How to Monitor Keyword Rankings for Search Engine Success

Everyone wants to rank high on Google. 

Seeing your brand hit the top spot for a highly competitive keyword is like an actor seeing their name in lights on Broadway. 

And, for many brands, the easiest way to climb to the top of the algorithm is to monitor keyword rankings, carry out in-depth keyword research, and aim to capture a prime spot in Google snippets. 

Keywords are the beating heart of an SEO strategy. Without them, you’re essentially throwing spaghetti at the wall. 

Tracking your results is crucial if you want to jump up the search results. DashThis along with the right third-party tool can allow you to easily monitor all your keyword performance and the overall impact of your digital marketing strategy in an easy-to-use reporting tool. Therefore making it quick and easy to check in on your keyword rankings.

Keywords take into account what real-life people are searching for and help your content show up when they use those search terms. Knowing the terms users enter to find your website is the first step in understanding SERP features and creating a successful SEO strategy that targets intent-heavy, ready-to-buy prospects.

But it’s not all plain sailing. Your ranking for specific keywords can fluctuate dramatically, especially if you’re competing in a cut-throat industry. As such, it’s important to monitor your chosen keywords so you can jump on any ranking drops and avoid these fluctuations. 

You probably don’t need any more persuading but, just in case you do, keyword monitoring helps you:

• Easily manage your most important keywords (either individually or in segmented groups)
• Track ranking developments to see how your keywords are performing over time 
• Set ranking goals and deliver results to stakeholders, clients, and other interested parties
• Identify potential ranking opportunities to increase traffic and sales 

What is Keyword Monitoring? 

Keyword monitoring does exactly what it says on the tin: it involves monitoring your target keywords and position tracking your site in search results. 

By doing this, you can identify areas of improvement to increase rankings and, therefore, increase traffic to your site. 

In an ideal world, you’d rank on the first page in the top three results for every keyword that’s relevant to your brand. If you get there, great! But that doesn’t mean you’ll stay there. Keyword monitoring helps you keep an eye on where you’re at and quickly act on any rank droppings. 

It’s an integral part of a keyword strategy and reveals which keywords are bringing the most traffic to your site. 

Once you’ve selected your most-coveted keywords, you can monitor their position or work to improve your rankings with them. 

You’ll be able to see how many clicks and impressions each keyword receives, what your average CTR is, how your brand’s visibility under each keyword has changed over time, and make decisions based on where you rank in search results.

Make keyword tracking a breeze with your own unique DashThis dashboard.

How to Monitor Keyword Rankings With SEO Tools 

The first step in keyword rank tracking involves choosing the right terms and determining your ranking opportunities. 

This is easiest to do through an online keyword monitoring tool or rank tracking software - there are plenty of analysis tools out there, each with their own pros and cons. If you don’t know where to start, take a look at the keywords your competitors are ranking for so you stand a chance of competing alongside them.

How Can I See What Keywords Competitors Are Using in SERPs? 

Here are some of the best tools to use. 

1. Ahrefs

Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer is one of the most popular keyword position monitoring tools on the internet. It allows you to group together long-tail keywords relating to your main keyword, capture valuable ranking data, and see the search volume for each term.

You can also get an overview of the top keywords your main competitors are ranking for, as well as their average position, to see if there’s an opportunity for you to swoop in higher than them. It’s also possible to see what backlinks your competitors have won as well. 

2. SEMRush

Like Ahrefs, SEMRush is a popular keyword research tool that lets you quickly see what keywords your competitors are creating content around and provide a list of new keywords. You can research keyword rank based on competitor URLs or simply track the keywords your customers are using the most. 

3. Accuranker 

Accuranker gives you real-time updates on a daily basis for accurate keyword position monitoring on both Google and Bing. The tool lets you track a number of keywords, monitor your ranking, and identify any rank changes so you can act quickly and increase organic search traffic.  

4. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is one of the best free tools for keyword tracking. It not only lets you determine keyword volume as well as the best keywords your competitors are using, it also provides content ideas around those keywords. It’s a comprehensive way to start drawing up an SEO strategy based on foolproof data. 

5. Google Search Console 

Google Search Console is the only keyword monitoring tool that shows your exact rankings and the exact number of click-throughs your content is getting from search engines. Through detailed performance-based web reporting, you can see which keywords are your highest-performing as well as your average CTR based on those rankings. 

6. SearchMetrics

Offering a suite of SEO and content marketing data, SearchMetrics is a ranking tool that provides detailed insights into your best keywords and their average search engine rankings. You can use it to glean competitor insights, closely monitor keyword rankings, evaluate links, and compare target keywords on different domains. 

7. WebCEO

WebCEO is a comprehensive tool that allows you to optimize and track your web presence. You can use it alongside other digital marketing tools to measure data across channels and determine your positioning in a variety of different places. Then, you can combine all your SEO data in a single dashboard. 

Integrate WebCEO with DashThis. 

8. Tap into Trends

It’s not just a tracking tool you need. As well as monitoring your keywords through dedicated keyword research software, you can also unlock data through common trends to help boost your organic traffic. These let you know whether your chosen keywords are likely to improve in popularity or plummet depending on what’s hot at any given moment. 

You can track keywords via Google Alerts to determine how often new content is posted about them. 

Making Keyword Monitoring Easy: Try This Template

While the tools we’ve listed here are great for initial keyword research, to see common ranking positions, and to determine which keywords your competitors are having the most success with, they don’t always provide a unique insight into how your rankings are doing overall.

DashThis allows you to plug all your SEO keyword monitor tools and digital marketing efforts - including things like your social media report and your Google Analytics report - into the platform to generate monthly ranking reports. 

Here’s a template you can see live and plug in your own data to see where you rank: 

We use all the information you have to automatically bring together a comprehensive insight into how your site is doing. 

This includes how well you’re ranking for your chosen keywords, but also how well your social efforts are paying off, and whether your rankings correlate to the number of click-throughs and conversions you’re getting. 

Think of it as a monthly site MOT, which will help you identify future opportunities and areas for improvement. 

How to Create Your Own Search Ranking Report

Now the keyword monitoring can really begin. 

You’ve identified your chosen keywords, you understand what your competitors are ranking for and where you fit in, and you’ve pinpointed future optimization opportunities.

To continue to track and monitor your efforts, you should create your own search ranking report. You can do this in seconds with our collection of preset report templates (the functionality allows you to customize them as much as you like to fit your unique needs). 

This will help you track everything in one central SEO dashboard without having to trawl through multiple different SEO tools and software to get the information you need. No one’s got time for that. 

The best part is, DashThis isn’t just a rank tracker that monitors keywords and your SERP results, it also pulls together other data, including PPC metrics and CPC information, and integrates with tools like Google Analytics, Moz pro, local search tools such as Google My Business, and Google Ads. 

Ready to start monitoring keyword rankings to improve your SEO efforts? You’re in luck! You can do it right now with our free 15-day trial.