You may come across different opinions on keyword rankings – and honestly, it is hard to choose which one is right: the one that claims that rankings are useless (and user engagement and conversions are what really matter) and the one that says that SEO is all about SERPs and keyword position.
Anyway, I am not going to support any of the sides right now (besides, we have discussed that before already). Instead, I am going to review four tools that may be helpful for keyword position tracking. I tested all of them and I am using a few of them (yes, I for one do track rankings for some of my and my clients’ projects). If you are using any other, please share them on the comments.
| Tool | Search Engines tracked | Useful feature | Export | Additional features | Price (the cheapest plan) |
| Raven SEO tools | Google, Yahoo, Live | Many other options it is integrated in | CSV, PDF | SEMrush report, Wordtracker keyword suggestions, etc | free (1 domain, 15 keywords) |
| Authority Labs | Google, Yahoo, Live | Keyword history graphs | CSV | Keyword suggestions | $24/mo (up to 100 keywords, up to 10 domains) |
| ExactFactor | Google, Yahoo, Live | Compare with competitors | Excel | Compare with the competitor | Free |
| SheerSEO | Google, Yahoo, Live | Keyword history graphs | Excel | Social media rankings | Free for 3 months (100 keywords; 100 URLs); 7$/month (20 keywords, 20 URLs) |
Raven SEO tools: of all cool features of the tool reviewed by me previously, SERPs tracking is one of the best.
The best thing about the feature is that it is organically integrated within other options, so you can easily add terms to SERPs tracker from keyword manager, content analyzer, built-in SEMrush and Wordtracker, etc.
The report is easy-to-use – it features current ranking and recent change:
Authority Labs: I haven’t used this one long enough to recommend it but the developer kindly gave me access to their demo account, so I had the opportunity to check the features. I found the tool useful enough to give it a chance and also to review it here.
What I liked about the tool is that it offers a very handy dashboard where you can see how each of your domain is doing and which one requires further investigation:
Each separate domain report graphs main term progress, and represents the ranking history for all terms in a table below. What I’d like to be added to the interface is a clear note which domain report I am currently viewing. Other than that, the interface is really great and user-friendly, a few great features include:
- The drop-down list allows you to quickly switch between tracked search engines.
- Each term is added to the graph with one click;
- A handy table representing current history and change for three search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN).
ExactFactor (SEJ review) is less advanced than the previous two. The good news is that it is free (the signup process is tricky, but if you choose “No thanks…” while the last but one step, you end up paying nothing).
It is quite easy to use and has all required features for basic tracking:
SheerSEO used to be completely free but is paid now. I can’t say it is really handy (you have to make several clicks to find the information you need) but it is well worth the money it costs.
The report will also graph each keyword performance and will allow you to choose the date range:
If you are interested in rank trackers and checkers, you will also like:
Hi Ann
I hope you and yours are well!
Internet Business Promoter (IBP) is worth a look…
Firefox Add-on “Rank-Checker” – Features:
- SEs: Google, Yahoo!, MSN plus their different TLD´s
- scheduled runs
- .csv export
- pretty accurate & FREE
I like Digital Point’s free Keyword Tracker tool. It’s free and it tracks ranking changes weekly, monthly, etc.
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/?action=login
I assume these are checking US rankings.
Are any of these tools able to query from non-US IP addresses? If not they wouldn’t be much use to users in other countries.
Thanks, Ann – checked all the demos, but I think I’ll stay with Rank Tracker (http://www.link-assistant.com/rank-tracker/), ’cause it allows tracking in more than 400 SEs, plus it’s free version allows you to do ALL the tracking (paid version is required if you’re an SEO service and you need to send tracking reports to your clients)
Great tools. Once I used to work with SEOsheer. It’s was really handy tool till they ask for charge.
Now I’m using ExactFactor. Free for good!
Hey Ann, what is really strange is that DataPresser still did not made it to the list and also they have come down on the pricing.
yep, SEOsheer was pretty cool til they started charging, but it just wasn’t cool enough to warrant doling out some $.
I also use rank-tracker, it has a handy little feature that lets you sort the top results (or bottom results) plus some customizable reporting which certainly beats compiling a stupid report each month. It does seem to take longer though, when using human emulation.
When I need to check fast, I just use Aarons rank checker.
Cool post anyway – thanks Ann.
A Good List of Keyword Research Tool.
- Web CEO also tracks SERPs.
- It’s laughable that you don’t have Aaron Wall’s toolbar in the initial article.
- Also Raven SEO Tools is $100 per month if you want to use it for more than one site, and track more than a handful of terms. Very misleading.
@Kevin, I made it clear I only mentioned the cheapest package (with Raven SEO that’s a free package), I also stated it alloes to track 1 domain and 15 terms – so where was it “misleading”?
Also, I never said that were the only trackers available.
Free uptime monitor (every 5 min) and free sms alerts – http://monitor.mazecore.com
Also free keywords position and website rank monitor
Thanks for the review, Ann. I’ll second Robin on Rank Tracker, it’s really the best rank checking tool I’ve seen so far. Easy, accurate and fast. If you have a lot of keywords to keep an eye on you should try it.
Great tools. Once I used to work with SEOsheer. It’s was really handy tool till they ask for charge
Web CEO also tracks SERPs.
- It’s laughable that you don’t have Aaron Wall’s toolbar in the initial article.
- Also Raven SEO Tools is $100 per month if you want to use it for more than one site, and track more than a handful of terms. Very misleading.
Thanks for these great tools i will use them wisely
Hello Ann,
We have created a new SEO service Easy Seo Tracking: http://easyseotracking.com/
Could you please briefly check it and provide your expert opinion on what is good and what is awful with it?
We will be happy to find you in the list of our users and any feedback (wrathful especially) will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.