Keyword Position Checker Tool
How to Setup and Use a SEO Keyword Position Checker Tool
Free Hub Resources
Understanding Keyword Ranking
At the heart of any search engine optimization strategy are a set of targeted search terms, often called keywords. These terms are the searches you want for which you want your content to rank highly in the results pages. The primary goal of this is to better understand how likely possible visitors are to see your website on relevant searches.
As with any other aspect of marketing and business, SEO is most effective when you measure your results and progress. After all, the best goals are specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic and time-bound. If you can’t gather data on your optimization efforts, you can’t make measurable goals and they are unlikely to be specific and properly time-bound. As such, you need a keyword position checker.
A keyword position checker provides information on how well your content ranks on search engine results pages. Gathering data on your SERPs rankings is one of the most essential metrics for measuring your SEO strategy. It is deceptively simple-seeming. Although at its heart, your SERP ranking is a single number for each keyword, the amount of relevant data you can capture is significant.
For example, you may be interested in how your website ranks for a given term as well as certain landing pages. Additionally, you may want to determine your ranking over time to see how your SEO strategy changes your position. For this data and more, a keyword position checker can be immensely helpful.
Google Keyword Position Checker Tool for SEO
Using a keyword position checker for Google and other search engines can be fairly simple. Better yet, there are plenty of options to choose from although not all are equal. The core functionality of a Google position checker is to return the ranking of a given URL for a specified search term or keyword.
One of the important features of using a keyword position checker over simply searching yourself is that most search engines customize results to the user. Therefore, if you are always searching for your own content, it is likely to appear at a high position on your SERPs but not necessarily on the results of other searchers.
Fortunately, most Google position checker tools can help you circumvent these customized results and return a generalize ranking. This feature alone is a sufficient reason to use a tool rather than researching yourself. However, the benefits go further. For example, you may want to check multiple keywords simultaneously. Additionally, you may want to capture ranking data over time.
So, to get a comprehensive picture of your search engine ranking, a keyword position checker is a must-have. The data it produces will be central to your SEO strategy as it evolves.
There are a few types of Google position checker tools. The option that most people choose is third-party software. In many cases, this is hosted as a software as a service offering. These range in price and feature set. So, chances are you can find something that is right for you.
Another option is to create your own tool specifically for what you need. You can either do this from scratch by using the Google keyword position checker API or by using an existing software or framework that you deploy and modify to your needs.
For the technically-savvy, creating a custom tool may sound tempting. However, in most cases, it is superior to use an existing third-party tool.
Setting up a Google Search Engine Position Checker Tool
If you want to set up a search engine position checker of your own, there are a few considerations. First and foremost, you need to consider whether you will build it from the ground up or from an existing codebase.
For the latter of these options, there are a number of open source keyword position checkers that can be adapted. They can be for running on a web server or locally on your computer. This is the simplest way to create your own tool. However, the main drawbacks are that they may not be well supported, may offer few features and may not be easy to customize to your specific needs.
If you opt to build something from the ground up, you can choose which features to create and customize it to your needs. One way to approach this is with a service API. These services offer simple access to SERP ranking data, often across multiple search engines.
This approach offers more features than an open-source solution, however, it may take a lot of development time to create. Additionally, using the service may be somewhat expensive monetarily and technically, although less so than search engine’s own API. It is an effective way to create a keyword position checker if you are prepared to commit to the development time of creating your own features.
Alternatively, you can use the search engines own APIs. These allow you to run custom, automated searches and gather data from them. However, this is not a simple option to implement.
In most cases, creating your own tool is inferior to using a fully-supported third-party option. After all, your main concern with SEO is to make your content rank better on relevant searches. You don’t want to be spending your time and resources on maintaining the tool you use.
Google SEO Position Checker Tool API
If you decide you want to make calls to the Google position checker API for your keyword position checker tool, it may be an uphill battle. This is partially due to the fact that Google is notoriously secretive about their algorithm. Therefore, they make gathering search data less than user-friendly. In fact, the API terms and conditions forbid many automated data scraping techniques.
The first challenge is that the API is quite expensive. Small projects, mainly in the testing phase, can access it for free. However, beyond that it can become much more costly than other keyword position checker options.
Beyond this issue, the results are less targeted than many other options. They cannot show the SERP ranking for specific locations or languages. Furthermore, the API is not designed for scraping data so much as building search functionality off of Google’s engine.
Consequently, if you want to develop a keyword position checker using an API, it may be beneficial to leverage a third-party service’s API. These benefits of this include:
- Ease of Use
The services want to provide the data to you and make it easy to collect. The simplicity and documentation make this a much superior option.
- Cost
Many services that allow this are more cost-effective than Google’s own API. Again, they want their service to be used and price accordingly.
- Cross-Platform
In order to access data from more than one search engine, you would need to use all of their respective APIs. A third-party service helps you access this data more easily.
- Comprehensive Data
Last but not least, many services let you see more than just SERP ranking. They may include research tools and data over time.
Despite these advantages, even using a third-party Google keyword position checker API is often not advisable. Ultimately, if your goal is to hone your SEO strategy, maintaining a tool is simply a distraction. These benefits and more are offered by fully fleshed out and supported tools that you can use right away.
Search Engine Position Checker
In almost all cases, the superior option for a keyword position checker tool is a third-party search engine position checker. These data collection tools help you gather information on your SEO strategy easily and efficiently.The right tool can help you see how your pages rank on SERPs for a variety of terms at once. This can help you quickly get a snapshot of your performance without having to individually check your targeted search terms.Additionally, a search engine position checker can identify the keywords you currently rank best on. While some services offer Google search position checker APIs that show this, Google’s own API does not. Capturing this information is valuable because it highlights both how well you are optimizing for your intended searches and which other keywords you could be targeting.Perhaps more importantly, however, the main benefit of a third-party keyword position checker is that is will work out of the box. Many are hosted as software as a service offerings. Therefore, the functionality can be used easily from a browser without any setup. Additionally, the features are always being updated to better reflect the current status of search engines and their algorithms.In many cases, these tools are as cost-effective or more so than connecting to a service API. In short, you get the benefits of other keyword position checker options without the drawbacks. It is easy to see why so many businesses and SEO professional rely on hosted tools to get the job done. The key is to find the right tool that fits your needs and will support your strategy the best.
Keyword Search Position Checker
One of the key functionalities that keyword search position checker tools offer is keyword research. While some of this can be done with tools like the Google Keyword Planner, the results for each search engine will be different and it won’t be centralized with your other SEO planning data. Therefore, using a third-party tool with the right features is a better choice.
As you research your keywords, you need to collect several data points. Here are a few of the things you should consider:
- Current Ranking
Examine how well you currently rank on the term. Fighting your way up from the bottom of the pack is harder and more time-consuming than starting near the top.
- Search Regularity
Ranking well on a keyword that very few people search for is unlikely to convert into useful traffic. However, very common terms may be more competitive. The key to success is balance.
- Competitiveness
If you aren’t optimizing for a global brand, chances are there is a bigger fish out there. Trying to rank well on highly-competitive terms may be a waste of time and resources. Short terms tend to be more competitive whereas longer, more specific terms are less competitive.
- Specificity
Specific terms are more likely to bring interested visitors to your website. Ultimately, SEO is intended to bring high-value users, not just generic traffic. Your strategy should be specific to your brand.
- Trends
Some keywords are very popular for short periods of time. Others are much more stable. Understanding the forecast for terms can help you determine if they are a worthwhile investment.
When you analyze keywords across these parameters, you will quickly be able to find the ones that make the most sense for your strategy. With this in mind, you’ll be ready to apply your SEO and your keyword search position checker.
Search Engine Position Checker Tool
Clearly, having a great keyword position checker is a valuable asset. No matter whether you leverage a third-party or build your own, you want to find the tool that best fits your needs. While every SEO campaign is different, a few qualities almost always make a good search engine position checker tool.
Access to comprehensive data is essential. While you may begin by looking at just your SERPs rankings, chances are you will want to dive deep into keyword analytics and data over time later in your campaign.
Additionally, having useful research tools is very valuable. SEO isn’t just about coming up with plans and measuring them. Being able to research your ideas and hone them based on the data will help you realize more success with your strategy.
Of course, no tool is worth investing the time and resources into learning and using if it is too cumbersome to be helpful. The ideal solution should have a manageable user interface that works for you. Additionally, a well-supported offering will help you learn faster. Continuous updates will keep you ready to handle every change in search algorithms.
The right keyword position checker can offer all this and more. If you have all of these qualities in a tool, chances are it will suit your needs. With the right choice in hand, you’ll be ready to optimize your web content.
Related Articles