![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Picture1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTo ensure success in the SEO game, you need to know how to track your SEO rankings. In this guide, we\u2019ll show you how to do exactly that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why You Should Track SEO Rankings<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
SEO done right is an investment. If you put a dollar into an SEO strategy, you should be able to pull $3 (or $5 or $10 or $100) out.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
To get a pat on the back from your boss or convince a client to keep writing checks, you have to able to prove that what you do works. Tracking SEO rankings allows you to do that while also identifying opportunities and areas for improvement. Those insights can be incredibly valuable in both the short and long-term.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The Importance of Achieving High SEO Rankings<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
It seems like every few years, a rant goes viral about SEO being dead. In our opinion, those viewpoints are held by people that have gone all-in on a black hat or outdated strategy and failed. What they don\u2019t account for is that SEO is always changing, and you\u2019ve got to stay alert to remain relevant.<\/p>\r\n
![\"SEO](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SEO-Expert.png\")
<\/p>\r\n
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Regardless of how someone might \u201cfeel\u201d about SEO, there are four vital reasons to track SEO rankings diligently.<\/p>\r\n
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Organic Traffic Has a High ROI<\/h3>\r\n
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While it\u2019s true that organic traffic is not free (content creation and SEO strategies take work), it tends to be dramatically less expensive than advertising. It also has the potential to generate the most traffic. For example, how often do you click on an ad versus a piece of content that has the answer to a question you\u2019ve been asking?<\/p>\r\n
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Organic traffic also tends to be high intent, and it doesn\u2019t cost you anything once the content is created and optimized. Whether you get one click or a million clicks, you\u2019re not going to get a \u201ctraffic\u201d bill in the mail.<\/p>\r\n
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Traffic as a Result of SEO is Long-Lasting<\/h3>\r\n
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Once you put in the effort to create a web page, the bulk of the work is done. Sure, you have to check your rankings and continue to get backlinks and optimize content, but it\u2019s not like advertising where you have to pay to play. The second you stop feeding the advertising meter, so to speak, your traffic from that source dries up.<\/p>\r\n
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Organizations Should Strive for Continuous Improvement<\/h3>\r\n
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Every organization needs to stay sharp and always be on the lookout for opportunities to get better. Those that rest on their laurels are soon dinosaurs in the industry as younger, hungrier, and more motivated competitors come to eat your lunch, or in this case, rankings.<\/p>\r\n
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Still not convinced that you should always be innovating and improving? Blockbuster, Nokia, Kodak, Xerox, and Myspace are just a few warnings of what happens if you get complacent in the top spot. The search engines are no different. If you stop tracking your SEO rankings, you could end up on page 10 of Google (or worse) for a keyword that used to be your most profitable.<\/p>\r\n
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High Rankings Justify the Expense of SEO<\/h3>\r\n
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When you track your SEO rankings and see your site climb in the search engines for those ultra-competitive keywords, then all that time creating top-notch content and shilling for quality backlinks is worthwhile.<\/p>\r\n
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However, if you\u2019re pouring money into content creation and outreach without measuring results, then it\u2019s tough to argue the necessity of these efforts. When executives or clients don\u2019t understand what you\u2019re doing, and you\u2019re unable to show them tangible results, then SEO does, indeed, become dead. At least for that organization.<\/p>\r\n
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How To Track SEO Rankings<\/h2>\r\n
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Before we get into the tools and methods to track SEO rankings, it\u2019s important to do some planning. Otherwise, you\u2019ll find yourself bombarded with data and not knowing the first thing about what to do with it.<\/p>\r\n
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We\u2019ll walk you through this process step-by-step so that you can be organized and systematic in your approach from day one.<\/p>\r\n
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Step 1 \u2013 Establish Your Goals<\/h3>\r\n
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Even seasoned SEO professionals can get stuck in this first step. It\u2019s not unusual for an SEO to ask their client, \u201cwhat keywords do you want to rank for?\u201d<\/p>\r\n
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The client might stare back blankly and say, \u201cIsn\u2019t it your job to tell me that?\u201d<\/p>\r\n
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Some savvy clients and SEO teams have already established their top priority keywords, but if you haven\u2019t gotten to that step yet, there are several ways to do this.<\/p>\r\n
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You can start by checking to see which keywords you currently rank for. As Maya Angelou famously says, \u201cIf you don\u2019t know where you\u2019ve come from, you don\u2019t know where you\u2019re going.<\/p>\r\n
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Another approach is to take a look at how your competitors are performing.<\/p>\r\n
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We recommend both.<\/p>\r\n
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To check out your SEO rankings, one of the best places to start is in Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools).<\/p>\r\n
![\"Search](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Picture2.png\")
<\/p>\r\n
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There\u2019s a wealth of data that you can access for free. From here, you can see which search queries drive traffic to your site, how many clicks and impressions you get, the CTR (click-through rate), and your position. You also have the option to filter by date ranges and compare periods to each other.<\/p>\r\n
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To get an idea of where to optimize your current efforts, try this trick:<\/p>\r\n
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Filter the report by position and choose only keywords that are in position 8 and higher. If you have several keywords where you\u2019re on the first page of Google, but toward the bottom, it\u2019s smart to start your SEO efforts on getting ranked higher for those keywords. You\u2019ve already got some traction, so it makes sense to see what you can do to climb higher.<\/p>\r\n
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Once you\u2019ve identified those search queries, view the pages that are ranking for that query, and examine each one to figure out how to optimize them. It could be on-page work, adding internal links, or doing outreach for backlinks.<\/p>\r\n
![\"Search](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/keywords.jpg\")
<\/p>\r\n
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This helps if you\u2019re already ranking for some keywords, but this approach doesn\u2019t give you competitor insights or any guidance if you\u2019re just getting started with content.<\/p>\r\n
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To get next-level insights, you\u2019ll need a bonafide keyword rank tracker<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Here\u2019s an example of how keyword.com can be used to get competitive insights.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Let\u2019s say you\u2019re in the personal finance space, and you want to know what keywords some of your competitors rank for<\/a> and how well they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n This report breaks it down for you:<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n In addition to seeing competitive keywords, you\u2019ll also get insights into search volume and search results.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n The other thing you can do is view the SERP to verify the location and also view the actual web page to see how easy it might be to overtake this particular page in search.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n There\u2019s a lot of talk in the SEO world about metrics, but the key to success is focusing on the metrics that matter. It\u2019s easy to get overwhelmed in weeds and not see the forest through the trees.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Though every business is different, typically, the most useful metrics include:<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Use Google Analytics to figure out how much of your traffic is from organic search versus other channels like direct, advertising, referral, etc.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n In Google Analytics, go to Acquisition -> Overview -> All Traffic -> Channels<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n From here, you can drill down further to see how your organic search traffic is performing.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Here\u2019s where Google Analytics fails most businesses.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n As you can see in this example, more than 95% of the traffic specifies no keyword, so this tool won\u2019t give you a clear picture of which keywords are driving traffic. You can potentially stack this with Google Search Console to get insights into this information.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n In Google Analytics, you\u2019ll want to make sure that you\u2019ve got conversion tracking set up to measure which pages are bringing in the most revenue. Make sure you filter based on organic search results, not paid, referral, or direct traffic.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Depending on your business model, you might also want to count conversion actions such as email signups, phone calls, and form submissions.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Google Search Console gives you important data about the click-through rate for a variety of search queries. There are some general guidelines you can expect for a healthy click-through rate if your titles and meta descriptions are written well.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n If you\u2019re noticing a low click-through rate despite a high position, check the SERP. It could be due to a number of factors, including:<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n These metrics are relative, but they can be helpful in showing you how useful a page is for your audience. For example, if you have a pillar blog post, but the bounce rate is 90% and the time on page is 10 seconds, then there might be something wrong with the content. Is it leading to a 404 page, is the content outdated, does the page take forever to load?<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n On the other hand, if you have a page where people are spending a lot of time, that is a clear signal that your users are getting value from it.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Check your site load speeds, which is an often-overlooked factor in search rankings. A slow-loading site not only affects your performance with the Google algorithm, but it also results in a higher bounce rate as visitors have better things to do than wait for your website to load. The higher your bounce rate, the further you get penalized in search engine rankings.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Pingdom is a free tool that gives you site speed measurements and tactical recommendations at a glance.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n We\u2019ve discussed a couple of free tools to get you started: Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Though they can both be useful, they have crippling limitations, which we\u2019ve discussed briefly.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n In addition to what we\u2019ve already covered, Google Analytics and Google Search Console also have the following flaws:<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Still, if you want a quick and dirty view of your own performance, Google Search Console is a decent place to start. However, if you want competitive analytics, you\u2019re going to have to upgrade to a paid tool.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n When it comes to choosing a paid tool, you have a lot of options. When we developed Keyword.com back in 2011, there was no Ahrefs or SEMrush. Moz had yet to create the suite of tools they have today. Over the years, we\u2019ve continued to improve Keyword.com (previously SerpBook), and it\u2019s infinitely more affordable.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Keyword.com also has a feature almost no one can compete with. 100% verifiable accuracy. For any keyword ranking you\u2019re tracking, you can view the real third-party verified results.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Once you\u2019ve established your top hundred, thousand, or million keywords, it\u2019s time to start tracking their performance.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Depending on your goals and your niche\u2019s competitiveness, you might want to run reports daily, weekly, or monthly.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n One of the things that makes Keyword.com so special is that you can run virtually unlimited refreshes to get data in real-time. You\u2019ll also get alerts whenever one of the keywords you\u2019re tracking rises or falls in the SERP.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Perhaps the most important part of tracking your SEO rankings is creating and distributing reports<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n You can have user-friendly and easy to read reports delivered directly to your inbox or your clients\u2019 email addresses on any schedule you choose. White label your reports with your agency name at no extra charge. If you are looking to impress your clients with some fancy reports that integrate useful data from other sources too, you can try\u00a0DashThis<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n By having the ability to disseminate and share information in a way that\u2019s simple to understand, you can explain and demonstrate your results, having total confidence that you\u2019ve reached or goals. And, if you\u2019re falling short, you\u2019ll know exactly where to optimize.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n![\"keywordprod.wpengine.com](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/keyword.com-chart.png\")
<\/p>\r\n![\"serps\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/serps.jpg\")
<\/p>\r\nStep 2 \u2013 Identify Key Metrics<\/h3>\r\n
Organic search volume<\/h4>\r\n
![\"google](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/google-analytics.jpg\")
<\/p>\r\nConversion rates<\/h4>\r\n
![\"form](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Picture7.jpg\")
<\/p>\r\nClick-through rate (CTR)<\/h4>\r\n
![\"Click](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Click-Through-Rate.jpg\")
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Bounce rate and time on page<\/h4>\r\n
![\"bounce](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/bounce-rate.jpg\")
<\/p>\r\nLoad Speed<\/h4>\r\n
![\"speed](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/speed-test.jpg\")
<\/p>\r\nStep 3 \u2013 Choose Your Tools<\/h3>\r\n
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Step 4 \u2013 Measure Performance<\/h3>\r\n
![\"keywordprod.wpengine.com](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/keyword.com-rankings.png\")
<\/p>\r\nStep 5 \u2013 Optimize<\/h3>\r\n
![\"competitors\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/competitors.jpg\")
<\/p>\r\n