Search Engine Rank Monitoring Tool

looking for Best Search Engine Rank Monitoring Tool

[livingonflash]

Hi,
I am looking for tools / suggestions for website's search engine rank in the major search engines like yahoo, google, etc.

All the sites which offer such tools(the ones that i've visited), claim to be the best there is.

Can you help deciding on which tool i can go for monitoring the rank of my site in the search engines.

Thanks in anticipation,

[dertyfern]

If you are refering to software to check rankings I've read many times that you should stay away from them.

[edit_g]

There's a few around which use the Google web API. I don't know of any for Yahoo and using any that don't make use of some sort of license or API could land you in breach of the terms of service of most of the major search engines.

[keywordguru]

Are you looking for just a tracking solution? or a firm to place you and rise your ranks as well?

If just tracking, I would say that if you are going to check your direct web ranks multiple times a day that I would do my best to use a Google API. Only reason is because your exact domain is being used. Rather than if you were searching keywords it wouldn't matter because they are not directly linked back to your site.

KG

[dertyfern]

What's the Google API?

[edit_g]

[google.com...]

[google.com...]

[dertyfern]

Thanks

[livingonflash]

Thanks for your replies.

Is that a general understanding that one should stay away from softwares that offer to give graphical views of the site's rank in a particular search engine, also with a history chart (sometimes), to easily check the progress?

Because it seems fairly useful and easy.

Pardon me for my ignorance, but i'm still not clear as to how do i go about using "google apis" for checking the site rank in say Google & yahoo.

I had done some research and came up with a few softwares which claim (and all of them!) to be the best there is to monitor page rank. I got
1. Net Mechanic's Search Engine Power Pack.
2. Agent Web Ranking
3. Spider Food's Web Position Gold 3
4. Search Engine Monitor
5. Search Engine Commando 3.1
6. Advanced Web Ranking 3.2

And there are loads of them around.
I really need some serious sound advice with this one.
Can anyone help?

P.s.: The forum is great. And anyone and everyone who is out here taking their precious time out to contribute, you have my warmest appreciation. Cheers!

[ogletree]

Here are some old threads.

[webmasterworld.com...]

[webmasterworld.com...]

[livingonflash]

There seems to be a lot of mixed opinions as to whether or not one shud use these tools...it seems they are frowned upon by search engines, or maybe are even more damaging (being boycotted by the search engine).

I'll be risking a lot if i take a chance on this...isn't there a clear answer on this?

Thanks

[ogletree]

I have been using Search Engine Commando every day for over a year without any problems.

[livingonflash]

hey. now that's a clear answer.
Thanks man.

I was just going through the threads you'd posted...from there to google's Tos, they state clearly not to use any rank monitoring software...but then again...there is something about using a tool that uses google's api.
So i guess that if Search Engine Commando or other such softwares use google api, then they are accepted by google.

Just while we are on the subject..let's wrap it up once and for all. I also came accross googlealert.com, so it made me wonder whether google also has it's own system of monitoring page rank...since it's so required.

what do you think?

[livingonflash]

Also it doesn't make sense that Google bans the site if i use a tool to monitor.
What if i use the tool to monitor my competitor's site?
Will it ban that too?
Surely, the system can not be based on such a method.

Am i missing something here?

[rich42]

I use a tool called Keyword Ranker daily - it's a cheap excel macro add-on to track google results. not a lot of features - but it works like a champ.

Another option is to access google via this URL:

www.google.com/ie

If you set your query results to 100 - then search the results for your site - it's a bit easier to quickly determine your rank for a given keyword. This is presumably no risk.

the risk isn't in having your site de-ranked from google. the risk is having google queries from your IP / network banned. this has happened to some people - but I think you really have to abuse it.

I've had a lot better luck getting traffic since I started tracking stuff - so I think it is worth the effort.

[sem4u]

Google cannot ban a site that uses an automated tool to check rankings. They can however ban your IP address from sending queries to Google.

[Marcia]

There have been sites penalized, but it could take a LOT of checking..

[jetboy_70]

I've had my IP blocked from Yahoo using Advanced Web Ranking. But AWR does have the facility to manually set the gap between queries. If I set it to over 20 seconds between queries it seems to avoid unwanted attention. The Yahoo ban is only temporary in my experience.

[Marcia]

The way I understand it there have been *sites* in trouble with Google, so caution is in order.

[engine]

The point i think you're searching for is that the API has a daily limit and you cannot overload the search engine.

You're breaking the search engine's TOS if you run automated queries which, if you think about it, must generate a real big load across the globe.

[livingonflash]

so you're saying, that if i use a "Search Engine Cammando" type of tool, and i don't run too many queries, it shud not affect google enough to block my IP. right?

[livingonflash]

SEC is great by the way, tried it's trial version..really user friendly ..i think. Just need to make sure, that it wouldn't get me into trouble with Google or any other search engine. And i need to know how.
Strange, though it is such an important point, how come it is never mentioned in their websites?

[pageoneresults]

So you're saying, that if i use a "Search Engine Cammando" type of tool, and i don't run too many queries, it shud not affect google enough to block my IP. right?

I don't think anyone here wants to take the responsibility of telling you that it should not affect Google or other search engines. There is a risk involved. No one knows for sure where the threshold is.

It has been suggested in past topics that if you are utilizing a tool like this to check search engine rankings, then you should be on a dynamic IP address. It is not advisable to run any automatic queries through a fixed IP address unless otherwise authorized.

P.S. Your web statistics will probably be of much more value than ranking reports. And, since you are more concerned with Google, those ranking reports would be inaccurate within the same hour they were run. ;)

[edited by: pageoneresults at 3:17 pm (utc) on Aug. 24, 2004]

[5x54u]

Jumpin on this one. i have been watching this thread.

What about Marketleap, It does not show u your exact position but indicates how many results of yours populate for a stated kw or kwp you input. This, in combination with your Logs with good log software will get the job done with O risk to an IP ban, IMO. Does anyone else use this combo?

[ogletree]

These programs are screen scrapers. They do not use the API they would need thousands of keys to do that. They just type in a query into G and read the entire html page and that is it. I run several reports every day on the same IP for over a year. I often run reports on hundreds of words and I search all 100 pages for each of my terms. Any term not in the top 1000 searches all 100 pages. It stops if it finds something. I guess I use it less and less now that I rank in the top 10 for a ton of terms. When I first started I was hitting it hard because I did not really rank anywhere. I used to have a schedule run every night that hit is real hard. I have never seen any evidence that there are any negative consequences to using one of these programs. If you are that worried some of them let you use a proxy. There are some free ISP’s out there you can get. Just have your program dial up at night and run the reports there would be no way for them to track who you are. I found one that as long as you only used 10 hours a month it was free. That would be plenty for this kind of project. You only need to run the thing a few times a week. I run it every day but I have a real problem. We really need a support group. I quit for a while but I fell off the wagon again.

[5x54u]

og - can you sticky me -

[regal1]

I use Digitalpoint.com and found it very useful to track backlinks as well as PR. It's free.

[livingonflash]

I had shortlisted a few.
Among them an interesting one is NetMechanic's Power pack.
It seems to me that it is too a very good choice.

But haven't read about it here in the forum. any of you guys familiar with it?

P.s: I am still sticking on to SECommando. Pretty good results, good reach. Thanks for stressing on Dynamic Ip part. I understand. I have mailed them at SEC to get a clear reply.

[livingonflash]

by the way...pageoneresults,ogletree,regal1 and everyone else..
thanks for sharing such useful info!

Keep up the spirit!
cheers!

[5x54u]

regal1

QUOTE: Its free.

Hmmm... I wonder what it is reporting on you and your site/sites? Are there opinions out there that agree with me that any free downloaded tool is reporting back to someone?

m

[livingonflash]

hey people,
no comment on net mechanic?

it's at netmechanic.com - search engine power pack.
check it out.