Looking to improve your mobile rank tracking?
Webmasters, in-house teams, and agencies have always used keyword ranking data to show progress in SEO campaigns.
But, in recent years, more traffic is coming from mobile devices.
Since the start of 2017, mobile traffic has consistently hovered around the 50% mark. And in Q2 2020, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 51.53% of global website traffic:
Not only is it more important than ever to have a mobile responsive site, but it’s also more important than ever to be tracking mobile rankings.
However, as you’ll see, mobile and desktop rankings often differ – and by quite a lot.
Businesses and agencies must be able to spot weaknesses and opportunities in their mobile SEO strategy, and that usually starts with keyword ranking data.
In this post, we’ll cover the key features to look for in a mobile rank tracking tool, and then walk through the steps to take to start accurately tracking mobile rankings across different locations and search engines.
- Why is mobile rank tracking important?
- 9 features to look for in a mobile rank tracker
- How to start tracking mobile rankings
Why is Mobile Rank Tracking Important?
Google has shifted to mobile-first indexing, meaning it crawls the mobile versions of websites before desktop.
A larger percentage of traffic for sites in most industries is now coming from mobile. Some regions, such as Asia and Africa, get more mobile traffic (60%) than other countries (50%):
Desktop and mobile rankings are most often different, and in some cases, very much so.
For instance, SEMrush found that only 13% of websites had the same rankings on mobile and desktop devices:
Imagine if you have a keyword ranking in the top 5 on desktop, but outside the top 5 or not even on the first page on mobile devices. You’re losing out on a lot of organic traffic potential.
Without setting up mobile rank tracking correctly, with an accurate tool, then you’re losing out on this valuable insight.
9 Features to Look for in a Mobile Rank Tracking Tool
In this section, we’ll highlight the crucial features you need to consider when looking for a mobile rank tracking tool.
#1. View mobile and desktop ranking data separately
A lot of rank tracking tools will only show a desktop ranking view. Or, some tools restrict mobile ranking data views to the top tier most expensive plans.
With AccuRanker (aff), you can get rankings for both mobile and desktop and then compare them side-by-side.
2. Accurate on-demand mobile ranking data
Many rank tracking tools update every few days, but you’ll want a solution that auto-updates at least daily or on-demand when needed.
AccuRanker updates your keyword rankings automatically every 24 hours. Plus, if you need the latest data, you can check your keyword positions on demand. Simply select the keywords you want to update, and click the ‘Refresh’ button:
3. Track mobile rankings across all major search engines
Often, your business and/or clients are targeting audiences that use different search engines, such as Google, Bing, and YouTube. To get the most accurate view, you need insights into the mobile ranking data across all of these major search engines.
AccuRanker (aff) lets you select from Google, Bing, Baidu (China), Yandex (Russia), and YouTube search engines for desktop and/or mobile:
4. Monitor mobile SERP feature movements
SERP features, such as Featured Snippets, Local Map Packs, or Video Carousels, now make up a massive part of the SERPs. They often take clicks away from organic results, and in many cases, dictate a different approach to the way you optimize for keywords.
For example, you might need to video to rank highly, optimize a GMB page for local search, or target a featured snippet.
This makes SERP analysis more complicated, especially when you consider that the SERP features shown on mobile devices are often different from those shown on the desktop.
AccuRanker’s Aggregated SERP Analysis (aff) tool lets you track the movement of 50+ different SERP features across all of your keywords in a single view, for desktop and mobile:
5. Track mobile rankings across locations
Tracking mobile rankings for a geographic search location is especially important for companies and businesses trying to boost their visibility in local search results.
In AccuRanker, you can track location-specific rankings from the global level right down to the local state, city, and zip code address level.
6. Segment mobile ranking data
When you’re tracking loads of keywords, you need the option to segment your data – e.g. by location, search intent, product category, or content type – so you can see which areas of your mobile SEO strategy are weak and strong.
Most rank tracking software only includes keyword tagging, but AccuRanker lets you segment and filter keyword rankings by different data points.
For example, you can choose from Search Engine, Device Type, Rank Change, Search Volume, Location, Share of Voice, and more:
7. Map mobile rank changes to traffic and conversions
As well as tracking mobile rankings, you’ll want to know what impact position changes are having on traffic and conversions.
AccuRanker’s Landing Pages report combines their keyword ranking data and your Google Analytics data into one report:
On the left, you get the keywords, search volume, and Share of Voice data from AccuRanker. And on the right, you get the corresponding organic visitors, bounce rate, goals, and revenue data from Google Analytics.
Together, the two data sets show the correlation between rankings and revenue.
8. View historical mobile ranking performance
Most rank tracking tools only provide a “point-in-time” rankings update.
But with a rank tracker like AccuRanker (aff), you can check the entire keyword ranking performance history to see how it’s been trending over time.
Furthermore, you can monitor your competitors’ ranking results for each specific keyword, see the change over time, and compare them to yours.
9. Build mobile ranking reports
Besides accessing the latest on-demand mobile ranking data, you’ll also need to produce progress reports for your colleagues or clients.
AccuRanker has two reporting options:
a) You either generate scheduled native white-label reports:
b) Or you can integrate (aff) with Google Data Studio for more enhanced visual reports:
How to Track Mobile Rankings With AccuRanker
Ok, now that we know why mobile rank tracking is so important, and which features you need to look for in rank tracking tools, let’s go over how you can quickly start tracking mobile rankings with a tool like AccuRanker (aff).
This is one of the top-rated ranker trackers, as it provides the fastest and most accurate ranking updates. Plus, the tool makes it incredibly easy to track mobile rankings from every conceivable angle.
Step #1: Grab a 14-day free trial
Start off by grabbing a 14-day free trial (aff). Simply, create a new account and fill in your email address:
Next, verify your email address by clicking the confirmation link in the welcome email:
Then complete the required registration details and click on the Start Trial button:
Step #2: Create a group
Before you can start adding domains and keywords, you’ll have to create a group:
- Select the Groups menu from the left-hand side.
- Click the Add Group button.
- Enter your Group Name.
- Click the Save button to confirm.
Groups make it easier to organize your account if you have multiple domains and projects to track.
Step #3: Configure your domain settings
After you’ve created a group, you can configure your domain settings.
Here you can select from a range of search engines to track rankings across, the devices you want, and, if desired, a location, local pack and/or featured snippets.
For example, you could specify:
- Search Engines: Google and Bing
- Devices: Desktop and mobile
- Location (City/State/Country): Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Google Settings (Local Pack, Featured Snippet, Autocorrect)
You can add as many search combinations as you wish, and you can always change this when adding keywords. Just customize the setup to your business needs.
Step #4: Enter your keywords
You have four options to enter your keywords:
- Enter keywords manually
2. Use keyword suggestions
3. Import keywords from Google Search Console
4. Import keywords from CSV
Note: AccuRanker recommends integrating your Google Search Console account with AccuRanker to save time importing keywords.
5. On the right-hand side, you have the settings you configured previously, plus the option to add further search engine/device combinations.
Underneath, there are advanced options for:
6. Tags – Organize your keywords into different categories, such as campaigns and product names.
7. Star keywords – Mark specific keywords with stars when you wish to receive notifications.
8. Ignore Share of Voice – You can exclude specific keywords, such as branded keywords, from the SoV reports.
Step #5: View mobile rankings
Now, you can head over to your dashboard to check on progress. You have the option to create multiple filters across a ranking report. For example, you could filter only mobile rankings on Bing:
You can save any of these filtered views as segments and quickly re-apply them to other reports, too.
Start Tracking Your Mobile Rankings
Mobile rank tracking is more important than ever, as over half of all website traffic is now coming from mobile.
AccuRanker is a fantastic mobile (and desktop) rank tracking tool that helps you:
- View mobile and desktop ranking data separately.
- Accurate on-demand mobile ranking data.
- Track mobile rankings across all major search engines.
- Monitor mobile SERP feature movements.
- Track mobile rankings across locations.
- Segment mobile ranking data.
- Map mobile rank changes to traffic and conversions.
- View historical mobile ranking performance.
- Build mobile ranking reports.
If you want to take AccuRanker for a test drive, then grab a free 14-day trial (aff).
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