If you want to win at SEO, having data to illuminate your results is critical.
Without it, you're stuck in the dark, hoping your campaigns will work, but not knowing which campaigns are succeeding and which are failing.
Usually the most accessible useful information you have is this: where does my site rank on the search engine results page (SERP) for a given keyword?
Of course, it helps to know a bunch of other metrics, like how much search volume this keyword has, the average click-through rate per SERP position, and what SERP features you're fighting for.
But the main information you need is: what does the search results page look like for this keyword?
Tools that provide this information are called SERP tracking tools. There are many of them, some of which do slightly different things. This article will help you identify which SERP tracker might be best for your use case.
What is SERP Tracking Software?
SERP tracking software provides data on the appearance of the search results page for a given search query.
Many tools go beyond this basic delivery to show whereareranking of the site in the SERP. They are often referred to as "ranking crawlers" and are a very common SEO tool.
Others will provide historical data about the SERP itself: which pages rank for, the keyword's search volume, the keyword's CPC, and which featured snippets appear.
Some newer tools look at the SERPs holistically and tell you not only which pages are ranking for the keyword in question, but also what content is included on the pages that are ranking for it. For example, HubSpot might rank for the keyword "best SEO tools," but in your post, which pagestheyLink to? These tools are calledthe sound around"tools orSERP Visibilitytools and are increasingly used by SEOs, growth marketers, product marketers, and digital PR professionals to measure andimprove brand and product awareness.
And then of course some tools just give you raw access to the SERP data and let you do whatever you want with it.
This list will cover a variety of the SERP software types above. For each software on the list, I'll explain what it is, what it does, why I like it, and how much it costs.
- Som Surround da Semrush
- SE Classification
- Google search console
- Serp API
- was SERP
- SEOMonitor
- Accuranker
- grade tracker
- SERP Statistics
1. Semrush surround sound
What's that: Som Surround da Semrushis a unique SERP tracking tool that unlocks data on more than just your sites and rankings.
Instead, this tool allows you to analyze which pages rank for a particular keyword and how you can benefit from it. Let's say, for example, that the keyword is "best SEO software".
With this tool, you can see which sites rank in the top 10, top 20, or top 30 for that keyword. You can then see how many of those sites mention your brand or link to your site. This provides a metric for “visibility” – essentially, what percentage of the overall SERP mentions you and your brand.
In addition to the surround sound product, SEMRush is also an all-in-one digital marketing platform with rank tracking, keyword research, competitive analysis, website audit tools, and much more.
Because we like it:SEO is obviously a highly leveraged marketing channel. But if you look at the click-through rate that goes to a single page in the SERP ranking, it's not that high. Position one is down 40% on average, which is not bad. But then position 2 drops to around 11%.
But what if your brand could be mentioned in multiple listings on the front page? So your exposure and traffic would accumulate on each channel. Instead of only getting 11% CTR for position 2, ifmonopolize the SERPsand are listed ineach page, then your brand coverage is universal. gives the same name“Surround sound” effect.
How it works:the tool is quite simple to use, which is a plus. Forcreate a surround sound campaign, enter the keywords that interest you the most. I recommend somethingbottom of funnel, because they will be more valuable when it comes to recognizing the product.
In fact, you can choose multiple keywords and you'll likely get more useful results if you do, so let's add some variations like "best SEO tools" and simply "SEO software." Then we will change the "SERP depth" to the top 20 positions and add our brand and domain. Adding competitors brings out the super power of this tool. You will be able to see how your coverage compares to similar brands and where they are mentioned (in list articles and the like) who might want to mention you too, thus increasing your SERP coverage!
Then click "Save Campaign" and you will be able to see the overview dashboard and top level metrics:
You can also drill down into individual keywords to see what their viewability scores are for each campaign and even identify pages where you might be mentioned:
You can then click on each keyword and see which specific pages mention and/or link to your brand or domain or your competitors' domains:
For the keyword "SEO tools," Semrush is mentioned or linked to on pages ranked 3, 4, 6, and 8. Place one mentions two competitors, but not Semrush. This would be a great place to start your outreach.
How much does it cost:Free to try.
2. SE Classification
What's that:SE Ranking is a complete SEO software that serves agencies and small and medium-sized companies.
Its SEO toolset includes a keyword rank tracker, site audit functionality, on-page SEO analysis, backlink tracking, and keyword planning and research tools.
The keyword rank tracker, in particular, fits our definition of a SERP tracking tool. It allows you to upload a list of keywords and track their position as well as the SERPs over time.
Because we like it:SE Ranking offers a buffet of excellent SEO tools for a wide range of audiences. It doesn't take months to set up or learn how to use it. The interface is easy to use and the ranking tracking functionality is simple.
For SEOs and marketers who just want to get started with top SEO tools and SERP tracking functionality, this product is great.
How it works:For rank tracking functionality, simply choose your keyword or keywords. You can upload multiple sets of keywords as campaigns and view aggregated metrics for your campaigns, such as % in top 10 and your overall search visibility.
While this doesn't provide a ton of data about other SERP positions, competitors, or SERP features, it does a good job of providing simple keyword rank tracking data, such as average position, traffic forecasts, and trends over the course of time. time. .
How much does it cost:plans start at $39.20/mo. This is based on 250 keywords tracked for rank tracking. They also have discounts for how often you update your tracking. If you switch to weekly updates, your monthly cost drops to $23.52/mo. More detailed price estimates are available atits website.
3. Google Search Console
What's that:Google Search Console is the free set of SEO tools that everyone running a website should be using.
You can submit sitemaps to Google for tracking, measure your keyword performance (which includes clicks and click-through rate from the SERPs to your pages), and track everything based on location and device.
Additionally, it is great for identifying website issues such as website crawling, website and page speed, security, indexing, mobile usability, and structured data.
Because we like it:for starters, it's free. And since it's from Google, you can get the data directly from the source. In addition, webmaster tools such as sitemap submission and auditing for mobile friendliness, site speed, and crawling issues are great QA and management tools.
However, the data and visualizations it provides are limited on their own, so I recommend using this tool in conjunction with other SEO tools and data visualization platforms.
How it works:Data Studio, DashThis, Databox to visualize.
How much does it cost:$ 0.
4. Serp API
What's that:serpapi.com is different from others on this list in that it is simply an API that provides raw data and access to the search results page.
This is great for technical SEOs and marketers who have custom use cases. In fact, this is partly howHubSpot's Alex Birkett created the first data productfor himthe sound aroundstrategy.
However, using a tool like this, you won't get summary metrics like average position or SERP visibility out of the box. You will have to do some data processing.
Because we like it:having raw access to an API can be extremely useful. It can allow you to create your own tools if the ones on the market are not enough. Specifically for this API (because there are so many), it's good because Google won't stop you from scraping your pages, it's relatively affordable, and the data is accurate and location-specific.
How it works:The way you use this tool depends on the technology stack and the programming language you use. It's basically raw data, so it's up to you how to use it.
A nice high level illustration is available on their home page. You can enter a location and a keyword, and that shows what the SERP looks like, as well as the metadata you'll provide related to that search:
When you use the API, you will probably integrate it into an existing tool or request the API through a programming language. The home page also shows you several ways to do this, depending on the language you use:
How much does it cost:cost depends on usage, starting at $50/mo for up to 5,000 searches per month. When you want to upgrade, it's $150/month for up to 15,000 searches. This expands to business use cases.
5. Zen Snake
What's that:Zenserpis another API that allows you to scrape search engine results pages directly and access the raw data. Again, like serpapi.com, this alone does not provide summary metrics or position tracking, but it does allow you to access and own the data so you can leverage it however you wish.
Because we like it:Zenserp is one of the most affordable advanced search APIs I've come across, starting at just $29/mo. It scales incredibly well, scaling up to 1,000,0000 searches per month.
It includes several search APIs, including the Google Images API, Google Trends API, Google Maps API, Google News API, YouTube API, Bing Search API, and more.
It really is a complete package when it comes to directly accessing the data from the search results page.
How it works:Similar to serpapi.com, how you use Zenserp depends on your technology stack, your use case, and your preferred programming languages.
You can test it in a limited way on your website and see what kind of metadata it provides:
You can access your API endpoint with almost any programming language, from Javascript to Python (and R, but no one mentions R).
How much does it cost:starts at just $29/month for up to 5,000 searches (this includes all SERP types). Enterprise pricing is $1,599/month, and that includes 1,000,000 searches per month plus "custom features."
6. SEO Monitor
What's that:SEO Monitor is an all-in-one SEO software marketed to agencies. These include a ranking tracker, organic traffic dashboards and analytics, SEO forecasting, and keyword research tools. They also have agency-specific features like dashboards and reporting tools for clients.
Because we like it:SEO Monitor has a powerful and comprehensive set of tools, but what sets it apart is its focus on agencies. There are many products that lean more towards a specific feature set and have more customizable and powerful features, but for the specific things that SEO agencies often worry about, SEO Monitor offers a great solution.
How it works:Their ranking tracker offers multiple levels of reporting, from the keyword level ("best SEO software") to the keyword group level (content groups or tagged keywords) to keyword group intelligence and landing page tracking.
For basic keyword and keyword group reports, it's pretty similar to how other tools work. You choose your keyword or set of keywords, and SEO Monitor provides desktop and mobile rankings every 24 hours. This includes search volume estimates, as well as SERP features, which provide slightly more holistic data than some other simple ranking trackers.
How much does it cost:you can check theprice calculatoron your page (based on tracked keywords). The starting price, with a minimum of 4,000 keywords and a single site, is $217/month. The prices changed depending on the keywords and the number of sites.
7. Precision
What's that:Accuranker is one of the most powerful keyword ranking trackers and SERP crawling tools. Unlike others on this list, they are not a complete SEO suite and specialize only in ranking tracking and SERP analysis.
Because we like it:First, instead of updating your positions and rankings on a daily or weekly basis, you can update your data on demand. This real-time tracking is powerful, especially if you're an agency working with multiple clients or running a large content operation with multiple subsets of keywords.
They also provide historical data about the SERP, including changes to SERP features and rankings.
Finally, they crawl at scale, allowing for multiple sites and millions of keywords (although that's expensive).
How it works:Their basic reports are like many other ranking trackers: just enter your list of keywords and track them over time. Simple user interface that you can use to explore your reports, and you can also email updates to your team on a regular cadence.
How much does it cost:Pricing starts at $109/month, and that allows you to track up to 1,000 keywords. If you want to scale up to 50,000 keywords, it will cost you $2,149 per month. Anything beyond that is custom enterprise pricing and you'll need to talk to sales. Pricing is based on the number of keywords tracked.
8. Ranking Tracker
What's that:The name is "Ranktracker" so it's obvious that it tracks keyword rankings.
But they also have other tools like "keyword finder" where you can get a list of related keywords from a single input keyword.
They also have site audit and project management functions. Finally, they have a “SERP checker” where you can analyze the current state of any search results page.
Because we like it:First, the tools are simple and useful. While they may not have all the SEO tools you need, their keyword research tool is easy to use and offers a ton of insights you may not have considered. Their SERP checker is also a great and simple tool to see if a particular keyword is worth competing for.
Lastly, the rank tracker is also simple and provides nice clean reports.
How it works:It all starts with your keyword list, but from there you can go to your website and the country, region or city that interests you. This allows you to see your ranking in which locations.
They also allow you to switch between mobile and desktop views, so you can check your SERP ranking on different platforms.
Two interesting features:Daily email alerts and white-label reports.
Daily email reports, because who has time to manually check these things all the time? And white label reporting is a really great feature for agencies looking to add a nice branding touch.
Finally, it is the most affordable tool on our list, making it ideal for sole proprietors and those on a budget.
How much does it cost:This is the most affordable on our list, starting at just $7.20/month. This allows you to track up to 100 keywords, but it's a great starting price. It also has many other limitations like only 2 users on this plan and only 50 keyword difficulty checks.
If it's to scale, I can see these limitations starting to get in the way.
But luckily, you can upgrade to the Hex Data plan for $83.60/mo, which allows you to track up to 2,000 keywords.
9. SERP Statistics
What's that:SERPStat calls itself a "growth hacking tool". It is made up of a few different modules intended primarily for SEOs: Rank Tracking, Backlink Analysis, Keyword Research, Site Audit, and Competitor Research.
When you look at it, they offer a lot of cool features in these modules, including:
- Analysis of the competition in organic and paid searches
- In-depth keyword analysis
- Batch analysis of keywords and domains
- Contextual advertising analysis
- text analysis
- Grouping
- SERP Tracking
- Team management
However, for our purposes, it does two SERP tracking things: it tracks the SERPs and it tracks your keyword rankings.
Because we like it:As mentioned, it is very feature-rich. For the small SEO or marketing team, it offers several tools you could want in one package.
For ranking tracking, you can also get a lot of granularity. Shows historical data. You can split by search location and device types.
And interestingly, you can see the traffic distribution for your set of keywords:
How it works:All you have to do is add your keywords and tag them in any category you want.
From there, you can view your reports in different formats, such as aggregates or my personal favorite, time series:
How much does it cost:base pricing starts at $69/mo. This gets you 15,000 position checks per month, as well as API access (all plans include API access, and the basic plan gets you 100,000 credits). Enterprise pricing goes up to $499/mo.
Conclusion
When looking for SERP tracking software, the first question to ask is "what exactly do I mean by SERP tracking?"
Because, as you've seen in this list, many tools provide data related to search engine results pages. But each of these tools shows a different angle on the SERPs.
Something likethe sound aroundby Semush, gives you a holistic view of the SERPs, including not only how your site ranks, but also how other pages rank and link to them.
Some are ranking trackers that progressively track your site or keyword positions over time.
Some are simply APIs to deliver the raw data on the SERPs so you can do whatever you want with it.
But no matter what your use case is or how complex it is, this list should give you the right tool for the job.