Why and How to Track Search Engine Rankings

Did you know the amount of (organic) traffic that your site receives is directly related to its rankings on search engines. So, what does this mean for you? It means you should be tracking the search engine rankings of your site for its key search terms.

In this article, we will let you know why and HOW to track search engine rankings.

It allows you to know what terms need to be optimized so that you can pave the way for the long-term growth of your website. When you track search engine rankings, you come to know how much traffic each term drives and which terms are important for your site.

Nowadays, much is being talked about the value of rank tracking in this modern era of SEO. Some say that it has become difficult for SEOs to track rankings accurately as search results are becoming too personalized. Others are of the opinion that keywords are no more relevant in this era of semantic search.

Do not underestimate the value of rank tracking.

Although these ideas do hold weight, there is no reason to underestimate the value of rank tracking in any way. In fact, you do need to track your search rankings. And we are precisely here to let you know why and how to track search engine rankings.

Well, it’s true that tracking ranking accurately has become much harder nowadays. It’s because Google is now into deciphering the meaning behind queries rather than looking for exact keyword matches in content. However, we need to point out that this needs to be taken in the right spirit.

Rank tracking is still important, Mind You! It only goes to show that our rank tracking goals need to change substantially and also the way we track rankings.

So, let’s find out why you need to track your Google rankings.

Why Track Search Engine Rankings?

Well, the fundamental purpose of tracking your search or Google rankings was to find out how well you’re SEO efforts translate into rankings so that you can continue doing the things that ensure your progress on SERPs. This is still relevant today, but more reasons make tracking your Google rankings crucial for the success of your business in 2018 and times to come.

Before we go and highlight other reasons for rank tracking, here’s more of why you need to track your Google ranking for seeing the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.

It’s utterly necessary for you to see the impact of changes you do (both on and off-site) in your rankings. The changes can include all kind of stuff such as switching to HTTPS, going mobile, tweaking your titles or descriptions as well as other SEO efforts.

In fact, there is a direct correlation between your SEO efforts and your rankings.

So, it becomes essential for you to know which changes have resulted in a positive effect on your Google rankings (so that you can continue in those areas), and which changes have brought in a negative impact (so that you can revert those changes as early as possible).

Here’s a useful tip for you: It would be a good idea if you go on and record important changes done on your site in your rank tracking tool.

Rank tracking will help you to attribute those changes to fluctuations in Google rankings easily. It is very easy with Rank Tracker Tool like SEO PowerSuite Rank Tracker. It enables you to add events to your ranking progress graph. A free version of Rank Tracker is available that you can install on your computer.

See which of your pages and keywords bring the most traffic

Tracking your Google rankings enables you to see which of your pages and keywords bring the most traffic. And this is important for quite some reasons.

First up, it helps you to know which type of queries is bringing in targeted traffic to your website. This would help you to do further keyword research. You get to know new keywords based on the terms that are performing best. Then, you can go ahead and target these keywords with your site’s pages.

Second, it helps you to prioritize your SEO efforts. You can then focus on more valuable keywords and pages.

Here’s useful tip for you. You can start by identifying your high-traffic keywords. Go on and track those keywords to see how they perform in the long-run.

Third, tracking your Google rankings helps you in understanding what’s causing changes in your traffic and sales. You just can’t afford to sit and relax when your site’s sales or visits go up or down. You got to know the reasons behind changes in traffic and sales. Moreover, when you routinely check your performance in organic search, you can prevent losses in traffic and sales if you go on and spot the ranking drops early.

Here’s a useful tip for you: Rank Tracker tool allows you to sync your Google Analytics account with the app. It helps you to make out how organic visits to your site are correlated with rankings.

Fourth, rank tracking lets you find low-effort pages so that you can get more traffic. You can look for pages that are already ranked in SERPs for high-demand keywords. However, those rankings are not too high. These are termed as low-effort pages. For example, if a page is ranked at #10 for a keyword with a high search volume. Just imagine the increase in traffic that you can get if it is ranked at #3.

Here’s a useful tip for you: Focus on low-effort pages. By taking little efforts, you can push those pages high up in the SERP.

Fifth, rank tracking helps you to find out where you stand in comparison to your competitors. If your competitors are gaining rankings, then you have to reverse-engineer their strategies and see what the factors that rank them higher in SERPs are. Rank tracking is also useful to find out new competitors that make it to the SERP.

[bctt tweet=”Rank tracking helps you to find out where you stand in comparison to your competitors. If your competitors are gaining rankings, then you have to reverse-engineer their strategies and see what the factors that rank them higher in SERPs are.” username=”earningguys”]

Here’s a useful tip for you: You can use the Rank Tracker tool to detect the top competitors for your target keywords automatically. It also allows you to track their positions along with yours.

Another big reason for rank tracking is that it lets you spot algorithms changes early.

So, you can react to search engine algorithm updates instantly. You can then adopt a feasible SEO strategy to counter algorithm changes so that you don’t fall in the search results and moreover, climb higher in the SERP. It even helps you to spot minor changes that affect your industry or niche, apart from the big updates such as Penguin or Panda.

A useful tip for you: Rank Tracker tool helps you to track changes in the SERP across your industry as well as across your target keywords.

Another reason for tracking search engine rankings is that when your site’s traffic suddenly spikes or on the contrary takes a nose dive, you can check your rankings and see if Google has tweaked on their algorithms that have led to significant changes in your rankings.

How to Track your Search Engine Rankings?

Now, you know that you need to monitor your website rankings and SEO progress. It allows you can keep doing what’s working and go on to adjust what isn’t. Here, we share with you three types of key performance indicators that will help you to monitor your SEO progress.

Basically, you come to know how to monitor your search engine rankings. To start with, you need to use software tools that keep track of visitors and conversions. They are known as analytics.

Well, there are analytics software packages that cost thousands of dollars per month. However, it’s not a compulsion. You can even start with analytics software for free. 

Here, we share with you two of the free analytics software:

• Google Analytics: It offers data tracking and has many cool reporting options. Moreover, it’s powerful and highly customizable. It’s also suitable for non-technical people.
• Google Search Console: It provides tools and reports you can’t get in Google Analytics. It also functions as a communication center between you and Google in case something goes wrong with your site.

With these tools, you can monitor organic traffic to your website and you can learn a little more about the users coming to your website.

You can have information about how many people visit your website, and general information about them (geographic area, device type, where they come from, what page they land on, how long they stay, as well as what they do during their visit). It’s about getting to know your organic search traffic.

Using Google Analytics

Here, we will tell you how to look at organic traffic data using Google Analytics.

Access the left-hand menu in Google Analytics.

Choose Acquisition > Campaigns > Organic Keywords

It shows the number of sessions (visits) per keyword.

You can get more information by clicking Landing Pages.

It shows you the website’s top-trafficked pages.

You come to know how many bounce, how many complete a transaction, and how much was the conversion revenue.

Using Google Search Consule

If you have already setup your site on Google Search Console you can track your site traffic for the given keyword. 

Login to Google Search Console panel (You can switch to New Search Console) click Performance from the left menu. Here you can see for which keyword your site and pages are ranking for and how much traffic they are getting.

How to monitor your Search Engine Rankings

It’s important to note that you won’t have enough organic search traffic unless you are ranked on Page 1 on the search engine result pages (SERPs). You can use rank tracker tools to monitor your site’s search engine rankings. One such tool is the SEO PowerSuite Rank Tracker.

It allows you to compare your rankings over time for each of your keywords across major search engine markets worldwide. Rank Tracker even keeps track of your SEO progress.

It allows you to track the ranking of your website for any amount of keywords and phrases. You can also monitor the performance of your main competitors. You get many other analyses and reports, as well.

How to Track Conversions?

First, you need to define your conversion goals.

It can include any or all of the following:

• Subscriptions
• Sales
• Sign-ups
• Downloads
• Donations
• Other actions

Essentially, it means that you need to figure out the key metrics that allow you to see how your website is performing. These are the primary indicators of your SEO progress.

For example, Google Analytics allows you to set up Conversion Goals that can be measured. You need to choose Admin from the top navigation, and click on Goals in the right-hand column.

Here, you can choose what all signals a conversion transaction. You can set up at every step along your conversion path.

With Google Analytics, you can even assign monetary values to conversion goals. You can track the revenue per transaction, per page.

You need to know that setting up of conversion goals is a multi-step process that varies depending upon your particular conversion goals.

Concluding

[bctt tweet=”By tracking your Google or search engine rankings, you can achieve the best online visibility possible. It helps you to do SEO successfully.” username=”earningguys”]

So, you see that rank tracking is still relevant today.

By tracking your Google or search engine rankings, you can achieve the best online visibility possible. It helps you to do SEO successfully. You can keep on track with current ranking trends. It allows you to track your website’s performance for important keywords.

All in all, monitoring your search engine rankings helps you to achieve better rankings in the SERPs. It helps to streamline your SEO efforts and brings long-term benefits to your online business, website or blog.