How to Monitor SEO Rankings: 5 Simple Tools to Check Rankings

Find out how to monitor SEO rankings and measure the success of your search engine optimisation with these SEO trackers.

So you’ve just started to implement and SEO plan for your website and you want to see how it is going? To ensure that you are getting the most out of your time, you probably want to see which pages are performing well and which pages could be improved. By monitoring your SEO rankings you will be able to gain valuable insights into the cause and effects of each SEO move that you make.

In this article, we will share 5 simple SEO ranking tools that we use to check the rankings of our clients over the course of an SEO campaign. When you work with Safari Digital, you will receive access to free SEO ranking tracker software that provides full visibility of our search engine optimisation efforts. You will be able to see which pages and keywords are performing the best in your SEO campaign.

Why Is It Important to Monitor Your SEO Rankings?

Without understanding the effect of SEO changes, it is impossible to measure the effectiveness of the SEO work that you do or that your SEO partner is carrying out. We believe that access to SEO ranking tools is a fundamental rite of passage for anyone working with an SEO company. If your SEO partner is refusing to share the SEO progress and rankings of work being carried out, then you have reason to be concerned!

Here are some of the benefits of tracking your SEO rankings:

• Visibility on how changes are impacting search engine rankings. By closely tracking changes to ranking positions, we are able to understand the cause and effects of SEO work being carried out. We are constantly carrying out SEO testing so it is essential to see how changes are impacting search results.
• SEO tracking will quickly tell you whether you are on the right path or the wrong path for SEO. Whether you are working with an SEO company, or you are taking on SEO yourself, by tracking your rankings, you will be able to quickly understand whether SEO is effective for your business.
• Tracking SEO rankings allows you to see how you are performing relative to your competitors. SEO is essentially a race, which means that if you see a competitor who is performing well, you are able to observe them, the changes that they have made, and adapt some of these changes for your own website. This does not mean that you should be directly copying their work (as one of our competitors did to us!), rather, it means that you should be keeping an eye on what the market is doing.

Which Metrics Are Worth Tracking?

At Safari Digital, we work with clients across a range of different industries on a wide range of projects and budget types. To understand what they are looking to achieve out of an SEO campaign we always start a consultation by asking; “What would a successful SEO campaign look like for you?”. From this question, some of the most common responses that we receive include:

• More clicks
• More sales
• More impressions
• Higher conversion rate
• Higher click through rate
• Better rankings
• Ranking #1 in my industry
• Reducing bounce rate
• Increasing time on site
• Reducing cost per sale
• Reducing reliance on paid advertising

To be honest, we have heard just about everything at this point. In most cases, the desired outcome of an SEO campaign can always lead back to the fundamental goal of increasing keyword rankings. Which is why every SEO client receives access to a 24/7 SEO ranking tool that allows them to have full visibility.

It is important to remember that high rankings do not always correlate with an increase in the key performance indicators (KPI’s) that are going to facilitate business growth. It is essential that you choose the right keywords that attract the right market.

While SEO rankings are important, it is more important to understand which KPIs are going to drive your business forward. It is better to be ranking #3 for a transactional keyword that drives business, than #1 for an informational keyword that does not lead to drive your KPIs.

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a valuable way to gain insights into site performance, SEO performance, and general online visibility. With Google Analytics, you can explore how people are accessing your site, the pages that they are visiting and their exit points.

Unlike third-party tools, Google Analytics delivers raw data that can be used to understand how users are moving through your website. While third-party tools provide nicer interfaces for digesting and interpreting that information, Google Analytics is one of the few tools that can be used to deliver raw data.

2. Google Search Console

Google Search Console is the most accurate picture of how your website is ranking in Google. Google Search Console is completely free and available to all website owners. Unlike Google Analytics that shows all website traffic, Google Search Console shows only organic search traffic to your website. Google Search Console provides invaluable insights into organic traffic include:

• Number of website clicks
• Number of website impressions
• Average keyword ranking position by day
• Average page ranking position by day
• Average click through rate
• Keywords that users have used to navigate to a page
• Index rate
• Website crawl information

For any SEO, mastering Google Search Console is the first step to understanding and implementing SEO changes based on data. For SEO newbies, Google search console is much easier to navigate than Google Analytics.

3. ‘I Search From’ Keyword Rank Checker

Isearchfrom.com is a free website that allows users to check their Google rankings from any country and city in the world. Users are asked to specify three key variables when entering their information on the page:

http://isearchfrom.com/

1. Country where they want to see rankings
2. Language they want to see results for
3. The device where the search takes place

Using this information, the I Search From website provides an accurate picture of how users will see the Google search results for any specified keyword. Because the users are seeing live data, you can be sure that the information that is displayed here is completely accurate.

The only drawback from this tool is that searches cannot be conducted at scale. Users are limited to a single search at a time which means that seeing dozens or even hundreds of keywords may not be feasible.

4. Ahrefs SEO Tool

Ahrefs is a third party SEO tool that is used by some of the best SEO professionals in the world. For off-site SEO, Ahrefs is renowned for providing the most accurate data relating to backlinks and competitor off-site data.

The most valuable SEO keyword tracking information that users can see through Ahrefs is the total number of ranking keywords + the most valuable pages on a competitors website. The most valuable pages tab provides an insight into which keywords are ranking on which pages and their average rankings.

Here is an example of what you can see when you click on the Ahrefs organic traffic insights tab:

Ahrefs does have a number of limitations. For starters, the data that is displayed does take a long time to refresh. Unlike the tools above, the keyword data that appears in the dashboard for Ahrefs can sometimes be up to a week old. Ahrefs have their own crawl bots which crawl websites at a different rate to the Google search bots. It can take longer for keyword to refresh which sometimes affects the accuracy of the data.

5. SERPROBOT Keyword Ranking Checker

SERPROBOT is the trusted keyword tracking tool of Safari Digital SEO Agency. Compared to some of the other tools on the market, it is more accurate, faster, and significantly better priced. Users are able to hire ‘crawl bots’ that will provide a certain number of keyword checks each day.

From just $4.99 USD per month, users can check 300 keywords each day. This is around 80% cheaper than some of the other keyword tracking software tools on the market. What SERPROBOT lacks in UI design, it more than makes up for in speed and ease of use. Each client of Safari Digital receives a personalised dashboard where they can check their keyword rankings each day. Users are able to specify:

1. Which country the Google results are displayed from (i.e. Google.com.au)
2. The refresh rate (24-hours, 2-days, 5-days, 14-days, 30-days, 365-days)
3. The device where checks are performed from (mobile or desktop)
4. Language
5. Competitors

SERPROBOT can be configured to email ranking reports every at a specified interval. The program also keeps a track of keyword rankings over time so that users can track progress and see updates to rankings over time.

Note: we do not have any commercial affiliation with any of the tools mentioned above. We use the above tools because we believe in their efficacy. If better tools become available, we will always experiment to find the most effective tools for the SEO industry.

Work with An SEO Expert

At Safari Digital, we know the SEO ranking tools and the SEO ranking factors that are required to help you stand out on Google.

As part of our comprehensive monthly reporting, we provide access to keyword rankings, traffic data, and valuable insights that our SEO technicians spend time interpreting and understanding. We look for trends to understand how each action can impact search engine visibility.

Since 2015, we have been working in the SEO industry to understand how different SEO techniques can impact SEO rankings across the board. To learn about how we can tailor SEO assistance to your unique industry and your goals, get in touch with the Safari Digital team today.