Aug
19Tracking positions in SERPs automatically
Tags : SEO, SERPS, To Do Posted in: Search Engine Optimisation Tech Talk
A few days ago Jules made a post asking if there was any software available to track/ graph the position of domains and URLs in Google SERPs for specific keywords.
I wasn’t aware of any at the time so I did a bit of Googling and found a tool called WebPosition Gold (WPG). Problem is that Google’s terms of service specifically say that that using WPG or any similar program is deeply frowned upon. In the past I think 10s of 1000s of webmasters have used tools like WPG to track URLs and have placed a significant overload on Google. There are stories that running such tools causing the searcher’s IP address to be banned by Google.
At one time Google used to provide a SOAP search API that could be used to run Google searches programmatically via a web service. You had to register for an API key with Google. About 2 or so years ago Google stopped issuing new API keys although they preserved the service for existing keys. WPG requires an API key to work. Apparently people who had purchased WPG (for about $150) are now finding that Google is blocking searches made by WPG using the old API keys so it sounds like the tool is dead in the water.
It’s a strange situation in some ways - the WPG site is PR 6 and Google shows sitelinks in the SERPS as though the site is an authority site but still specifically says in their terms of service that people shouldn’t use the tool.
by ML
Hmmm… Don’t like the sound of that.
I don’t know why but I’d thought you’d have some sort of tool to do this which you used regularly. I mean it seems like a key indicator where extra effort is required ?
Well I do have a tool called Google!
I agree it’s a key indicator but position in SERPs for a single keyword/ phrase is not 100% interesting unless the keyword represents huge volumes of traffic.
To use such a tool properly I think you’d have to search for hundreds and hundreds of possible phrases to find out from day to day or week to week whether you were experiencing an overall improvement. Alternatively you could look at a handful (like I do) and guesstimate whether there’s an improvement.
I think some web companies get asked for raw position numbers by their customers and end up running large numbers of automated queries - and this is what annoys Google.
Google Analytics - if used properly - attempts to give more useful data along the lines of - how did the user find your site (link, SE, etc.), which pages did they go through, which links did they click and so on. If you spend the time (I don’t) you could work out if what you think people do when they go to your site holds true.