Will Google provide a rank-checking service?

[onlinehoster]

Add a esrun.txt file to your site with "Disallow esrun scraper" and I won't scrape the serps anymore :)

Google is the biggest scraper of them all. Constantly forcing people to add files to their site or look at the recent wifi scraping. We have to change the SSID of our wifi router just to stop Google from slurping information about it?

Fine. Have it that way. But if you don't want people to scrape Google then you'll have to follow our guidelines on blocking our scrapers :)

[ubotstudios11]

:::Attention::: bot252 from ubotstudios com approves of GoogleWebmasterHelp's videos. That is all.

[TdRaidX]

p.S i think question was aimed towards page rank checking.. NOT keywords ranking.

[expertreviewsdotcom]

I don't know about this video. Do you habe any others that can back it up?

[figurethis2]

Mats presentation skills have really come along way since this vid... :0

[milkfish87]

@figurethis2 Thats true, true

[calabenirras]

Klasse... Prima gemacht...

[peterpixo]

this was a very good answer

[twparker1]

What does scrapping mean?

[louishcom]

@twparker1 You can check Wiki for "Web scraping" for the exact definition, but its pretty much when a website is created to go to google and copy (or scrape) the content and bring it back to the originating website. From there the data can either be displayed (for example, without their ads, or in a different format), or stored in a database. It slows server resources cause they can scrape 1000's of pages in a very short time, much faster than a human, and it can overload the servers.

[lendingstream]

Its really beneficial to all the online marketers to have a useful keyword ranking tool from Google itself. Most of the available tools are not able to provide exact rankings and also they unnecessarily increase the search volume.

[wredlich]

Does this mean the digitalpoint keyword tracker is bad?

[JeffSMills]

Why not provide rankings up to Page 2? I don't think that would strain the system too much, and by providing a free tool, your overall CTRs wouldn't be quite so deflated.

[kron3r]

i hate how the results in webmaster tools 'Top Search Queries' are NEVER accurate to the current situation and usually pretty darn old.... anyone? - @kronis

[danieljdeyette]

K, so first you say, don't scrape - don't check rankings. Then you say IF your ranking #5... Work on #2? And you'll know this by server logs? Sever logs don't tell your position?

"How adding ONE tool in webmaster central would unsubscribe thouands of Web Position Gold subscribers and increase Google's bandwidth for the general public" Seems like a no brainer.. no?

[todnyc]

Server logs show you what words are bringing people to your site, and his point is to pay more attention to those click-through keywords and targeting or expanding them, based on the server-log results, rather than spending most of your time seeing where you rank on the SERPs. It's a "Both-and" thing, not an "Either-Or," but working with your keywords should take priority over just seeing where you rank. There are plenty of keywords that DO show LESS relevant sites at #1, e.g. parked domains.

[Luckyghost1]

Almost 50 years ago I got hooked smoking cigarettes. Some people said; blame it on the cigarettes manufactures... Who do you think is going to be blame when the ranking junkie can't get another fix? :) j/k :) Love these videos... Keep them coming!

[SavouryFlavour]

Thanks for answering this! SEO's working on sites w/little or no keyword optimization may desire a rank checker to expedite the review process once SEO mechanics are installed. Plus it helps keep an accurate record on loss/gain in keyword rank over time. While I believe more established sites should focus on core terms yielding traffic, it would be useful for a site in need of stronger optimization. I get your reason for not yet providing a tool - allocate the time to more worthwhile projects.

[searchmasters]

The joys of twitter. Matt, you should have twittered about it when you posted it here, not days later ;)

[searchmasters]

I have many SEO clients, and what I do is get people's rankings higher on Google. That is what I am measurable against. Measurable? How? Matt, you say get a top 20 to top 5! I agree. But how do we know its top 5. It is great to manually check a few clients. Get many clients and automated system needed. Trigger reports-rankings +-5, tables showing +-/ % top 5...

I recommend you put work into a better API (now defunct) based on country/geolocation parameters, then let people develop programs.

[chempranav]

but we ARE obsessed with rankings...

cant help it.... ;)

[wolkanca]

Matt add to video subtitle please. thanks.

[DanNedelko]

Very informative Matt - it would be great to expand the Webmaster Tools functionality.

[routenote]

Interesting video .. Thanks