Keyword rank checking? Tools or manual?

[diberry]

I've been tracking my positions in the serps on keywords manually for years. But recently I'm wanting to check quite a few keyphrases daily, and that takes a lot of time (especially as my site is buried pretty low for some of them due to Penguin and Panda). I discovered tools that check for you and that sounded like the answer to a prayer, but then I read that it's against the SE TOS to use these tools.

What method do you use for checking keywords? If you do it manually, can you offer me any ninja tips to speed up the process? I.E., stuff like changing search settings to 100 per page on those queries where I'm really low.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I used to use Web Position Gold a few years ago but as you say Google outlawed it. I don't use anything now so I am not sure what the form is?

[optimierung]

We use Advanced Web Ranking ( which is very "slow" not to violate G*** TOS ) the prices to pay depend on the number of features and are not cheap

[diberry]

@optimierung, I've seen other recommendations for that one. There's a free trial, so I may try it. Actually, since it's a lifetime license the cost could easily justify itself over time.

[optimierung]

BUT in addition to the lifetime licence....There are maintenance plans which are entirely optional, but without you have no access to technical support, software and search engine updates!

[diberry]

Oh, it took me 5 minutes to find that on the website - I don't like how they kinda hide that away. Hmm.

[optimierung]

Yeah we too .... but we believe the tool is worth its money because it saves you a lot of time.

[diberry]

I just got a bot check from Google after using it, saying there was unusual traffic and they wanted to make sure I was human. I don't think this option is going to work. :(

[optimierung]

Oh, very interesting we have never seen such a message (?) or we have overlooked it?

Can you please describe the message and the circumstances.

Thank you

[diberry]

It had a captcha, which I filled out. Otherwise, all I remember is what I described above (sorry, I didn't think to copy it or anything). I had just updated my site in AWR, causing it to check my keyphrases, and I was going to check one manually that is so far down AWR doesn't get it.

In fact, none of them will drill down lower than 200 positions, which I assume is because Google would detect it too easily. I think I'm just going to have to do things manually to get the results I want.

[engine]

I understand why folks want to know about ranking.

I stopped using automated checkers as soon as Google warned about it. That meant I removed the option of providing rank checking to clients.

Since the serps are 'personalised,' and rely upon the data center serving, amongst others, it's been difficult to verify what one person sees is the same as another.

As soon as that happened, I shifted all the effort onto driving traffic and then increasing conversions, rather than positioning.

If I want to look at the positioning, i'll run a manual lookup from a spreadsheet for statistical tracking. It's certainly easier if the focus is on only a few of the main keyword. The only way I extend that is to use server logs and and the long tail keywords to the spreadsheet.

[diberry]

Engine, this is what I've been doing. I'm tracking 10-15 keyphrases that fell spectacularly after Penguin, in the hope of tracking whether my efforts to improve the site are working. That's all I want it for - when my sites are doing well, I don't really care how they're ranking.

Except, what do you mean by "statistical tracking?" I just plonk today's position into a spreadsheet with the date and then go scrolling through to see if it's gone up or down. I wish I knew how to generate charts or something so I could more easily visualize where everything's going.

[Aaron99]

Well said @BeeDee..
some time I marked the tools are not giving the exact position where as manually we found , you it's bit time taking but no bar for proper result.
SO i suggest need to go for manually, else WEBCEO some time ok.

[diberry]

Quick note: I've run AWR twice since posting about the Google "are you human" message, and did not get the message either time. So maybe I had something else going on that day to trigger it.

[mastermind1212]

Well i use Rank Tracker , to check keywords ranking in SERP, this software updates regularly and provide nice results with less time frame. And when i use to check manually , i used chrome and set 100 results per page.

[michele22]

i am glad that i found serpweb , best tool i found so far.. you should try it out... its pretty accurate

[Str82u]

I've got SERPTrends SEO Extension for FireFox. It's pretty simple and once you do a search once it starts tracking it, you'll really only see if a listing moves up or down and by how many positions but it's pretty effective for fast research and works with Bing and Google.