There are plenty of online tools allowing to check your rankings in a variety of search engines. I have limited them to 3 main (my favorite) tools – all three are slightly different and can be used for different purposes.
SEOMoz Rank Checker – the most powerful feature of the tool is that it saves history for each of your searches – that means you can always return to it and watch your progress. What’s more, you can choose to search for the exact URL or entire domain. It only digs first 100 results and can check only one SE at a time though. Besides, it allows for limited number for daily searches (5) for basic members.
SearchEngineForums tool – my favorite option is the ability to check multiple keywords/keyword phrases at a time.
Shoemoney Serps Script – I like it because it’s simple and quick; sometimes these are the features you want to see in a tool. Besides, it checks all 4 search engines at a time and do that quite quickly.
To cut the long story short, here is a quick overview:
| Features/Tools | SeoMoz Rank Checker | SearchEngineForums tool | Shoemoney Serps Script |
| export the results | Yes | No | No |
| several terms at a time | No | Yes | No |
| # of results checked | 100 | 10 | ~100 |
| overall # of SEs | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| # of SEs at a time | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| registration required | Yes | No | No |
| term of use | Paid (with daily free 5 searches) | Free | Free |
| browser plugin | Yes (Browser Button) | No | No |
| main drawbacks | Would be great if the history/reports could be split into projects (i.e. domains checked) and SEs |
Checks only top 10 results | No way to export/save results |
A few more tools I that I don’t use very often but that seem also useful:
SeoBook Google Advanced Rank Checking Tool – searches up to 1000 top results and has a handful of other great filtering features: language, country, format, last update, and position of the term (title, text, URL of the page and links on a page).
Search Engine Keyword Tracker & Keyword Ranking Tool – requires Google API but has a useful tracking feature.
Ventio Google Position – checks multiple terms at a time and has an export feature. The tool is new and non-US based, so it can be down after a few searches; but the idea is very good and it does improve gradually.
SEOChat Keyword Position Check – searches for the term across multiple datacenters.
Please share the tools you are using!
Very interesting post…. Have you ever tried using webposition? I personally like it to track ranking but I haven’t tried all of the examples that you discussed.
I have little experience with webposition unfortunately; besides it’s paid and I only wanted to review free tools here.
Free is always good. Thanks! This is a good start for a newbie like me.
Here’s my route:
I have my Google settings to show 100 results / page {Advanced Search options}
I have SEO for Firefox installed (shows results number (ranking), 1 – 100)
- Enter search term in Google
- Ctr + F ’search term’
Hey presto, you get taken to the result.
* Bonus point, for next 101 to 200 positions. Click next page and repeat above steps.
Years ago WebPosition used to get you SEVERE penalties in Google so everyone stopped using it. I’d check on it before using it again.
… my ears where burning (some one was talking about WP). Nothing is ever “free”.
I.E. If you were in a competitive niche, would you feel comfortable giving your targeted keyword list to competitors?
With some of these “free” tools your are giving your competitive keyword lists to SEO/SEM firms who may have a client today or tomorrow that is a direct competitor.
To put it another way, imagine Starbucks giving their marketing plans, future locations, etc. to McDonalds and other coffee competitors.
“Years ago WebPosition used to get you SEVERE penalties in Google so everyone stopped using it. I’d check on it before using it again.”
Um, no. Then as now, if you search on too many keywords in too short of a time, Google and others may block your IP address.
Here is Yahoo being blocked for excessive searches:
http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/11/google-blocks-y.html
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/digg-blocks-yahoo-pipes/4669/
And of course there is Dave Naylor’s observation of Google bot (just another scraper, lol) getting blocked by Yahoo:
http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/yahoo-and-google-oops.html
Hi Ann,
I am sure you have tried SERP tools of of Search Engine Genie.
http://www.searchenginegenie.com/seo-tools.htm
I like the 1000 search features– but results seem behind real SERP by 48 hrs.
Thanks for the tools. These types of links are great for people trying to get a handle on their SEO. Keep the free tools coming.
Thanks for clearing that up Scott Goodyear
I also love to use Shoemoney’s SERP tool..it’s easy and fast..^^ also I can see the result not only Google’s but also from other SEs like Yahoo, Alta Vista and MSN.
@Joe Williams: Isn’t life much easier with the tools ;)
@Scott Goodyear: You are bringing up a really interesting point of the information leakage… Anyway there is nothing better than a pretty unique in-house tool. But if you have none, you have no other choice…
@Scott Goodyear: And by the way this problem may occur both with paid and free tools I guess…
http://www.google.com/ie?q=Keywords&num=100&hl=en&lr=&btnG=Search
that’s not a bad tool either. Just make sure you visit your target URL before hand.
I just checked the SEOmoz tool and even its own results don’t jive with the results that it gave us….seems wildly inaccurate.
We are ranked 9th, and it told us in one case we are not ranked. In another it told us 36th, but showed us at 13th in their own link associated with the archived results.
I’m with Joe Williams…better to check them yourself…the tools always seem to be buggy.
thanks for the tools, i used DP keyword tool before.
A few people have mentioned Web Position, and I too was curious if any of these tools violate Google guidelines against automated search queries. To clarify, here is what is on Google’s website:
“Google’s Terms of Service do not allow the sending of automated queries of any sort to our system without express permission in advance from Google. Sending automated queries absorbs resources and includes using any software (such as WebPosition Gold™) to send automated queries to Google to determine how a website or webpage ranks in Google search results for various queries.”
Google may not recommend webposition because it hogs resources, but they would not punish your website for using it. If that was the case, then you could run it all day long using your competitions websites. The only thing that I have noticed is when using webposition with long keyword lists, google will suspend your IP from making search queries, but that is very rare and takes many queries before that happens. Then after a few hours your IP is no longer suspended.
I’ve used SEO Administrator for some time… it’s not terrible — but if you’ve switched from PC to Mac, this program will definitely remind you why you made the move…
Shoemoney gave some erroneous results. But people should also consider:
http://mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/
Also consider the following – checks multiple search engines, up to 1000 results in real time, no registration. Can be a little slow and has probably contributed to -3 Pagerank site penalty.
http://www.siteometrics.com/serpcheck.php
All these tools are ok but none of the above is best, however what I found some great tools in above mentioned comments.
Guys, check above mentioned comments tools also.
@Paul Burani : nice catch! The tool also checks Y! and Dmoz directories and seems quite fast. Seconded:
http://mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/
@FaustX @Paul Burani: are you US based? Besides, the tool and your Google search itself might see different things by checking different databases…
@everyone: thanks tons for brilliant comments! Let them come :)
Great list and comparison table! Have stumbled!
oops, my previous comment is not quite right!
- Ctr + F ’search term’
should be:
- Ctr + F ’domainname.com’
{see above}
My feeling is that it is just as quick and you get to see how competitors around you are doing too. It also ‘feels’ more real :)
the results wihch appeared not updated for the search date?
For example if i try to search about ” islam ” the results from the tools mention aboved shows no 14 but when i search in google it appears no one for http://www.islamonline.net
I have had great luck with Mike’s tool:
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/
what’s the best solution for a large company with 80+ websites when cost isn’t a consideration.
Hi Ann,
As per your question above, Advoca is in Toronto, Canada.
Are you suggesting that due to our geo-location we will see different seo results than the tools you are suggesting which are US based?
If the rankings are increasingly shifting based on our geo-location (whether or not a geo-term was included in the search), then how do we determine our definitive rankings?
Our firm focuses on the entire english speaking world…how do we ascertain our rankings for a client in Florida vs. New York vs. Toronto reliably???
Good to be sorting this out…
@tom With that many projects and that budget, why don’t you hire a web development company to make you a custom tracking tool of your own?
I can’t understand the results and how off they all seem to be wrong even under Google webmaster ie keyword: Herbalife we are at poisition # 17 but all tools have us 50-60
other key words on http://www.diet444.com
are number 1 but they dont even show on the tools.
“crazy I tell ya!”
@FaustX: please drop me a message at seosmarty [at] gmail.com with all the details, i.e. the search terms you were checking, and I will reply you back…
Cant believe AWR is not on the list:
http://www.advancedwebranking.com/
@Jaan Kanellis: like I said, I only listed free tools
Ahha my fault Ann
@Jaan Kanellis: no worries :) I do appreciate your sharing the tool!
I’m not big on other firms tracking what I’m searching. There’s a Firefox extension that checks ranking…
http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/#
I haven’t checked the proxy to see if it reports home though.
I use the SEO tools rank checker firefox extension as well and have found it to be quite efficient.
set inquiries to 5 seconds apart to be friendly, though.
Great info…Do any of these tools show you how many backlinks you have coming to your site?
Thanks for the efficient tools, I often face problems with the listings I check. I am from Swiss and work for UK. Can anyone help me with this problem
@ Internet marketing tips : you can try this tool for that -> http://www.linkdiagnosis.com
Thanks for this usefull seo article !