Welcome to Rank Tracker Online Help!

Rank Tracker is an easy-to-use search engines positions monitoring tool designed to let you see at a glance where you rank for any keyword in all the major search engines.

Please use the links below to quickly navigate to the topic of interest.

If your question is not covered in this Online Help, feel free to request assistance via the Support Desk, and one of our support professionals will come back to you shortly.

Table of Contents

Using Rank Tracker
   Creating A New Rankings Monitoring Project
   Adding New Keywords To The Project
   Removing Keywords From The Project
   Checking Rankings For Selected Keywords
   Understanding Keyword Efficiency Index (KEI)
   Getting Keyword Suggestions
   Updating KEI Values For Your Keywords
   Using Quick Filter
Configuring Rank Tracker
   Managing Workspaces
   Configuring Preferred Search Engines
   Using Google And Yahoo! API Keys
   Configuring Max Number Of Results To Check
   Configuring Preferred (Canonical) Domain Settings
   Configuring Human Emulation Settings
   Configuring Proxy Settings
   How To Copy The Data To A Spreadsheet

Using Rank Tracker

Creating A New Rankings Monitoring Project

When you first run Rank Tracker, it will automatically pop up a Wizard that will guide you through the process of creating a new rankings monitoring project. You can also open this screen by clicking the New button on the main toolbar.

Under Step 1, you just need to enter the URL you wish to monitor. This could be your homepage (such as http://www.your-domain.com), or any other webpage (such as http://www.your-domain.com/some-page.html.)

Note: Please make sure that the URL you specify here starts with http://.


Under Step 2, you need to choose the search engines to be used. The search engines you select here are called "preferred search engines". Rank Tracker will use these search engines whenever you check you rankings within this project later.

For optimum results, we recommend you choose search engines that matter most to you. If unsure, you can select them all. Note that the more search engines you choose, the more time it'll take to check your rankings.


Under Step 3, you need to specify the keywords or keyphrases you wish to monitor. Just enter one keyword per line, or paste from a text file here. Once you've specified the keywords, click Next to check your rankings, or click Finish to add these keywords to your new project and run a keyword check later.


Under Step 4, Rank Tracker will find where you rank for the keywords you've just entered. Just sit back and relax while Rank Tracker is working. The process can take a while depending on how many search engines you selected, how many keywords you're checking, whether or not the Human Emulation feature is being used, and the speed of your Internet connection.

You can interrupt the process at any time by clicking the Stop button.


Under Step 5, Rank Tracker will show you a brief keyword check summary. You can click the Finish button to complete the Wizard and create a new project with keywords you've just checked, or you can click Cancel to discard the current project and start over.

Adding New Keywords To The Project

To add new keywords, simply click the Add button on the main toolbar, or choose Keywords > Add Keyword(s)... from the navigation menu.

Once you do that, Rank Tracker will pop up a Wizard that will guide you through the process of adding new keywords. Under Step 1, just enter your keywords one per line. Click Next if you wish to also check rankings for these keywords right now, or click Finish to just add the keyword(s) to the project and check them later.


Under Step 2, Rank Tracker shows you the list of preferred search engines. These are the search engines you've chosen previously for use with the current project.

Some people will want to check Google rankings every day, and MSN rankings once a week. So here you can simply uncheck MSN and only check your selected keywords in Google.

By default, Rank Tracker will select all preferred search engines here.

Click Next to check the rankings for the specified keywords in the selected search engines now, or click Finish to add the keywords to the project and check them later.


Under Step 3, just sit back and relax while Rank Tracker is checking the keywords. The process can take a while depending on how many search engines you selected, how many keywords you've added, whether or not the Human Emulation feature is being used, and the speed of your Internet connection.

You can interrupt the process at any time by clicking the Stop button.


Under Step 4, Rank Tracker will show you a brief keyword check summary. You can click the Finish button to complete the Wizard and add the new keywords to the project, or you can click Cancel to start over.

Removing Keywords From The Project

To remove unnecessary keywords from the project, first select the keywords you wish to remove using your mouse, then click the Remove button on the toolbar, or choose Keywords > Remove Keyword(s) from the navigation menu.

You can also right-click the selected keywords and choose Remove Keyword(s) from the context menu.


Note: You can hold down CTRL (or CMD on a Mac version) or SHIFT keys to select multiple keywords.

Checking Rankings For Selected Keywords

To check your rankings for any of the keywords, first select the keywords you wish to check using your mouse, then click the Check button on the toolbar, or choose Keywords > Check Keyword(s)... from the navigation menu.

You can also right-click the selected keywords and choose Check Keyword(s)... from the context menu.


Note: You can hold down CTRL (or CMD on a Mac version) or SHIFT keys to select multiple keywords.

Once you do that, Rank Tracker will pop up a Wizard that will guide you through the process of checking your rankings. Under Step 1, Rank Tracker shows you the list of preferred search engines.

By default, Rank Tracker will select all preferred search engines here.


Under Step 2, just sit back and relax while Rank Tracker is checking the keywords. The process can take a while depending on how many search engines you selected, how many keywords you're checking, whether or not the Human Emulation feature is being used, and the speed of your Internet connection.

You can interrupt the process at any time by clicking the Stop button.


Under Step 3, Rank Tracker will show you a brief keyword check summary. You can click the Finish button to complete the Wizard, or you can click Cancel to start over. If you click Finish, Rank Tracker will return to the main view and update the rankings data for the keywords you checked.

Understanding Keyword Efficiency Index (KEI)

Rank Tracker can show you how many times a keyword has been actually searched by real people over the last month in the Overture search engine, plus how stiff the competition for this keyword is in Google.

This "number-of-searches-to-competition" ratio is known as Keyword Efficiency Index, or KEI. Professional SEOs use KEI to pick the best keywords to optimize a site for by choosing phrases with the biggest number of searches and the lowest competition.

Getting Keyword Suggestions

Rank Tracker includes a powerful Keyword Suggest feature that lets you discover new keywords you've probably been missing. You can then use these keywords to optimize your site and achieve higher search engines rankings, or leverage them in your pay-per-click campaigns.

To get suggestions for any of the keywords, first select the keywords you need using your mouse, then click the Suggest button on the toolbar, or choose Keywords > Get Keyword Suggestions... from the navigation menu.

You can also right-click the selected keywords and choose Get Keyword Suggestions... from the context menu.


Note: You can hold down CTRL (or CMD on a Mac version) or SHIFT keys to select multiple keywords.

Once you do that, Rank Tracker will pop up a Wizard that will guide you through the process of getting keyword suggestions. Under Step 1, you need to enter a number of generic keywords related to your niche or business. Rank Tracker will use these keywords to generate suggestions using the available keyword research methods.

Note: Rank Tracker will automatically populate the text area under Step 1 with the keywords you selected in the main view.


Under Step 2, you need to select one of the available keyword research methods (Overture, Google Suggest, Competition Research, Word Mixer, etc.) To better understand each keyword research method, select a method from the dropdown menu, and Rank Tracker will show you a detailed description of how each method works.


Once you've chosen your keyword research method, click Next, and Rank Tracker will generate keyword suggestions.

Under Step 3, just sit back and relax while Rank Tracker is generating suggestions using the keyword research method you've chosen under Step 2. The process can take a while depending on how many initial keywords you've entered, and the speed of your Internet connection (the keyword research methods that require it.)

You can interrupt the process at any time by clicking the Stop button.


Under Step 4, Rank Tracker will show you a list of generated keyword suggestions. Just click the checkbox next to a keyword to mark it for inclusion into your project. You can use the Select All and Select None buttons to quickly mark or unmark all keywords.

Notice that Rank Tracker will also retrieve the Google competition value for each of the keywords. This tells you how many sites you would be competing against if you chose to optimize your site for this keyword.

Rank Tracker will also show you the number of searches that each keyword gets in the Overture search engine.

Finally, Rank Tracker will put the above two values together and calculate the Keyword Efficiency Index for you. Keywords with the best KEI value are marked green, while keywords with the worst KEI value are marked red. If you need to find new keywords that - when optimized for - will bring more traffic to your site, your goal here is to generate keywords with a high KEI value.

Once you've selected the keywords you're interested in, click the Next button to check your rankings for these keywords in the preferred search engines, or click Finish to just add them to your project.


Please refer to the Checking Rankings For Selected Keywords section of this Help if you need more info on checking your rankings.

Updating KEI Values For Your Keywords

To update KEI values for any of the keywords, first select the keywords you need using your mouse, then click the Update KEI button on the toolbar, or choose Keywords > Update KEI... from the navigation menu.

You can also right-click the selected keywords and choose Update KEI... from the context menu.


Note: You can hold down CTRL (or CMD on a Mac version) or SHIFT keys to select multiple keywords.

Once you do that, Rank Tracker will open a Wizard and automatically update your KEI data for selected keywords.


Under Step 2, Rank Tracker will show you a brief summary of what it did. You can click the Finish button to complete the Wizard and update the KEI data for selected keywords, or you can click Cancel to close the Wizard and start over.

Using Quick Filter

You can use the Quick Filter to narrow down the main view and only show you specific keywords. You can type a word (or any part of it) into the Quick Filter, and Rank Tracker will instantly limit the view to the keywords that contain the word.

Quick Filter is a quick and easy way to find specific keywords fast, without creating custom Workspace filters for this purpose.

Configuring Rank Tracker

Managing Workspaces

Workspaces are a very useful feature of Rank Tracker. With it, you can create advanced filters allowing you to unclutter your working area and only view the information you need, when you need it.

Rank Tracker comes with several predefined Workspaces by default:

• All Keywords (Compact View)
• All Keywords (Detailed View)
• Keyword Research View
• Keywords Added Today
• Top 10 In Any Search Engine
• Top 30 In Any Search Engine
• Top 50 In Any Search Engine

You can quickly choose a Workspace from the Workspace dropdown menu:


You can also easily create your own custom Workspaces, or modify default ones. To add, remove or manage your Workspaces, use the Workspace button next to the Workspace dropdown menu. Simply click the button, or point to Preferences > Manage Workspaces... and Rank Tracker will display the Manage Workspaces window:


Here you can add, remove, clone, edit or move the available Workspaces up or down.

For instance, to add a new Workspace, click the Add button, and Rank Tracker will display the Add Workspace window:


Specify a name for your new Workspace, add the columns you wish to include into it, and add new filtering conditions if necessary. When you are done, click OK.

Configuring Preferred Search Engines

Preferred search engines are set up per project and Rank Tracker will use them whenever you check you rankings within this project later on. This way, you don't have to scroll down a long list of all the available search engines and select the right ones each time you check your rankings.

You can change your preferred search engines at any time by selecting Preferences > Preferred Search Engines... from the navigation menu.

Using Google And Yahoo! API Keys

Rank Tracker fully supports both Google and Yahoo! API keys.

These keys make sure you never violate Google or Yahoo! policies, but also limit the number of searches you can perform using these search engines.

With Google API, the number of queries you can perform daily using one API key is limited to 1,000. With Yahoo! API, the number of queries is limited to 5,000.

Note: As of December 5, 2006, Google stopped issuing new API keys. If you have an existing API key obtained prior to December 5, 2006, you should not be affected. For more information please visit:
http://code.google.com/apis/soapsearch/api_faq.html.

If you wish to use a Google or Yahoo! API key within SEO SpyGlass, select Preferences > Search Engines API Keys... from the navigation menu.

Simply copy and paste your existing API key here, or create a new one using the Create Yahoo! Account link.

Configuring Max Number Of Results To Check

To configure the maximum number of results Rank Tracker should search through when checking your rankings, choose Preferences > Miscellaneous Settings... from the navigation menu, and enter a number from 10 to 1,000:

Configuring Preferred (Canonical) Domain Settings

When search engines index your site, they can choose to store its URL with or without the "www" part (that is, either www.your-domain.com, or simply your-domain.com.) This can sometimes lead to problems when performing a rankings check. If you're checking your rankings for the your-domain.com site, and, say, Google has indexed your site as www.your-domain.com, you won't be able to find your site in the search results.

To make sure your site is always found in the search results no matter how search engines have indexed it, choose Preferences > Miscellaneous Settings... from the navigation menu, and enable the Treat www and non-www versions of the domain as the same site checkbox.

Configuring Human Emulation Settings

Human emulation is an advanced feature of Rank Tracker that improves the safety of rankings checks. If you enable it, Rank Tracker will emulate the way humans check rankings in a search engine.

If you are experiencing problems during rankings checks, enabling this option and possibly increasing the default values should help. However, rankings checks will take longer.

To configure the available human emulation settings, choose Preferences > Human Emulation... from the navigation menu.

Configuring Proxy Settings

If you are using a direct Internet connection, you don't need to configure your proxy settings. However, if you are behind a proxy server, you need to specify your proxy address, port, username and password. If unsure, please contact your network administrator to obtain this information.

To access proxy configuration in Rank Tracker, choose Preferences > Proxy Settings... from the navigation menu.

How To Copy The Data To A Spreadsheet

To copy your data to a spreadsheet to, for example, print it, please follow these easy steps:

1. Select the entries you wish to copy. You can hold down CTRL (or CMD on a Mac version) or SHIFT keys to select multiple entries.
   
   
2. Right-click and select Copy To Clipboard, or simply hit CTRL-C (or CMD-C on a Mac version).
   
   
3. Now open a spreadsheet and paste the data.
   
   

Voilà! You have successfully transferred your data to your favorite spreadsheet. Now you can easily sort, format or print it.