There’s a lot of free keyword rank checker tools online, but how do you know which is best?
We put together this article to compare the most popular keyword rank checking tools. It includes everything from our analysis of each tool’s features, to the results of my own testing, so you can find the best free keyword rank checking tool for your specific needs.
WOORANK
WooRank’s dashboard gives technical information on your site and allows you to add competitor sites’ URLs so you can make comparisons and see how well your website ranks against theirs.
The website review function will give you your site’s current ranking (not only in terms of keyword ranking but SEO as a whole) and gives positive feedback on what you’re doing right in addition to highlighting sections where you can make improvements. This feature has a continuity option so that you can review your site multiple times and look at previous reports to see how well your ranking has improved.
WooRanking will also automatically pick up on the keywords you’ve likely used, and make suggestions for keywords that you might have missed in your content. Don’t worry if some of the keywords you used don’t show up in the automated list—WooRanking allows you manually add them to the words you want the tool to rank.
You’ll be able to test WooRanking with a free 7-day trial before deciding whether you want to make use of the Pro Plan (limited to one project) at $49 per month or the Premium plan at $149 a month.
AHREFS
Many critics who recommend SEMRush cite Ahrefs as their second favorite keyword ranking tool. Ahrefs is best used in conjunction with another keyword ranking tool, as it mainly focuses on backlinks, but is quite competent as a keyword ranking tool as well. You’ll be able to see what external links your competition is using, as well as their top pages and IPs. Ahrefs also provides excellent customer service, including support, so you’ll never find yourself totally at a loss as to how to operate the tool.
There are a host of great features included, but as a keyword ranking tool, its top function is to automatically find the keyword (or keywords) your site is ranking on. You’ll also be able to specify which country’s search engine results you want Ahrefs to analyze for your site, so you get a localized report. This is an underrated feature, as many site owners don’t quite understand that you’ll typically rank better in your country (which is largely your focused target market) than worldwide.
Although there is a (very) limited free version, we would recommend opting for the $79 per month package.
ADVANCED WEB RANKING
Advanced Web Ranking operates both as a desktop and cloud-based tool for website ranking. This keyword ranking tool also allows you to track an unlimited number of websites—meaning you won’t have to choose a top-ten list of your competitors to monitor and worry that the ones you had to leave out might be doing unexpectedly better.
Using the Advanced Web Ranking tool, you’ll be able to automate updated reports on how well your website or page is ranking according to a schedule of your choosing. If you do need to generate results at the drop of a hat—as part of a business presentation or sales pitch, for example—you’ll also be able to update the data manually by using the refresh option.
Available in four package options (Standard, Professional, Enterprise, and Server), the Advanced Web Ranking software can be purchased as a stand-alone or as part of the Advanced Link Manager. Most website owners are satisfied with the Standard package ($49 per month), but we would recommend opting for the Pro package ($99 per month) for the full benefits of Advanced Link Manager’s SEO features—including printable reports, receiving reports by email, and a localized report.
SEO CENTRO
SEO Centro is a general online SEO tool that offers a surprising amount of features; SEO Analyzer, Meta Tag Analyzer, Meta Tag Generator, Keyword Positioning Check, Page Speed Analysis, Mobile Friendly Analysis, Keyword Density Tool, Keyword Suggestion Tool, Page Keyword Analyzer, Page Rank Check Tool, Social Link Popularity Tool, and a few others.
This wide array of available functions makes it very attractive, but to get the same benefits that our top-ranking suggestions offer with one dashboard, you need to open each tool’s dashboard individually, making for a lot of time spent gathering your data. Using the Rank Checker will give you a report on a single keyword’s rank on various search engines and that keyword’s history—but no other information.
When signing up for SEO Centro, you get a two-day free trial that can be canceled at any time during that period, and their three packages only really vary in how many site analyses you’ll be able to do per month and how many times you can ask for personal SEO Support. Additionally, Pro ($10 a month) and Premium ($20 a month) both allow for only one user, but Enterprise (at $40 a month) allows for multiple users.
SIMILARWEB
SimilarWeb is a great tool for obtaining traffic insights for any website. All you need to do is type your URL in and within seconds this tool will give you a report on your global, country, and category ranking. Included is a graph showing the number of times a site has been visited in a week over the last six months.
Although not strictly keyword ranking, SimilarWeb will give you an idea of how well your site is doing with regards to traffic—information that can supplement any keyword ranking tool’s reports, especially if you’ve opted for a ranking tool that doesn’t show you which sites are doing better than yours. SimilarWeb will also give you an indication of how many views your site has received as a result of social media, searches, referrals, and ads.
You’ll also be able to add competitors that you want SimilarWeb to track, and in return, the tool will make its suggestions for competitors it believes you should keep an eye on too.
When opting for a basic account ($99 per month) or the advanced account ($599 per month), you’ll be offered a free trial period. The enterprise account ($2999 per month) does not have a trial period.
AUTHORITY LABS
Authority Labs was designed to be easy to use as a rank tracking application. There are several features, most importantly the ability to track keywords on a daily basis for Google, Bing and Yahoo search page results, with an estimated search volume. You’ll also be able to track your keyword ranking on a local basis, even down to a specific area (using the zip code), and compare it to your competitors’ results.
Should you need copies of reports on-hand, Authority Labs allows you to export a PDF or CSV of your results. The tool also allows you to compare your ranking to the previous day, previous week, previous month, three months ago, or any other date that you specify.
Authority Labs also understands that keyword ranking doesn’t only apply to the visible text on your site, and offers results to image, news, video, shopping, Google Places, and snippets results too.
Authority Labs offers a free 30-day trial. Authority Labs Plus, a package geared toward small businesses, costs $49 a month, and their most popular option (the Pro plan) is only $99 a month. The Pro Plus and Enterprise plans are directed toward consultants and agencies, costing $225 and $450 respectively.
RANKWATCH
RanksWatch is a cloud-based software developed to be more than just a rank tracker. Unfortunately, some of the features are limited—the free tools are quite expensive, but to get the full benefit of RankWatch, you’ll have to purchase one of their plans. They have Medium, Large, or Extra Large, ranging from $29 to $449 per month (there’s also a custom plan, where you get to choose how many keywords you want to track: prices start at $58 but can be as high as $5987 per month).
The free tools include a website analyzer, mobile-friendly test, and Google algorithm updates. Limited tools (which require a package, although a free 14-day trial is offered) allow for SEO management, white label solutions, a keyword archive, local rank tracking, email notifications, the ability to compare your results with competitors’, integration with Google Webmaster, a backlink analysis, and keyword suggestions.
Despite its many strengths as an affordable keyword ranking tool (being competitively priced compared to the other paid tools we’ve mentioned), RankWatch only appears as number 14 on our list for two crucial reasons. Its keyword research tool lacks the power you would expect, and its backlink checker doesn’t yield appropriate results on a consistent basis.
MOZ RANK TRACKER
Although Moz is considered to be a leading SEO consulting company, their Rank Tracker falls short of the standard set by a few other high ranking tools—at least in our opinion. Moz Pro does offer a powerful rank tracking tool that allows you to get reports on your site, page, and keywords’ search engine results for Google, Yahoo, and Bing via email, and the tool stores your reports for comparison at your convenience. You’ll be able to see your ranking on a global, national, and local scale—and by local we mean city and neighborhood.
The Moz Pro package (which the Moz Rank Tracker falls under) will allow you to compare your results to competitors using the Moz Domain Authority tool. With their SEO tools, you’ll also be able to optimize your search engine results, compare mobile versus desktop rankings, and find any issues with your site picked up by the software’s crawlers.
There is a 30-day free trial period offered, after which you’ll have the choice of Standard, Medium, Large, or Premium Moz Pro packaged, ranging from $99 to $599 per month. There is a slight discount available should you opt to pay annually.
RANKSCANNER
Another cloud-based search engine results page tracking tool, RankScanner is packed with a host of useful tools. This tool will analyze your SEO performance automatically (once you’ve set up a package) once you’ve let the tool know which keywords you want it to rank and will provide you with algorithms containing suggestions for new keywords you should start integrating into your site.
RankScanner will also notify you of changes to your ranking status, and should your site’s rating drop you’ll be given specific suggestions for improvements. RankScanner also promises 100% accuracy for all their keyword tracking, and pledge to immediately run a second scan at no extra cost should they suspect any errors with their report.
The number of keywords you can ask RanksScanner to track for you differs from package to package, as do the number of Buzz mentions offered and regularity of reports. The Basic Package, geared for start-ups and blogs, is free of charge and (of course) the most limited option available, but their most popular option is the Silver Package (at about $10 a month). RankScanner also offers a Gold Package for advanced users at $32.50 a month, and a Platinum Package for enterprise users at $55 per month.
MICROSITE MASTER
Microsite Master offers daily keyword rank tracking for Google, Yahoo, Bing, and several other search engines, allowing you to see where and how your site can be improved.
You’ll also be able to see where other sites rank for the same keywords you use, so you can pick up on Google updates and compare your success to that of your competitors. The Microsite Master SEO Scoreboard makes this easy to do, offering an overview report on one screen for easy review.
The keyword ranking tool also allows you to integrate Analytics and Clicky so you can see where most of your site’s traffic is originating (specifically which keywords and phrases are leading to better ranking. You’ll be able to monitor how your links and contents are contributing to your rank status, and see where you can improve.
Microsite Master’s free account doesn’t offer all of these features and limits your searches to ten keywords, but you’ll still benefit from daily updates. The “Mom’s Basement” package shoots your keyword limit up to 150 for only $20 a month, but we would recommend signing up for the Affiliate account ($50 per month, 650 keywords) as a minimum for established sites.
Conclusion
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