Google Ranking Check: Best Search Engine Position Tools (Keyword Tracker & Rank Positions Checker) (2023)

A whopping 75% of people don’t click past the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs) and up to 30% of search traffic goes directly to the website that occupies the first position, so performing a Google ranking check is essential for pages that want to drive organic visitors.

Monitoring your positions is a key step to successful SEO.

Continue reading to get tips to monitor your results and achieve higher positions on search platforms. We’ll also share our humble opinion on the best Google rank checker tool you can use to accurately monitor keyword positions on search platforms.

4 Best Google Rank Checker Tools for Search Engines in 2023

The rest of this blog post will introduce you to 4 of the best ranking checker tools available. To help you determine which method is best for you, we evaluate them using these factors:

• Competition Analysis: We’ll explain how each program helps you spy on the competition.
• Keyword Tracking: We’ll also explain how each platform helps you research and track keyword data.
• Ease of Use: We understand that you’re busy and need a fast solution, so programs that are intuitive to use and require less training will rank higher.
• Cost: We’ll tell you how much premium plans cost. Tools that optimally balance capabilities and costs will appear higher on the list.
• Trial Plans: We’ll let you know which programs allow you to test drive them before committing to a premium plan.

Let’s go! These are the best Google rankings tools available in 2023.

1. SEMRush

Coming in at position 1, the best checker tool on this list is SEMRush — an all-inclusive suite of research tools that comes with keyword tracking, rank tracking, and much more.

Check Google Position Website and Competition Analysis Capabilities

The competitor research capabilities of SEMRush are impressive, as you can easily submit a site address for analysis and learn its authority score, site traffic, link profile, keywords, and more. Additionally, you can also check Google position changes for your site’s ranking metrics as well.

One unique perk of SEMRush’s competition analysis and Google position check feature is its “competitive positioning map,” which shows you how a site is performing against competitors in your city, delivered via a user-friendly and easy-to-read graph.

Keyword Tracking Capabilities

As the top monitoring tool, SEMRush can help you find out:

• Keyword search volume data
• Keyword ranking difficulty data
• Competitor analysis of leading site ranks for relevant keywords
• Historical data for search traffic

A major advantage of SEMRush’s live rank checker capabilities is that you can effectively track PPC keywords with this tool. SEMRush does this by returning detailed CPC distribution and competition data, as well as live ads.

Basically, you can craft entire PPC campaigns within this optimization and keyword research tool.

One disadvantage of SEMRush is that it can only be used to analyze Google search results. If you need to analyze searches from other search engines like Youtube, Amazon, or Bing, then We’d recommend AHREFS or one of the other ranking tools on this list.

Tool Ease of Use

SEMRush requires a fair bit of training in order to use it properly. Another hiccup is that tracking and research information can be hard to interpret for someone who is new to SEO and tracking tools.

And while others may make it easy to get to your destination in just a couple of clicks, SEMRush requires a bit more clicking around in order to navigate the site.

Tool Cost

SEMRush offers three pricing options:

• Pro – $119 per month. Allows you to track 500 keywords simultaneously with daily updates (but no historical data) and 3,000 analytics reports per day.
• Guru – $229 per month. Allows you to track 1,500 keywords simultaneously with daily updates and the ability to request 5,000 analytics reports per day.
• Business – $449 per month. Allows you to track 5,000 keywords simultaneously with daily updates and the ability to request up to 10,000 analytics reports per day.

Despite the high pricing of SEMRush’s bottom tiers, we’ve still put this tracking tool in the #1 spot. While its features are robust, AHREFS offers equally powerful capabilities for a better price.

That said, a nice benefit of SEMRush is that it offers a 7-day free trial for the Pro and Guru tiers.

More Helpful Reading: SEO Basics: Learn How To Do SEO In 2023 Beginners Guide (Google Starter)

2. AHREFS

Another Google position checker powerhouse is AHREFS — an all-in-one SEO data solution that enables you to track keywords, analyze the competition, do an SEO audit, and track your progress on different search platforms, all within the same program.

Competition Analysis Capabilities

AHREFS enables you to track the positions of your own site to see where each of your pages falls on the SERPs.

You can also track the performance of competing sites and conduct a content gap analysis to quickly identify opportunities for improvement.

Simply enter a competing domain name and AHREFS will reveal that website’s positions, PPC (Google Ads) efforts, keywords, and more! By doing this, you’ll be able to see and use the same keyword list as leading competitors in your industry.

AHREFS’ advanced keyword gap capabilities allow you to do a gap analysis at a URL or subfolder level.

While other programs can only perform a gap analysis against an entire site, AHREFS allows you to niche down and, for example, limit the gap analysis to your /blog and a competing /blog.

This is a huge advantage when it comes to improving your content/article marketing.

More Helpful Reading:

Keyword Rank Tracking Capabilities

When it comes to Google keyword data tracking tools, AHREFS continues to excel. Within this single tool you can:

• See exactly what keyword position placements your site has on different search engines and which pages garner the most traffic, then compare this to competitors.
• See if competitors in your city are doing paid search advertising and which keywords they use.
• Check keyword ranking metrics to see how each one of your pages has ranked over time and how the algorithm and searcher intent has evolved for that keyword.
• Conduct advanced keyword research, including return rates, clicks per search, keyword difficulty, volume, related suggestions, SERP history, and more!

Another advantage of keyword tracking in AHREFS is that this tool also tells you roughly how many backlinks you need in order to rank for a given keyword.

Tool Ease of Use

The AHREFS SEO monitoring and tracking tool is intuitively designed and easy to use for people with little knowledge of SEO or little experience with a keyword position checker.

Navigating the site is a breeze, with the “Site Explorer” (ranking checks) and “Keywords Explorer” (your website’s keyword position tracking) and other tools easily available from the always-present menu bar.

And while the tool is incredibly easy for beginners to use, learning more about its capabilities can help you seriously level up your plan and implement an effective SEO strategy.

For people who want to take advantage of the full power of AHREFS, the company releases weekly SEO tutorials on its YouTube channel and has a massive blog of well-written training resources.

Tool Cost

AHREFS is competitively priced in four different tiers. You can select the optimal tier for your business based on the intensity of the SEO needs of your webpage. These pricing tiers are:

1. Lite – $99 per month. This plan is ideal for single sites and allows you to track 500 keywords with updates every 7 days, explore 700 URLs per week, and much more.
2. Standard – $199 per month. This tier allows you to track 1,500 keywords with updates every 5 days, explore 3,500 URLs and 700 domains per week, and much more.
3. Advanced – $399 per month. Track 5,000 keywords with updates every 3 days and explore 1,750 domains, 14,000 URLs, and much more every week.
4. Enterprise – $999 per month. Track a whopping 10,000 keywords with updates every 3 days and explore 7,000 domains, 35,000 URLs, and a crazy amount more.

If you’d like to take AHREFS for a test drive, you can try out the Standard or Lite plans for a week by paying $7.

Thanks to AHREFS’ robust competitor analysis and keyword rank tracking tools, and their fair balance of pricing and capabilities, this is the #1 ranking checker tool that most of the SEO experts here at Fannit use.

More Helpful Reading: What Is Technical SEO? Beginner’s Checklist to Managing Search Engine Optimization

3. Moz Rank Checker

Moz Rank Checker is one of the tools that come with a subscription to Moz Pro — a suite of SEO tools that includes a keyword explorer, link explorer, website crawler, rank tracker, and more!

Competition Analysis Capabilities

Combining Moz’s rank tracker with their link explorer gives you access to valuable competitive insights.

This includes tracking the movement of competitors’ keywords in Google search, competing site domain authority, their link structures, spam score (the percentage of backlinks that are from spammy sites), and the keywords that they’re ranked for.

All you need to do is type a competing domain name in the URL exploration tool and Moz will analyze the website for you.

That said, when it comes to competition analysis capabilities, Moz covers all the basics but doesn’t have any especially unique features. All the competitive features Moz has, you can also find in AHREFS and SEMrush.

Keyword Tracking Capabilities

Like AHREFS and SEMRush, the Moz keyword position checker is great for evaluating keyword Google search volume, difficulty, and click-through rates.

Moz also delivers helpful SERP analysis and can help you develop your site’s content strategy by introducing you to suggested keywords.

A perk of Moz is that it allows you to potentially find the right keywords in multiple search engines.

One unique Moz feature is the list of target phrases dashboard, which allows you to compile a list of terms and easily check the strength of your list by creating data visualizations of your list’s organic CTR, difficulty ranking, search volume, and more.

Tool Ease of Use

Moz’s simple, streamlined dashboards set it apart from SEMRush and AHREFS and are ideal for SEO ranking beginners.

Report data is color-coded and well-described for easy interpretation. Also, the dashboards emphasize white space and minimal menu options, making Moz’s tools easy to navigate.

Another win for SEO beginners is the Moz blog and Youtube channel, both of which are well-stocked with fresh training and the latest SEO tactics. Whether or not you purchase Moz’s Rank Checker, we highly recommend bookmarking their blog for future reference.

Tool Cost

Moz Pro offers four pricing plans, including:

• Standard – $99 per month. Allows you to track 300 search engine rankings with weekly updates, perform 150 keyword search queries per month, and conduct 5 on-demand domain crawls per month.
• Medium – $179 per month. Track 800 keyword rankings with weekly updates, perform 5,000 Google positions check requests per month, and conduct 30 on-demand domain crawls per month.
• Large – $299 per month. Enables you to track 1,900 keyword rankings with weekly updates, perform 15,000 keyword queries per month, and conduct 60 on-demand domain crawls per month.
• Premium – $599 per month. Track 4,500 keyword rankings with weekly updates, perform 30,000 keyword queries per month, and conduct 100 on-demand domain crawls per month.

A great perk of the Moz toolset is that Moz offers a 30-day free trial of the medium-level plan, giving you free access to useful SEO rankings tools for one month.

But, despite this free trial and the incredibly intuitive navigation user interface, we’ve put Moz Pro and its site rank checker tool at position #3.

This is because Moz’s capabilities aren’t nearly as powerful as SEMRush and AHREFS, and yet this tool costs just as much as the other two options.

For example, Ahref’s $99 tier enables you to track your site’s rankings of 500 keywords and research 700 domains per month, while Moz’s $99 tier only permits you to track 300 keywords and research 5 domains per month.

All this to say, Moz Pro is ideal for new SEOs who only need to manage one or two sites and can appreciate Moz’s streamlined and basic interface and services. If you’re new to SEO, we highly recommend you take advantage of Moz’s free trial so that you can get experience working with a Google keyword ranking tool before trying out the more complex dashboards of SEMRush and AHREFS.

More Helpful Reading: How To Get Your Website To Show Up First On Google Search (Page 1 Guaranteed)

4. Google Search Console

The last entry on this list, Google Search Console is a versatile tool that you can use to check Google ranking performance for your site and to discover which keyword rankings your business website has.

Program Cost

We’re starting this one off with cost because the strongest benefit of Google Search Console is that it’s free!

This makes it ideal if you have an extremely tight budget or are looking for a complimentary resource that you can pair with one of the other search rankings services listed above.

Competition Analysis Capabilities

One major disadvantage of solely relying on Google Search Console is that it doesn’t let you research your competitors.

This is because your Google Search Console account only crawls your website and can’t be used to crawl competitors’ websites.

Keyword Tracking Capabilities

Where Google Search Console really excels is in tracking keyword rankings and helping you develop your content marketing strategy.

While not as intuitive as the other ranking checkers on this list, Google’s Search Console can help you track which keywords you’re currently ranking for and how each page on your business is performing in terms of search rankings.

Ease of Use

Google Search Console excels at helping you explore your own URL search results, but as this is a free method, it does require a bit more clicking around and training than most of the other options on this list.

More Helpful Reading:

Why Google Ranking Check Tools Are Vital

Have you ever asked yourself “how do I check my Google ranking?”

Google’s shift towards personalized ranking results has many people wondering if having a search engine rank tool is even necessary.

And with the almost complete personalization of the user experience on other platforms like Facebook and Youtube, it’s not hard to see why you’d wonder if search engine rankings are highly subjective.

The reality is that Google search results continue to be largely static with only slight variations depending on searcher location and language.

There is some personalization that occurs based on a searcher’s browsing history with sites a person has already visited being ranked one or two positions higher. Though it’s not fully clear how this sort of customization affects desktop and mobile rankings in 2023, there is definitely more information about it than in years prior.

All that to say, Google search ranking tools are still vital to doing good SEO. They help you measure how your website is performing and enable you to perform keyword research and track changes in data.

More Helpful Reading:

Why Is Search Engine Keyword Ranking Tracking Important?

Keywords play an important role in the success of your site’s rank. But you need to choose the right keywords for them to have the right impact.

If your website isn’t ranking near the top of the first page of search results, it means you’re losing more traffic and valuable leads to your competitors.

But, there’s only one way to keep up with your keyword performance and how to leverage it to your advantage, and that’s by monitoring search results rankings.

There are important steps you need to take to help your website reach the front page of search ranking results.

The first one is to keep a close eye on the changes in your organic positions, and the second is to implement a powerful keyword ranking tool.

Do Google Position-Checking Tools Help Your SEO?

Here are three ways that Google rank checker tools help your website’s SEO for both desktop and mobile devices.

Content Development

Keyword tracking eliminates the risk of writing content that won’t appeal to your target audience. By researching keywords, you can create content around keywords that you know people are searching for.

Additionally, research programs help you evaluate searcher intent and keyword difficulty so that you can strategically target the ideal keywords for your site.

Competition Analysis

A massive advantage of keyword tracking tools is that they allow you to keep an eye on your competitors.

These programs enable you to check keyword rankings on competing websites that have the top positions and deliver insights to help you boost your site above the competition.

Marketing Strategy Optimization

Keyword tools also help you forecast upcoming rank improvement opportunities for your website — ensuring that you stay on the cutting edge of what your audience is searching for.

Depending on the tool, you may even have access to the title tag, meta description, and other technical elements of each page.

More Helpful Reading: What Is SEO Writing or Copywriting Articles: How to Write SEO Content as a Writer

How the Best Google Keyword Rank Checker Helps Your Website

In addition to researching keywords, another major step towards ranking your website is using a Google search engine position checker.

Some of the advantages of using a Google keyword rank checker include:

SEO Checkups

Rank checkers help you see how your website’s SEO is performing. They do this by showing exactly where each page on your website lands on the SERP.

By tracking the performance of your site, you can make edits to pages that are underperforming and replicate the success of pages that are performing well.

Website Gap Analysis

Trackers can also help you spot gaps in your keywords and check Google rank position leaders for each term, in different words, where competing sites have a high rank for things you’ve forgotten to add to your own site.

By tracking these gaps, you can close the distance between you and sites positioned above yours, eventually passing them on the search engine results pages.

The Impact of SEO Checkups and Gap Analyses

In summary, the site’s position tracking and key phrase monitoring are both crucial to your SEO strategy.

Fortunately, most SEO tools include both capabilities, meaning that you can accomplish both data needs with a single search engine program!

With this in mind, let’s dive into a list of the best Google keyword ranking tools to check your Google ranking available in 2023.

What About Free Tools for Tracking Rankings and Target Keywords?

In addition to the Search Console, there are plenty of free keyword rank checker tools you can opt for. But, are free SEO tools a good option?

This depends on where the tool comes from.

If you’re opting for a free keyword rank checker tool, you should take the time to verify that it was published by a reliable provider.

In the general sense, platforms published by Google are often a great alternative.

Whether you’re looking for the right search term or trying to see if you’re ranking specifically for one keyword, you’ll likely find at least an alternative created by the search engine that can help you out.

Not sure which free Google rank checker is best for your company? We’re here to help.

Disappointed With Your Google Rankings?

If you’ve used one of these three tools to evaluate your site’s rankings on Google, odds are, you’re not where you’d like to be.

Your position in the search results depends on dozens of factors, including the number of backlinks pointing to your site, the quality content rating, website loading speed, click-through rates, and more.

Whether you’re hoping to draw more organic traffic flow, boost sales, or get your site to position #1 on search results pages, the team of SEO experts here at Fannit is standing by and ready to help.

For nearly 15 years we’ve been helping businesses of all sizes improve their Google rankings and boost sales.

To learn more about how our internet marketing specialists can help you boost your rankings, please contact our team today.