Rank tracking tools allow you to monitor where your site is ranking for key search terms. You can also configure alerts for when your site drops below a certain rank or rises above the pack!
Ryan Murton is the Head of SEO & ASO at Badoo & Bumble. With over 10 years experience in online marketing, he has worked across various industries. He also consults for numerous well-known brands.
SEMrush is a powerful and versatile competitive intelligence suite for online marketing, from SEO and PPC to social media and video advertising research
Accounts start from $99.95 per month
Ahrefs is a toolset for SEO & marketing running on Big Data. We cover backlink checking, competitor analysis, keyword research and more
Accounts start from $99 per month
Moz Pro is our all-in-one suite of SEO tools. Crawl and audit your site(s), discover link building goals, explore on-page optimization opportunities, enjoy automated reporting, and better understand your visitors with our keyword research tool (Moz Keyword Explorer)
Accounts start from $99 per month
SE Ranking is cloud-based SEO software that pioneers in keyword tracking, helping clients to devise SEO and promotional strategies for their websites. SE Ranking aims to be the all in one SEO tool that appeals to both marketers and website owners alike.
Accounts start from $4 per month (billed annually)
Powerful, yet easy to use SEO tools. Track the success of your Search Engine Optimisation strategies
Accounts start from $19 per month
Fresh rankings daily, weekly and on demand. For desktop, mobile and local searches. Packed nicely into white label reports. Accessible from any device
Accounts start from $49 per month
The Searchmetrics Suite for enterprise companies is the global leader in SEO marketing and analytics, SEO optimization, social and content marketing
Contact Searchmetrics to receive a quote
Tracking your SEO rankings are the key to measuring the effectiveness of your SEO campaigns – without being able to see these results, it’s next to impossible to optimize your efforts. There are 200+ factors that affect search rankings on Google, and the algorithm is updated over 500+ times each year.
Due to the regularity of these algorithm updates, it’s crucial to keep an eye on your rankings so that you can respond quickly if an issue arises that causes your pages to slip down the results page. The sooner you are able to implement a fix to your site or adjust your SEO strategy, the quicker you may be able to recover your rankings!
First of all: What should you focus on when tracking your SEO rankings?
When reviewing your results, prioritize your target keywords (and rankings for those keywords) based on search volume. Start by reviewing your most important search terms – these are high-volume and high-intent terms that are very likely to convert. Next, review your medium competition search terms – these are slightly less valuable but still valuable in aggregate.
Lastly, focus on long-tail search terms; these are often quite low-volume but can drive valuable traffic if optimized correctly. If you are employing a content strategy, then these long-tail keywords will be relatively easy to start ranking for.
SEMrush – SEMrush is an affordable solution, and tracks rankings daily. You can scale your keyword lists as much as you like, but their pricing scales up as your lists grow. SEMrush also offers onsite auditing and backlink checking tools to review your SEO performance over time.
Ahrefs – Ahrefs is another affordable option, and presents another good tool for tracking rankings daily. At present, Ahrefs is spending a lot of time and money into R&D, and are releasing monthly new features monthly. It’s suggested that you review their features in more detail to make sure you’ll get the most use out of the tool.
Moz – Formerly SEOmoz. Moz is a good SEO solution for smaller businesses and SMEs. It has a fairly good range of tools to keep your SEO strategy running over. Founded originally by the SEO industry veteran, Rand Fishkin, Moz is currently working to keep up with the advances that SEMrush and Ahrefs have made recently.
Searchmetrics – Searchmetrics only offers custom pricing for clients, and it can be very expensive. Searchmetrics was one of the best tools around for a while, but competitors have left them far behind in terms of value and feature breadth as it stands.
When selecting an SEO rank tracking tool, the main things you should review are whether the tool fits in your budget and will be able to support the level of tracking you require.
Typically, the factors that increase the cost of these tools are: the number of keywords you track, the number of territories you track, and how often you need ranking checks to be made. Some tools only check the rankings weekly, and support paid upgrades to your subscription to allow you to check rankings daily.
Before purchasing a tool, it’s recommended that you try them to ensure that they have all the features and scalability that you need to get your SEO engine purring. Many tools have discounts if you purchase an annual subscription rather than a monthly subscription, so if you envision SEO being a long-term pillar in your digital marketing strategy – and, frankly, SEO is a long game – these can be valuable savings.
Tracking your SEO rankings is one of many steps that you need to take in order to deliver meaningful results for your campaigns. We also have resources available if you’re looking to research your keyword lists, track your backlinks, and give your site an SEO audit.
With these tools to hand, your business can keep an eye on your SEO rankings and start making meaningful gains across your SEO strategy… Good luck!
