How to Monitor Search Engine Ranking

TL;DR:

• Monitoring search engine rankings is crucial for SEO success, providing early warnings, validation of efforts, and competitive insights.
• Manual tracking is not recommended, use tools like Google Search Console or SEO optimization tools instead.
• Tools like Ahrefs Rank Tracker and Semrush offer historical data and insights into ranking campaigns.
• Letterdrop integrates with Google Search Console to track rankings and provide insights into improving SERP ranking.
• Identify causes of poor ranking pages and use solutions like full topical coverage, page consolidation, and proper distribution strategies.

You're pulling the SEO levers at your disposal, but you don't know whether what you're doing is having a positive impact on ROI or not.

This leaves you in the dark — and you don't want to be wasting resources on the wrong areas when marketing teams are under so much scrutiny.

You need to start monitoring your search engine rankings to catch any problems as early as possible, and to validate your SEO efforts. Luckily, there are methods and tools out there that can help you keep an eye on things.

Why Monitor Search Engine Rankings?

Search ranking monitoring or rank tracking is an essential component of SEO, involving the systematic monitoring of a website's position in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Here's why it's so important:

• Firstly, it acts as an early warning metric, allowing website owners to identify any fluctuations in their rankings before they notice changes in traffic or revenue. This can help them take immediate action to rectify any issues or capitalize on positive changes
• Secondly, monitoring search engine rankings validates the effectiveness of optimization efforts and lets you make data-driven decisions. For example, if a website's ranking for a particular keyword improves, it indicates that the optimization strategies implemented are working. Conversely, a significant drop in rankings may indicate a problem with the website or a penalty imposed by search engines
• Lastly, monitoring search engine rankings lets you stay competitive. You can assess how your website compares to others in terms of rankings and identify areas for improvement

Three Ways to Monitor Search Engine Rankings

1. Manually Track Rankings

If you're up to the heavy lift, you're able to manually track your search engine rankings and keep track of them in a spreadsheet.

Just type site: [yoursite.com] [topic] to find the page you want to track, and revisit it after the period you want to have tracked it.

We don't recommend tracking search rankings manually though, especially when there are tools out there that can help you.

2. Use Webmaster Tools to Track Rankings

Tools like Google Search Console can help you keep track of which pages need to be refreshed.

You get a real-time look at fluctuations in ranking positions, impressions, clicks, and average click through rate (CTR).

Depending on the data, you can revisit and refresh content that's recently dropped in the above numbers.

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Combing through pages and pages of this data can be a little tedious, though.

3. Use SEO Tools to Track Rankings

There are SEO optimization tools out there that have rank-tracking functionalities built into them for both mobile and desktop rank tracking.

For example:

• Ahrefs Rank Tracker, which gives you historical data and insight into what percentage of SERP features you "own" (for example, showing whether you rank for the People Also Ask feature for a keyword)
• Semrush, which offers the same as above, but you can create ranking campaigns by specifying website domain, search engine, device, location, and adding keywords for tracking

However, while most of these tools give you insight into position tracking, they don't offer suggestions as to why your pages have dropped in ranking.

You need to know what you need to improve in order to make a difference to your SERP ranking.

Letterdrop integrates with Google Search Console to track your rankings and give you insight into individual reasons why your pages are struggling to rank. This helps you optimize your content refresh efforts.

The Letterdrop "Pages to Refresh" dashboard gives you an immediate overview of:

• Pages that are almost ranking
• Decaying pages
• Pages that need to be split
• Pages that need to be distributed
• Opportunities for People Also Ask

How Do I Improve my Search Engine Rankings?

Once you have visibility into why your pages aren't ranking where you want them to rank, it's much easier to come up with solutions.

Here are some causes and solutions for poor ranking pages:

1. Cause: Pages that used to bring in traffic might have lost it due to increased competition or changing trends.
   1. Solution: Use your preferred tool to track which pages are losing traffic and consider going for full topical coverage, adding net new perspectives, and making sure your technical SEO bases are covered. This includes optimizing page speed, building internal links, etc
2. Cause: Pages ranking low for their target keyword but high for unrelated ones may be trying to cover too much ground.
   1. Solution: Use Letterdrop to identify such pages and either split them into more focused pages or consolidate them to improve their search ranking
3. Cause: Pages with high engagement but low traffic suggest a distribution problem
   1. Solution: Find pages with high engagement but low views, then set up a proper distribution strategy to distribute them to channels where your ICP is active

Tip: Letterdrop can help you with full topical coverage and closing topical gaps with information gain suggestions.

Choose a Position Tracking Tool That Helps You Improve Rankings

If you want to improve your rankings across the content you're tracking, you need to invest in tooling that can a) help you identify pages in need of a refresh and b) help you find solutions.

We're constantly innovating our suite of SEO tools to help you put the latest SEO best practices on autopilot. Reach out to us if you want to start today.