What is a rank tracker?
You will definitely need to use a rank tracker to keep an eye on how your pages perform in search engines based on the keywords you are interested in.
Why is a rank tracker important?
It's important to measure the results of the effort you put into SEO. Keeping track of your rankings plays an important role.
Just entering queries yourself and checking where your pages come up doesn't paint a realistic picture. In fact, it's the worst way to check rankings, as search engines serve your personalized results pages. If you frequently click on domain A, they are likely to show that domain much higher than other results for you.
How about checking it in a private window?
Checking your locations in a private window doesn't work properly either. This is because the search queries are still made from your IP address with an extensive search history that search engines have carefully kept track of.
How does a rank tracker work?
Rank trackers rely on servers that simulate user queries. These simulated user queries are often done in an incognito window in a session without a biased search history. Once a user query is "executed", they create the resulting SERP and store the listings.
A user's physical location plays a huge role in the SERP. Example: when a user in Østerbro searches for "burgers", this user will see results from burger places in and near Østerbro.
Rank tracking on mobile devices
Users use multiple devices such as; mobile, tablet and desktop.
You will see that the same query executed on desktop and mobile gives different results. Why is this? Because some websites may not be optimized for mobile use, while others are designed specifically for mobile users. The idea is that websites that don't perform well on mobile will rank lower for users searching on mobile.
With this in mind, it's important to be able to control your location for both desktop and mobile devices.
