Hi there, today I’ll begin with the basics. Every website owner wants to get their site to the first page of search results. After all, the higher the search ranking, the more organic traffic and potential customers one can attract. But how can one track the current positions and their trends? Many tools are available for monitoring a website’s SEO metrics, including services for checking rankings.
This article will explore several popular services that help track a website’s position in Google organic search results. These tools range from free to paid options, each with different functionalities. You’ll learn about their features and choose the best service for your SEO metrics monitoring needs.
Table of Contents
What is “Position” in Search Engine
Search positions refer to a website’s ranking in search engines like Google and Bing for a specific user query. When a user types in a query, the search engine analyzes its index and displays a list of websites in a particular order—from the most relevant to the query to the least.
The position is the number assigned to a website in this list. The higher the position, the higher the website appears in the search results.
High positions and adequately evaluating your keyword list are crucial because users are more likely to visit websites in the top 10. Conversely, low positions significantly reduce the likelihood of users visiting the site, as people rarely scroll down that far.
Search positions depend on many factors: content, backlink profile, user behavior factors, technical characteristics, and more. These positions can be improved through SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Why is it important?
- Tracking Position Dynamics: Assess the effectiveness of SEO strategies based on position changes.
- Evaluating SEO Actions: Analyze which SEO techniques are most effective.
- Algorithm Updates: Quickly adjust SEO methods to align with search engine updates.
- Competitor SEO Tracking: Stay informed about competitors’ SEO performance.
- Understanding Seasonal Trends: Adapt SEO strategies to seasonal search fluctuations.
Regular monitoring is crucial for understanding and maximizing SEO effectiveness for your and your competitors’ strategies.
How often do it?
- Actively Promoted Websites: Check for timely strategy adjustments every 1-2 weeks.
- Established Websites: Monthly checks are adequate for tracking long-term trends.
- New Queries Optimization: Check every 3-5 days to identify ranking changes quickly.
- After Major Algorithm Updates: Increase checks to 1-2 times per week to understand the impact.
- Peak Audience Times: More frequent checks to address issues promptly.
The average monitoring frequency should be 2-3 times a month, adjusted based on the website’s specific needs and goals.
How to Manually Check Website Positions
You can manually check a website’s position in search results directly through a search engine. Here’s how:
- Enter Incognito Mode in Your Browser: This ensures that personal search history does not influence the results.
- Use VPN service: Set the same region related to a website or query.
- Search Settings: Change the country and language of search results.
- Enter the Query in the Search Bar: Type in the keyword you’re interested in.
- Browse Through the Search Result Pages: Look for the website you want to track.
- Record Its Position for That Query: Note where the website appears in the search results.
- Repeat for Other Keywords: Do this for each key search term relevant to your website.
However, this method has several drawbacks:
- It’s time-consuming and labor-intensive.
- It doesn’t provide data for multiple queries at once.
- There’s no way to track the history or trend of the positions.
Google SERP Simulator: https://keyword.com/spyglass/
For a more thorough analysis of positions, it’s better to use specialized tools. This saves time and provides a complete picture with just a few clicks.
Online Services for Tracking Positions
You can use free and paid tools to monitor website positions in search engines. Free services like Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console are suitable for elemental analysis. These tools are available after verifying site ownership and allow monitoring of key SEO metrics.
For more advanced analysis, including checking new queries, comparing positions with competitors, and exporting data, paid services like Semrush, Ahrefs, TopVisor, and AccuRanker are more appropriate. They offer extended capabilities for in-depth SEO analysis.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a fundamental tool from Google for monitoring SEO metrics. To start monitoring:
- Log In to Your Google Account: Add your site to Search Console and verify ownership.
- Go to the ‘Performance’ Section: Then select the ‘Queries’ tab.
- Review Indexed Queries: See a list of queries that Google has indexed your site for, along with data on positions, impressions, and clicks.
- Filter Queries: Do this by date, country, device, and other parameters.
- Check Positions for Specific Pages: Navigate to the ‘Pages’ tab.
- Select a Page: View the queries it ranks for in search.
- Wait for Indexing: If your page isn’t indexed for some queries, you won’t see their position data until indexing occurs.
The main limitations of these free tools are the inability to monitor positions in real-time and the lack of competitor data. For a more detailed analysis, using paid services is advisable, which we will discuss next.
Semrush
Features: Semrush’s Position Tracking tool offers a comprehensive suite for tracking and analyzing SERPs and website ranks, including tracking keyword positions, analyzing SERP features, and more.
Extra tools: Site Audit – find and fix your website’s unique issues and improve your Google rankings. https://www.semrush.com
Pricing: Their pricing varies based on the plan:
- Pro Plan: $129.95/month (500 keywords)
- Guru Plan: $249.95/month (1,500 keywords)
- Business Plan: $499.95/month (5,000 keywords)
Ahrefs
Features: Ahrefs provides features like keyword research, competitor analysis, site audits, rank tracking, and performance analysis for both mobile and desktop across various locations.
Extra tools: Site Explorer – get an in-depth look at the organic search traffic and backlink profile of any website or URL. https://ahrefs.com
Pricing:
- Lite Plan: $99/month (750 keywords)
- Standard Plan: $199/month (2,000 keywords)
- Advanced Plan: $399/month (5,000 keywords)
- Enterprise Plan: $999/month (10,000 keywords)
Topvisor
Features: Topvisor offers keyword ranking checks, collection of snippets on its Rank Tracker page, and SERP Snapshots, among other features.
Extra tools: Keyword Сlustering Tool – groups of queries based on TOP10 search results in selected search engine. https://topvisor.com
Pricing: Their pricing is tiered based on usage:
- XS Plan: Free (¢4.5 per keyword)
- S Plan: $29/month (¢4.05 per keyword)
- M Plan: $89/month (¢3.84 per keyword)
- L Plan: $299/month (¢3.6 per keyword)
- XL Plan: $599/month (¢3.15 per keyword)
AccuRanker
Features: AccuRanker specializes in keyword rank tracking and offers features like keyword performance analysis, competitive performance analysis, custom tagging, report building, and integration with Google and Databox.
Extra tools: Integrations – AccuRanker offers various integrations, making it easy to connect and share data among other platforms. https://www.accuranker.com
Pricing:
- $109/month (1,000 keywords)
- $209/month (2,000 keywords)
- $649/month (10,000 keywords)
What about other Search Engines
There are multiple search engines like DuckDuckGo, Yandex, Seznam, Baidu, and many more. Some have country-specific search results or concentrate on anonymity and security. They have different ranking algorithms but use the same SERP results, ranking the search results from better to worse. So you can track your positions the same way, using the tools provided above in case these search engines are available there.
How to improve ranking in SE
While tracking your website’s position is valuable, it is only one part of a successful SEO strategy. Do not forget about content quality and keywords in the text, technical website parameters and speed, the number of backlinks and anchors, and E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) factors from Google. You can check what to improve in Google Search Console or specific tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog SEO Spider.
Final thoughts
- There are many free and paid services for tracking website positions in search results. The choice depends on your goals.
- Free services from Bing and Google – Webmaster Tool and Search Console – provide basic data on ranking for indexed pages.
- For more detailed analysis, paid services like Semrush, Ahrefs, TopVisor, and AccuRanker are recommended. They show current positions at checking time rather than averaged over a period. You can know positions for new queries before they are indexed in search engines and compare your positions with competitors.
- For most websites, checking positions approximately 2-3 times a month is sufficient. This frequency is enough to track general trends and respond to significant changes. However, in specific cases, it might be wise to increase the frequency of monitoring.
- Regular position checking is essential for the following:
- Observe if positions are improving over time – indicating successful SEO efforts.
- Proper selection and evaluation sites for link-building.
- Notice any decline in results and investigate causes – possibly requiring an adjustment in the SEO strategy.
- Keep track of competitors’ actions and stay competitive.
- Consider the seasonality of some queries.
- You can develop an effective SEO strategy based on ranking data to enhance your site’s search results.
Looking to improve your site’s position in Google and Bing search results? Contact me for SEO promotion. I’ll conduct a full site audit, develop an SEO strategy tailored to your business specifics, and optimize your site. As a result, you’ll see increased positions, more visitors, and higher sales.
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