Word Rankings in Search Engines

[Jay-UK]

Hi

What do people recommend for ranking analysis?

I want to keep an eye on my rankings on a few sites and have been using the free version of Rank Tracker v4 which allows you to putin keywords and monitor there positions in UK Search Engines daily or weekly

Does anyone recommend anything else?

Jay

[Codefixer]

Advanced Web Ranking is a keyword ranking tool. It's not free but if you have multiple sites then it might be worth the investment.

[Andy Walpole]

If you have Firefox then I recommend Rank Checker: http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/

It's free, easy to set up and does the job perfectly well

[traxor]

Remember that you can also set up a Google Webmaster (http://www.google.com/webmaster/) account which will give you your ranking for each keyword. Bing doesn't do this but you should be sticking your sitemaps on Bing too.

One thing that you could benefit from is heading over to SEOMoz (http://www.seomoz.org), they have some fantastic tools including the latest Open Site Explorer (http://www.opensiteexplorer.com), which I'm really looking forward to using in the future.

[Codefixer]

I find that GWT tools are even more unreliable that some of the other ranking checkers.

[traxor]

I find that GWT tools are even more unreliable that some of the other ranking checkers.

Really? See, I'd take Google's word a bit more than rank checkers. I know that their information with links to one's site isn't complete, but everything else seems consistent when compared to a tool like rank checker.

Just a note to the topic starter: remember that when you're checking manually in the search engine results pages, make sure you sign out of your Google account and add &aws=0 to the end of your query string.

For example:

http://www.google.co.uk/searchitem

would become

http://www.google.co.uk/searchitem&aws=0

ps. I know that the two URLs aren't how it would normally appear, I just figured that copying and pasting an entire query string would've been complete overkill.

[allsquare]

I use IBP http://www.ibusinesspromoter.com/

Seems to give results for multiples domains fairly quickly and in an easy to understand format.

[fisicx]

All the tools in the world won't help unless you use them in conjunction with your analysis tools. You need to look at your stats and see what searches people actually do. There is no point in ranking well for 'widgets' when people are looking for 'flanged thingys'. You also need to keep in mind that long tail searches are far more frequent than 1 or 2 word searches so it's likely that the checking tools are only reporting a fraction of the things you rank well for.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/illustrating-the-long-tail

[mycoolgadget]

All the tools in the world won't help unless you use them in conjunction with your analysis tools. You need to look at your stats and see what searches people actually do. There is no point in ranking well for 'widgets' when people are looking for 'flanged thingys'. You also need to keep in mind that long tail searches are far more frequent than 1 or 2 word searches so it's likely that the checking tools are only reporting a fraction of the things you rank well for.



the guy only asked for a ranking tool, you are answering a total different more complicated subject!! you always put people down!

[fisicx]

No, just pointing out that ranking tools on their own don't tell the whole picture. And to suggest I complicate things indicates than only simple solutions should be offered. The problem is that the success of any online enterprise requires the manipulation and analysis of many factors; there are no simple solutions.

[mycoolgadget]

No, just pointing out that ranking tools on their own don't tell the whole picture. And to suggest I complicate things indicates than only simple solutions should be offered. The problem is that the success of any online enterprise requires the manipulation and analysis of many factors; there are no simple solutions.

a ranking tool does exactly what it's meant to do, show the rank! and that is what jay is asking for.

[fisicx]

a ranking tool does exactly what it's meant to do, show the rank! and that is what jay is asking for.
There are two problems with ranking tools:

1. They are not consistent. They interrogate the search engines and report back 'their' results. These may not be the same as 'my' results. A report from a server based in the US will show the results from google.com which may be very different from google.co.uk. Use them as a guide but not as an authority.

2. The increasing use of long-tail means the whole concept of ranking for 1 or 2 word searches is irrelevant. Parento analysis (the 80-20 rule) is fast becoming obsolete which means the ranking tool doesn't reflect the way people use a search engine.

[mycoolgadget]

There are two problems with ranking tools:

1. They are not consistent. They interrogate the search engines and report back 'their' results. These may not be the same as 'my' results. A report from a server based in the US will show the results from google.com which may be very different from google.co.uk. Use them as a guide but not as an authority.

2. The increasing use of long-tail means the whole concept of ranking for 1 or 2 word searches is irrelevant. Parento analysis (the 80-20 rule) is fast becoming obsolete which means the ranking tool doesn't reflect the way people use a search engine.

just answer the man, the guy wants a tool to check his rank!!

since you cant help i will suggest a tool jay you can use that is very good:

seosupporter.com, it is in a beta version for now and it's free

all the best thomas

[Jay-UK]

Thanks guys!

I do agree that ranking is pnly part of it - but I think it would be fair to say that if you have done the keywrod analysis and long word phrases then you just want to see where they rank and thats what I was after - but all feedback and answers are worthy of reading as itll maybe flag something thatll help - so thanks all!

Ill take a look at the recommended ones and report back :D

[Andy Walpole]

Just a note to the topic starter: remember that when you're checking manually in the search engine results pages, make sure you sign out of your Google account and add &aws=0 to the end of your query string.

For example:

http://www.google.co.uk/searchitem

would become

http://www.google.co.uk/searchitem&aws=0

ps. I know that the two URLs aren't how it would normally appear, I just figured that copying and pasting an entire query string would've been complete overkill.

A better way of doing this is be installing a browser add-on that can disable Google personalised search. Check the link below for this:

http://yoast.com/tools/seo/disable-personalized-search-plugin/

[orchidbox]

If you have got a global brand is very trick to monitor global ranking. With localization of google result pages you will get different resilts from different location. If you are manually checking results, I suggest you do it from the same ip / location so at least you know if your sites/ site is goin up or down for give key phrases.