The process of monitoring a website’s position in search engine results pages (SERPs) is called rank tracking. It helps to track and analyze the organic rankings of uniform resource locators (URLs) for specific keywords in time to detect the trends and see the impact of search engine optimization (SEO) strategies on the user’s website.
Importance of rank tracking
Rank tracking is vital in search engine optimization (SEO).
- Performance measurement: Rank tracking helps the user get insight into how well their website performs in search engine rankings over time, which helps them understand whether their SEO strategies are working.
- Competitive analysis: Rank tracking helps the user see their website’s position compared to the competitors’ websites. It highlights opportunities for improvement and helps the user identify areas where they might need to adjust their SEO approach to stay ahead of the competitors.
- Detecting trends: Rank tracking helps the user to identify the current trends of keywords since search engines like Google frequently update their algorithms, which may impact the rankings of websites. In this way, the user can frequently detect drops and rises in rankings.
- Manual checks of rank tracking: The manual checks of ranking can lead to inaccurate performance measurement and a limited understanding of the ranking trends. It can also cause inconsistency and be time-consuming.
Understanding Rank Tracking Basics
Rank tracking: Rank tracking monitors the position of a user’s website in search engine results pages (SERPs). It helps to track and analyze the organic rankings of uniform resource locators (URLs) for specific keywords in time to detect the trends and see the impact of SEO strategies on the user’s website.
Key metrics to monitor: Organic position: The organic position is the ranking of a website on search engine results pages (SERPs) against different keywords, excluding any paid advertisements. For example, if a person searches for “best pizza places in Italy” and their website appears in the 4th position of the search results, it would be considered their organic position.
Search engine results page (SERP) features: Search engine result pages (SERPs) include some features in addition to the traditional organic listing. These features include featured snippets, image carousels, local packs, etc. If a user’s website appears in any search engine results page features, it shows that their website is relevant and trusted by Google.
Local pack rankings: Local pack is a SERP feature that refers to the map with three or more three businesses that search engines like Google show when a user searches with intent for local businesses. It is important to track the local pack rankings frequently for businesses in a specific geographical area. Regular monitoring of the local pack rankings helps businesses attract more potential customers from their area.
Mobile-first indexing: Search engines like Google primarily use the mobile version of a website’s content to determine the ranking of one’s websites in search results, known as mobile-first indexing. It can negatively impact its SEO ranking and local visibility in search results if the website or app of a business or company isn’t mobile-friendly.
Why is automated tracking essential?
Manual ranking checks can lead to inaccurate performance measurements and a limited understanding of ranking trends. It can also cause inconsistency and be time-consuming if a large data set of keywords exists. Due to these flaws, a person should opt for automated tracking. Several tools are specialized for the automated tracking of websites against specific keywords which help the user in optimizing their websites because of their vast range of features.
Ranklogs Rank Tracker is a highly intuitive tool that uses AI features to offer enterprise-grade keyword rank tracking at affordable prices. Here, we discuss how to set up automatic keyword rank tracking with Ranklogs.
Before You Start Tracking
Identifying your core keywords: The user should prepare properly before tracking the website’s search engine rankings. For example, they must decide which word to track and set up the right SEO tool that meets their preferences. The user should also note the website’s current position before starting.
Branded terms: Branded keywords are the words that contain the business name of the user. For example, the branded keywords for “Starbucks” would be “Starbucks coffee” or “Starbucks coffee shop.” Tracking these keywords helps the user identify how their brand works for specific keywords.
Product and service keywords: Product and service keywords are words or phrases that specifically relate to a company or business’s product or services. e.g., if a person searches for “pet grooming services,” they might be looking around for that specific service.
Long tail variations: Long-tail keywords are comparatively longer. They have a lower search volume but have a higher intent. e.g., “organic coffee shops near me.”
Setting your tracking parameters
Location targeting: Location targeting plays a vital role in the search engine ranking of a website. If a business offers its services or products in a specific geographical area, it should set its search rank tracking tool accordingly to monitor.
Device preferences: Mobile indexing is very important for businesses. Search engines like Google primarily use the mobile version of a website’s content to determine the ranking of one’s website in search results, known as mobile-first indexing. So, the user needs to optimize their website for both mobile phones and desktops. It can negatively impact its SEO ranking and local visibility in search results if the website or app of a business or company isn’t mobile-friendly.
Search engine selection: Every search engine gives different ranking results for the same keywords. So, the person should decide which search engine, e.g., Yahoo, Bing, or Google, they want to track rankings based on the traffic of the target audience.
Essential Rank Tracking Setup Steps:
After identifying the core keywords, it is also essential to set up a proper rank-tracking system to run smoothly without any hurdles.
Daily vs. Weekly tracking: Tracking the frequency of search engine rankings of a website depends upon the goals of a user’s business. Daily tracking is ideal for highly compatible keywords or when a person runs campaigns requiring frequent adjustments. Weekly monitoring is suitable for long-term SEO strategies because it takes more time and is quite slow.
Priority keywords vs. secondary keywords: Priority keywords have a larger search volume and are crucial for a business website. These keywords bring most of the audience; therefore, there is a need to frequently check them to spot any changes in their ranking and adjust the SEO strategies accordingly. Secondary keywords have a lower search volume than priority keywords and can be monitored less often.
Setting up search locations
Local vs. national tracking: Location targeting plays a vital role in search engine rankings. If a business offers services or products in a specific geographical area, it should set up its search rank tracking tool to track locally. The local rankings give an insight into how a person’s business website is performing in a specific geographical area. On the other hand, national tracking is suitable for businesses that offer their products and services on a broader or national level.
International targeting: International targeting is suitable for businesses offering their products and services to multiple countries and targeting customers from different countries or languages. Since the search engine rankings can vary depending upon the country or region, the person should customize their SEO tool accordingly.
Organizing keywords into groups
By product and service: Grouping keywords by product or service makes it easier to understand how well a business’s performance is. For example, if a person owns a shoe business, he can use the phrase” jogging shoes,” “leather boots,” “court shoes,” etc.
By Funnel Stage: Grouping the keywords according to the customer’s buying stages also makes it easier to get an insight into how well a business website is performing. The marketing funnel consists of four stages.
- Awareness stage
- Consideration stage
- Conversion stage
- Loyalty stage.
By Priority Level: Priority keywords are the ones that have a larger search volume and are most crucial for one’s business website. These keywords bring most of the audience; therefore, there is a need to frequently check them to spot any changes in their ranking and adjust the SEO strategies accordingly. Prioritizing helps the person to focus more on impactful keywords.
Configuring Notifications
Setting notifications: Setting notifications on the SEO tool is also very important. In this way, the notifications alert the person when any change happens in their website ranking. Especially if a person is tracking for certain keywords, they get a notification from the SEO tool whenever the keyword ranking goes up or down. This enables the person to quickly take action to remain on top rankings.
Competitor movement analysis: Tools like Ranklogs allow us to gain insight into competitors’ rankings in search engines, keywords, and SEO strategies. This allows the person to understand where they lack. Consequently, the person can follow their competitors’ and improved strategies to enhance their business performance.
Advanced Tracking Configurations
Featured snippets: Featured snippets are the brief answers that appear on the top due to a user query on the search engines, also known as “position 0.”. People can monitor how often their content appears in these featured snippets and alter their strategies according to their needs.
“People also ask” box:
This section displays the frequently asked questions related to the person’s queries. Users can monitor how often their content appears in these “ask me question” boxes to identify whether it is good enough to appear in this section or should they change their strategies.
Competitors tracking setup
Selecting competitors: The competitor tracking setup enables the person to choose a competitor based on those who target the same keywords or field, and consequently, they can gain insight into their competitors’ performance. This allows them to adjust their SEO strategies accordingly.
Share of voice monitoring: This metric tells the percentage of total search traffic on their website compared to their competitors. It lets the person know where they stand in the market compared to their competitors.
Custom tagging system:
A custom tagging system helps the person to organize their racking system for their keywords more effectively.
Content categorization: Content categorization means organizing keywords by the type of content they are relevant to. The person can label the keywords based on their relevancy. E.g., blog posts, product pages, and frequently asked answer questions (FAQs). This way, the person can easily identify each category’s ranking individually in search engine results.
Seasonal keywords: A person can tag the keywords that are most relevant during some specific times of the year, e.g., Christmas sale, summer sale, etc. This way, the person can track their business performance during the relevant season.
Campaign tracking: If a person is running a marketing campaign using some specific keywords, they can tag the keywords to track their performance during the campaign.
Data integration and reporting
By integrating rank tracking tools like Ranklogs with complementary data tools that provide related data, such as Google Analytics or Google Search Console, a person can get a deeper view of SEO performance.
Integration with Google Analytics: Some SEO tools like Ranklogs can also integrate with Google Analytics. The tool can use Google Analytics to provide deeper information about the user’s business website. Integrating an SEO tool with Google Analytics lets the user see data from both tools in one place. So, the analysis from two different tools would be more helpful for the user to get an insight into how their website performs.
Integration with Google Search Console or other SEO tools: The user can also integrate their SEO tools with Google Search Console or other SEO tools for competitive analysis and search performance data, like click-through rates.
Setting up automated reports: SEO tools like Ranklogs provide the facility to generate reports of the performance of the user’s website. The user can collect insights about keyword rankings, backlink growth, site audits, etc. The user can also demonstrate the return on investment (ROI), which is the value a business gets in return for the money and other resources, to the stakeholders.
Common setup mistakes to avoid
While setting up the SEO tool, a person can make mistakes that highly affect the accuracy of results. Some of the common mistakes that most people make while setting up their SEO tools are:
Over-tracking keywords: Some people track too many keywords at once; it leads to a lot of data, and consequently, the tool has to analyze a lot of data in the form of charts, numbers, etc. Instead, the user should focus only on the priority keywords, which can attract a larger audience and increase sales. This will help the user save time and improve their SEO strategies.
Incorrect location setting: The user must set the correct location for keyword tracking. Especially if a business relies on local SEO and offers its services or products under a specific geographical area, the wrong location can give inaccurate and misleading insights about the performance of a specific business in its area. So it’s important to set the business location keenly to avoid mistakes.
Mobile Optimization: A mobile device has become a basic need of human beings. These have become as important as morning coffee in modern human life. Every business needs to optimize its websites or apps for mobile devices as well because, in the present era, about 55% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. If a person only tracks desktop rankings, they might miss how well their website performs on mobile searches because the desktop and mobile search results can be different.
Poor keyword organization: Poor keyword organization can also make it difficult for the user to identify the performance of different keywords. Disorganization of keywords leads to difficulties in seeing the trends accurately, and consequently, the user is unable to understand which factors they should focus on to enhance their SEO.
Neglecting competitor tracking: The user should also consider monitoring their competitors because it helps the user to have an insight into their competitors’ performance, and the person can easily identify the areas where they should work on and make more SEO strategies. However, some people neglect the competitors’ tracking, which causes them to not get a clear view of their position in the market.
Best Practices for Ongoing Monitoring
A few areas involved in the ongoing SEO process include:
Regular site audits: Regular site auditing is necessary for a business website. Site auditing enables the user to determine the website’s overall health and performance, e.g., the website’s loading speed and user experience. It tells the user about any SEO-related issue their website has, including technical issues, non-trending keywords, missing Meta tags, broken links, webpage content quality, etc. By getting informed about the identified SEO issue, the user can fix those technical and on-page SEO issues, leading to improved SEO rankings and a better user experience.
Updating tracking parameters: A business focus, target audience, or service location might change with time, so the user should keep updating the tracking parameters in SEO tools to get accurate results.
Adjusting Notification Settings: The user should ensure that the notifications are on to get timely notifications about important ranking changes and other updates since the notifications alert the person when any change happens in their website ranking.
Data Backup Considerations: The user must frequently export or back up the tracking data if they depend on third-party tools. This helps them avoid any kind of data loss.
Conclusion
Rank tracking is vital in search engine optimization (SEO). Rank tracking helps the user get an insight into how well their website is performing in search engine rankings, the competitors’ performance, and the latest keyword trends, which helps them understand whether their SEO strategies are working or not and helps them identify which areas they lack. Some common mistakes, like poor keyword organization and neglecting the competitors’ tracking, can lead to misleading tracking results and missed opportunities. The user should keep updating the tracking parameters to get accurate tracking results and identify areas where they need to improve.
