Start Position in URL on Google (start=)

Way to capture start position on Google.com

[soyboy]

Is there a way to capture the start position on Google for your site to verify where your keywords come into play?

Example URL is
[google.com...]

We have tried grabbing referring URL and come back with.

[google.com...]

So what I am looking to do (if possible) is to grab the start= position from the first URL. Any IDEAS?

[edited by: agerhart at 6:52 pm (utc) on Mar. 5, 2004]
[edit reason] removed specifics [/edit]

[Tom_Dalton]

[google.com...]

I can just change the number for the "start" parameter and it will list the index from the next. (If I set "start" to 53, for instance, I get results 54-63.)

Does that answer your question?

[jonknee]

I believe he wants to get back an integer showing where his site is at. For this, you'd need a script of some sort (I'm sure they are out there).

[soyboy]

Hey Guys:

Thanks for the response jonkee is right. I am wanting to capture the value of the start position for my own personal use to view where we are in certain keywords

[nileshkurhade]

Using Google API will help.

Or you may write your own script but be warned this may be against Googles TOS.

[onlineleben]

Load your logfile into Excel
sort the file by referer and date/time
Set filter ( Data -> Filter -> Autofilter )
customize filter to contains and start= as value

Result is a list of referers sorted by domain and date/time that gives you the keyword and position. Not very comfortable but faster than developing any scripts.

To filter out a specific SE, use the second autofilter and set it up like contains SE name

[soyboy]

Our log files only capture the referring link in this format:
[google.com...]

I think the probem is that Google has started implementing an internal click tracking system (will it start using this as a new ranking criteria? interesting...), so the link on the google search results page includes the keyword position (i.e. start=1) as in:

[google.com...]

When that link is clicked, it hits a Google server which tracks that click (and the specific information such as start=1) but then Google redirects the user to the target site through a less informative link (listed first above).

So is there any way to capture info. from that intermediate process? It doesn't seem like it, since all our server sees is the last referring URL.

Any other thoughts?

[metagod]

www.googlerankings.com

thats the best i have found so far... best because it's free and it's one less thing i have to code for myself