Keyword Rank Tracking: What Newbie Bloggers Need to Know
Being a blogger sound easy. You just share your thoughts by writing down articles and prom oting them, right?
Wrong!
While the process above rings true up to today, it’s not as simple as it seems.
As the days pass, more and more people launch their blogs in the hopes of making it big.
That’s good and all, except for this problem:
The market is becoming more saturated and competition is becoming fiercer.
Did you know that 7 million blog posts are published daily? That means publishing a post on your blog is akin to dropping a pin in the middle of a forest.
As a blogger, you want to make your effort count!
You want your target audience to read and engage with your posts.
And arguably the best way to do that is through SEO – specifically keyword rank tracking.
Why should you track your keyword ranking?
You’re probably expecting me to say that building links, creating good content, and engaging with your audience as the key to your SEO campaign.
Don’t get me wrong: all of the above are important.
But here’s the thing about keyword rank tracking that people don’t talk about:
It gives you a bird’s eye view of your blog’s SEO performance thus far.
Keeping tab of your search rankings shows which among your posts are ranking on Google and are generating the most organic traffic
Even if you don’t practice SEO, there should be at least a page on your blog that’s ranking for a keyword or two.
Once you have the data on hand, you simply optimize them to rank higher.
No need to create new content (at least not now).
Make your pages better to increase their search rankings and drive even more traffic to your blog!
This way, you take advantage of low-hanging fruits on your blog and give them a little nudge.
With just minimum effort, you can yield maximize results if you track your keyword ranking the right way.
Speaking of which…
How to do keyword rank tracking
If you want to learn the art of monitoring your position in SERPs, then read on.
Use a rank tracking tool
There are two ways you can monitor your search rankings: manual and automatic.
The manual process requires you to type in your keyword on Google search and scan if your blog page appears on the first 100 results. Do this on all your target keywords.
Seems straightforward enough, but believe me when I say this:
It’s gonna eat up lots of your time!
There’s so much more you can do aside from doing it the manual way.
Which is why it’s best if you take the automatic route.
But here’s the catch – you need to use a rank tracking tool.
All you need to do is enter your blog domain URL and type in the keywords you want to track.
From there, the tool will take care of finding your positions for each on SERPs.
Better yet, it can monitor your search rankings daily or how many times you need in a week!
Now, most of these rank tracking tools require you to pay up. On the upside, it simplifies your life.
Think of time you’ll be saving with this tool than by searching on Google for the keyword one at a time multiple times in a week!
‘Nuff said.
Here are some of the tools I highly recommend that you use:
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking is a robust SEO tool focusing on keyword tracking. This is what you need for managing your SEO effort in one place. All vital SEO tools are found in one centralized place, making campaign tracking easier.
Some of its best features are its link management, competitor analysis, and link building tools. Its performance reporting and keyword optimization features are also on-point. You have many plan options to choose from.
You can choose the Starter Plan worth $49 per month if you’re short on budget. Meanwhile, there’s also the $99 monthly fee for Pro Plan and a $199 fee for Agency Plan. You can also go for the Enterprise Plan, with its price depending on the quote.
SE Ranking
SE Ranking is an SEO cloud-based tool used by online marketers which provides competitor analysis, site audits, and keyword suggestions. It also checks website rank and monitors backlinking while providing regular site reports.
Aside from its SEO tools, SE Ranking also features additions functionalities like White Labels and Marketing Plans. However, the interface could do more polishing as it’s a bit clunky. Navigating is also a bit challenging because of its very basic design.
Nonetheless, these are minor issues that won’t affect your general productivity. This one’s for you if you’d want accurate ranking reports and efficient tracking without spending much.
Rankwatch
Amateurs and professionals will like Rankwatch because of its feature-rich and user-friendly interface. This is for you if you’re focusing on tracking your local rank. Full site evaluation is done fast without switching to different windows.
Everything is centralized as you can control its processes on its main dashboard. One of its best features is its cloud capability which enables users to access the tool wherever, whenever.
You can’t go wrong with any of the tools above.
But for this example, I’m recommending SE Ranking. It’s one of the better and more affordable full-suite SEO tools in the market.
Its main feature, however, is tracking your search rankings and providing additional information about your SEO performance.
Enter the keywords you want to track
Ideally, you should know which target keywords you’re using for which post.
If not, that’s fine.
You can use SE Ranking to help you unearth keywords you’re already ranking for!
To do this, log in to your SE Ranking account and click on Tools > SEO/PPC Competitor Research.
Next, type in your URL on the search bar and click “Search.”
Then click on Organic Traffic Search > Keywords.
Scroll down the page to see the list of keywords you’re ranking for!
It’s that easy!
Of course, you can’t choose all the keywords in this list.
You need to identify which is the best keyword ranking for which page according to the following:
- Position – It must be closer to the first result
- Search volume – There should be lots of users searching for this keyword
- KEI – Determine how easy or difficult it is to rank for the keyword
List down the keywords and the corresponding pages on your blog in a spreadsheet for future reference. Then load the keywords to your keyword ranking tool to track.
See the result
After entering the keywords in your tool, wait for a couple of hours to fetch the data.
Once it loads, you will see your position for the keywords in SERPs.
Now, the best thing with using a tool, and as mentioned earlier, is that it can track your keyword position on a regular basis.
For example, you just launched a link building campaign for a blog post to optimize for the keyword you’re tracking.
You can check your keyword rank tracking tool to see how high your ranking rose or if it dropped.
From here, you can make conclusions regarding the effectiveness of your campaign or lack thereof. Then you can correct-course your actions in the hopes of growing your ranking even more or recover the lost positions back.
Quick tips on how to rank higher on Google
Now, keyword rank tracking is just part of the SEO game.
There are many other things you need to focus on to help grow your rankings on SERPs.
Below is a shortlist of things you want to do now for the sake of blog’s SEO:
Build solid foundation
Some ideas for you to mull over:
- Even the best thought-out SEO campaign can become useless if its info architecture and site structure are poor.
- Focus on your blog’s usability before anything else. It should be easy for visitors to navigate so that it’ll have a high ranking.
- Get rid of duplicate content and make sure your pages load fast.
- Web design should be we well-done and mustn’t impede visitor’s natural flow in reading.
- Take care of technical matters such as your URL’s .htaccess file. An example would be one blog having different URLs like https://www.blog.com, http://www.blog.com, http://blog.com, and https://blog.com. Google identifies them as different pages even if they’re the same. Set correct redirect .htaccess file rules to avoid this issue.
Mobile-optimize
Most internet users are now on mobile instead of desktops. Thus, it makes sense to optimize your blog for mobile use.
You don’t want your blog to look great on laptops, but messed up in mobile devices, right?
Google is also implementing the mobile-first index where sites must pass the Mobile-Friendly test. Loading time, navigation, and response rate are some of the things to work on.
Use site mentions to your advantage
Set up a Google Alert to notice site mentions.
This notifies you of any brand mentions onine as of late. If you see that they mentioned your brand name but didn’t link back to it, contact the site admin and request a backlink.
This isn’t revolutionary, but it still works. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel if tried and true tactics still work.
Conclusion
As you can see, keyword rank tracking is essential to your blog’s success.
Not only does it keep you on track of your site’s “health,” but it also lets you know which path to take to improve conversion.
Follow the tips above to ensure blog success.
You can also try out SEOExplode to help you track your keywords efficiently and improve their respective positions.
When you do, there’ll be no turning back as your blog will surely stand out!
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