Introduction
Keyword rank-checking tools are a great way to keep track of your SEO progress and see how your website stacks up against the competition. However, if you aren't careful, you could end up wasting time with a tool that doesn't give you actionable information. Or worse: You may not use the tool at all! So before you start using a keyword rank checker, make sure it has these five things:
1. Not using multiple tools. In order to get an accurate read on a website’s traffic potential, you need to use multiple tools. For example, Google AdWords Keyword Planner, Ahrefs Domain Rating, Moz Keyword Explorer (former CPC or Cost Per Click tool), and the like can all provide valuable insight for different areas of your business.
2. Not being realistic about your expectations. Don’t expect magic – even a well-executed rank check can only tell you so much about a website’s traffic potential. First determine what kind of traffic increase you want to achieve and then look at the tools available to help achieve that outcome.
3. Focusing on short-term gain instead of long-term stability.rank checking should always be strategic in order to maintain site stability and longevity – looking ahead 3-6 months can help prevent erosion in rankings as well as better guide future optimization endeavors.
Not knowing which keyword rank checker to use
There are a lot of keyword rank checkers on the market, and each one has its own unique set of features. This means that you'll want to carefully consider which tool is right for your business.
The first step in deciding which keyword rank checker tool is best for your needs is determining what types of data and information you need from your ranking checker. Do you need access to historical data? Do they provide any insights into other aspects of SEO, such as backlinks or social media analytics? Is it important that their service be free or paid? How easy is it for someone without much technical knowledge (like myself) to use their service effectively?
Once these questions are answered, then try out several different tools until one stands out above all others as providing everything needed at an affordable price point with easy-to-use functionality
Using a free tool instead of a paid one
It's important to know that free tools are not as reliable or accurate as paid ones. While they can be helpful, they often have a limit on the number of keywords you can check and/or pages you can check. In addition, these tools are usually not as powerful in terms of features compared to their paid counterparts.
Therefore, if your business is serious about using keyword rank-checking tools in order to improve its SEO efforts--and it should be!--we recommend investing in one that offers more features and better accuracy than a free tool would provide (and yes: there are plenty).
Missing the data analysis because you only looked at the ranks for a couple of keywords
If you have only looked at the rank for a couple of keywords, then you have missed the most important part of using a keyword rank checker.
The data analysis is where you should focus your attention after looking at the keyword ranks. You will be able to see if there are any correlations between keywords that have similar or different rankings and use this information to make decisions about your SEO strategy and content strategy.
Not checking keyword search volume first
The first thing you should do when using a keyword rank checker tool is to check the search volume for your chosen keyword. This will give you an idea of how competitive your target keyword is, and help you figure out whether or not it's worth ranking for.
Let's say that I want to rank for "top 10 law schools." The first thing I would do is run this query through Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer tool:
As shown above, there are over 1 million monthly searches for "top 10 law schools"--which means it's highly competitive!
Checking only one keyword in each category
It's important to check all the keywords in a category before you can choose which one to target.
This is because some of the keywords may be too competitive for your site or blog, and others might not be relevant enough for what you're trying to achieve.
If you only check one keyword from each category, then there's no way of knowing whether those other terms might have been better ones for your needs.
Focusing on a single goal without seeing the big picture. For example, you may want to rank for a specific phrase, but if that phrase is only used by one person per month, it's probably not worth it.
When using a keyword rank checker tool, it's important to keep in mind that you're not just looking for one specific keyword. You should consider the entire picture of your website and how it will rank when people search for certain phrases. For example, if you want to rank for "keyword research tool," you shouldn't just look at this single phrase and ignore everything else because there are many other ways people might search for something like this:
Conclusion
We hope that this post has helped you understand the common mistakes people make when using a keyword rank checker tool. The most important thing is to keep your eyes open and always look at the big picture of what you're trying to achieve with your website. If you do that, then it should be easy for you to avoid these errors and make sure that your efforts are well spent!
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