Rank Tracker

Open Rank Tracker

Rank Tracker, the PirateSERP position monitor, checks where your domain and your competitor domains rank in Google for the active project's keyword list. Rank Tracker needs no separate data-provider key.

Add a target

A target is one domain checked in one market and language.

1. In the header, switch to the project that you want to track.
2. In the Targets section, click Add target to open the form. In the Domain box, enter the domain, such as example.com.
3. In the Market and Language lists, select a country and a language.
4. Optional: To narrow the check, in the City or region (optional) box, enter at least two letters, and then select a matching location. Leave it empty to check the whole country.
5. For your own domain, make sure that the Primary (uncheck for competitor) checkbox is selected.
6. Click Add Target. If the button is unavailable, the line beside it says what is missing, such as a domain.

Add each competitor as its own target with Primary (uncheck for competitor) cleared. A project has one primary target, so adding another primary target makes the previous one a competitor. The first target in a project can take its domain, market, and language from the project's business profile, so confirm those values, especially the location, before you click Add Target.

Add keywords and check ranks

1. In the Keywords section, click Add keywords.
2. In the dialog, enter keywords one per line, or click or import a .csv/.txt file. Then click Add Keywords.
3. To record the current position of every target for every keyword, click Check Ranks. Check Ranks stays unavailable until the project has a target.
4. Wait for the results, which arrive in a few minutes. You can leave the page while the check runs; the results are saved when they arrive.

A keyword and target pair checked earlier the same day is not checked again. The confirmation message reports how many pairs were already checked today.

Open More and click Enrich with Google Ads to add Volume, CPC, and Competition figures to the keyword table. Enrichment returns no volume data for Macedonian keywords.

Open More and click Recluster to group the keyword list by topic, then click By cluster to sort the table by cluster.

Use the search box above the table to find a keyword by its text. Use the position filter to show only Top 10, Top 20, Unranked, Moved up, or Moved down keywords for your primary target. The line above the table shows how many keywords match, out of all tracked keywords. Click a column heading to sort by it: the first click sorts ascending, the second descending, and the third turns the sort off. Unranked keywords always sort last. The Clusters table, below the keyword table, summarizes each cluster's average position, best position, top 10 count, and movement for the primary target.

The Notes column compares each cluster with the results Google shows for its keywords:

• A note that keywords get different Google results from the rest of this cluster means Google answers those keywords with different pages. Consider a separate page for them.
• A note that keywords are not in the top 20 while the rest of this cluster ranks means the cluster's page ranks well for most keywords but not these. The page might not answer them.
• A note that Google shows much the same results as another cluster means one page could serve both clusters.
• A Mixed search intent note means the cluster combines searches with different goals, such as buying and learning, and likely needs two pages. A cluster that is mostly one intent names the keywords that differ; answer those in a section or FAQ.

Affected keywords carry a matching badge in the keyword table. The notes use results from checks you already ran; intent notes appear for keywords that have intent data from Keyword Research.

Read results

The Overview card shows three figures for your site: Visibility score, Est. monthly clicks, and Ranked keywords. Open Competitors to see each competitor's Visibility score and Ranked keywords. Estimated clicks are a model of likely traffic, not measured visits.

Top 10 Overview reports Tracked keywords, Keywords in top 10, Top 10 share, and Close to top 10 (11-15), with a chart of top 10 count and average position over time. Position bands since the previous check counts your primary target's keywords in the top 3, top 10, and top 20, and how many entered (new) or left (lost) each band since the check before. A keyword's first check counts as new.

Cannibalization lists keywords where two or more pages of your primary target ranked in the last 30 days, so your own pages compete with each other. Each row shows the competing pages, the date and position of every sighting, and a suggested fix: merge and redirect the weaker pages, add a canonical tag when the pages are variants of one URL, or give each page a distinct purpose when both appear on the same results page (marked Same results page). A row marked Blog post or service page is the most harmful case: a blog post competes with a service or product page, so those rows list first. Keep the service or product page as the one that targets the keyword, and refocus the post on a related question that links to it. URLs that differ only by a trailing slash, www, letter case in the domain, or a # fragment count as one page. The list uses results from checks you already ran, so it costs nothing extra.

The keyword table shows one column per target. Each cell holds the position and the time of the last check:

• not checked means no check has run for that pair.
• Not in top 20 means the domain did not appear in Google's top 20 organic results at the last check.
• Map pack #N means the domain also appeared at position N in Google's local map pack, the box of three local businesses above the organic results.

A cell with a previous position also shows the change since the check before. 17 → 13 ▲ +4 means the position moved from 17 to 13. no change means the position did not move, Now ranked means the keyword is in the results at this check but was not at the previous one (or this is its first check), and Dropped means the domain no longer appears in the results. A check time appears under a row only when that row was checked at least a day before the newest check on the page; otherwise the Last checked line above the table covers it.

Expand a keyword row to see Current rank, Best rank, Movement, a position chart, and Current Top Competitors. Switch the chart between My Rank and Competitors. Click the keyword text to open its detail page, which shows Rank History for every target, the ranking page from each target's latest check, Export CSV, and Print. On the detail page, Not checked yet means no check has run for that target, and Not in top 20 means the latest check did not find the domain. When the ranking page changed between checks, Ranking page changes lists the old and new URLs with the date.

Where keywords rank now shows one bar per target, split into positions 1, 2–3, 4–10, 11–20, and Not in top 20, with the count under each band. Google's results are checked only to position 20, so nothing past 20 is shown as a number. A table of the same counts sits under the bars.

Above the keyword table, Winners and losers since the previous check opens a list of the five biggest gains and losses for the target you choose. Click a keyword in that list to filter the table to it. Click Biggest movers above the table to sort by the size of each change, and open More and click Export 12 keywords (the count is the rows on screen) to download them as a CSV file.

Hover over the information icon on an Overview tile for a plain explanation of what the number means.

When the last check is more than 7 days old, the Keywords header says Stale — check ranks to refresh. Volume, CPC, and Competition appear as columns once any keyword has a value for them; until then, the line above the table tells you to enrich.

Check the date of the last check, the market, and the language before you act on a position. Compare the actual ranking pages before you change your own page.

Schedule checks

In the Automatic checks list, select a schedule: Manual only, Daily, or Weekly (Mondays). The schedule covers every target and keyword in the active project. Check Ranks remains available on any schedule.

On Daily or Weekly (Mondays), select Email me when a keyword moves to receive an alert about the primary target. An alert reports a keyword that drops out of the top 10 or moves five or more positions. A scheduled run with no qualifying movement sends no email.

Manage tracking

Each project keeps its own targets, keywords, and history, so to track another client, switch projects in the header. To delete a target or keyword, click its Remove icon button. Removing a target or keyword also deletes its rank history.

Rank checks support every language listed in Languages.

Related tools

Saved keywords in Keyword Research form a separate list from tracked keywords. Add the queries that you want to monitor in Bulk add or by importing a file.

A Rank Tracker target represents one market or location. Use GeoPin Generator to check a keyword across a grid of 25 map points instead.