A few quotes to start this one out:
“You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” – Peter Drucker
“Every line is the perfect length if you don’t measure it.” –
and my personal favorite, “In God we trust. All others must bring data.” – Edwards Deming
The point being: Like most facets of business, SEO and keyword ranking is a science that requires tracking and analysis. If we only throw stuff at the wall hoping that something sticks and never run any reports or use tools to see the results of our work then we’re only flying blind and will never have a grasp on what worked, how to repeat success, how to avoid failure, or where we stand amongst our peers.
“Content is King.” Sounds as good today as it did 10 years ago. Content is a large component of SEO> Search engines love fresh content and utilizing informative, top-quality content is still a top technique for gaining visibility in the search engines.
But, if you think simply writing a post about your products or business services, distributing it on your site, and praying passionately is how it works — think twice! This is not the correct strategy for digital marketers. Digital marketing experts who want their site to rank highly continuously gauge their content’s organic search performance and track their keyword rankings with search engine results page (SERP) checker tools.
There is a number of advantages to utilizing a SERP checker for your site. Many SERP tools assist you with analyzing your website’s performance and positioning on search engines. Today we’ll discuss a few of these tools and dive into the reasons why digital marketers should utilize a SERP checker tool.
What is SERP and why it is important?
SERP stands for Search Engine Result Pages. When you type a query into a search engine they return a number of website pages they think are relevant to your search. These results are listed in descending order from the most relevant to the least relevant pages for that specific search.
For a website to be listed in the SERPs for a keyword relevant to their product or service offerings is vital for any business. The higher a listing ranks in the SERPs the easier and more likely a potential customer can find you.
A SERP checker tool helps any digital marketing expert get a detailed understanding of which keywords from a website are ranking well in the SERPs, which ones need improvement, and if there has been any change in ranking for those keywords over time. Many professional tools will also give metrics of search volumes and keyword competition – or the estimated difficulty for ranking that specific keyword.
Identifying your keywords
Every business serves a niche, and in many cases, there are multiple ways your customers might talk about your products and services. These are commonly the keywords and search terms you want to target for your SEO because ranking on the first page of the SERPs for these phrases ensures customers will find you when they’re ready to buy.
But maybe there is a keyword in your niche that you have neglected or have inadvertently excluded from your site. Using a SERP checker tool will show you exactly where you do (or don’t) rank for that keyword. Are you on page 2, 4, or 165? Without using this type of rank tracking tool you may try to Google it yourself and click through page by page to see where you rank. The only problem is, this is a highly inaccurate and unreliable method of seeing where you rank.
Please don’t do this.
Because search engines are now customizing their search experience for each user and using factors like how many times you’ve visited a specific website, recent search and browsing history, current geolocation, and more than 300 other signals it’s difficult to perform a search to see how well you might (or might not) rank for a keyword and have the results returned to you as it might appear to other users in other regions, countries, or with significantly different search and browsing habits.
Queue SERP checker tools. Not only will they help you get a more accurate picture of your rankings, but they will also allow you to identify the long-tail keywords (search terms that have 3-4 words) that are the most relevant for your niche or industry.
Using long-tail keywords in your content is essential to SEO achievement. More on that in an upcoming post.
While creating relevant content, the most essential goal should be to answer a question a user has once they land on your page.
If you identify what people are searching for, you can ensure you reply to those search queries better than your competitors.
Analyzing Competitors
Great search engine result page checker tools also help you seek out and analyze your competitor’s rankings. Using the checker tool, you can check where they get their traffic, which keywords are performing well, domain authority, search engine visibility, and click-through rate (CTR) for specific search terms.
Monitoring CTR is important because your competitor may rank higher for a certain keyword but not have as strong of a CTR due to a poor call-t0-action in their results listing or a confusing page title.
Understanding the domain authority and keyword targeting of your competitor is paramount to SEO success. Domain authority simply indicates how much Google trusts a website and why they rank well in SERP. Getting high domain authority websites linking back to you is important for improving domain authority.
A SERP checker tool can help you see where your competitors are getting their backlinks and give you ideas about where to go to get yours. There are a multitude of ways you can get a backlink from a high domain authority site.
You do have a backlinking strategy, right?
Ranking on Local SERP
Searches are location-specific, and you may rank high in your local region for a search term but not in other regions. While developing your SEO strategy, it is very important to target country, region, and city-specific visitors to find you. A professional SERP checker tool can help you to analyze which keywords are best to target for your business in the specific regions you want to serve.
SERP tracking tools we love
SEO Powersuite – Small to mid-size businesses and marketing agencies interested in a robust suite of tools that feature in-depth reporting for national, regional, or city-specific reporting. Highly customizable reports and scheduling.
Raven Tools – Great for smaller marketing agencies. Unlimited reporting, keyword and competitor research make it great for marketers. At the same time, limitations on projects, keywords tracked and pages available for audit restrict its use for SEOs with multiple clients or larger-volume campaigns.
SERPstat – A good fit for freelancers and bloggers. Since there are no team management features, no branded reporting, and very restricting limits on backlink research, combined with strong keyword research features, the plan is best suited for SEO copywriters and freelancers.
SEMrush – Great for business owners and in-house marketers running PPC and SMM campaigns. Along with Ahrefs, it’s the most expensive starting plan of SEO software.
Netpeak – Best suited for in-house marketers. Netpeak Software, divided between the separately bought Netpeak Spider and Netpeak Checker, offers functionality for website audit, as well as bulk URL analysis.
Ahrefs – A good fit for mid-size business owners. Along with SEMrush, it’s the most expensive of the starter plans, limiting its availability for freelancers and bloggers.
Spyfu – Ideal for businesses with a significant online presence. as opposed to Basic plan, make it more suitable for in-house specialists and businesses not related to SEO.
Moz – Perfect for small-scale SEO work. The limits are restricting to the point where it’s only rational to use for specialists working with low-volume campaigns and non-SEO businesses with limited online presence.
SE Ranking – Great for owners of new websites and freelancers just starting out. Very affordable for most users and businesses out there, though the limits are quite restricting.
Conclusion:
Investing time in analysis with a good SERP checker tool is a critical task for SEO success.
You can get help from an expert for SEO services or hire a professional digital marketing company that can implement all effective SEO strategies and techniques for your online business.
