Haven't connected Rank Tracker yet? Start with Connect Rank Tracker to set it up and add your first keywords.

Rankings are updated every seven days. To check when a keyword was last updated:

Step 1: Navigate to default dashboards, then select Rank Tracker.

Step 2: Hover over the keyword in question under the search engine column.

Step 3: The first piece of information will be a "last checked" time. For example, 10 hours ago.

Step 4: You can also enable a column showing the exact day when your keyword was last fetched. Use the Control icon at the top right to add these columns from your Metrics area across Google, Google Local, Google Mobile, and Bing.

The clock icon is shown when we're updating data, and often you'll notice keywords being updated at different times across the day.

Note: this can sometimes fluctuate and so it's not a hard rule. For example, keywords can be checked a little after their scheduled time if there's a backlog of keywords to check.

Google Organic Rankings

Google Organic represents the position of a website in Google’s organic (unpaid) search results for a tracked keyword. For each keyword, Rank Tracker stores:

Rank Tracker excludes paid ads, People Also Ask panels, and other enhanced features from its ranking calculations — only unpaid listings are considered.

Google Local Rankings

Google Local measures positions when a connected Google Business Profile (GBP) is detected for a tracked keyword and location, Rank Tracker records its Local Pack position (1–20). If both Organic and Local results exist for the same keyword, the system tracks them separately.

Local rankings are captured weekly using localized proxies to reflect results accurately for the selected city or post code.

Google Top Rankings

Top Rankings specifically highlight only the highest ranking page from the domain for a given keyword. Instead of listing every page that appears in search results, it pinpoints the single best performing page for clarity.
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The tooltip in app mentions "top-ranking page" because this metric isolates just one page - the one that ranks the highest, rather than showing all pages ranking for that keyword. If our snapshot doesn’t show the expected campaign URL as the first result, it likely means another page from the domain is outranking it. Top Ranking metrics provide a broad visibility overview, complementing the per-keyword ranking data available in the Rank Tracker table.

How the Metrics Relate

Best Practices for Reporting

Our Rank Tracker Integration monitors the following number of positions for each search engine:

Keywords auto-refresh on a weekly basis. Admin and Staff users have access to 4 on-demand refreshes per keyword each month. For example, if you track 500 keywords, you can manually refresh up to 2,000 keywords per month (500 keywords × 4 full refreshes).

To manually refresh:

Step 1: Open the Rank Tracker for the client

Step 2: Check the keyword(s) you want to refresh

Step 3: Click Refresh

"Not found" means the website associated with the Client you're tracking wasn't found in the top rankings for that keyword and location pairing, within the position limits listed in the table above.

If you believe the "not found" indicator is incorrect for any of your keywords, see "Troubleshoot Inaccurate Rankings" further down this article.

You can do so by adding the Rank Tracker "Keyword" table widget to your custom dashboard or report.

Currently, the only way to add new keywords is via the Add Keywords wizard, either by typing them in or copying and pasting a list.

Yes. You can manually import data into Rank Tracker from any source using our Import function. Alternatively, we support importing rankings directly from a number of other rank-tracking tools via these instructions.

Yes, you can export ranking data from Rank Tracker. This article will walk you through it.

Yes. You'll need to set the appropriate permissions within the client user's account. Find the steps to update Client permissions here.

In Rank Tracker, each keyword/location pairing counts as a separate keyword.

For example, if you're tracking 3 keywords across 3 locations, that's 3 keywords x 3 locations = 9 total keyword/location pairings counted against your account allotment. Search engines don't factor into this calculation.

You can't change the location of an existing keyword and location pair. Changing the location changes the SERPs, invalidating that keyword's ranking history.

Instead, you will need to delete the keyword from tracking, then add a new one with the updated location.

Search volumes are reported at the national level for the configured location at the keyword level.

For example, if you're tracking a keyword targeted to Helsinki, Finland, the search volume for that keyword is reported for Finland as a whole. This also applies if you're targeting a specific state or province, like California. The search volume will be reported for the entire United States.

Search volumes reported in our Rank Tracker integration are exact matches and are reported at the national level for the configured location.

Search volume data is pulled directly from Google Ads Keyword Planner.

Search volume data is refreshed approximately every six months.

Google blocks monthly search volume data for certain restricted or sensitive keywords, which can cause some keywords in Rank Tracker to display a “0” search volume.
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While Google doesn’t provide a full list, this often affects keywords related to:

Many customers ask what top-level domains we can fetch keyword rankings for. We support all TLDs listed under the public suffix list.

Please use the link above to find your client's website's TLD. If it's not listed on the public suffix list, we don't support it.

When using a city, we know Google returns results from the city's geographic center. Since they've never publicly shared how it determines the area when a state/province/country is used as the region, we consider it an "average" for the region.

We caution customers who use state/province/country locations, as these are not used to provide results to an individual searcher. Google always determines the searcher's location at least to the city level, even in an incognito browser.

Why can't I find the right city in Rank Tracker?

We fetch all locations from Google's databases. This database includes locations at the city, state/province, and country levels.

Only cities that are actually incorporated as cities and have their own official city government structure are included in Google's location database. We cannot override what Google determines to be a valid rank tracking location, and doing so would give unrealistic results (since no real-world Google search would align with those results).

For example: Studio City, CA is actually a neighborhood within the city of Los Angeles. If you attempt to target Studio City, it won't populate on the rank tracker and you will need to target the city of Los Angeles or a different area/zip code instead. Long Island, New York is another example of this. For these places (and similar ones), Google does not consider them a city, state/province, country, or zip code area.

You can track locations at the zip code level, and this is usually the best solution if a particular location isn't available from Google's database.

The location I input keeps changing to a different location

The New York borough of Brooklyn is a great example of the rank tracker changing locations. Brooklyn is actually incorporated as Kings County, NY. So when you enter Brooklyn, NY into the rank tracker it will populate in the ranking table as Kings County, NY. However, targeting Brooklyn as a location has an additional problem. Even though the ranking table says Kings County, NY, the system will actually run the rankings for Kings County, CA. This is a known issue with the rank tracker, and unfortunately, it can't be fixed at this time.

Are there any other locations that change in the rank tracker?

If you come across any additional examples of the rank tracker changing locations, first check the SERP link and scroll to the bottom to see the actual location the ranker has searched. If it matches what is being displayed in the rankings table, that means it likely doesn't have the same issue as Brooklyn, NY.

Next, check Google or Wikipedia to see if the location that's populated in the rankings table is the incorporated entity of the customer's target location. (ie: Brooklyn is incorporated as Kings County.) If the target location and the location in the rankings table or SERP don't match and aren't the incorporated entity of that location, then please feel free to reach out to the customer support team to see if it's a technical issue, similar to the Brooklyn, NY issue.

SERP Verification Shows results for different city

There can be a misunderstanding of what information our rank tracker is returning based off of what the SERP verification displays. In the below example we are tracking keywords for "dublin food sensitivity test". The Dublin being tracked is not Dublin, Ireland, but Dublin, Ohio. However, when the results are returned from Google, we're seeing "showing results for Dublin, Ireland" at the top of the SERP verification page.

This is because the keyword being searched for includes the location, and that location is an extremely popular, very well known city in Ireland. So even though our Rank Tracker is doing a proxy search from Dublin, Ohio, the most popular results returned for that keyword are not Ohio based. You can verify the location that Rank Tracker is searching from by scrolling to the very bottom of the SERP verification, and looking at the location data there. For this search of "dublin food sensitivity test" our Rank Tracker is returning the correct location selected for the keyword:

If the keyword being searched for is not returning results for the area you want to be looking at, you will likely need to revisit the keyword you're using. In the above example, you may have better results by removing dublin from the keyword, or by adding ohio after dublin, so that Google will know to return results for that specific area instead.

Zip code not included in results returned from Google

When setting a keyword location, users have the choice to add the location via a zip code. This will then display the city, state, and zip code, as shown below.

When a location is added by name, not zip code, the zip code will not display as part of the location in the Rank Tracker table.

We fetch all locations from Google's database. This database includes locations at the zip code, city, state/province, and country levels. We can't override what Google determines to be a valid rank tracking location, and doing so would give unrealistic results (since no real-world search would align with those results).

When adding a location by Zip Code, you may see that Google returns results for the city, instead of specific zip code, like in the example below. In this case we did enter a zip code, however our proxy location defaults to Grove City, Ohio (no zip code shown).

This will typically happen when the zip code or postal code provided does not directly match what Google considers that city to be. Take Grove City, Ohio for example. When searching for Grove City, we get this area coverage below returned by Google.

When we search using the zip code only, we get this area of coverage from Google, instead.

The Google URL has reported a 3-pack/maps link for the normal URL

You'll sometimes see a /maps?... link for the Google URL in our rankings data. This occurs when the client is ranking in the Google 3-pack, and there's a link pointing to Google Maps. Specifically, if a Google My Business page is connected to the rank tracker AND that GMB page's CID is found in the 3-pack, then a "/maps..." link will be reported. Otherwise, the Client URL will be reported.

Rank tracking is as much art as science, and rankings can vary based on location, URL, language, and date. If the rank you see in your dashboard doesn't match what you see elsewhere, check the items below first.

SERP rankings can vary dramatically based on factors like personal browsing history, time of day, and geographic location. The precise settings you configure in your AgencyAnalytics dashboard also have a major impact on how SERPs are reported.

Like most SERP trackers on the market, we're unable to fetch rankings for time periods before you actually added your keywords to our system.

Check that you're viewing a time period after you added your keywords. (Read more about configuring dashboard time periods.)

A clue that you may be viewing a time period in the past is seeing dashes ("-") instead of numerical rankings or "not found" indicators.

Geographic location can have a dramatic impact on SERPs. A site might rank #1 for a keyword in Detroit, but #27 in Omaha. Verify that you're tracking the location you intended by clicking the settings slider and turning on the "Location" column.

Learn more about location-based SERP tracking in this tutorial.

This is one of the most common causes of results appearing inaccurate. Customers often have the Google 3-pack setting toggled to Enabled in the dashboard, but on their end, they're counting the SERPs as though the setting is disabled.

To access this setting, open the Rank Tracker dashboard, click the settings slider icon, then select Settings, then Advanced Settings. This takes you to the Client's Rank Tracker settings page, where you can enable or disable the Google 3-pack option. Click Save to apply your changes.

Learn more about the Google 3-pack setting in this article.

Our Rank Tracker relies on either the Client's site URL or the CID of the GMB page/s that are added to a Client's Rank Tracker settings, in order to find it in Google search results.

Below is an example mobile SERP link where there is no website link (URL).

Below is an example of a successfully ranked Mobile result from a Google 3 Pack:

Check for a typo in your Client URL or a URL that has changed due to a redirect or other factors. We look for the Client URL you've set when checking your rankings. Follow this article to see which pages on a site are eligible to be reported in the Rank Tracker.

Our Rank Tracker looks for a URL when checking rankings, but Google often doesn't display a URL for Google Business Pages shown on Google, Google Mobile, or Google Local SERPs.

Because of this, if you want us to track Google Business Pages, we strongly recommend specifying the exact page(s) to track in your Client's settings area. This ensures we can always find those pages.

Once you specify a Google Business Page, your SERPs won't update immediately. They'll update at your usual daily ranking refresh time.

For the most accurate results, we recommend using our SERP link for manual SERP verification.

If you verify SERPs outside our platform, make sure you're using a method that prevents Google from using your personal browsing history, location, and other information as ranking factors.

Signing out of your Google account and/or using Google Incognito mode are not accurate methods for rank tracking. Incognito mode wasn't designed for rank tracking and doesn't hide your identity from sites like Google.

When manually checking rankings or using other rank-tracking tools, Google can easily tie your activity to your personal browsing history and physical location, then personalize the SERPs it shows you. Because of this, we recommend using a quality rank tracker, such as AgencyAnalytics, that anonymizes results.

Our Rank Tracker fetches rankings once every 7 days. If SERPs are highly volatile, rankings can vary even within a few minutes. When this happens, it's unlikely the SERPs fetched during our 7-day cycle will match live SERPs. If rankings appear outdated, you can manually refresh the keyword to pull the latest data from the search engine.

You can check whether Google SERPs are more volatile than usual (which usually signals a rolling algorithm update) using the Mozcast utility.

If you've just begun SEO work or are running a high-intensity SEO campaign, this can also cause localized volatility for your specific keywords. Volatility from either cause normally settles within a week.

Certain highly competitive niches, like legal services, plastic surgery, and gambling, tend to be perpetually volatile, making short-term changes difficult to interpret. In these cases, and in most other rank tracking situations, we recommend looking at medium and long-term trends rather than making decisions based on short-term data.

The Rank Tracker metrics shown in the Client Performance Table are generated through scheduled tasks, whereas the metrics in the Rank Tracker Dashboard are computed in real time. As a result, discrepancies can occasionally appear until the scheduled task has run. Unchecking "Include Today" within your Rank Tracker Dashboard report date will align the data across both views. We are currently working on optimizing this to get rid of these discrepancies, but for now, a slight delay may still be observed occasionally.

If you have any questions, please contact our friendly support team by following these instructions! We're available 24/5 to help 😄