Search Engine Positions: Easy Free Ways to Track

January 30, 2010 · 57 comments

Rank Checker

When I found these two tools, benchmarking where any business ranks in the search engines and how their search engine positions improve over time became really simple.

Once you know what your important keyword phrases are, there are very easy ways to track your progress at attaining first page search positions for them. I explained how to do that in my building-traffic post.

Go to SEOBook Tools and download the free SEOBook Toolbar. Don’t bother trying to figure out which tools to use right now. Just download the toolbar because everything I will be sharing in the future is already in it.

The first thing to start using is the Search Engine Ranking Checker built into it. When you have the toolbar installed look for the the red and blue red icon (shown above in this post) between the word “Competition” and the big red X. That is the Rank Checker.

It is really easy to set up and use. Just click on it, type in your domain (you don’t need the http:// or the www), and type in your keywords. You can add multiple keywords too. When you do you have to enter your domain name again (at least in this current version).

Save what you created with a unique name. I use the domain name or the site or company name and what that list is if I have more than one for that company. Any time you want to check the positions you can simply click on the icon, open your saved presets and click start.

For more details and another how-to on using Rank Checker read How to Check Your Search Engine Rankings.

Maze Core

I also recommend you get the free version of Mazecore and plug your main website and keywords into it. That sends you updates and graphs your progress.I wrote about Mazecore and did some screen captures in my post about backlinks.

The graphs they provide make it easy to see your positions over time and gain insights into how what you are doing affects your search engine positions.

If you have multiple domains you can upgrade to track 5 for $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year (two months free) or 10 for $14.99 or $149.99 a year.

Those new to Search Engine Optimization often ask what are serps so I am including this definition for them:

Short for search engine results page, the Web page that a search engine returns with the results of its search.

Now might be a good time for me to share that I believe SEO is good. It is simply making it easier for Internet users to find what they are seeking – and that improves results for searchers and grows business for the owners of the Web sites – whether they be bloggers or small businesses.

BENCHMARKING SEO

Path Interactive – (Twitter) – Projecting Results from SEO: Benchmarking SEO Keywords
Sam Tilston SEO Blog – (Twitter) – The Top 100 SEO and SEM Resources

Instantly Acquire 76 High Quality Incoming Links (growmap.com)
Success IS a Numbers Game (growmap.com)
Proving SEO factors as facts or myths… (chriscalitz.com)
How to Market your Small Business with your Blog (marketersdaily.com)

Tagged as: check search engine positions, rank checker, Search Engine Optimization

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{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }

meka from earning money online January 31, 2010 at 4:53 am Twitter: @onlinemoneybuzz

Thank you for sharing these tools. I have rank checker but have never heard of the other two. I just signed up for mazecore. Hope I can use it well. This may be a stupid question but does checking ranking to much using these tools hurt your site or rankings in any way?
.-= meka@earning money online´s last blog ..Is Earning Money Online Distracting You From Earning Money Online? =-.

Gail from Social Media Marketing January 31, 2010 at 5:11 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Hi Meka,

That is a very good question because if you manually search for your best keywords your “personalized” results will cause them to disappear. Searching also affects your Google AdWords or other pay per click (PPC) CTRs (click through rate).

What I don’t know is whether Google or other ppc engines include or exclude searches made by tools such as MazeCore or Rank Checker. We would need to ask someone more knowledgeable about that specific subject. If I can find anyone who knows the answer I will share it here.

If you had PPC ads running for a very important keyword that got a very low number of searches you might want to avoid searching on it at all because you could cause your ad to stop displaying.

The best and most lasting cure for that would be to create quality content targeting that word or phrase as I explained in how href=”http://www.growmap.com/select-keywords/”>Targeting Keywords when creating content makes it easier to find online.

Then gain incoming links to that content and you won’t have to worry about whether you are searching on it or not.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..How to Use TipTop for Real Time Market Research =-.

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Richard from How To Videos January 31, 2010 at 6:38 am

These tools, in my opinion, are absolutely critical before you begin any page and after. You need to know who you are up against because if there is too much competition you will never rank. Thanks for the links to these valuable tools!
.-= Richard@How To Videos´s last blog ..How To Make Money On eBay =-.

Gail from Social Media Marketing January 31, 2010 at 5:20 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Hi Richard,

Most businesses and even many Web designers have no idea how to do keyword research much less how to get their sites found online. Most the bloggers I have talked to – even those who have PR3-6 sites – don’t know how either and are not actively making their content easy to find.

Most bloggers are still not using anchor text correctly so even though they are generously linking to other deserving sites their work is not generating the benefits it could.

I love your how-to video site. Would you be interested in working with our NoBogies golf blog to feature some of your great golf videos?
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..Search Engine Positions: Easy Free Ways to Track =-.

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Dennis Edell January 31, 2010 at 6:36 pm Twitter: @DennisEdell

Exactly what I’m looking for while building the new blog, I’ll be keeping watch of the upcoming posts.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Hello & Welcome To The All New – DennisEdell.com/DirectSalesWebMarketing.com Merged – Direct Sales Coaching Blog! =-.

Gail from Social Media Marketing February 3, 2010 at 5:28 pm Twitter: @GrowMap

Hi Dennis,

These two tools are so fast and easy I can’t believe I never saw a post about how to use them before. Maybe no one shared them because they thought they were too easy?

I asked online about how best to benchmark and track. Mazecore found me and I don’t remember how I found out how RankChecker worked. I already had it in the SEOBook Toolbar but who has time to look at and learn everything? That is why we have to share what we learn with each other.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..How to Use TipTop for Real Time Market Research =-.

Dennis Edell February 4, 2010 at 9:21 am Twitter: @DennisEdell: “Maybe no one shared them because they thought they were too easy?”

Yes indeed, and a big mistake. These posts usually get the largest response.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Welcome Aboard Part 2! All The Info You’ve Been Waiting For… =-.

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Dennis Edell February 1, 2010 at 3:09 pm Twitter: @DennisEdell

OK as I’m signing up for my free account of course I run into the link to be a premium member of SEOtools…are you and/or do you know anything of it’s usefulness?
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Hello & Welcome To The All New – DennisEdell.com/DirectSalesWebMarketing.com Merged – Direct Sales Coaching Blog! =-.

Gail from Social Media Marketing February 3, 2010 at 5:32 pm Twitter: @GrowMap

Hi Dennis,

I have never been a paid member simply because I simply have no time to make use of it. Based on the high quality of their free tools I believe that it would be worthwhile for anyone who really wants to learn SEO and apply what they learn.

I already knew quite a bit about SEO and did not know whether I could quickly find what I needed without slogging through much that I already knew. We are bound to know many who have been or are paid members; perhaps someone else will see this comment and reply.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..MEME: LinkLuv in Support of Small Businesses =-.

Dennis Edell February 4, 2010 at 9:26 am Twitter: @DennisEdell: I’d ask if you anted to edit the post and add a line asking, but there’s enough going on there.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Welcome Aboard Part 2! All The Info You’ve Been Waiting For… =-.

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Jonathan from Free Wordpress Themes February 1, 2010 at 7:02 pm Twitter: @dmarketingspot

These are some great tools. I use seobook and it works great! It is important to monitor your progress but don’t become obsessed. Keep getting back links and it will all pay off. The key is to do proper research before you get started on your pages. Knowing where you’re going before you get there will keep you from getting lost.
.-= Jonathan @ Free Wordpress Themes´s last blog ..11 Free Wordpress Themes =-.

Gail from Social Media Marketing February 3, 2010 at 5:47 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for sharing your experience and tips with my readers. I have found that most bloggers and businesses either do obsess but don’t know how to monitor their positions or they never look at all with the second being far more common.

I shared these tools because I had been seeking an easy way to benchmark keywords for sites for a long time now. RankChecker is so easy that I now create one for bloggers and businesses before I link to them so I can push them up in the serps for the phrases they are most likely to achieve first.

Now I can send them to this post and save and send them the file so they can see how they are doing and start working on ranking for their most important keyword phrases.

If you haven’t seen the new post I’ll feature in this reply I hope you will check it out. There is much important information in it about how we can all support businesses and bloggers.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..MEME: LinkLuv in Support of Small Businesses =-.

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Eren Mckay February 2, 2010 at 12:19 am Twitter: @erenmckay

Hi Gail,
The way I usually track is just looking up the keywords. I admit that it becomes time consuming so I should definitely go through your tutorial step by step and learn how to do this in a less time consuming way.
Thanks for teaching us how to do this.
Blessings,
Eren
.-= Eren Mckay´s last blog ..Family bonding activities – insights to help connect deeply =-.

Gail from Social Media Marketing February 3, 2010 at 5:36 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Hi Eren,

These tools make it so easy to check positions on demand (using RankChecker) and monitor them over time (using MazeCore) that there is no reason to manually type keywords into search engines ever again.

You probably won’t need any tutorial for either of them. It is really obvious how they work. For Rank Checker just open it up, type in your keywords and save. Then open and run any time. For Mazecore you just type in the domain and keywords and they email you graphs and links.

For any business or ecommerce site that relies on organic traffic, MazeCore will immediately show you when positions drop so you can quickly take action. You can also use the historical data to see how search position affects traffic, sales and conversion rates.

Be sure to read the very important new post I’ll feature in CommentLuv for this reply.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..MEME: LinkLuv in Support of Small Businesses =-.

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beth charette from Lego Sets February 3, 2010 at 1:29 am

This is tremendously helpful. Up to now I’ve been using the linkdomain Yahoo function. However, they seem to be so up and down, sometimes halving the links overnight, I come close to having a heart attack.

Perhaps these new tools will allow for a better read in terms of how my favorite sites are doing.

Gail from Social Media Marketing February 3, 2010 at 5:41 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Welcome Beth,

As Jonathan mentioned we don’t want to obsess over positions but we do want to work on making our sites easy to find and keeping them there. The MazeCore graphs can give you pause too so don’t panic; just go look to see what happened.

Just recently I saw that an important keyword position dropped from first to sixth. Checking the actual page I found five images above the actual listing which was still the first result with any description in it on the page.

Because of Mazecore we looked immediately, saw why the position dropped and also realized that the images for that product were missing alt image descriptions. The first step to improving any site is recognizing an issue. MazeCore helped us do that quickly.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..Wedding Boom Predicted for Next 22 Years =-.

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Jonathan from Free Wordpress Themes February 3, 2010 at 6:22 pm Twitter: @dmarketingspot

@Gail. Thanks for the link. That is great! You are absolutely correct. You have to at least check your rankings lol. Keep up the good work.
.-= Jonathan @ Free Wordpress Themes´s last blog ..11 Free Wordpress Themes =-.

Gail from Social Media Marketing February 6, 2010 at 3:56 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Welcome Jonathan,

I hope you’ll be a regular reader here. Besides the backlinks comments also remind me to visit other blogs and when I do I usually review a post at StumbleUpon and feed it to Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed and sometimes Delicious (when Tweecious works).
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..WordPress How To Clean Up Title Permalink URLs =-.

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Michelle Mangen February 4, 2010 at 7:13 pm Twitter: @mmangen

Thanks for sharing this tool – can’t wait to read the upcoming posts on it! Am going to download it now!
.-= Michelle Mangen´s last blog ..How to Hide Grid Lines in Google Spreadsheets =-.

Gail from Social Media Marketing February 6, 2010 at 3:58 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Hi Michelle,

Sometimes it takes a while but I do eventually add more details. I really do want to do a case study on how posting frequency affects search engine behavior. That is now possible thanks to the graphs and historical data that MazeCore tracks.

We still haven’t managed to connect on chat. Tweet at or email me when you are going to be online for a while so we can see if we can fix that?

I hope you’ll participate in my BizLuv MEME.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..MEME: BizLuv in Support of Small Businesses =-.

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Markus February 4, 2010 at 10:57 pm

this is what i’ve been doing recently. thanks for your advices and for share this blog. Markus.
.-= Markus´s last blog ..HGH For Sale: Useful Tips to Buy HGH Online From the Internet =-.

Gail from Social Media Marketing February 6, 2010 at 4:04 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Hello Marcus,

I encourage you to start taking advantage of our KeywordLuv plugin to create backlinks with your selected anchor text to your site. It is really easy to use. Instead of putting just your name in the Name field add @ and your selected keywords. For example you could use one of these:

Marcus @ GHR1000
Marcus @ Swine Flu Prevention
Marcus @ HGH
Marcus @ Human Growth Hormone

Plug whichever phrases you start using into the tools I mentioned in this post and start tracking your results. Seek out other KeywordLuv blogs – many of my regular commentators also use KeywordLuv.

I am compiling a list to publish here and already have a KeywordLuv Twitter list anyone can use and just claimed the Twitter account @KeywordLuv to make it easier to locate online.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..Wedding Boom Predicted for Next 22 Years =-.

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JR from Internet Marketing February 4, 2010 at 11:23 pm Twitter: @imstrategies

Great resources, thanks Gail!
.-= JR @ Internet Marketing´s last blog ..Last Chance to Buy The Best Spinner Tool for Half Price =-.

Gail from Social Media Marketing February 6, 2010 at 4:13 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Thanks JR,

There are so many solutions available that when I find one that is super easy to use and can encourage others to implement them I jump right on it. If only there were more hours in the day.

You may want to check out the post I put in CommentLuv in this reply. Removing the dates from your post URLs is something most top WordPress installers and SEOs recommend.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..WordPress How To Clean Up Title Permalink URLs =-.

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Frank from cordless cellular blinds February 10, 2010 at 9:39 am

I used rank checker to track all my keyword rankings and I must say it saves me a lot of time relatively to me searching through the search results. One thing they could improve on is to give me an option feature so I can turn off the yahoo and the live results so that the whole process can be faster.
.-= Frank@cordless cellular blinds´s last blog ..Cheap honeycomb cellular blinds: where to buy =-.

growmap April 5, 2010 at 11:46 am Twitter: @GrowMap: Hi Frank,

Even though Google is almost a monopoly it is still good to be aware of your listings on Yahoo and Bing. Even more important is to encourage your friends, family and site visitors to use alternate search engines.

The best search engine IMHO would be for Zuula blog search to let us use my favorite search engine DuckDuckGo.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..My Review of The New Community Rules =-.

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Howard from Speeches for Wedding February 11, 2010 at 8:14 am

Would also highly recommend SEOQuake firefox plugin

growmap April 5, 2010 at 12:36 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Thank you Howard. SEOQuake is another popular option. We discussed that and some other FireFox plugins in the verifying dofollow post and there is additional information about how and why these tools are beneficial in the post about building traffic.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..Keyword Tags, MetaTags, Tags: How Many Are Best? =-.

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Article Directory February 11, 2010 at 10:08 am Twitter: @ArticleDirec

Good tools. I have been using RankChecker from SEOBook for some time now and i can honestly say that it is a very useful tool for all webmasters, marketers, etc…

Tool helps you track and analyze your SERP for 3 major engines, and allowing you to choose which google (based on country) you can check your ranks for is very useful too. I wish they would allow for more googles to be added to your checker as they only allow for 2 right now.
.-= Article Directory´s last blog ..Laws of Attraction – Be Aware of Your Thoughts! =-.

growmap April 5, 2010 at 12:38 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Thank you for your input. You might send your suggestion to http://twitter.com/aaronwall“>Aaron Wall on Twitter or through the SEOBook forum.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..Free Business Listings in Local Search Directories =-.

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Alan from Tulsa Homes February 15, 2010 at 9:55 am

Dude, I use the tool provided by sheerseo. They offer realtime ranking reports in addition to that they track the backlinks and let us know who contributes more to the PR. They offer a 90 day trial period initially and I am pretty satisfied with their service. try it and let me know. I was using rank checker earlier but sometimes the application freezes and produces erroneous data. I am not sure if its only with me or not..
.-= Alan@Tulsa Homes´s last blog ..Increase the Value of your Home =-.

growmap April 5, 2010 at 12:42 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Hello Alan,

I had not heard of sheerseo. That does sound very interesting. Any chance you would like to write a blog post with screen captures showing us how it works? If not if you come across one please do let us know so we can check it out.

Did you notice that you are listed in our DoFollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv post? If you have or know of other blogs that belong there please leave a comment in that post. I’ve featured it in CommentLuv in this reply.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..KeywordLuv: How Using It Benefits Us All =-.

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Tim S from Raised Air Beds February 19, 2010 at 12:21 pm

Hi Gail,
I just installed this tool bar about a week ago on the recommendation of a friend/mentor. I use it to located and link to high page rank sites using my root keyword. It’s great to check progress on my own sites every week.
I have not heard of the other tool, I’ll check it out.
Thank you, very helpful!
.-= Tim S @ Raised Air Beds´s last blog ..Air Bed Mattress, My First Experience Using One. =-.

growmap April 5, 2010 at 12:44 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Hi Tim,

Would you be interested in writing a guest post or emailing me more information on how you used the tool “to locate and link to high page rank sites using your root keyword”? I would love to hear the details.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..Who Can You Benefit by Sharing GrowMap? =-.

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Jared from Club Penguin February 21, 2010 at 12:00 am

Some great tool recommendations there!
.-= Jared@Club Penguin´s last blog ..Free Club Penguin Account =-.

SEO newbie February 23, 2010 at 5:15 pm

Hi! I’m just starting to get into optimization for my small business. I’d never heard of either of these tools before, so I want to really thank you for mentioning them, especially since they’re both free! I know I need all the help I can get with so many experienced people already working in this area. I saw your other post too, on the bridal niche and how using specifically targeted affiliate systems can work, so I’ll start looking for one of those as well
.-= SEO newbie´s last blog ..White Carpathians =-.

growmap April 5, 2010 at 12:47 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Hello,

Every business needs to start with getting their Free Local Search Directory Listings.

Merchants interested in starting affiliate programs should read this post about Merchant Affiliate Management.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..Free Business Listings in Local Search Directories =-.

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steve February 25, 2010 at 8:27 pm

I use SEO studio. It has a built in rank checker. It’s also great for checking backlinks for your site and the competition.

growmap April 5, 2010 at 12:48 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Hi Steve,

Thank you for sharing. There are many SEO related tools because there are many who are learning about the importance of incoming links.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..My Review of The New Community Rules =-.

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Bill Leighty from Tulsa real estate March 11, 2010 at 2:45 pm

SEO toolbar is a very good one for Firefox users and I do use it to see whether the pages have nofollow tags or no, or their X-Ray feature is good when checking the external links on the page. However I am yet to try their other features and I’ll try the Rankings checker as I was looking for an easy and effective software already for it but I think I should utilize all the features of this toolbar.

growmap April 5, 2010 at 12:51 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Welcome Bill,

If I can ever interest you in writing a blog post sharing your experience using these types of tools please let me know. I have not used the X-Ray feature yet so that would make a great post to publish here.

Have you ever considered joining the DoFollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv community? I explained the benefits in the post I’ll use as the CommentLuv featured link in this reply.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..KeywordLuv: How Using It Benefits Us All =-.

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Mike from Tunic Tops March 15, 2010 at 3:12 pm

Once agian thanks for another killer post. I’m using SEO tools rank checker right now. I haven’t heard of Mazecore until I read this post. I looks like a great tool with its SEO graphing.

I’m going to get it now. Thanks and Happy St. Patricks’s Day!

growmap April 5, 2010 at 12:54 pm Twitter: @GrowMap: Hello Mike,

You’re welcome. If your Mazecore doesn’t track correctly at first do let them know. They have been very responsive and fixed some issues for me early on.

I noticed that you linked your name and keywords in your comment. It is far more beneficial to link only the keywords. My KeywordLuv post explains how it works. I corrected the link in this comment for you manually.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..KeywordLuv: How Using It Benefits Us All =-.

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Steve Morgan from bridal lingerie April 12, 2010 at 4:03 am

The the Search Engine Ranking Checker tool is very helpful. The setting up was really easy and user friendly. This might come in handy to gain results for searchers and expand business for the owners of the Web blogs and sites. SEO has now become more convenient with your useful information.

Gail from Support Small Businesses April 13, 2010 at 9:56 am Twitter: @GrowMap: Welcome Steve,

I am glad you have found this information useful. I have several links that may interest you because they are wedding related:

Many are predicting an upcoming Wedding Boom and we work with Executive Gift Shoppe to promote their Gift Affiliate Program.

Any wedding related site can generate additional income by joining a wedding affiliate program and offering Groomsmen Gifts and other wedding related products and services.

There is even a really easy way to create an entire wedding store by adding one line of code to your site.

If you (or anyone else) are interested you will have the benefit of two people with years of experience who work full time online: me and our Affiliate Manager Adam Riemer.

If there is anyone who works harder to assist affiliates to succeed than Adam I don’t know who that would be.
.-= Gail @ Support Small Businesses´s last blog ..Social Media Marketing Monday – SMM Overview =-.

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Udegbunam Chukwudi from How To Make Money Online In Nigeria June 1, 2010 at 2:54 pm Twitter: @sonlinebiz

I’ve got the free SEOBook Toolbar for months now and never cared to explore its many functions. Will most dfinitely try this whole SERP tracking and see how my keywords are faring
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi@How To Make Money Online In Nigeria´s featured blog ..Make Your Blog 10x Faster With W3 Total Cache Plug-in =-.

Hank from Sport Blog August 10, 2010 at 5:51 am

When tracking SERP remember that sometimes when you have some new backlinks to your site, it can go up in ranking but just for some time. I mean that if you get many backlinks quickly you may rank much better but this is not permanent. The effect is much smaller than it seems. So don’t be fooled by this quick boost.
.-= Hank@Sport Blog´s featured blog ..Sunday Night Football Open Thread =-.

seo blog plugins August 29, 2010 at 12:22 am

Search Engine Marketing is very important for your local business and most small companies are starting to realize the importance of being on the first page of the search engines. I can see by your website that you have a vast understanding of internet marketing and I will let my readers know about your wonderful site.