Choosing the right daily Rank tracking tool for your SEO agency
Today we’ll talk about a subject that occasionally pops up in various SEO blogs and that is choosing the right keyword rank tracker among the tens of possible options out there. No business likes to mention competitors, but I WILL. And although the contents of this post are eventually self-serving (like about any blog post out there, let’s not kid the public now, I’m just being straight forward with you here), they are nonetheless absolutely TRUE. Now this list is compiled mind you, after engaging in many conversations with SEO agencies and experts about what matters most to them in a SEO tool so most of you will find it relevant and some might disagree and that’s perfectly fine. From what I gathered, there are a number of features that professionals look for in a rank tracking software.
What To Look For In Rank Tracking Tools
There’s no denying that it’s an open market and there are many options to choose from, which can be overwhelming. So what are the key features of rank checking tools you need to examine? Let’s take a look:
- First and foremost: Accuracy. One of the key elements is knowing with precision where you are ranked in that top 100 range to find out if your SEO strategy is actually working. Have you ever asked yourself, “How accurate is the rank tracker I’m testing?” Every search is essentially personalized these days and a rank tracker should be able to bypass those barriers to give you a clearer picture of search engine rankings than you could ever efficiently attain on your own. You wouldn’t want your stock/forex tracker to show you 80% accuracy, so why would you settle for less than 100% in your rank tracking? Both provide signals needed for a strategical decision to happen. Here’s the comparison chart among the more well-known SERP trackers in the market:
| Accuracy | |
| ProRankTracker | 100% |
| RankTrackr | 98% |
| Siteoscope | UNDECLARED |
| Authority Labs | UNDECLARED |
| MOZ | UNDECLARED |
| SERPs | UNDECLARED |
| SerpBook | UNDECLARED |
| Rank Ranger | UNDECLARED |
| Advanced Web Ranking | UNDECLARED |
| SEM Rush | UNDECLARED |
- Next up is the estimated number of keywords you need to track. As I’m sure you heard not once from various motivational speakers out there – always look forward and expect to grow. Some rank trackers don’t have the resources to give a big quota to track keyword rankings. Some charge too much for too little. If your estimate is tracking 200 keywords, strive to double that number; imagine that suddenly you might land some very big clients that will require you to jump your quota to 3000 keywords that needs to be tracked across 5 multiple search engines and at the most crucial moment of your growth you will discover your favorite friendly tool will charge you an arm and a leg for it. Not cool. So always plan for the future in mind.
- Local ranks tracking – Google geo targets and personalizes pretty much every search these days, and that’s the way it’s going to stay at least for a good while. As a result, rank trackers have become a must for anyone who does SEO and want to see how their REAL ranks are doing. You HAVE to be able to tell what result a person gets based on geography if you really care about your hard-earned ranks. If a rank tracker can’t give you this minimum requirement on monitoring keyword rankings, don’t even bother. Seriously, there is no such thing as one single main rank anymore, but a variety of ranks that different people get based on personalized results. It has become tricky but that’s why you have tools on the market to help you with that.
- Mobile ranks tracking – As you may or may not know, more than HALF of all searches are carried out via mobile devices. Building a mobile-friendly website and keeping track of your mobile ranks is just as important as checking your desktop ranks—if not even more so! Oddly, some rank trackers neglect to include this incredibly important feature at all, as if we’re still somehow in 2002 and indestructible Nokia phones roam the land with no internet access, microwaving our brains with radiation. But really, mobile ranks differ from desktop ranks, any SEO savvy person knows that. You absolutely need to know how well your websites are doing on mobile search.
- Search engine diversity – Does the rank tracker you’re testing only track keyword rankings for Google and stop there? Google accounts for only two-thirds of all SE usage (a diminishing figure BTW), and anyone who knows their SEO lore gets that Google is only relevant to an extent, and for every campaign there are also exceptions. For example: what if you get a client that targets the Russian audience? Russians, for instance, use Yandex extensively, and Yandex rankings matter! Here’s a list of all the major search engines that we support btw (<—yup, self-promotional link, but hey it’s relevant!).
Rank updates – You won’t believe how questionable and ambiguous this particular subject is, considering the necessity behind it. It’s amazing how few declare how often they update your ranks. Nothing beats seeing in REAL TIME how your rankings are affected. No change is arbitrary; to every action there is a reaction, and you need to have the portal to explore it.The second a rank tacking tool doesn’t declare how many times a day they update the ranks, you should start questioning. What good are stale week-old ranks camouflaged as fresh ranks?? During that week your top 10 ranks may have flown to Cancun and back and you wouldn’t be the wiser. You need to get updated DAILY, that’s why you should get a daily rank tracking tool. I won’t mention names but some update only once a week, so be mindful of that.
- Redundant features – You see some rank trackers that present themselves as the “complete SEO tool,” but do you really need all those features that are being offered to you?? To answer that here is some promotional stuff but with an actual bit of wisdom “As an SEO trainer, I’m used to trying lots of SEO tools and keyword ranking checkers.” Says Joe Williams of Zen Optimise “What I like best about Pro Rank Tracker is that they focus on one thing: creating a world-class, in-the-cloud keyword ranking tool. They don’t charge for other features like SEO audits that you’ll only use once or not at all. “You’d think an expert such as Joe would need all the extra features he could get to be the best, but he values pinpoint efficiency more than anything. And that’s why you need to make sure you get what matters – and that’s RANKS.
You’d think an expert such as Joe would need all the extra features he could get to be the best, but he values pinpoint efficiency more than anything. And that’s why you need to make sure you get what matters – and that’s RANKS.
- White label reports – For those who aren’t familiar with the phrase, it means that the reports you and your clients get are branded with your logo and details (Check out my previous post about the subject and why you should take it into account). Most rank trackers will have that option; if they don’t, they aren’t serious, and are not even worth a trial. I’m sure you paid top dollar to develop your company’s brand and logo, and I see no reason why it shouldn’t be the one to proudly embellish your reports. Some limit the amount of reports you can generate so take notice.
- Organization and clarity of data – Two questions you have to ask when shopping for a rank tracker: Do you like the way the data is organized? And can you customize it?Some rankers are neat and tidy while others are a mess. Some won’t even give you the basic liberty to organize your data. What good is data if it’s presented through a messy interface?A person should be able to view their data in a simple and approachable organized fashion. If your clients can’t tell how their ranks are doing at a quick glance without going in depth, you might end up disappointing them. Clean data for a clean mind..
- And last but not least – price and budget. Let’s not kid ourselves – price matters, as we all have a budget to keep in mind. So here is the comparison table to speak for itself:
| Average monthly price per keyword | |
| ProRankTracker | $0.04 |
| RankTrackr | $0.08 |
| Siteoscope | $0.08 |
| Authority Labs | $0.1 |
| MOZ | $0.11 |
| SERPs | $0.1 |
| SerpBook | $0.08 |
| Rank Ranger | $0.1 |
| Advanced Web Ranking | $0.1 |
| SEM Rush | $0.1 |
Why PRT Is The Best
{Self-promotional facts ahead}
Here is something that needs to be mentioned and discussed – how can we break the market like that and keep our prices FAIR? Simply put, we’re highly efficient and we’re NOT GREEDY. It’s nothing special, just a part of our business philosophy. Instead of spilling money on spamming the public with ads, black hat SEO tactics (like promoting a Google Analytics fake traffic generator), and raking in profits (not saying we don’t want to make a buck, but that’s just a result of providing value), we invest in customer support and in being THE BEST. And as a result we get old school word-of-mouth advertising. We believe that quality comes first, and profit will come as a result. As for the others, I don’t know if it is a matter of greed or efficiency… Frankly, I have no idea what makes the prices of our competitors soar as if their servers are made of gold and powered by hamster wheels (with the rise of the hamster rights movement, hamster power has really gotten expensive, I hear). Worse, with their mediocre results, they’re just a copy of Google search console that costs more!
{/end of self-promotional facts}
Wow, that was a long one this time, but you’re welcome to mention other features that are important to you in the comments below. I for one, think as little bloating as possible is best. We want to focus on providing accurate page and keyword positions and avoid giving data that you won’t really use.
So I think it’s time to become a real pro at tracking your ranks and get on board with us. We have ALL the features I mentioned above and we were are SEO centered and will only give you what you REALLY need, no BS, guaranteed. Go ahead, give our agency rank tracking software a try, our basic membership is totally free.
