Looking for Keyword Tracking Tool

[Danbob]

I'm hoping somebody maybe able to help me. I am looking for a tool that can track a set of keywords (circa 500) and alert me via email when these change by a set amount. For example if I presently rank #1 for a term I want to be informed if it drops out of #1 position into #2 or below. Whereas if I had a keyword in #10 then I'm not too fussed if it moves to #8 or #12 but would be nice to know if it has moved to #15 or #5. I'd also only want to know if it had stayed in that position for over a week e.g. I don't want alerts to daily fluctuations only where it is over a prolonged period of time e.g. a week.

If the above makes sense can anyone advise if such a tool exists and if so what the best tool for this job would be.

Thanks !

[goodroi]

Google keeps increasing the personalization of SERPs so it's hard to be very accurate on keyword rankings. You also need want to take into account PPC & other universal serp add-ons that can push a #1 SEO ranking below the fold. You might want to check out this older thread about SEO tools [webmasterworld.com...] I personally am more interested in tracking traffic levels. I don't really care if I rank #1, I care if the page is generating traffic that converts into profit for me.

We usually don't allow specific tools to be mentioned because it can turn into a spam/self promotion mess. We'll make an exception if anyone wants to share a specific tool - just make sure to mention the good & bad of the tool. Anything that looks too close to spam or self-promotion will be deleted.

[tangor]

@Danbob ... did anyone say hello? Welcome to Webmasterworld!

What you are looking for will not be "free" and even if there is a paid version of what you seek it will probably be less than useful. Keywords aren't the bread and butter of the web these days. Content and user satisfaction is.

IOW, don't depend on keywords alone.

[fretfull]

"Keywords aren't the bread and butter of the web these days. Content and user satisfaction is. "

Tangor, I used to think that. Used to. I have a well established site. For years I was the top search return. Over the years I've fallen as others over took me. To add insult to injury, the search term used is something I came up with as far as I know. It's been part of my title. I ignored SEO all these years thinking that as long as I had a good site, the search ranking would come on it's own. I was wrong. What brought me around was a new site that is only a few months old overtook me. Worse than that, I dropped from page 1 to page 3, if I remember right, virtually overnight. WTH! So I changed my title a bit. I kept all the words but rearranged them so that the search term was further left. In less than a day, I went from page 3 back to page 1.

Keywords may not be everything but keywords matter. In my experience, seemingly more than content. You can have the best content in the world but if no one can find you then it's like all that good content doesn't exist.

[engine]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld Danbob

You can have the best content in the world but if no one can find you then it's like all that good content doesn't exist.

Absolutely true, of course.

I think what goodroi was referring to was chasing keywords in ranking is less important because of the way Google shifts the SERPs based on so many factors. It's been like this for a number of years.
For example, you could be chasing "blue widgets" keywords and it looks as if you're number one in the SERPs, but if nobody is clicking on it, it's of zero value. Nobody could be clicking because Google is presenting the SERPs based upon personalisation. ie, it's unique to you because google thinks that is relevant to you. Somebody else doing that same search will see different positioning. This means you cannot rely on it as an accurate measure.

It would be far better to focus on the site as a whole and what it infers.

Take a look through some of the recent topics which might be of interest.
Google on the Next 20-Years of Search [webmasterworld.com]
Is google's algorithm stretching the meaning of "synonym"? [webmasterworld.com]
Advanced On Page SEO Techniques + Tools [webmasterworld.com]
Tracking KPIs, Keywords - Best Strategy [webmasterworld.com]
Can TF-IDF or Keyword Density tools help rankings? [webmasterworld.com]

[Danbob]

Thanks for all your responses and for the welcome.

Where we were looking at coming at this from was our site was adversely affected by the August Google Algorithm update which moved the needle on a large number of our keywords and that was directly as a result of keyword positions. Where historically we ranked #1 or #2 and now rank #4 or #5 and that has a huge effect on CTR. As such we were looking for tools where we could track keyword positions for our largest searched keywords, track those positions and then alert us to large scale movements.

I agree that Google appear to be moving more towards a more personalised search experience and depending on if you are logged into a Google account you may see different results, however on the whole with our particular set of keywords positions have tended to remain fairly static (at least historically) so we'd use a tool more as an indicator of a potential problem or Google Algorithm change. We could also use it alongside any specific SEO tests that we happened to be running and see whether these tests made any noticeable difference in terms of CTR and Position.

One thing we have definitely noticed is Google is very 'Intent' focussed (thanks for the above links) now and the August update appeared to penalise sites that weren't serving that intent as well as others. We have made huge changes to our site to try and serve that intent better and we have seen a drop in bounce rate from around 40% to circa 20% which is hopefully a good indicator to Google that we are serving the intent of our customer better, albeit we haven't seen much recovery yet.