SEO agency: How to choose the best rank tracker
In this post I will write something about how to choose a best rank tracker for an SEO agency. Before I write this post, I've talked with many people from different SEO agencies, I asked them the same question: what are the most important factors to them when choosing an SEO rank tracker. I got almost the same answers. Now I want to share their points with you.
Rank accuracy is always the most important
Rank tracker accuracy
It's without doubt that the rank accuracy comes at the first place. The key of a rank tracker is telling you your ranks in search engines. It must be accurate. But I think some people just ignored this. They simply only skim through the reports a ranking tracker sends them, without making sure if the results are true. This is a big mistake for SEO agencies. You may be sending wrong data to your clients. Now it's more and more difficult to get the true ranking because results from search engines like Google are much influenced by personal factors. You can read this post to learn about personalized results: Are you doing SEO without a rank tracker? You're doing wrong.
How many keywords are you going to track?
Keywords quota is the thing you must consider before signing any contracts with any rank trackers. Not all the rank trackers can provide you the keywords quota that you demand. And some trackers charge a lot even for small number of keywords. One simple yet essential rule to determine the keyword number is to double it. Say if you're planning to track 500 keywords, make it 1000. There're two reasons for this. First, you should know that there're about 5 combinations for even a single keyword, you can learn more about this at: How to set rank tracker basics for SEO campaigns? A useful list for beginners. The second reason is always allow for unforeseen circumstances. You won't know on which day would your customer request you to add one device (desktop or mobile), or add one location for all the tracked keywords. You won't get in trouble if there is margin.
Track ranks for mobile devices
Mobile rank tracker
One fact you should keep in mind is, through the entire Internet, there is more traffic from mobile devices than desktop devices now, and the trend is increasing. Keep tracking of your site's mobile ranks is the same important as tracking desktop ranks. Although this is true, there're SERP trackers refuse to provide the feature to track mobile results. These are mostly the ranker that are born before the mobile traffic explosion. These trackers are the ones you should abandon. As a qualified SEO, you should know the mobile rank has large influence to your desktop ranks. Read Why you must track mobile ranks and 5 useful tips to improve mobile ranks for more details.
Track results from search engines other than Google
Almost all trackers can track rankings in Google, but not all trackers can also track other search engines. As an SEO agency, your customers' demands could be different, there must be the need to track ranks in Bing, Yahoo! or Yandex. So make sure to choose an SEO rank tracker that covers all the four search engines.
Once again, you will need the white label function
As I've mentioned in Are you using a free SEO rank tracker? 5 Reasons to use a paid SERP tracker, if you're an SEO agency, you must try the white label function. If you've not heard this yet, the white label means you can set up your own company's logo and brand name, then reports sent to your customers will have your company logo and name on, your customers will only see your company. All SEO agencies will like this function. With the white label function, you can keep a close connection between your company and your customers.
Simple to use, data presented clearly
For each of the rank trackers you try, ask yourself two questions: Is it simple to use? Is the data presented clearly? There're SERP trackers that are quite difficult to use, the web page is a mess, you get nothing at the first glance. A good rank tracker should be neatly organized, all data presented clearly in good order, you can get the most important key data about sites and ranks in seconds. As an SEO agency, you will have to browse the rank tracker page many times each day, if you have to waste several seconds each time, you will end up wasting numerous time of your life.
If you think there're are some other factors to consider, you're welcome to tell me and I will list it in this guide.
So these are the most important features a rank tracker should provide for an SEO agency, you can use this list to choose a good rank tracker or compare it with the tracker you are using now to see if it's a good one. You can check this list: the best SEO rank trackers.
