Monitoring Your Search Engine Rankings
How do you know if your web site is doing well for a large number of keywords, both top tier and long tail?
How do you quantify the results of the huge amount of effort you’ve put forth?
You gone to a lot of hard work to include quality content, optimize the site for both visitors and search engines, develop a quantity of good quality links to it, and have made every effort to make it a respected site in the eyes of the search engines, especially Google.
Has all your work paid off?
Advanced Web Ranking is a software application by Caphyon that I have used for 5 years to help measure how my clients’ (and my own) websites are doing in the SERPs. I will tell you right now this is a sponsored article, however I NEVER recommend anything that I don’t believe in.
Visual Results
My clients absolutely love the ranking reports I send them from the results I get from Advanced Web Ranking. It gives them a visual of how well our SEO efforts are doing via the current website ranking for each keyword, and it’s exciting to see how a specific keyword advances from month to month.
As a keyword rises in search engine ranking results, reports give it an awesome green + along with the number of places it has gone up, and that gets my clients (and me) really excited and happy. Conversely, if a keyword is dropping in rankings, it’s indicated with a red – sign, and although that can be a bummer, it’s also a call to action to work on that particular keyword phrase.
Below is a screenshot of one of the pages of an actual ranking report I ran for a client.
If you’re running reports for clients, you can personalize your reports by adding both your and their logos. Reports can be exported in HTML, PDF, Excel (XLS), XML, TXT, and CSV formats, and printed or emailed directly to clients.
Search Engine Friendly
I typically choose the Google search engine, of course, and a couple of others. I like it that if my client is located in another country I can check the rankings that show up within that country’s search results. There are over 1,000 search engines available to pull from, located all over the world, so it doesn’t matter if you’re in the USA or Guatemala or the South Pole. These are constantly updated by Caphyon to ensure that results are always correct (it seems like almost every time I use it there’s an update).
Because AWR uses human emulation technology, when a report is run the search engine requests are indistinguishable from a web browser. (Sometimes Google will demand that I complete a Captcha on my personal searches for the remainder of the day following a run, but it’s a small price to pay.) You can use multiple proxy servers to decrease the update time, which can take quite awhile if the list of keywords is extremely long.
In addition, you can check the position of your keywords in Google through the Google AJAX API, and by using more than one Yahoo API key.
Keywords
Speaking of keywords, you can easily import a list of as many keywords as you want, from a website, a .txt file, Google Suggest or Wordtracker. I get quite a bit of use out of the Keyword Research Tool that’s built right in. The keyword builder feature will help you create compound keywords, starting from the individual words you provide, which will save you a lot of time when you’re setting up a site’s keywords within their profile.
Check Out Your Competitors
Add your competitors’ URLs to the run and you can directly compare your rankings with theirs. Target the keywords you want, get to work, and over time you’ll (hopefully) be able to watch their rankings drop while yours increase. You can also get a visibility overview of your site compared to theirs.
I Could Go On and On…
But I won’t – there are so many features available with this software, and you can learn more about them from the product’s website, where they describe them better than I can.
But I’ll tell you this – once you’ve tried the 30 DAY FREE TRIAL you’ll be so impressed you’re gonna want it! Yep, a 30 day fully functional free trial – so here’s my suggestion: download the software, set up your profile, add your keywords and run the program. Work on your site optimization and build some inbound links. 29 days later, run it again (set it up to run automatically so you don’t forget) and see if you’ve made progress. It gets addictive when you start seeing a site get increasingly better search engine rankings, and with the program starting at $99, not too expensive even if you use it only for one site.
Advanced Link Manager Bonus
When you download the free trial, you’ll also get a 30 day trial of Advanced Link Manager. I haven’t used this software yet, but with it you can the check the link popularity for your website:
- find out who links to your site and what keyword they use
- track the status of your links over time
- discover where your competition is getting their links
A feature in the Enterprise version that has me interested is the Webpage Analyzer, which not only helps you find new ways to improve page optimization but also helps analyze competitor and potential link partner pages.
For each analyzed URL you can quickly gather information including:
- domain age and page rank
- meta information (title description, robots, keywords, author)
- the number of outbound and onsite links
Keep Track of Paid Links
Got paid links, you bad boy or girl? If so, you can monitor them using this software, and get warning emails if a link is taken down. That alone could save you a bundle of money over time.
Link Building Made Easier
The ability to run a variety of link management reports for yourself and/or clients is impressive and offers a way to get a handle on this part of SEO. Since link building is the most time consuming, tedious part of SEO, anything that will help manage links and find more quality links this quickly and easily is a boon.
If you download the free trial and try out the program(s) I’d love to hear your opinion. Just leave a comment below.
Tags: keywords, search engine ranking, search engine rankings, search engines, SEO
The main aspect of monitoring is its regularity, to my mind. the more regular you do monitoring – the better are the results of your research.
It’s real easy to get sucked into checking rankings every few days or every week, but to get the best idea of how your keywords are doing is to check it monthly. There’s so much fluctuation, especially when a keyword is trying to find its place in the listings (or rather Google is trying to place it).
Great run through. We’ve been using AWR now for about a year now since we blogged about it
The visibility reports that can be saved are an absolute god send and these guys really know what SEOs want and need. THe reports can be exported, shared and saved as images for easy insertion into presentations etc.
The fact that you can not only use each search engines API but MULTIPLE API keys is an absolute dealmaker for AWR.
Geographic results are perfect and the ability to use your own proxies or regional office proxies is very clever indeed.
Well written. I hope your enjoying AWR as much as I am. And no, I really am just a happy customer.
Dave Davis´s last blog ..What Every Google AdWords Advertiser Should Know About Quality Score – The Ultimate QS Improvement Guide
Dave, thanks for your comments and support on what a great program AWR truly is!
I’m going to have to try it out, because I am looking for a better ranking report generator for my clients. Great timing!
George´s last blog ..The Basics Of Search Engine Optimization And Why It’s Still Important
George, clients love this one!
good software and i will to try
blognovi´s last blog ..Search Engine Optimization
Your article looks like guide – thanks for sharing this..
SEO is that indispensable circumstance on the way to online success which should not be ignored by the owners of websites. Correct SEO means correct definition of the target audience – only in this case SEO techniques and measurements will definitely lead to online success. Thankf for sharing your experience and point of view on SEO problems!
Software review is good, i like it! Maybe i will buy this tool, but now i will download 30 day trial. Do you use this tool SEO Diva?
Weight Loss Products Reviews´s last blog ..Ultimate Maqui Berry – Best Detox Supplement
Yes, I do – I’ve used the program for 5 years.
Thanks for the post. I will download the trial software and give it a go. I need a tool to make my SEO life easier. Cheers.
oi oi oi´s last blog ..Huge Lego Phone
That’s a great looking report. Now I just have to stop constantly checking my own rankings every day! Thanks.
Meagan´s last blog ..Five Ways To Turn Website Traffic into Business
Lol, that’s hard to stop doing at first!
I’m a SEO and the post is a very useful one. AWR is really a good program. Thanks for the info.
I agree on checking monthly instead of daily, focus on content instead of the daily changes. Thanks for the post, I enjoyed it!
Matt
http://www.tiepedia.com
Wow.. nice info, i’ll consider to using this software.. thx
Ibe´s last blog ..Taxes for Home Bussiness
I remembered using AWR as a ranking option to check on my sites. Definitely one of the better ones, however a bit slow processing on huge number of queries.
Anyway, still recommended for its vast functionality.
This seems like a really useful software, the screenshots look quite addictive lol. I agree that monitoring is important as sometimes it happened with me that over several days my traffic had dropped which then led me to check my rankings and sure enough I had dropped from sight on SERP page 1 for a keyword. If I had kept checking on a regular basis I might have been able to avoid this by seeing the downward trend. However, if a drop or disappearance happens due to a “penalty” or the infamous google dance then no monitoring software will help you prevent as this happens overnight – only your SEO work can do that. But you CAN watch yourself reappear or rise again in the software.
Wow this is helpful! Downloading the software now. Thanks for the tip!
Entrepreneur Online´s last blog ..What are the Secrets of Multi Level Marketing?
The free trial will keep me using this program for at least 30 days. With that program, I’ll most likely make some more money by monitoring my search engine rankings. It’s not always easy to keep checking up with Google itself. Sometimes the web preferences mess with the results.
Thanks for the link.
I have been using AWR for the past two months and found it to be a very informative tool. It also is a great motivator, seeing where your site is and comparing it to your competetors just gives you that boost you need and the clarification that you are on the right track and not to give up. Great tool for SEO.
Well there is no harm in trying a 30day trial period as there are many such monitoring softwares so would like to see what this software has to offer.
I also using AWR last 2 years,and I think that it is really a very useful for such purpose.
Thanks. The resource will really be helpful for the readers.
I see a lot of advertisements for all sorts of SEO packages. Honestly I’m suspicious of a lot of these and a lot seem like scams. So far I have used resources from SEObook and am really happy with the results. The forum is the most valuable aspect I think
Small Business Loans´s last blog ..Miami Herald Reports Push for Small Business Loans
wow!! isn’t it great that you get to monitor your ranking and by doing so one can improve it if it is low..really a great tool to have
Thanks for sharing this tips that’s a great report
I downloaded the free trial and found the application to be pretty user-friendly and intuitive. Thanks for the tip and recommendation. Take care, JB
I want to try it. thank’s for sharing
Jiany´s last blog ..New Arrival – MSI P600 Business Laptop
This software is just amazing, too bad for us who do not use the dollar as currency, the price is a bit high. But worth every penny. Congratulations!
wow, that’s nice, I am going to check my rankings.
Looks like a really useful software!
yes.. are there updates ? do you have to pay for them?
I think monitoring your rankings is important. I’ve never heard of Advanced Web Ranking, although I do use SEOBook.com Rank Checker. AWR looks like it’s way more comprehensive =)
- Dan
The SEO company that we use gives us some very similar reports to this product (in-fact, they look like they may be produced by this product?) Sadly, since the release of Caffine, and the strange and pointless appearance of NON UK websites in UK SERPS (Google) it’s all bad news. I can’t wait for things to settle down and start getting back to normal!
Thanks for sharing your ideas and opinions, but I also think that monitoring of search engine rankings should be hold constantly.
Thanks for that.. will have a look at the trial at least… does the tool perform well though and give true position results? Most of the ones I’ve tried before report completely different positions than if I just hop onto google and count the positions myself. If its reliable and accurate then sounds great.
Joe
Yes, it’s right on target.
I’m suspicious of a lot of these and a lot seem like scams. So far I have used resources from SEObook and am really happy with the results. The forum is the most valuable aspect I think
To: SEO Diva:
This kind of software can be very valuable for SEO management. Without some sort of measurement, the more accurate and detailed the better, a business is unable to enjoy the kind of information leading businesses in any field.
And, without this kind of information, your business is truly flying blind. It used to be thought that if one did a great job with a business, folks would simply walk through the door. In some ways that principle is correct. However, without data one’s efforts cannot be focused on areas that might produce the most and best opportunities for business success.
I am grateful for this information.
Dr. Ann
Altered Comment for Demo:
To: SEO Diva:
This kind of software can be very valuable for SEO management. Without some sort of measurement, the more accurate and detailed the better, a business is unable to enjoy the kind of information leading businesses in any field.
And, without this kind of information, your business is truly flying blind. It used to be thought that if one did a great job with a business, folks would simply walk through the door. In some ways that principle is correct. However, without data one’s efforts cannot be focused on areas that might produce the most and best opportunities for business success.
I am grateful for this information.
Dr. Ann
Dr. Ann Voisin´s last blog ..New Article: The Story of a Collectible Coin from Ancient Greece
This seems to be a great website marketing tool. As with any marketing process, monitoring and tracking is the best way to know for sure whether a strategy is working or not. I would give this application a try.
WordPress Web Design´s last blog ..Creating A New Blog Post in WordPress
i would like to give a try..i have to generate report for my client site with accurate results thanks for sharing..
This software is really useful. I have downloaded it to check our best performing keywords. Thanks for your suggestion.
i like it! Maybe i will buy this tool, but now i will download 30 day trial.
This is a good explanation for another good software. I’ve been using link analyzer for a bit and SEO MOZ and it seemed the two is good in something both for clients and personal use.
Will surely try the free trial you gave here.
I am grateful for this information.
I think monitoring our website`s progress is very important…we need to set goals from the start and change the way we promote to get better and better
This is the most important to keep eye on your SEO rankings and also check if your SEO is working or you need to change it little, i mainly optimize for main keywords with long tail keywords also
Mike´s last blog ..Using Podcasts To Increase Traffic Flow To Your Website
Thanks for this as an alternative to look at. Checking rankings can be obsessive but stimulating to be the reassurance of success
Barry´s last blog ..Do You know Any Good Web Designers?
When I first started using this program I was totally obsessive! I wanted to run it every couple of days.
Wow! Great! You are a treasure trove of great information.
i just initiated the 30-day trial
Cheers¬!
Cool, let us know how you like it.