Tracking keyword position in search engines

A search engine ranking position (serp) monitor tool, also called serp monitor, checks periodically the position of websites for various keywords. They can be displayed only, or being stored for later analysis.

No search engine allows automatic querying of positions with tools. Most do not provide tools for this. So it can be done by hand (e.g. performing the search queries every day at the same time and write down the position) or with a tool. This tool mimics the behavior of a user so it looks naturally to the search engines (which is similar to black-hat techniques in SEO areas).

The webmaster accounts of the search engines provide also some keyword position data. Mostly this is limited to some keywords selected by the search engine and often, the displayed position does not seem to match with the position in the serps of the search engine.

Assuming that the first solution (doing everything by hand) is not feasible for larger websites with multiple keywords, a good serp tool should provide the following main functionality:

  • It should support the main search engines Google, Yahoo, MSN/Live and Ask in multiple languages/countries, e.g. Google.fr for French websites.
  • It should automatically query for the keyword position in a way that search engines cannot see a difference to a natural visitor.
  • It should make the results available, so that they can be viewed easily. It should also be possible to use the data in other common applications as e.g. MS Excel.
  • Display which of the web pages of a domain are presented in the search engine.
  • It should be possible to select specific data centers to get reasonable results.
  • It might extract keywords from the domain content or use other sources (e.g. Google Analytics and AdWords, Google Webmastertools API, ...)
  • Changes and updates should be visible easily. The ranking changes can be subscribed as RSS feed.
  • It might show the highest ranking competitor web pages.

Three types of applications are possible: client-based, server-based one-time and server-based account-based monitoring tools. The following sections describe them in detail.

Client-based ranking monitor application

The software can be downloaded and installed on a normal pc (e.g. at the office pc, or at home). It does the querying of the search engines and provides statistics.

Advantages

  • The tool and the data are stored and installed on local computer.
  • Ok for simple websites

Disadvantages

  • The computer must always run to perform the queries.
  • Possibly the IP of the computer gets banned because of too many queries within a short amount of time.
  • Updates must be installed when the format of the search engine result pages changes. The price for regularly updates can sometimes be expensive.

Tools

Keyword Ranker

www.keywordranker.com/
free for limited number of keywords; registration required to use up to 1500 keywords; exports to Excel; Queries have to be executed manually.

Link Assistant rank tracker

www.link-assistant.com/rank-tracker/
commercial tool, pricing: $87 (pro) / $267 (enterprise); provides support for Google and Yahoo in various countries; export is possible

iBusinessPromoter

www.ibusinesspromoter.com/ranking/search-engine-ranking-checker.htm
commercial tool, pricing: 249.95EUR (up to 5 projects) / 449.95 EUR(unlimited, no IBP sign/labels on reports) + 8-10 EUR/month update service)

WebCEO

www.webceo.com/checker.htm
part of commercial suite; pricing: free/$199-$479

Firefox Extension Google Serp Monitor

clsc.net/tools/google-serp-monitor.htm
Firefox extension to monitor G serp; free; last update 2005; does not save or export historic data

SerpSpy

www.inspyder.com/products/SerpSpy/
serp monitor tool, .NET based; free (limited to 1 website with 25 keywords) / commercial ($49.95 for unlimited usage); scheduled data collection; html + csv export; command line interface

RankQuest WatchRank

www.rankquest.com/watchrank/
serp monitor; commercial: limited to 100 keywords ($49.95/month or $249.95/y) - unlimited ($69.95/month or $349.95/y)

CleverStat Google Monitor Query

www.cleverstat.com/en/google-monitor-query.htm
free/commercial (EUR 99 personal / EUR149 business); unicode support, requires Google API key

SeoBook.com Firefox Rank Checker

http://www.seobook.com/
free Firefox plugin that queries Google and allows to write the result in a file on the local pc.

Advanced Web Ranking

http://www.advancedwebranking.com/
Commercial tool for Win, Mac OS X, Linux; pricing: $99 (standard), $199 (professional), $399 (enterprise)

Site Rank

www.Website-Spy.de
Free PHP-based application that queries Google for specific keywords and stores the SERP position in a mysql database.
Positive: little, functionality ok, graphic, nice gui
Negative: not finished, functionality sometimes buggy, not easy to add keywords to more than one domain at the same time, has to be installed on local webserver of users pc (requires XAMP or similar), not usable on server, not usable for bigger systems
Requirements: XAMPP installation (Apache, PHP, MySQL)

Online one-time position checker

This is a server-based tool that shows the current position of a domain for keywords on one/multiple search engines.

Advantages

  • quick and simple
  • optimal to check the current position of a url for a specific keyword

Disadvantages

  • Often, only Google is supported
  • Results cannot be stored automatically.
  • No further analysis of search engine result pages possible
  • To get historic data, the results have to be entered in a spreadsheet manually.

Tools

Googlerankings.com

googlerankings.com/
Queries Google (requires Google SOAP key - without not working), Yahoo, MSN/Live and Ask in the background

Google Position Find

www.mtsolutionsweb.com/google-position-find.php
simple tool for Google only, works only with IE

GeoSEO

www.geoseo.com/
Simple tool that queries G/Y/M for different countries

Shoemoney Serps

www.shoemoney.com/serps.php
simple query tool for G/Y/M/Altavista

SEO Serp Google Top 1000

www.seoserp.com/web_tools/google_top_1000_serps_checker.asp
Queries position 1 to 1000 on Google, supports various countries; does not seem work at the moment

Keyword Remix Domain tool

keywordremix.com/domain-tool/
(nice free tool, gives top keywords for domain; displays data age; Google only; similar keywords are suggested)

Online server-based serp monitor tool

This kind of application handles the querying of the search engines for the keywords and stores the result in a database for further analysis, provides nice statistical result pages and makes the result available as download.

Advantages

  • Application is automatically updated when changes are made by the search engine.
  • Server of tool provider is always online. The own pc is not required to be online all time.

Disadvantages

  • Tool provider has to be trustworthy.
  • Often regularly fee.

Tools

Raven

raven-seo-tools.com/seo-analyzer/
Seo tool set / analysis tools including campaign management for links, automated serp tracking, seo reports
Positive: Firefox toolbar, unlimited profiles and websites, low charges for extra keywords (included are 300 keywords for 1 search engine or 100 keywords for 3 search engines; more: 0.02$ per keyword, search engine and month), nice graphics; website directory (directory of websites and their relevance for topics)
Negative: limited number of tools, not available for public at the moment

Digitalpoint keyword tracker

www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/
Automated keyword/serp tool.
Positive: free tool, many users
Negative: uses search engine APIs (Google API key required); for tracking Y and MSN a tool has to be installed on own webserver; starting serp tracking is not automated, has to be started by hand after logging in
Requirements: Google key

keyword envy

http://www.keywordenvy.com
Hosted serp-tracking tool for Google (.com, .co.uk, .co.au), Yahoo, MSN/Live, Ask; currently in beta status;
Positive: nice graphics, also keyword search volume; conversation tracking possible
Negative: limited functionality (only serp tracking)
License: free (1 domain, 15 keywords) / commercial (9.95$ / month)

seocheck.org

www.seocheck.org
ASP based SERP tool for Google, Yahoo, MSN/Live
Positive: webpage preview image included, nice status page showing Google/Yahoo/MSN SEO rank, avg. position, Google PageRank, Alexa Popularity & reach rank, inbound links, dmoz info, SpyFu; .csv export; automated monthly queries
Negative: simple interface, focused functionality, forum empty

onlineseo.com

www.onlineseo.com/
ASP/hosted service; similar approach, track serp pos, indexed pages, back links, Alexa ranking
No detailed information available, still in closed beta; only weekly serp status (?)
License: ASP, free and paid access

checkrankings.com

www.checkrankings.com
Hosted serp monitor tool using Google API key with easy interface; requires Google API key
License: free (10 keywords per day) / commercial ($99.99, 75 keywords per day)

SEOmoz Rank-Checker

www.seomoz.org/rank-checker
simple ranking script displaying serp for Google/Yahoo/MSN/Ask, various locations available, requires SEOmoz account Positive: simple, easy tool; export to csv;
Negative: no graphics
License: free (5 keywords per day), member (unlimited)

ranking-spy.com

www.ranking-spy.com
Check current position of keywords in serp, allows to track 3x 5keywords each for free when signing up.
Positive: quite simple interface, available in English and German
Negative: only limited number of keywords (15 total); updates only after 3 days (no daily serp checks)
License: free (3x 5 keywords)

Background information

Google SOAP API

Google provides a free API to automatically query Google for specific keywords via a webservice interface (SOAP). This API can be used to extract the keyword position.
The back draft of this API is that the position is not always the same than on Google.com. Since Dec 5h, 2006, no new API keys are been issued. Such a key is required to execute a query with the Google API.

URL: code.google.com/apis/soapsearch/

Google AJAX search API

With the Google AJAX search API, Google search can be embedded with Javascript inside a page. This is the follow-up project of the SOAP API. It can be used without registration and provides even search for maps, video or other types. This can easily being embedded into a website and can also be used for keyword position tracking. But the position between the AJAX search API and the normal SERP result pages of Google do not always match, also the number of results is limited.

URL: code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch

You found an error? Something is outdated? A link is not working? You know a better tool? Get in touch!

Putting it all together

A nice automated search engine keyword position monitoring tool provides the foundation for all seo strength. A server based, hosted ASP tool gives the most comfort - for beginner, professionals and experts.

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