One of the most basic principles of search engine optimization (SEO) is keyword researching by usin keyword tracking tools. Keywords make up the fundamental part of SEO. To put things into perspective, every time someone searches for something online – usually via a popular search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo! – they use keywords. These come in many sizes, ranging from singular keywords to long-tail keywords.
For SEO, each keyword acts like a direct link between the query a user makes and the website that’s most optimized for that keyword. A successful keyword research campaign results into having your website featured on the top search engine results pages (SERPs). Achieving this for certain keywords is a giant leap forward, as more than 90% of all clicks happen on the first results page. Users rarely check the second or third page for a solution to their problem.
In order to make your life easier, we’ve compiled a list of the best keyword tracking tools the internet has to offer right now.
Why Are Keyword Tracking Tools Important?
That’s a great question! Your company must have an online presence if you want it to be successful. Tracking your keywords is essential to developing a strong online presence. It allows you to analyze and understand who your target market is and how they search for your products or services.
Over the years, you’ll use more than a single marketing strategy to grow your business. Tracking keywords can help you decide which of the marketing strategies you deploy are successful and which are not. This allows you to improve the underperforming marketing campaigns by telling you what needs to be improved, keyword-wise.
Any of these tools can help you monitor a wide variety of keywords at the same time. This gives you a better look at the keywords that are consistently yielding results, allowing you to introduce them into more of your content. Moreover, you can track the changes in popularity. By doing so, you’ll be able to maximise your efforts towards creating content around those keywords and outperform your competition.
Ultimately, a keyword tracking tool allows you to spend less time searching for the best keywords for your business. This means you’ll have more time to spend optimizing your website for the thousands of potential new clients that you will reach by creating content around the right keywords.
Google Keyword Planner
An obvious choice for this list, Google’s proprietary keyword tracking tool does its job rather nicely. Just like the name suggests, Google Keyword Planner is best suited if you’re still somewhere during the planning phase of your website. You can use the tool to create a detailed report about the keywords that are the best option for your website, see how well these keywords rank, and also analyze the trends over the past months.
Even if the name suggests that you can use the name primarily during the planning phase, you can rest assured. Google’s tool also offers valuable information regarding your website’s ranking. Moreover, you can use it to find relevant information about your competitors as well.
One of the biggest downsides is the fact that it only covers Google’s search engine. Although Bing and Yahoo! are far behind in terms of daily traffic, you would be missing out on huge opportunities if you were to ignore optimizing your website correctly. On the other hand, unlike other tools on the list, Google Keyword planner is free to use as long as you’ve signed up for an AdWords account for your business.
Ahrefs
Another top keyword ranking tool is Ahrefs. Unlike some of the more traditional tools, Ahrefs is primarily directed towards backlinks, making it a viable solution for tracking keywords only when used together with another tool. With that being said, Ahrefs is by no means a bad tool for tracking keywords. Besides, using Ahrefs gives you access to invaluable information about the external links that your competitors are using, together with their top pages.
The keyword ranking tool found within Ahrefs is very straightforward. The tool automatically finds the keywords that your site ranks for. If you’re looking for a more localized report, Ahrefs offers that feature, allowing you to filter the results based on specific countries. This is an extremely important feature, since it’s more likely for a website to rank better in its home country, rather than worldwide.
SEOprofiler
Another great choice for keyword tracking is SEOprofiler. The tool boasts many excellent features, including Google Analytics integration. For some SEO experts, SEOprofiler is their go-to choice when it comes to tracking keywords.
There are two main features that make SEOprofiler stand out against others: it continuously tracks your competition and it notifies you of potential keyword opportunities. By keeping a close eye on your competitors, SEOprofiler is able to show you the keywords that they’re using, allowing you to integrate them in your posts. Even better, the tool then analyzes how well you’re doing for those keywords in comparison to your competitors.
When it comes to keyword opportunities, SEOprofiler is one of the best tools available. It will notify you every time there’s a keyword that could potentially rank as number one. By knowing firsthand about these opportunities, you’ll be able to stay ahead of your competition and have a chance of ranking first for particular keywords that are common in the niche.
SEMrush
Another industry favorite is SEMrush. The main difference between SEMrush and other keyword tracking tools is that it treats every website evenly. There are no differences between your site and competitors’ sites.
SEMrush is very easy to use. All you have to do is use the built-in search bar to search for a website or particular page on any of the most popular search engines. Once the tool finishes its analysis, you can compare the ranking to other websites or pages by selecting the keywords you’re interested in.
Unlike other tools presented on this list, when you’re using SEMrush you have to wait for it to finish its analysis before you can compare keywords. Furthermore, the keyword selection process is manual, meaning it takes more effort to go through the whole process.
Moz Rank Track
If you’ve spent more than 10 minutes researching SEO in your life, chances are you’ve stumbled across Moz. Considered by most experts to be a leader when it comes to search engine optimization, Moz developed their own keyword tracking tool. Unfortunately, according to many experts in the field, the Moz Rank Tracker isn’t as powerful as other tools present on this list.
This doesn’t mean that their tool is bad. On the contrary, if offers a wide variety of features, including page reports, website reports, historical comparisons, local and global rankings, and much more.
Unfortunately, this tool is only available for Moz Pro subscribers. However, having access to this package offers more than just a tracking tool. You’ll be able to compare the results to those of your competitors, improve your website optimization for higher SERPs ranking, compare your rankings across various devices, and so on.
Conclusion
The wide variety of keyword tracking tools available makes it difficult to choose a winner. There’s really no best or worst when it comes to these tools because each has its own features. Depending on your company and your needs, you may find either to be the best solution to your problems. Use this list as guidance and select the tool that best fits yours needs.
