I don’t actually use anything, so I never have a good answer. My standard response is:

“I check the top 10 results at the 3 major search engines, searching the keyword phrase I’m trying to rank for. If my page is not there- in the top 10 results – I close my browser and get back to work!”

I was talking to Saku of SEO Rank Monitor last week, and he offered to let me take his online tool for a test drive and check it out. While there are several programs and tools that let you check your rankings, this one is different because it can interact directly with your Google Analytics account…

From a review on Yoast:

…uses the Google Analytics API to combine rankings data with visitor data, showing you what the difference really is between position 1 and position 2. It’s also the fastest rankings tracker I’ve ever seen, ranking a few dozen keywords for me in a few minutes, and then on a daily basis after that, giving some awesome ranking charts…

They offer a full feature tour of the SEO Rank Monitor dashboard, and a 30-day free trial to let you check it out before you decide to sign up for one of their two packages. The best value is the Pro Package which allows you to track up to 10 domains and 2500 keywords.

All of the tracking & ranking data is stored remotely on their server. That allows you to access it all over the world by logging in from any web browser.

What makes SEO Rank Monitor different – and better – than other SEO tools out there is the option to connect it to your Google Analytics account. You can then retrieve data about your visitors for all your tracked keywords…

In addition to tracking your own keywords and campaigns, the dashboard also includes a Competitor Monitor which allows you to keep up with the success of your competition. Or easily find keywords with little or no competition.

All of the stats and data are laid out nicely in visual, easy-to-read charts & graphs with the option to export into other formats.

I took Saku up on the offer to give it a test drive, and logged in to one of his accounts. At a glance I could see where keyword phrases were ranking across Google, Yahoo and Bing. I could also tell which keyword phrases were moving in the SERPs. Specifically which terms were moving up in the results, and which phrases were moving down.

The charts load quite fast, and it’s very easy to navigate.

Inside the Analytics Monitor, it gives you a Keyword Value. You can look over this chart and see where you rank for various keyword phrases – and the Keyword Value tells you the number of click through’s you can expect with a number one ranking for each of those keywords.

Definitely cool, and a tool I’ll be checking out more. Give it a test drive with their 30-day trial and let me know what you think!

-> http://www.seorankmonitor.com

Best,

Disclosure: this post was sponsored by SEO Rank Monitor

Original post by Lynn Terry and software by Elliott Back