AgencyAnalytics' co-founder built his first rank tracker back in high school in the early 2000s, when AltaVista was still as relevant in search as Google. He used that early experience to build one of the first commercially available rank trackers a few years later, and our entire platform grew out of that product.

Because of that history, we take rank tracking seriously, and we've continued to refine our tracker into the accurate, feature-rich tool it is today. This article covers everything you need to know to become a Rank Tracker power user.

The colored ranking charts show how many of your tracked keywords rank in the top 100 results, using colored vertical bars.

Essentially, these charts show the total number of your tracked keywords ranking within various numerical ranges in the SERPs.

Each bar represents a graphical display of your total top 100 rankings for a particular date. The date in question is given at the bottom of each colored column.

Each colored bar represents a different numerical SERP range. As you can see, highlighted in the image below, the color breakdown is as follows:

You can hover your cursor over each column to see the numerical breakdown. For example, in the first column in this screenshot, for the date of June 8th, this Client has:

The graph scale is on the left-hand side. As you can see, the dark green bar represents the 5 keywords in positions 1-3 in the SERPs, the light green represents the 10 keywords in positions 4-10, and so on.

Note that the number of keywords counted as ranking in those positions ONLY refers to keywords which you're tracking within the AgencyAnalytics dashboard.

Your site may very well rank for other keywords out there in cyberspace, but we can ONLY track keywords which you've explicitly entered into your Rank Tracker dashboard for keyword monitoring.

We calculate your keyword ranking change scores by comparing the keyword ranking(s) on the first day of your date range to the ranking(s) on the last day of your date range.

This section covers how our keyword ranking change metrics are calculated. Ranking change metrics include:

These metrics appear on your Rank Tracker dashboard, in reports, and on custom dashboards.

As mentioned above, we calculate the change score by comparing the keyword’s rank at the start of the date range to its rank at the end of the date range.

The Date Interval setting (Automatic, Daily, or Monthly) affects which ranking values are used:

The resulting difference in keyword positions is your keyword’s change score. A positive number means the keyword moved up (improved), while a negative number means it moved down (declined).

This ensures your change score always reflects the keyword’s movement across your selected reporting window, based on how the interval groups the data.

Let’s walk through a Daily Interval example using the keyword client seo report.

To understand this, we look at the ranking on:

That’s a drop of 2 positions, so the Google Change Score = –2

In addition to showing each keyword's individual ranking change, we show you an overall change for all keywords (or for groups of keywords if you're using tags or filters).

These overall change scores are shown in stat widgets above your keyword table.

We calculate these overall change scores by summing each keyword's individual change.

For example, imagine you're tracking four keywords, each with a Bing Change score of -2, 0, +1, and -2 for your chosen date range. Summing each of those numbers gives an overall change score of -3.

This indicates that, as a whole, all four keywords dropped by a total of -3 positions on the Bing SERP across your chosen date range.

You can use line charts to plot ranking changes over time for individual keywords, or for all keywords and filtered groups. Since change scores always compare against the first day of your date range, these charts start at 0 and then move in the positive or negative direction from there.

It's important to note that because we're using the first day of your date range to calculate each change score, the changes can vary significantly depending on the start (and end) dates of your date range.

For example, the keyword 'client seo report' has a Google Change score of 0 for the date range June 2nd to June 9th.

It was ranking first on both of those dates:

However, if the date range was changed to June 2 to July 10, this keyword would have a change score of -3:

The keyword was ranked 1st at the start of June, then dropped to 3rd on July 10.

This highlights the influence that date ranges can have on your change scores. As a result, the change scores you see for one date range do not necessarily correlate with those for another.

As with most of our widgets, you can see a comparison against a previous period when viewing rankings changes. These comparisons are shown as small green or red percentages on widgets.

When looking at ranking change scores, the comparison percentage shows how the current change compares to the previous period's change. So, in this case, you're seeing a percent change of two different changes.

This may seem complex, so let's look at this example widget:

This widget's date range is January 8 to 14, and you'll see that Google Change is +433 for that period.

The comparison period is January 1 to 7, and we're reporting +433, an increase of 337% compared to that period.

Setting the date range to look back at January 1 to 7, you'll see the Google Change was +99:

+433 is 337% higher than +99, so we're showing 337% as the comparison percentage. This is calculated with the following formula:

For the above example, the equation is ((337 - 99) / 99) x 100) = 337%

Step 1: To view the full ranking history for one keyword within your dashboard, head to the Client you want, hover over the left sidebar, click SEO to expand it, then click Rank Tracker.

Step 2: Once on the Rank Tracker page, select the date range for which you'd like to view historical data using the date picker in the upper right, then click Apply.

Step 3: Scroll down to the keyword table and click the keyword you want to see history for.

Step 4: This opens a slide-out on the right showing a line graph at the top and a table of historical rankings below.

The data shown depends on the date range you've selected. For example, if the range is "last week," the previous week's 7 days of history will display.

You can view additional historical metrics by clicking the Settings icon in the Slide-out, then selecting the metrics you'd like to see history for.

Every major search engine now uses the searcher's location as a ranking factor, so a keyword search from Los Angeles can return very different results than the same search from Omaha. Because of this, you can track each keyword from as many separate locations as you'd like.

Here's how to configure the location for each keyword.

To see which location is being tracked for each keyword, enable the Location column in the chart.

Not sure which locations to track or how to format your location-based keywords? We've got you covered.

Some Rank Tracker settings can dramatically affect how your rankings are reported. If rankings for your site aren't being picked up or look wrong, one of these settings is often the cause.

We let you decide how Google 3-pack, map pack, and snack pack listings are reported.

We let you decide whether the entire domain should be tracked, or just specific sub-domains or pages.

We can track Google Business Profiles, but only if you've connected them.

When a keyword moves from a known position into "not found" (or vice versa), Rank Tracker counts that as a negative or positive shift, which can create spikes in your Rankings Change metric.

You can choose to exclude lost and found keywords from your Rankings Change metrics, so your change score reflects only real ranking movement rather than large jumps caused by newly discovered or disappearing keywords. With the Ignore Lost/Found Keywords toggle turned on, lost and found keywords won't be included in your change metrics, though you'll still be able to see which keywords were lost or found.

To enable this setting:

Step 1: Click on your profile in the lower left menu

Step 2: Click Settings

Step 3: Under Account, click on Rank Tracker

Step 4: Toggle the Ignore Lost/Found setting to Yes

Step 5: Save

A variety of rank tracking widgets are available for both scheduled reports and client marketing dashboards.

Rank tracking widgets are found by clicking Edit Dashboard to enter edit mode, then clicking Integration Metircs and scrolling down; from there you can drill into Rankings and select your widget style and desired metrics.

Once you've added a widget, click its Ellipsis in the top-right corner to choose which metrics appear on it and apply further customizations.

In a hurry? Create a client dashboard using the pre-configured SEO template, or use the same idea for creating a quick SEO report.

Clients often ask for a report section dedicated to a single keyword's performance. The Keyword Ranking History report option covers exactly this.

Step 1: open a report for editing and Add Section.

Step 2: In the menu that appears, click SEO, then select Rank Tracker, followed by Keyword Ranking History.

Step 3: Click Add Section to see a list of all keywords. Use the search bar to find a specific keyword, or scroll through the list, then click Add Section again to insert it into your report.

Once added, you can change the metric displayed on each widget, for example, switching Google to Google Local, sorting the table by a different metric, or choosing a different date range for the line chart. All these options are accessible via the widget's settings.

To control which metrics your customers see when they log in, configure the permissions in the rank tracking section for each customer account. Learn more about creating and configuring customer accounts here.

For example, if you want customers to see the Location column but not Google Local rankings, tick the box for Location in their permission area and untick the box for Google Local.

Want to let clients add their own keywords? Here's how. It isn't currently possible to set a keyword quota for clients.

Tags and filters make it easier to work with large keyword sets on the agency side and let you show clients different keyword groups in separate widgets to better showcase SEO performance.

How to apply/remove tags

How to use tags in a report

Overview of location-based filters for Rank Tracker & Reports

To work with your rankings data outside AgencyAnalytics, you can download a spreadsheet via the download button at the top right of your dashboard. An admin can also run a full export for any Client, providing deeper rankings data.

You also have two ways to import rankings data. You can automatically import data from a wide range of other rank tracking providers. If your provider isn't listed there, you can manually import data with these instructions, as long as the file is formatted correctly for our system.

If you're checking rankings using a standard Google search, Incognito mode, or any method that involves typing a keyword into a browser on your computer, you'll get inaccurate results. We're not able to change our rankings to match those results. We do provide a screenshot of the SERPs at the time our system fetched them.

If rankings don't look right, start with this troubleshooting article. Most issues are covered there. Curious how we fetch rankings from a technical standpoint? Learn more here.

Change scores always compare the keyword's rank on the first day of your selected range to its rank on the last day of that range. A different start or end date compares different data points, so the score for the same keyword can vary significantly depending on the range you choose.

No. The charts only count keywords you've explicitly added to Rank Tracker for monitoring. Your site may rank for other keywords elsewhere, but those aren't reflected here.

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