Checking the rank on my site

[MatthiasFaus]

I've very recently gotten into the whole world of search engine optimization and internet marketing and I was wondering what good some of the tools out there can do. I don't have a huge cash-flow and I wanted to know if it was worth it to buy a tool like Web Position Gold, or Optilink, or some of the others I've seen. I've seen a couple of online tools, such as the free [search-engine-ranking-tool.com ] and some others that are really inexpensive, but I want to know if it's worth the money to buy the "big guns".

What do you guys use?

[eatapeach]

here's my low-buck solution :)

i've found that making an html page with the keyword terms i'm optimizing for works well.

i just make a link that opens a new window for the search on google by term and then have my preferences at google set to 100 results.

the find feature in my browser plus my domain name and i have an easy way to check my listings. it takes no time for me to search down to #500 or so for each term.

take it easy,
michael

[CygnusX1]

I also do the same as michael. It doesn't cost anything but a few mins.

[Mohamed_E]

I have a program that uses the Google API [google.com] to find my ranking for a set of keywords (in a file) and appends the results (date, keywords, rank, page returned) to a comma separated variable file. That file can be read with Excel and manipulated, mostly I sort by keyword then date to see how positions evolve over time.