“You can’t improve what you don’t measure”
This quote from Peter Drucker still resonated with me from my time in business school.
And it’s absolutely true for SEO. You will see yourself achieving better results if you measure precisely your rankings and try to understand why you go up or down.
This is why a SERP tracker is a necessary tool in your business.
But there are many offerings, and if you’re like me, you want nothing less than the best SERP tracker.
Luckily for you, we’ve purchased them all and benchmarked them against each other.
So what is the best SERP tracker?
Let’s find out.
Why do you need rank tracking?
SERP tracking tools help you understand your position on the search engine. Most SEO tools have their own SERP tracker, but they differ a lot.
These differences are usually in how exhaustive the SERP tracking software analyzes your performance on search engines, but also in how often they’re updated, and how easy they are to use.
If you’ve been in the SEO world for a while, you know the panic a new algorithm update can cause. As soon as the search engine update rolled out, it’s important to know how well you’re faring.
If you dropped positions on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page, btw) you should know as fast as possible.
With this information, you can then adapt your articles to what search engines want. And the only way to get this information is with a good SERP Tracker.
But today, most SEO tools advertise that they have the best SERP tracking features.
So how can you choose?
What is the best rank tracking tool for you?
Factors to consider in a good SERP tracking tool
SERP tracking may seem straightforward. You need a tool that analyzes search engines and tells you how high up you are.
But rank tracking has a lot of facets to it. Here’s what you should keep in mind when looking for the best SERP tracking tools:
- Crawl dates. If a tool doesn’t update their rank tracking too often, chances are that you won’t get extremely valuable information when you need it.
- Keywords tracked. If you have a small site, you won’t need to track thousands of keywords. In that case, you can make due with a cheaper alternative.
- Reporting data. What information do you get from a tool’s rank tracking? If you just need a keyword’s current rank, a lot of SERP tracking software have you covered. If you need advanced historical data, you’ll need something more expensive.
- What search engine you’re competing on. We only have experience with Google, and we think that’s the case for most SEOs. It’s just the most profitable platform. But if your site is also focused on Bing, or Yandex, coverage for those is important.
- Pricing. Even if you know what the best search engine ranking tool is, you shouldn’t go and buy it instantly. It’s important to consider your budget, and the rank tracking tool’s price.
- Your skill level. A tool like AccuRanker is comprehensive, but it can be inaccessible to beginners. In that case, the Mangools suite could be better, even if it’s not as good at rank tracking.
- Other tools. A rank tracker will usually also feature tools like mention alerts, and domain tracker.
Considering these factors, we rounded up the best rank tracker tools.
Best SERP Tracking Tools
Keep in mind that the rank tracker tools you’ll see below also have tons of other SEO tools in their suite. We’re not ranking these apps based on their overall performance. We’re just looking at the rank tracker functionalities, and how they can help your affiliate site.
1 SERPWoo
SERPWoo’s main strength is in its complex feature set. With it, SEOs can track individual keywords, on different search engines or devices.
They can also analyze the overall performance of particular sites, and a combo of domain-keywords. This is great to keep an eye on your own keyword rankings, but it’s also a great tool to analyze your competition.
SERPWoo’s interface may seem crowded when you first open it, but that’s just a hallmark of a good rank tracker. SERP features are complex, so a good overview is required if you want an accurate representation of your search engine ranking position.
Not to mention, users can easily get used to its interface.
If you want to track keyword rankings without too much hassle, you can also set-up alerts with SERPWoo. They’ll notify you whenever your tracked keywords either rise or drop.
SERPWoo also offers great API access. If you want to power-up your SEO tool with other integrations, it’s possible in SERPWoo.
So what about price?
SERPWoo has a lot of pricing options, ranging from $49.95 to $299.95. The cheapest option lets you track 750 keywords per month, which is a pretty decent number.
SERPWoo also gives you access to a keyword research tool, and advanced functionalities for reporting SERP data. Moreover, SERPWoo’s ORM (Online Reputation Management) system is a great tool to track your company’s mentions.
All in all, SERPWoo might not be super beginner-friendly, and its alerts system could take a while to master, But it remains one of the best SERP tracking software on the market.
2 SE Ranking
SE Ranking is an all-in-one SEO tool with plenty of tools on its belt.
First, let’s get a quick round-up of what SE can do:
- SERP tracking (who would’ve guessed?)
- Keyword research and generation
- Site crawling and auditing tools
- Social media marketing tools
- On-page content enrichment features
SE Ranking prides itself on being very user-friendly. That is its USP, and for the most part, it’s true. While any all-in-one SEO tool will have tons of features and dashboard, making it hard for some people to get a hang of it, SE Ranking has a pretty flat learning curve.
Site crawling, keyword research, and social media aren’t extremely relevant for this article, so we won’t go too in-depth with it.
The only thing we’ll mention is that the keyword research tool isn’t impressive. If that’s important to you, you might want to check out other tools.
So how good is SE Ranking as far as SERP tools are concerned?
It’s pretty good. SE Ranking lets you analyze individual keywords, monitor historical data, and understand how your site is progressing on the SERP.
All of these data sets are laid out in easy to follow dashboards. These tools all fit in nicely with their other valuable functionalities, like the site audit.
SE Ranking also tracks all the major search engines, including Google, Bing, Yandex, and even YouTube.
As far as rank trackers go, SE Ranking is a very good choice.
Not to mention, it’s extremely affordable, although the pricing scheme can be complicated to navigate. Here’s a glimpse of it:
You can choose how often SE Ranking updates your keyword tracking. For an annual subscription, you’ll pay $23 each month if you want daily updates.
But if you’re fine with your keyword tracking being updated once a week, you can pay as little as $15 each month. You’ll get 250 keywords to track for this price point.
We’re mentioning all of this because we want to underline how accessible this tool is. It’s both affordable, and easy to use for beginner SEOs. If you’re new to SERP checker tools, give it a try.
3 AccuRanker
AccuRanker has a professional set of SERP checker tools. It’s a platform geared towards experienced SEOs and agencies that need to manage multiple websites.
AccuRanker is pretty bold in their claims. “Fastest” and “most accurate” get thrown around a lot. We can’t say for sure if these are all true, but what we know for a fact is that AccuRanker performs really well.
The biggest benefit of the tool: On-demand SERP analysis. Even if you don’t need an update for the SERP analysis, their keyword rankings still get one every day. These are all huge benefits for professional SEO that need constant updates on their site’s performance.
And they’re great in case a busy client needs a quick answer.
The core of the tool — analyzing Google rankings — is also easy to navigate, and provides a ton of customizable metrics.
You can analyze a search ranking based on current position, historical metrics, whether or not it’s in the top 500, and a lot of other metrics. Of course, all of these functionalities can also be used to analyze your competition.
So what about reporting?
Keyword ranking tools that want to market themselves to agencies need advanced reporting features to serve their audience.
AccuRanker doesn’t disappoint. You can generate custom reports for any set of data available in SERP tracker tools, with a nice drag-and-drop report builder.
Not to mention, AccuRanker is great at integrating with other tools. You can install APIs from relevant tools, like the Google Data Studio, Google Analytics, Databox or Google Search Console.
AccuRanker is the best SERP checker tool for agencies.
So what’s the damage?
AccuRanker is not as expensive as you might expect, although it is on the pricey side. For 1000 tracked keywords, you’ll spend $99/month on an AccuRanker subscription.
The more keywords you need, the more expensive it gets. All plans have a discount if you pay for a full year in advance.
4 Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of our favorite tools at Authority Hacker. We use it everyday to do keyword research, and find link building opportunities. If you’re looking for a web crawler, you won’t need to look any further.
But its SERP keyword tracker isn’t the most reliable.
Let’s start with the good stuff: interface and metrics.
Ahrefs’ SERP ranking tools are well organized, and it’s easy to get quick insights on a SERP.
It’ll show the basic information, like keyword rank, average position, and some historical metrics. Ahrefs also displays icons for the Google SERP features available on each individual SERP, like what type of featured snippets there are on-page.
For advanced searches, users can also analyze advanced metrics like CPC, the number of SERP features capitalized by a page, and many more.
The only problem? Ahrefs only updates its search engine rankings every 7-5 days for the affordable subscription tiers.
That’s ok if you want to look at historical metrics, and get a general overview of your positions over time. But it’s far too slow to react to big changes.
If you need speedy updates, you might need a different SERP tracking solution.
So how much does Ahrefs cost?
The cheapest version is $99/month, and comes with 500 keywords for the SERP tracker tool. The most expensive version is $999/month, but it’s an agency plan.
Is Ahrefs for you?
If you need an all-in-one SEO tool, with limited keyword rank tracking capabilities, Ahrefs is the best tool on the market. We couldn’t recommend it enough.
It’s the second largest crawler online (after Google), its keyword research tools are amazing, and it’s got good backlink research and site audits.
If you’re looking for just tracking tools… you might want to pick other options on this list.
5 Serpwatch
Serpwatch is a great alternative to AccuRanker. It’s geared towards agencies, and its features help with more than just rank tracking.
Here’s an overview of what you get with a Serpwatch subscription:
- SERP analysis and rank tracking.
- Keyword analysis and research.
- White-labeling capabilities.
- Customer management.
- Extensive report generation.
Every tool on this list provides advanced web ranking stats. But like AccuRanker, Serpwatch has tons of capabilities that are better suited for agencies, rather than the average SEO.
The advanced reports and white-labeling make it great for companies that need access to good data, but also have clients to keep happy.
Serpwatch can analyze particular keywords, and domain-keyword combinations to provide the data you need. This data includes current rankings, as well as historical metrics, and entire site breakdowns. You can also update rankings each hour, if you want. The default timer for updates is 24 hours.
That’s also the only way to analyze your competition. It’s slightly disappointing that you don’t get a dedicated competition analysis dashboard, but users can make due with what’s available.
What is really missing from Serpwatch’s toolset is advanced backlink analysis. It’s not the best all-in-one SEO tool. But for agencies, it’s a good rank tracker.
Is it affordable though?
Yes, Serpwatch is one of the cheapest rank tracking tools. It only costs $29/month for an annual subscription. And you get 7500 keywords for that price. That’s huge.
6 Serpstat
Serpstat is another all-in-one search engine optimization suite. And it’s a pretty good one. If you’re looking for an in-depth breakdown of what Serpstat can do, check that blog post out.
Now, for a quick overview of what Serpstat offers:
- Advanced web ranking data for multiple search engines.
- Keyword and competitor research.
- Advertising data and management.
- Site audits and web crawling.
- A ton of APIs and integrations.
In terms of rank tracking features, Serpstat also has an exhaustive toolset. You can use it to rank specific SERPs, niches, or competitors.
And you can do it all in real-time, or schedule it. You can also segment your analysis based on locations, making it easy to track how you’re faring in specific areas.
But the rank tracking feature isn’t everything you can do with Serpstat. You can also crawl SERPs on the Google search engine, or other search engines to get data on things like “where could I target featured snippets?”
All of that can be integrated with third-party tools through Serpstat’s APIs.
Unfortunately, Serpstat’s UI could be improved upon. But that’s a good tradeoff when you consider the amount of data you get for the low price point.
Serpstat’s cheapest plan is $48/month. And you get 4000 daily searches for that money. Granted, these searches are spread across all of its features, not just the SERP checker. But it’s still an amazing price point for what you get.
7 SEMRush
SEMRush is the true jack of all trades in online marketing. From SEO to PPC and social media, SEMRush can do it all. To certain degrees of success.
As you might expect, that entails a steep learning curve. And it definitely means SEMRush is not for everyone. If you’re just starting your first affiliate site, you won’t need the advanced paid advertising support.
Even if you’re an experienced webmaster, with a few sites under your belt… you wouldn’t buy an SEMRush subscription if you’re not that active on Google Ads and you don’t need social media tracking.
But SEMRush is valuable for agencies or online entrepreneurs that have their eggs in all baskets.
So what about its SERP checker?
SEMRush has a decent keyword rank tracker. You can manually add keywords to the tool to see how you’re doing at a given time.
You can also set-up automated alerts about your performance, and your mentions. All in all, it’s a pretty good deal.
But it’s limited, even when compared to weaker SERP trackers like Ahrefs. So it doesn’t really justify the price tag, unless you’re in that very specific demographic that wants a little bit of everything.
Even then, you might get a better deal with multiple tools for your needs.
SEMRush’s cheapest plan is $119.95/month. And you only get 500 keywords for it.
8 Mangools: SERPChecker and SERPWatcher
Mangools has by far the best SEO suite for beginners. We reviewed their KWFinder a while back, which didn’t disappoint.
But do the SERPChecker and SERPWatcher rise up to the same level?
We think they do.
The SERPChecker is a search engine page crawler that analyzes the SERPs of keywords you want to target. It’s especially good for local results. It’s not too complex, or customizable, so it makes for an amazing beginner tool.
The SERPWatcher is the Mangools rank tracker tool, and it does a pretty good job. It’s updated on a daily basis, which means you can stay in touch with your performance on the SERP at any time, and react to events accordingly.
Not to mention, their ranking reports are top-notch, with a lot of valuable metrics visualized very well.
How much will this cost you though?
Mangools basic (which features all the Mangools tools) is only $30/month. That’s a very small price to pay, but unfortunately you only get 100 SERP look-ups, and 200 keywords to track. For a comprehensive solution, you’ll need the Premium plan. It’s $40/month, but it gives you 500 lookups and 700 keywords. More than enough for a beginner.
9 Sitechecker.pro
Sitechecker is a pretty good SEO tool. And it’s especially a good SERP checker.
Its features include:
- Site Audits – To gauge your website’s performance.
- Site Monitoring – To stay ahead of any technical SEO issues.
- Rank Tracker – To get notified of any relevant changes on the SERP.
- Backlink Tracker – Helps you keep track of the sites linking back to you.
- Chrome Extension – To do on-page checks really easily.
That’s a stacked toolset! Add keyword research to that, and Sitechecker could compete with things like Ahrefs or SEMRush.
But even as it stands, it’s a decent SERP checker. And an excellent rank tracker.
Some users complained about its onboarding. It seems hard to get started with. But most reviews are positive, so you should have no worries getting started with Sitechecker.
So what about its cost? Can you afford Sitechecker?
Sitechecker is more expensive than your average SERP checker. But with a minimum price point of $41/month, it’s still cheaper than most powerful SEO tools.
10 ProRankTracker
If you want a straightforward rank tracker that gets the job done, you can’t go wrong with ProRankTracker. White label reporting, automated report scheduling, and good data all make this the best tool for agencies that want to track SERP positions for their customers.
ProRankTracker is not a comprehensive tool. It doesn’t have quirky SEO gadgets or a feature for every department.
But if you need to crawl and track search engine pages, get daily updates about keyword positions, and generate white label reports, this might be the best tool on the list for you.
Especially thanks to its pricing. ProRankTracker is very affordable.
If you only want to track 100 keywords, you get away with $13.5/month. Sure, if you need more terms, and more features like on-demand updates, you can end up paying a lot. But the flexible pricing scheme makes it one of the best SERP keyword tracker tools.
Conclusion
It seems like every tool in the market has a position tracking feature now. And that’s a good thing.
But if you want an advanced rank tracker, you’ll need to consider it. We hope the nine options above helped you understand what each tool does right, and who they’re good for.
In our opinion, SE Ranking gets the job done the best. But even if Ahrefs gets infrequent updates, we’ll still show some love for our favorite SEO tool.
What’s the best SERP tracker for you?
