Updated August 2018

You don’t have to be an expert to know that SEO or Search Engine Optimization has a lot of moving parts.

After you go to great lengths finding lucrative keyword opportunities, you need to start focusing on your link building and on-page optimization efforts. At the same time, you must keep a close eye on your Google keyword rankings to determine whether or not your strategies work.

Keep in mind that, in SEO, success is never guaranteed. There’s no such thing as a foolproof SEO blueprint that you can follow to the letter.

What you really need is total visibility over your SEO progress so you can adjust and fine-tune your methods over time. And that’s why every marketer needs a Google keyword rank checker tool under their belts.

Picking a Rank Checker

Today, there’s a plethora of rank checker tools out there that you can use to monitor your SEO. The bad news is that not all of them are cost-efficient.

All-in-one SEO platforms, for example, usually have a Google keyword rank checker bundled in for their premium users. In which case, you are expected to pay upwards of $100 a month — just so you can tell if your strategies are working.

Of course, there are also tools on the other end of the spectrum that are incredibly affordable. However, they are often very limited in terms of the number of keywords you can track in one account.

This is where we come in.

How to Check Keyword Ranking in Google with LTP

Long Tail Pro is a comprehensive keyword research platform that packs a lot of punch.

In addition to providing you with hundreds of long-tail variations for your seed keywords, it also has a SERP keyword checker built-in.

Curious what it is? It’s actually offered as one of the core features of LTP.

After you launch the tool, simply head to the “Rank Tracker” tab from the main menu.

One of the advantages of LTP is that you can organize your research into individual projects.

For the sake of this guide, let’s go ahead and create one named “Check Keyword Ranking.” To do this, click on the small plus icon before the word “Default.”

A small pop-up window will then allow you to fill in the name you decided for your project.

Once your project is created, you can get straight to the keyword checker under the “Add Keywords” section of the page.

First, you need to enter the URL of your domain or the specific page you’d like to track. This is helpful if you’ve been running link building activities that target a specific piece of content on your site.

After you enter your URL, the next step is to add your target keywords. If you need to track multiple keywords, simply press the “Enter” key after each entry.

Before you click “Add,” take note that you can also specify the search engine you’d like to track your keyword rankings in. In the current version of LTP, this could be Google, Bing, or Yahoo Search.

If you’re doing local SEO, you can also specify a location to enable LTP to provide relevant results.

Reading the Numbers

After you click “Add,” the tool will provide your updated keyword rankings, which should be visible under the “Rank” column. Look at the “Next Update” column to see when your keyword rankings will be updated next.

Notice that LTP also measures your keyword rankings in the previous day, last week, and last month. You should be able to notice a pattern as you compare these values.

In the example above, you can see slight increases in rankings for the keywords “how to get your Weebly site on Google” and “Weebly SEO tutorial.”

For a much cleaner view of your keyword rankings, you can temporarily hide certain metrics using the “Customize” button. This will allow you to customized CSV reports that highlight or hide specific metrics, such as your URL’s current rank for the specific keyword, the time of the next update, and so on.

Digging Deeper

Having a bird’s-eye view of your keyword rankings is nice, but you sometimes need to read between the lines.

Clicking the row of your target will reveal a keyword ranking chart, giving you a much closer look at its performance by the day.

Remember that you can also adjust the time frame as well as download a PDF, JPEG, or PNG version of your chart — useful if you need to share this data with a client or keep it for further analysis.

Don’t panic if you notice huge spikes and dips in your daily keyword rankings for brief time periods. This is most likely the “Google Dance” effect, which is basically a major index update in Google’s search engine rankings.

The Google Dance is a telltale sign of an active link building campaign. However, it doesn’t always lead to positive results.

You need to closely monitor what happens after the fluctuations to make sure this isn’t the result of a penalty.

In any case, it’s best to check your rankings again after the specified “Next Update” period.

Managing Your Tracked Keywords

Tracking your keyword rankings with LTP looks simple and easy, right?

It should be — as long as you know how to manage and organize your keywords list accordingly.

Thankfully, LTP lets you easily delete, move, or copy your keywords to another project. To see these options, select the checkbox to the left of the keywords you want to manage.

If you want, you can also leave notes for yourself or other team members by clicking “Add a Note.” This will bring up a small text editor where you can enter anything you want, such as “priority keyword” or “monitor for possible penalties.”

See the Rank Tracker in action:

Key Takeaways

Doing your initial keyword research is crucial to point your marketing efforts towards the right direction. However, if you want to stay on top of your marketing campaigns so you can continue to dominate your niche, then you need to track your keyword rankings.

It is only through tracking will you be able to determine if your competitors are slowly catching up with you, or if you have the capacity to outdo your competitors.

Always remember that SEO, much like success, is ongoing.

If you want to reach the top spot (and stay on top), then you need to calculate and measure your strategies. Cut the guesswork and use platforms like LTP to make sure you have a clear view of everything.

Do you want to have a front-seat view of the best keyword rankings checker in the market? Click here to claim your free 7-day trial now!