Real Tools we Use: Rank Tracker
One of the most basic tasks of SEO is rank tracking. This is how you check if what you’ve been doing is working for you. Here’s one of the tools we use to check our client’s rankings.
Rank Tracker is one of the tools that I love to go back to whenever I need an immediate pull of fresh rankings. It’s ease of use depends on how much data you need. Let’s dive in.
Pros
1) Tracks Rankings Pretty Accurately
Rank Tracker pulls in fresh data from the web. It basically scrapes search results. If you don’t have a working proxy, chances are, some of the search engines (such as Google) will block you off after a number of automated queries. What you’ll need is a good set of private proxies. I recommend Squidproxies.
Of course, having these private proxies means that there’s a monthly retainer you’ll have to pay. Bummer.
The good thing is, you can use those proxies for something else – get creative.
2) Can track Rankings from Virtually all Search Engines and lLocations
Rank tracker can be set to track rankings based on a specific search engine and location. They even have Youtube in the list.
You can track rankings specifically from Google.com.ph or from Bing ph or Yahoo ph. It’s a very convenient feature as I don’t need to manually scrape rankings when I’m tracking localized keywords.
3) Data can be Filtered and Sorted
This is a no-brainer. You can sort the spreadsheet with rankings or keywords or the number of visitors, etc.
You can also select which data columns show up on the spreadsheet and which do not.
Note: Rank Tracker will pull data regardless of whether it is shown in the spreadsheet or not.
4) Can show which page Ranks for the Certain Keyword
One of the things I love about Rank Tracker is that it shows you which page in the website ranks for which keyword. This gives you an idea as to which page in your website you could focus your efforts on – instead of second-guessing.
5) Can show Ranking History through a Line Graph
It’s quite fun to see how your SEO efforts and Google is dancing your rankings up and down against your competitors. It’s also quite helpful when a client wants to check a certain keyword or two and you could take a snapshot of your work in a line graph and show him/her.
Of course, this is assuming you’re doing a good job.
6) You can put in any Number of Keywords – to your Heart’s Desire
No limits. No increase in price whenever you exceed a certain number of keywords you want to track.
Of course, the more keywords you put in, the longer it will take to pull the data. It’s not really a case of ‘the more the merrier’.
Track smart.
7) You can Connect to Google Analytics to track how many Visits you got for that Keyword
Wouldn’t clients want to see how your efforts are converting into traffic?
Wouldn’t you like to pull that data up in a snap?
Ranktracker makes it happen.
All you have to do is connect your Google Analytics with RankTracker and it’ll pull the data for you. Just like that.
Reporting
Rank Tracker Provides rank reporting for clients so you don’t have to. It’s just a click away.
It provides a suite of data for your clients including: Visibility, Search Engine Rankings, Keywords Bringing Visitors, etc.
Cons
- You need to constantly run it (doesn’t automatically track rankings for you)
- You’ll need your own proxies
- A little more difficult to see the increase and decrease of your keywords’ rankings
- It takes a while to pull data – depending on your internet connection and number of keywords
- You can only pull data for one client at a time
- Bogs down a computer when left running for a while
You can check out RankTracker here.
Rank Tracker is just part of SEO Power Suite – it’s a bundle of 4 powerful SEO tools we use. Try it here now.
