Every effective SEO strategy relies on monitoring the rankings of crucial search terms, including branded, root, vanity, competitive, high-traffic, and high-conversion phrases. SERP Tracker Tools are vital as they track these rankings, serving as key indicators of your SEO success. Understanding the importance of tracking SERPs is essential for refining your strategy and improving your position in SEO reports. This focus can significantly enhance your website's visibility and performance.

What is a SERP Report?

A SERP (Search Engine Rank Position) Report is a tool that displays where a website ranks in search engines for specific keywords. This report is essential for monitoring your SEO performance, spotting areas for improvement, and understanding your competitors' strategies. The keywords tracked in a SERP report are usually selected during your Keyword Research phase.

What does a SERP Report contain?

A SERP Report typically includes the following top 10 elements:

• Keyword Rankings - Shows the current positions of specific keywords in search engine results.

• Search Volume - Lists the number of searches per month for each keyword.

• CPC (Cost Per Click) - Provides the average cost per click for paid search ads for each keyword.

• URLs Ranked - Displays the specific pages on your website that are ranking for each keyword.

• Changes in Ranking - Tracks movements up or down in rankings over a specified period.

• Competitor Rankings - Shows where your competitors rank for the same keywords.

• Historical Data - Offers a historical view of keyword performance over time.

• Device Segmentation - Breaks down rankings by device type, such as desktop or mobile.

• Geographical Performance - Analyzes keyword rankings across different geographic locations.

• SERP Features - Identifies if your keywords are triggering any SERP features like featured snippets, local packs, or knowledge panels.

What are the Most Important Metrics to Track in a SERP Report?

• Keyword Rankings

• Search Volume

• Click-Through Rate (CTR)

• Average Position

• Traffic Estimates

• SERP Features (e.g., featured snippets)

• Competitor Rankings

• Keyword Growth

• Page URLs

• Changes in Ranking

How are SERP Reports Built?

SEO tools like SEMRush, Moz, and Ahrefs use Google’s Search API to check website rankings for various keyword phrases. These tools regularly scan their public keyword databases as well as perform specific searches for the keywords you're interested in tracking. If you add a common or popular keyword, or one that another domain is tracking, SEMRush might already have data on it. Both public and private keyword queries are updated approximately every 24 hours, depending on the specific tool you are using.

Where is SERP Report Data Collected From?

SEO Tools like SEMRush collect their KPI data from several different sources:

| KPI | Source | Accuracy |

|---------------------|----------------------------------------------------|----------|

| Tracked Position | Google API | 95% |

| Competitor Position | Public Keywords / Google API | 90% |

| Keyword Volume | Google Ads, Internal Query counter (Browser Extensions) | 50% |

| CPC | Google Ads | 75% |

SERP Report tools vs GSC?

Google Search Console (GSC), and similarly Bing Webmaster Tools, track every keyword phrase combination that receives an impression. However, the public user interface of GSC is limited to displaying only 1000 search terms at a time. Many of these phrases may be irrelevant to your overall SEO strategy, making it less useful to monitor every fluctuation in visibility for these terms.

SERP Trackers allow you to focus on the keywords that matter

Google Search Console (GSC) vs SERP Tracking Tools:

Google Search Console (GSC) often contains an overwhelming amount of data. It tracks every variation of every possible keyword phrase. Additionally, GSC stops tracking keywords that no longer receive impressions.

KPIs In a SERP Report

The key to measuring your SEO Strategy is understanding the KPIs in each SERP Report. SERP Reports Give you the following SEO Key Performance Indicators:

| Terms | Meaning | KPI |

|---------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------|

| SERP | Search Engine Rank Report | Position for that keyword |

| Average Position | Average Position for a keyword, page, site, sub-domain, or domain | Average Position for your site in Google – should improve |

| Ranking Distribution| Distribution of keywords across position groups | Track top 3, top 10, and top 30 keywords |

| Volume | The average number of searches per month | Keyword Popularity |

| CPC | Average Google Ads Cost Per Click | CPC determining ROAS/CPA |

How to Read a SERP Report

Here's a simple example of a SEMRush search results page report:

This chart shows the average search result position, marked by small "G" icons indicating Google updates.

The report includes three types of data, best understood starting with the Average Position. This metric gives a reliable average of where your keywords rank, similar to what you'd see in Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools.

Estimated Traffic is based on data from Google Ads and SEMRush's own records. This figure, which estimates how many clicks each keyword might receive based on its rank, can often be quite off the mark.

Visibility measures how likely your website is to be seen, calculating potential clicks for each keyword based on its ranking. However, it's better to check actual numbers directly with search engines rather than relying on SEMRush for this data.

Top SERP Tracker Tools