Know-How Exchange : SEO/SEM

Try SEO Book's Rank Checker. It's a Firefox plugin that checks your rankings for given keywords on Google, Bing and Yahoo. Best of all, it's easy to use and FREE! Love it.

Here's the link: https://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/

Google Analytics is what you want. However, you need to install it to have it start collecting visitor information. It can't tell you what last month's traffic was if it wasn't installed.

Definitely install Google Analytics. You can see all referring sources (including what terms via which search engine) of traffic to your site. All you need is a free google account, then you can download the code to plug into the html of your site.

Here is a link to Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, a great place to begin: https://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.go...

Google Analytics won't provide trending data on where you are specifically ranking on a given set of keyword phrases over time. The free tools won't provide this either. You can check your rankings and post the results in a spreadsheet but if you're managing a lot of them this becomes cumbersome.

Also, if ranking tools are not configured and used correctly, Google will detect your automated queries and block your IP for a period of time (common) and, if done regularly with a dedicated IP, could block you permanently.

If you can find a good hosted ranking tool then the service provider is assuming the risk and has likely developed technology to circumvent the issue. Another option is to phase or alternate your checks so that you're not barraging a given search engine over a short period of time. Many tools will do this for you. You can also use a proxy.

If rankings are important (vs say focusing on traffic and conversions) then a good ranking tool is very helpful. If you're occasionally checking a few terms then a free, manual tool is fine.

Dear Kathy – It’s nice to hear from you again. From personal experience and client experience there is nothing wrong with Google Analytics and what excellira (Greg) has said is more pertinent to the end of your journey into site analytics than the beginning of it! Why in the short term should Google block you for using their own product unless you are misusing it?

You can either do it yourself off-the –shelf by reading Google’s technical pages but it will take time to get it right. If you don’t have the time, you might find it useful to speak with a friend who does web analytics to share some insights over a couple of coffees. If you really need it quickly, then hire one of the eMarketing experts here for an hour or two and they will do it for you without letting you fall into excellira’s possible but improbable traps.

No offense intended Greg, but what you have described has never in my experience happened to a new site on a new server within a year. Maybe my client experiences are just different to yours!

Good luck

Hmmm. The the title of the post is "How to track organic search rank". GA will only provide data on keywords that result in a click to the site. It won't, off the top of my head, tell you what position that keyword is in and it won't tell you what your rankings are for keywords you actually want to target.

There's a big difference between what a site should rank for and what it really is ranking for.

GA will tell you what is going on but it won't tell you what you are missing and in many cases (most small sites for example) that is more valuable data.

A rank checking tool will help you to do this and there are a number of free ones (SEO Book and SEO Moz, etc.) and some are good. However, if you are looking to track multiple keywords and want to analyze trends, then the free ones typically don't retain their data and provide the comparison tools and charts you need. Take a look at the two I mentioned and if they don't get it done, then look for a paid tool but beware of the traps I discussed in my earlier post.

One more thought, check Firefox's plugins for ranking tools. There may be one that is free and does what you're needing for now.