difference between “always fresh” and “fresh until the host reboots”.
• Bandwidth. A download cap in KB/s shared across the four parallel streams. Leave it at 0 (unlimited) unless your proxies share the same line; 2,000 KB/s is plenty if you want to be gentle.
• Save settings. The red button at the bottom. Nothing applies until you press it.

Step 5 · Add the folders to GSA SER (once)

You add each SERVL folder to GSA SER as its own read-only custom site list. GSA SER’s built-in Identified / Submitted / Verified / Failed lists stay exactly as they are, and GSA SER never writes into the folders SERVL Sync manages.

Open GSA Search Engine Ranker and click Options in the top bar.

1. Click Advanced in the left column (1).
2. Open the Site Lists tab (2).
3. Click Add (3).
4. In the Site List Option window, click the folder field (4) and browse to the first SERVL folder, C:\SERVL\Verified Pool.

1. Set Add URLs to Custom and tick Read Only (5). This is the important one: without it, GSA SER writes its own results into the folder and fights SERVL Sync for the files.
2. Click OK (6).

Repeat for every folder you use. Each one gets its own Add:

When you’re done, the Site Lists tab shows one row per folder, type Custom, with an X in the RO (read-only) column on every row. If any row is missing the X, select it, click Edit and tick Read Only.

Because SERVL Sync rewrites the files in place, GSA SER picks up new targets on its next read. Nothing to re-import, ever.

Step 6 · Use a folder in a project

Do this in every project that should post to our targets. Select the project, click Edit and open the Options tab.

• Tick Use URLs from global site lists if enabled (A).
• Tick User Defined (B), then click Configure next to it.
• In the list that opens, tick the SERVL folder for this project’s tier (C): Low-OBL T1 for Tier 1, Contextual for Tier 2, Verified Pool for Tier 3. Click OK.

Last, stop the project scraping search engines. With engines ticked, GSA SER spends threads and proxies hunting for targets you didn’t ask for. In the Search Engines to use box, right-click and choose Check None.

Before you press Start, check three things: global site lists on, User Defined pointing at the right SERVL folder, and 0 search engines ticked. If the project ran before, also right-click it → Modify project → Delete target URL cache, so it starts on the fresh list instead of leftovers.

Back to your members area →

What to expect in the first day

• Verified Pool runs hot. High LPM, fast VPM. That’s your Tier 3 and, these days, your indexer.
• Low-OBL T1 runs slow on purpose. Contextual platforms moderate, and PA 15+ pages are never the easy ones. A low VPM on T1 on day one is the filter working, not the list failing. If LPM is normal and only VPM is down, look at emails and content before you look at the list.
• Folders change on their own. When we add a SER Nuke pack or a new contextual tier, it appears as a new row on the next cycle and starts cloning. Point a project at it when you’re ready.
• Dead targets disappear. What we remove server-side vanishes from your folder on the next sync. Your LPM stops paying for last month’s dead domains.

The Account and Log tabs

Account shows who’s signed in, the plan, its status (active, renews with your subscription), how many PCs are licensed and in use, and the name of this PC. Members area opens the website; Sign out releases nothing by itself — the licence stays with this PC until support moves it.

Log lists every file touched in the last sync with its size and how many targets and domains it added. If something ever looks wrong, Open log folder and attach the newest file to your ticket; it’s the first thing we ask for.

Troubleshooting

The app isn’t in the taskbar. It’s in the system tray (the small icons by the clock). Double-click the SERVL icon. Only one copy runs at a time; starting it again just brings the window forward.

“Already running — look for it in the system tray.” Exactly that. The first copy is still running.

SERVL Sync stopped starting with Windows. You probably moved or deleted the file. Put SERVL_Sync.exe in C:\SERVL_Sync\ and run it once from there; it re-registers itself with the new location.

Folders tab is empty / “not signed in”. The password changed, the subscription ended, or the licence moved. Sign in again; if it still refuses, open a ticket with the email on the account.

Sync is slow. Check the bandwidth cap in Settings (0 = unlimited) and whether your proxies are saturating the line. A full clone is under a minute on a normal VPS; routine syncs move a few hundred KB.

I reinstalled Windows / moved to a new VPS. The licence is tied to the old machine’s device ID. Open a ticket from the account email and we re-bind it, usually within the hour.

GSA SER says “no targets” for a tier. In Options → Advanced → Site Lists, each row must point at a folder inside C:\SERVL (not at C:\SERVL itself). Then in the project: Use URLs from global site lists on, User Defined on, and the right folder ticked under Configure.

GSA SER changed files in a SERVL folder. That site list isn’t read-only. Edit it in Options → Advanced → Site Lists, tick Read Only, then press Sync now in SERVL Sync to restore the folder.

Anything else. @SERVerifiedListsBot on Telegram answers most questions in seconds, free, and it’s read every ticket we’ve closed since 2013. If it can’t, the helpdesk answers inside 24 hours, 365 days a year.

FAQ

Do I still need Dropbox? No. Dropbox delivery is retired. You can leave or delete the old shared folder; nothing reads it any more.

Does SERVL Sync upload anything? No. It downloads our folders and keeps a local copy. Your GSA SER projects, logs and lists never leave your machine.

How often does it sync? Every two hours while it’s running, plus whenever you press Sync now.

Can I run it on two machines? One licence, one PC. A second is $5 via ticket; the Account tab shows which PC holds the licence.

Can I still download the lists as a zip? Not any more. Sync is faster, keeps the OBL filter, and removes dead targets instead of leaving them to burn threads.

Which Windows versions? Windows 10, 11, and Windows Server 2016 or newer, 64-bit.

Can you set it up for me? Yes. Open a ticket with your VPS details and we’ll connect SERVL Sync and GSA SER over remote desktop.

Open your members area →