You should know that automatic rank checking is considered a necessary evil by search engines, because it consumes precious server resources for queries run by software programs—not by people who might click through on an ad to make the search engines some money. So, not only don’t the search engines make money from rank checking, it costs them money to host the extra servers to run all of those extra searches. Google has been the most outspoken about this issue and has actually banned websites that check many of their keyword rankings frequently—daily or even multiple times a day.
In Chapter 4, we discussed the need to periodically review your search rankings for your landing pages to understand where they are positioned in the search engine results pages. In Chapter 10, we discussed methods to make your rank checking operational by adding it to your ongoing performance and diagnostic workflow. Good rank checking tools are required for both of these purposes.
Many good tools are available to check your search rankings—here are some of the most popular:
| Company | Search Engines | Technology | Local | Data Source | Price | Review |
| Advanced Web Ranking | Multiple | API, Cloud, Download | Yes | Crawl | $49/mo & up | N/A |
| Authority Labs | Multiple | API, Cloud | Yes | Crawl | $49/mo & up | N/A |
| BA Prizm | Multiple | Cloud | Yes | Crawl, GWT, BWT, Import | $99/mo & up | N/A |
| Moz | Google, Bing | Cloud | No | Crawl | $99/mo & up | N/A |
| Raven Tools | Google, Bing | Cloud | No | GWT, BWT | $99/mo & up | N/A |
| SEM Rush | Cloud | Yes | Crawl | $69/mo & up | N/A | |
| SEO Book | Google, Bing | Download | No | Crawl | Free | N/A |
| Web CEO | Multiple | Cloud, Download | No | Crawl | $69/mo & up | N/A |
| WebPosition | Multiple | Cloud | No | Crawl | $29/mo & up | N/A |