Tracking Google Rankings: 6 SEO Tools to Improve Your Performance

Your search ranking impacts your site’s visibility, which can directly influence your traffic, brand awareness, and revenue. 

Yet did you know that in incredible 96.55% of the pages on the internet get zero traffic from Google!?

That’s a LOT of wasted content.

And some very disappointed business owners and marketers. 

Landing top of Google Search has never been more important, especially when 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results. 

This means tracking your Google ranking is a crucial practice to ensure that your business gets seen and that your SEO and content marketing efforts are actually having an impact! 

Monitoring where your website stands in search results allows you to refine your SEO strategy, identify trends, and stay ahead of the competition.

In this guide, we’ll explore effective methods for tracking Google rankings, give tips for how to track your site ranking for a keyword and setting up a monitoring strategy. Plus we’ll dive into common pitfalls to avoid, helping you stay a step ahead in your SEO game…

Understanding Google Rankings

What are Google Rankings?  

Google rankings determine where a webpage appears in search results based on various factors such as relevance, quality, authority, and user experience. 

The higher your ranking, the more visible your site is to potential visitors searching for related information. Featured snippets (those sections that take up more space at the top of the SERP) have the highest clickthrough rate at 42.9%. Gaining a featured snippet is like a little nugget of gold! 

To steal those top spots though, Google’s algorithm assesses over 200 hundred signals, from content quality to backlinks and user behavior, to prioritize the most relevant content for users, so knowing what impacts your ranking can help you understand how to improve and maintain your position.

Why Tracking Google Rankings is Essential  

Keeping track of your rankings provides valuable insights that enable you to:

• Monitor Traffic Trends: Ranking changes often correlate with shifts in organic traffic, offering insights into whether specific keywords or pages are performing well.
• Understand Competitor Activity: Regularly checking your rankings helps you gauge your competitors’ performance, allowing you to adjust your strategy as needed to stay competitive.
• Adjust SEO Strategy in Real-Time: With up-to-date ranking data, you can make timely changes to your content, target new keywords, or address issues quickly to maintain or improve your position.

How to Find Google Ranking - Methods for Tracking Your SERP Position

You’re probably wondering how to check Google rankings and how to discover the keywords you rank for….

Manual Checking  

The most straight-forward way is to search for your target keywords directly on Google. This will show any web pages that rank. To avoid skewed results, use incognito mode to prevent Google from personalizing results based on your browsing history and location. 

While this method is free and effective for a few keywords, it becomes extremely inefficient for tracking multiple phrases or long-term performance.

• Pros: This is a free and straightforward option for small-scale tracking, especially for individual pages or a handful of keywords.  
• Cons: As keyword lists grow, manual tracking becomes time-consuming and lacks data on historical trends and competitors’ performance.

Google Search Console  

Google’s free tool, Google Search Console, provides essential insights into how your website performs on Google. 

Once you verify site ownership, you can access data that shows how often your site appears in search results, along with its average position, impressions, and click-through rate.

You’ll be able to check page rank for keywords in Google directly from your search console. 

Some key areas you’ll want to focus on inside Google Search Console:

• Search Results: Head to search results in the left-hand panel to discover your historical and real-time position tracking on Google. 
• Performance Report: The Performance Report shows key metrics for each keyword, such as average ranking position, click-through rates, and total impressions.
• Query Tracking: Under Search Results, this feature provides insights into which search queries drive the most traffic to your site. Play with the filters to discover existing ranking positions, allowing you to refine your keyword strategy based on actual search behavior.

How to See Google Ranking with SEO Tools 

Dedicated SEO tools offer advanced tracking capabilities, including historical data, rank tracking by location, and competitor comparisons. Here’s an overview of some of the most effective rank-tracking tools:

Dedicated SEO tools offer advanced tracking capabilities, including historical data, rank tracking by location, and competitor comparisons. 

Choosing the right tool depends on your needs, budget, and the level of detail required. 

Here’s an overview of some of the best rank-tracking tools on the market:

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO tool renowned for its powerful site auditing, keyword research, and competitive analysis features. With one of the largest backlink databases, Ahrefs is ideal for businesses looking to optimize their rankings and stay ahead of competitors.

Key Features:

• Rank Tracking: Monitors your rankings daily across multiple locations and devices, with options for both desktop and mobile.
• Keyword Research: Provides keyword difficulty scores, search volume, and click-through rates, making it easier to prioritize keywords.
• Competitor Analysis: Gives insights into competitors’ organic keywords, backlink profiles, and top-performing pages.
• Site Audit: Analyzes your website’s health, detecting issues like broken links and slow page speed that may impact rankings.

Pros:

• Extensive backlink data and robust competitor analysis.
• User-friendly interface with clear visuals.
• Accurate rank tracking with location-specific data.

Cons:

• Higher price point, which may not suit small businesses or freelancers.
• Limited daily reports for lower-tier plans.

Semrush

Semrush’s position tracking feature allows users to monitor rankings across devices, locations, and SERP features. It’s a versatile SEO platform known for its position tracking, keyword research, and market analysis tools. 

Semrush excels in providing valuable competitor insights and is widely used by agencies and large businesses for its detailed analytics and report-building capabilities. It also lets you compare performance against competitors, track local and mobile rankings, and receive alerts for position changes.

Key Features:

• Position Tracking: Tracks rankings on mobile and desktop, across multiple devices and locations. Alerts notify users of significant ranking changes.
• Keyword Magic Tool: Provides keyword ideas with data on search intent, CPC, and SERP features.
• Traffic Analytics: Analyzes traffic sources and competitors’ traffic to uncover opportunities.
• Content Marketing Toolkit: Helps optimize and track content performance, with tools for content audits and topic research.

Pros:

• Comprehensive suite for both SEO and SEM campaigns.
• Strong competitor analysis and traffic insights.
• Intuitive reporting and data presentation options.

Cons:

• Can be overwhelming due to the sheer number of features.
• Expensive for beginners and smaller businesses.

Moz Pro

Moz Pro is an all-in-one SEO tool designed with a focus on simplicity and accuracy. Moz’s strengths lie in keyword research, link building, and its unique metrics like Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA), which many marketers rely on to assess site strength.

Moz’s rank tracking tool offers keyword grouping, a detailed look at ranking trends over time, and visual charts for ranking fluctuations. It’s a strong choice for users interested in tracking specific keyword sets across multiple pages.

Key Features:

• Keyword Explorer: Offers keyword suggestions, search volume, difficulty score, and priority score.
• Rank Tracking: Allows users to track keywords and compare performance against competitors, with visual ranking trends.
• Link Explorer: Analyzes backlinks and provides insights into link quality and opportunities for link building.
• On-Page Optimization: Assesses on-page SEO and recommends improvements.

Pros:

• Known for accurate, consistent data and strong reputation in SEO.
• User-friendly interface suitable for beginners and advanced users alike.
• Visual tracking of ranking changes over time.

Cons:

• Limited in-depth competitor analysis compared to Ahrefs and SEMrush.
• The keyword database isn’t as extensive as that of other tools.

Ubersuggest

This user-friendly tool provides rank tracking, keyword ideas, and competitor analysis with both free and paid options. Ubersuggest is ideal for beginners and small businesses needing straightforward tracking without high costs.

It provides essential SEO features like rank tracking, keyword ideas, and site audits, making it a popular choice for beginners.

Key Features:

• Rank Tracking: Tracks keyword performance on desktop and mobile, providing insights into keyword movements and search visibility.
• Keyword Suggestions: Offers keyword ideas based on volume, difficulty, and CPC, allowing for informed keyword targeting.
• SEO Audit: Provides an overview of your site’s health and SEO improvements with a focus on actionable insights.
• Competitor Analysis: Allows users to view competitors’ top keywords, backlinks, and content performance.

‍Pros:

• Cost-effective solution, with both free and paid plans.
• Simple, easy-to-use interface suitable for beginners.
• Includes basic competitor analysis at an affordable price.

Cons:

• Limited in-depth capabilities compared to premium tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush.
• Limited historical data and SERP features analysis.

SpyFu

SpyFu is primarily known for its competitor research and keyword tracking, making it a valuable resource for businesses looking to understand competitors’ paid and organic strategies. Its features are designed to offer transparency into competitors’ SEO tactics.

SpyFu excels at competitor tracking, offering insights into competitor keywords, backlink strategies, and keyword overlap. It’s useful for businesses aiming to stay competitive by monitoring rivals closely.

Key Features:

• Keyword Research: Tracks both organic and paid keywords, with insights into competitors’ keyword bidding history.
• Competitor Keyword Analysis: Reveals competitors’ top-performing keywords, backlink profiles, and ranking changes.
• SERP Analysis: Identifies SERP features, ranking fluctuations, and competitor movement for each keyword.
• Backlink Analysis: Provides data on competitors’ backlinks, helping users discover link-building opportunities.

‍Pros:

• Excellent for competitor analysis, especially in paid search.
• Cost-effective for businesses focused on competitive tracking.
• Strong reporting and historical data on keyword bidding and ranking changes.

Cons:

• Limited support for broader SEO metrics and in-depth keyword research.
• The interface can be complex for beginners due to the tool’s competitive focus.

Which SEO Tool is Right for You?

Each tool brings unique features, so selecting one depends on your budget and how in-depth your tracking needs are.

Setting Up a Ranking Tracking Strategy

1. Identifying Target Keywords  

Effective rank tracking begins with strong keyword research. 

Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, or Ahrefs to identify terms that match user intent and fit your niche (more on these tools later). 

Look for a blend of high-volume, competitive keywords and niche-specific terms that may offer lower competition.

• Use Keyword Tools: Platforms like Semrush or Ahrefs can provide data on search volume, keyword difficulty, competitive score, and trends, helping you build a keyword strategy that aligns with your goals.
• Focus on Relevance: Target keywords that reflect your audience’s needs and preferences, avoiding overly broad terms that may lead to irrelevant traffic.

2. Creating a Tracking Schedule  

Establishing a consistent schedule for tracking rankings is key to capturing accurate data over time. 

While daily tracking can be excessive, weekly checks help you stay updated without becoming overwhelming.

• Weekly Tracking for Stability: Conducting weekly checks allows you to spot gradual changes and track the effects of your SEO activities, providing a more stable view of ranking performance.
• Monthly Analysis for Strategy: A monthly review lets you analyze long-term trends and make strategic adjustments, allowing for more comprehensive insights into your SEO progress.

3. Analyzing Data & Making Adjustments  

Once you’ve gathered ranking data, use it to refine your SEO strategy and content plans.

• Identify Drops: Pay attention to sudden drops in rankings, which may indicate the need for technical fixes, content updates, or adjustments in targeting.
• Spot Gains: Track keywords where you’ve seen upward trends and replicate successful strategies on other pages to boost site performance.
• Competitor Benchmarking: Identify keywords where competitors outrank you and explore ways to improve your content or SEO approach on those pages.

It might sound like a tedious task but this gets addictive! 

Small adjustments can equate to HUGE wins and the more you persist with an SEO strategy, the better results you’ll see. 

On average, the top organic search result receives 19x more clicks than the top paid search result, with the #1 organic result gets 39.8% of all clicks. 

Stick with your SEO strategy because believe us when we say it’s worth it - one of our #1 ranking articles is responsible for over $250,000 of revenue! 

How do we know? Because we use Ramp CRM to collect the source of every lead we speak to and attribute wins to the right sources:

This has been a game-changer, allowing us to see the exact source of a lead’s first attribution and their journey to becoming a lead.

Best Practices for Accurate Tracking

Consideration of Location and Personalization 

Google customizes search results based on the user’s location and search history, which can influence the rankings you see. To reduce these effects:

• Set Location Preferences: Many SEO tools, such as Ahrefs and Semrush, allow for location-specific tracking, giving you a more accurate view of how rankings appear in different regions. This is crucial if you are targeting overseas customers or building an international marketing strategy.
• Use a VPN for Manual Tracking: When manually checking, a VPN can simulate searches from various locations, helping you see how your rankings vary globally. However, don’t take these as gospel as the IP addresses are not always 100% accurate. 

Tracking Multiple Devices and Browsers  

Since rankings can differ by device and browser, test your site’s performance across platforms.

• Test Across Devices: Mobile-friendliness is a major ranking factor. Use mobile tracking options in SEO tools to ensure your rankings perform well on smartphones. Since 92.3% of users access the internet using a mobile device, this point is not to be taken lightly! 
• Check on Multiple Browsers: Since search behavior varies slightly across browsers, testing on different platforms like Chrome and Safari can give you a broader view of ranking performance.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Tracking Google Rankings

Neglecting to Track Changes  

Tracking rankings once and forgetting is a common error. 

SEO is an ongoing process, and regularly checking performance allows you to measure the impact of updates, content changes, or other efforts. Failing to do so can result in missed opportunities to identify and correct issues.

Imagine working hard to get a #1 spot, then not checking again for 6 months only to discover that you’ve now been relegated to page 2 because your competitors have outdone you 😔

Focusing Solely on Rankings  

While rankings are important, they’re only one metric. 

Focus on a combination of metrics like organic traffic, engagement, and conversions to get a fuller picture of SEO success. Ranking high is valuable, but it doesn’t guarantee success if the traffic doesn’t convert or engage.

Ignoring Competitor Movements  

Neglecting to monitor competitors’ rankings can cause you to miss out on industry shifts or new keywords. Tools like SpyFu and Semrush allow you to see what keywords your competitors are ranking for, helping you anticipate changes and stay competitive.

Ready to Track Your SEO Efforts on Google Rankings?

Tracking Google rankings offers valuable insights into your SEO progress, providing the data you need to make informed strategy adjustments, optimize content, and improve visibility. 

By implementing consistent tracking, avoiding common mistakes, and focusing on both rankings and conversions, you can maintain an upward trajectory in your SEO performance.