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I have just taken on the job of 'trying' to optimize our website. Before I start I was wanting to check our rankings in the search engines so that I can compare results somewhere down the track to see what effect my efforts are having.
I have the reports from our current optimization service, plus rankings from some free online ranking tools. Using the same URL and the same keywords, why am I getting totally different results in all tools used?
Eg. with one engine in one report we are ranked 2nd and using the same keywords using another tool, the same search engine didn't rank us at all!
I'm confused!
Can anyone please explain this phenomenon?
Also, can anyone recommend a 'good' online ranking tool?
Thanks
Robyn
First, many search engines alter results periodically (e.g. Lycos changes results at different times of the day).
In addition, search engine can also detect automated "rank checkers" and do not like them. They reduce the ability of qualified users to search (use enormous bandwidth -- many checkers checking many queries in a matter of seconds) and many search engines are on record as indicating "your IP using these tools can be banned from accessing search engine results" or worst "banning the site being checked if repeatedly being detected".
Analysing your sites log files is a passive way of detecting exceptional, good, fair, and/or poor ranked positions.
Using these (log files), log tracking software, log analysis software and manual checking are the best method of staying in good graces with search engines.
Many have learned this the hard way, and it is a very costly lesson to learn... if you intend receiving visitors, and sales from searchers.
