What is the best way to check your own site for keyword rankings?

[agapitoflores001]

I'll check it out myself and see if my ranking has improved.

[paynechristopher29]

very useful and nice video..

[alphabert77]

Get into your niche, relate to people that matter in your niche, use social media to bring people to your website, connect with your (potential) customers. He doesn't mention the Search API, because he doesn't have to (Google TOS: 'do not send automated queries to Google') and because it's besides his point (see comment below).

[alphabert77]

@redflymarketing

You are right that you need some focus on some keywords, especially when your website is new. In that case you don't have any userdata, you don't how people are using your website and you don't get links from other websites, because no one knows your website exists. Matt just don't want you to have a complete focus on rankings (not visitors) and turning your site into a desperate keyword stuffed website, obsessed with rankings while you have 'smaller fish to fry' (long tail).

[kinfair]

Chrome has a beta traffic tracking toolbar that displays the general PR of a sit with google, bing, yahoo etc.

[finalwebsites]

Nice one Matt, internet marketing is not only about rankings!

For those are looking for this information, there is some great function on GWT.

Access the "search queries" section and find information like impressions, clicks and landing pages for your keywords. This information is not 100% exact (and not real time), but gives an good idea what's on with your site.

[manfmnantucket]

OK there you go again, recommending to consider the long tail of search - that is exactly what the mayday update seems to have killed off, though - it doesn't work that way anymore...

[lepensky]

checking your server logs? Why not Analytics and Webmaster tool? They have history and progress.

[dyoungprod]

There was an easier answer & more obvious answer - the position reporting Google already provides in Webmaster Tools.

[babbababba2007]

Matt, this is not an proper answer for the question "What is the best way to check your own site for keyword rankings? "....

[antwakefield]

Exactly what planet does Matt Cutts live on???

[AshPhat2000]

@antwakefield - haha! - The planet of smoke and mirrors!

[theylmdl]

Hi!

Nice point and I fully agree - watch your logs, not the SERPs. What about supporting us webmasters by adding the "cd" GET-parameter to the conventional search result referrers ("/search?") like the are passed with the "/url?" referrer type? This would help us a lot on our way to a better analysis. I've already suggested this (to JohnMu) at the german GWMT.

In my case, only a third of the google referrer URLs come in with the /url format _and_ position data.

Regards, Thomas

[redflymarketing]

Sorry Matt, completely missing the point. If we KNOW what keywords convert and we KNOW what keywords generate the highest ROI, why NOT target those keywords? Why not check the progress of that keywords?

I think you miss the point with a lot of your videos completely as you don't have ROI to measure, you don't have revenue generating keywords that you need to track. You should bear this in mind when doing future videos.

I notice that you didn't even mention the search API?

[bigal21110]

@redflymarketing thumbs up but i don't think he is missing the point...just remember he is working FOR GOOGLE so he has to be political.

[redflymarketing]

@bigal21110 Fair enough, you are right, but he should know better than to expect that we will all just check our rankings manually. This gives us the "Sorry, you don't look like a human to us, please use another search engine" message.

I completely agree and understand why Google don't want automatic queries, that's why we use the search APIs. Google should know that webmasters DO this so why not give the best advice possible?

I makes sense to track your keyword rankings, even for the UX

[ScienceAround]

@redflymarketing yup, monies change everything

[figurethis2]

webmasters will always check their rankings, its part and parcel of it. (also gives us something to obsess over)

[VorticonCmdr]

Thanks for the answer. But sounds like Google is really helpless. I happed to have that problem (big penalty) and there wasn't even a simple hint in the Webmaster Tools. What should I do when I must/want that particular domain because it's my name/trademark/... ?

I am sorry but for me it sounds like Google did surrender to the spammers but not solving the problem in order to help us "normal" guys.

:-(

[djpaisley]

Matt... Boss is asking the question, how can we do this today?

(i am testing multiple tools to see if they work or not and asking therm if they violate GWG... and she keeps asking me for this one thing.. BUT.. i told her we can't violate the GWG rules... HELP!)

[djpaisley]

Matt,

Will the Ajax API be able exported to some type of report, etc? Via Google analytics? Google Webmaster Tools? For Historical Data to show SEO Clients? Great advice on video .. we know what phrases convert, etc.. but need to show client progress on those terms as justification for SEO payments.

[gthing32]

This was a non-answer. Nobody ever said anything about only focusing on one or two "trophy" phrases. The guy asked one questions and Matt answered something completely different. Once we have our "holistic" view of the keywords our site is doing well for, and we want to improve those, you better believe we're going to be watching the rankings. The question is, what's the best way to do that?

[redflymarketing]

@gthing32 EXACTLY! Matt, as nice ad all as he is always seems to forget that we're running a business (most of us), not a blog site where there's nothing to track but engagement. Yet another video where Matt has glossed over the original questions with some predictable Google boilerplate.

[schawel]

This is old Chris Anderson style philo. Very solid advice but a bit tired and played to the more advanced user. More and more people are optimizing for the various channels and creating communities/campaigns around derivatives of a certain keyword. Look at Google's... * Everything * Images * Videos * Maps * News * Shopping * Books  * Blogs * Updates * Discussions

[figurethis2]

As always Matt, thanks for the info

[bizzchannel]

look at the holistic picture

[Alexeixx3]

What about using the keywords page in google webmaster tools?

[seanybyne1982]

@Alexeixx3 Yeah... wouldnt this work too for checking out what longtails you are ranking for?? As apposed to checking your server logs??

[TechieGeek1]

You're right you can optimize a site much more for your time if you skip "checking keyword rankings".

[bigal21110]

very good advise!

[chiasma72]

Matt, Matt, Matt...what's up with the calm tone of voice? I wanna see you get mad. Furrowed brow and all that. Just once. Haha! Kidding. :-) Thanks for the info., and Tommo, thanks for asking.

[ScienceAround]

that was an answer from the land of rainbows and unicorns :) The best way to check your ranks is to use Firefox addon.

[thrillerboy20]

@ScienceAround What addon would that be?

[ScienceAround]

@thrillerboy20 it's called "rank checker" tools. seobook. com/firefox/rank-checker/

[imrankhanseo]

Yes That a nice suggestion matt;

but you are saying do not use only a term but use a phrase to search it...

But when people looking for a particular business or keyword then how can they target on phrase instead of keyword; I know they can include their keyword in the phrase but when they are checking the rank they just go for keyword..

Little bit confusing..

Regards

Imran Khan

[subrealms]

This is interesting since lynda.com's SEO tutorials suggest working towards "keyword gems", contradicting with what you said.

[PatrickSMCable]

Surprised Matt did not mention the new "search queries" feature of Google Webmaster Tools, which is probably the best way to check your site's rankings, if you insist on doing so.

[wearealltubes]

@PatrickSMCable I agree - though it really does the same thing as gg analytics. I've been comparing the data from both programs and finding some disparity - perhaps he knows & is keeping quiet about GWTs new function being a bit buggy at the mo ( that's just a guess, obviously!)

[daveashe]

Good answer as always, everyone is always going after the trophy phrases. I've found some really unexpected keywords coming up in my google analytics. Most of the SEO 'Gurus' on uk business forums think that you cant learn SEO from just watching your videos. I beg to differ.

[iceveiled]

god help us all. the "first" crowd of assclowns has discovered googlewebmasterhelp channel.

[MMOStars]

@iceveiled we knew that eventually aesholes from blogspot will be spamming videos as well.

[renanpoa]

Matt, your reaction in "Okey Tommo..." LOL!!! Priceless!! (MasterCard's like)

[xpose2000]

Great answer and I completely agree with it. Landing one of those trophy keywords is a long shot, so don't waste time concentrating on them.

[wearealltubes]

@xpose2000 I disagree with that! It all depends on the term, of course, but putting effort into the big phrases brings about long-tail success all by itself.

[mattsoreco]

No Landlubber today?

[montytampon]

third!