Working with Reports

Generating Reports

Generating a report couldn't be easier. All you need to do is just click the Report tab and Rank Tracker will automatically create a report based on the data of your running project. To learn how to read reports see our Search Engine Report Help.

Every time you need to update the data of the reports, for instance to include new keywords, just click on the Regenerate button and Rank Tracker will automatically update the report.

Managing Report Templates

Rank Tracker allows you to customize the look and feel of the generated report. You can change the color scheme, add your company's logo and choose which data should be displayed. The number of templates that you can create is unlimited.

Rank Tracker allows you to create your own templates, edit or remove them. You can manage your Report Templates in Preferences > Report Templates.

Note: You can use the Templates button for quick access to the Report Templates settings.

Creating a New Report Template

If you wish to create a new template from scratch, please go to Preferences > Report Templates press Add and the Wizard will guide you through the process of creating a template.

Step 1: Choose report sections

You will be asked to choose report sections that will be included into the Rankings Report.

Search Engines Rankings
Shows the rankings of your website in each search engine
Keywords Rankings
Shows position of your site for each keyword.
Keyword Research Report
Shows specified keywords arranged by KEI (Keyword Efficiency Index), number of searches, competition for each keyword for all specified search engines.
Rankings History Report
Shows detailed rankings information together with progress graphs and statistical data.

Step 2: Color and Font Styles

At the next step you can select the style and color scheme of the report to your liking. Preview is available.

Step 3: Create Report Introduction

Here you can edit the standard introduction to the report in the Code tab. Remember to use HTML tags to format your text.

Step 4: Rankings History Report Configuration

If under step 2 you decided to include Rankings History Report, you'll be offered to choose what kind of historical information you want to see in the report.

When configuring your Rankings History Report, you can choose to include statistics, progress graph and detailed history information.

Show statistics

If you choose to Show statistics, the report will contain a brief rank history summary for each keyword and each search engine, such as Rank When First Checked, Current Rank, Highest Historical Rank and Lowest Historical Rank.

Show a progress graph

This option will include a progress graph to illustrate how your site's rank changed since you first checked it with Rank Tracker. Please be aware that graphs require a lot of time to be generated and much disk space to be saved.

Show detailed history information

If you choose to Show detailed history information, you will be able to see lists of all checks arranged by the date, with the rank difference recorded on the date and URL found by the keyword in the search engine on the date.

Step 5: Create Custom Report Page

You can enter your custom message in the text area. Remember to use HTML tags to format the text.

Step 6: Choose Report Template Name and Title

You can choose report template title and name. The title you type will be displayed in the title bar of the browser. For the name of the template, use a descriptive name so that you can easily remember what this report does and find it quickly, e.g. "Complete report with afterwords (Green)". Press Finish and the program will return you to the list of templates.

Editing Report Templates

Rank Tracker allows you to edit the HTML code of each template. To do this go to Preferences > Report Templates, select the template that you want to edit and press Edit. You'll get access to the HTML code of the template with preview available.

Removing Report Templates

To remove a template go to Preferences > Report Templates, choose a template with your mouse and press Remove to remove it.

The buttons Move up and Move down were designed for your convenience. You can choose any template with your mouse and move it up or down to the needed position in the list.

Enterprise Version Only

Saving Reports to Your Local Hard Drive

The Quick save button saves your report to the local hard drive giving you two options of saving it as an HTML or as a PDF document. Choose HTML if you want to be able to view your report in a web browser, or PDF if you want it to be available for print-out.

Specify the destination folder and press Save.

Publishing Your Report

After your report has been generated, you may wish to e-mail it to a customer, save it or publish it online so that it becomes available without Rank Tracker. The generated report can be converted into an HTML or a PDF document. You can save it on your local hard drive, send via e-mail, or upload it to a website via FTP.

Click Publish to start the publishing process.

First of all you'll need to create a publishing profile. A Publishing Profile is a set of configurable parameters for publishing your report. You can manage your publishing profiles in Preference > Publishing Profiles.

Creating a New Publishing Profile

You can create new profiles using the Add button. Upon completion of all steps, the profile you configured will be saved so that you can later apply it to any project.

Upon pressing Add, you will see a Wizard that will guide you through the process of creating a new profile.

Note: When publishing a report for the first time the Wizard will start automatically.

Step 0: Enter Your Company Information

If you haven't filled in your Company profile yet, the wizard will offer you to do this. The information about your company you specify here will be displayed in the reports generated within that project.

Step 1: Choose Preferred Report Format

Here you can choose to generate the report in the HTML format which can be later published on the web, or you can opt for the Adobe PDF format if you plan to print or email the report.

Step 2: Choose Preferred Report Delivery Option

There are three options of report delivery: it can be saved on your hard drive, sent via e-mail or uploaded to a website. Check the option you need with your mouse.

Depending on what report delivery option you chose under step 2 the Wizard will take you in the corresponding direction:

Save report locally on my hard drive [click to expand][click to hide]

Send report via e-mail [click to expand][click to hide]

Upload report onto a website via FTP [click to expand][click to hide]

Step 3: Configure FTP Settings

Enter your FTP server address. Example of an FTP server is ftp.your-domain.com

Enter Username (the login name you use to connect to your FTP server).

Enter the Password you use to connect to your FTP server.

If you choose to Configure advanced settings, you will be guided to enter FTP Server Settings

Next Step (optional): FTP Server Settings

Please specify your FTP settings, so that Rank Tracker can upload reports and make them available online.

Generally, FTP (standard File Transfer Protocol) is used. Default server port is 21. Try these standard settings. If they do not apply to your server you should consult your system administrator or address our support service.

Choose to Use passive FTP if you are behind a firewall.
Press Next to continue.

Step 4: Choose A Directory for Your Report

Choose a directory where Rank Tracker will upload reports to.
Having chosen a directory, you will see below the Web address at which the published files will appear.

Press Next to go ahead.

Step 5: Choose Your Report File Name

Add prefix
We suggest that you type a prefix that would be descriptive and will help you easily find your project later. For instance, Ranking_Report.

Append customer's name
This option will append your customer's name to the filename of your report (the name can be edited in the Customer Profile).

Append customer's website address
Check this box if you want to append the name of the customer's website (the website you created the project for) to the filename of the report.

Append current date
If checked, this option will append current date to your report's name.

Zip the report
If checked, this option will compress the report using ZIP compression.

Press Next to proceed to the next step.

Step 6: Choose Publishing Profile Name

Choose a name for the publishing profile. Use a descriptive name so that you can easily remember what this profile does, e.g. "Profile for creating PDFs". You'll be able to see this profile name in the list of profiles at Preferences > Publishing profiles. Later, as you publish your reports you can quickly choose from the list of available publishing profiles so that you don't have to go through the set-up process every time.

For most effective use of Rank Tracker, please, go through the related settings list to configure the tool as is convenient for you.

Related settings:

Configuring Customer Profile

Configuring your Company Profile

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