Blog

How to Confirm Website Ranking—At Any Time

Google’s tools are useful for checking current rankings on your own site, but if you want more options, including past website rankings, third-party tools come in handy. This is especially true for competitive or market research because Google will not help you find much on other people’s websites.

Here’s how to get past it all.

SpyFu can be used to determine a website’s ranking. This could be due to the fact that you are:

• Examining new ideas you’ve gleaned from another website
• Evaluating a prospective partner or competitor
• Diagnosing a drop in rankings – with simpler methods to find those drops than Search Console can provide.

Google does not allow you to look into the rankings of other websites; you must use a third-party tool to do so. This is also true for your own site if you want to look further back in time.

How to Look Up a Website’s Ranking History

The feature is integrated into SpyFu searches, making it very easy to find.

 

STEP 1: Select a Domain

Enter a domain name into SpyFu’s search bar. This could be your own website or a competitor’s website.

 

STEP 2: Navigate to the Ranking History tab.

After you’ve selected the domain, go to SEO Research and click the Ranking History tab. You can also begin from the Ranking History page; bookmark it for later use. The Most Valuable Keywords sort is a good place to start. It includes the entire keyword list for the domain but prioritizes those that generate the most clicks.

 

STEP 3 Determine your date range.

You have the option of comparing rankings from two distinct points in time. This is more than just a matter of curiosity. This should assist you in identifying areas where you can drill even deeper.

When you compare dates (in a custom date range), you can find problems that have arisen as a result of a Google update. Alternatively, it demonstrates how you increased page clicks after taking on a project. Experiment with different time frames. Examine the previous year, but also the last three months.

Those basic steps allow you to check any website’s ranking, whether it’s recent or not. For more information on how to use the tool within SpyFu, see this written how-to or this video that walks you through the features of Ranking History.

The sections that follow will assist you with some real-world applications for determining a site’s ranking history.

 

Determine the Cause of a Drop in Your Rankings

Rank losses typically occur gradually over time. For example, suppose you let one of your low-performing articles slide from one month to the next. This is usually manifested by fewer clicks or a notch or two lower in average position. Granted, rank losses would be painful if they occurred suddenly, so that’s a plus. The disadvantage is that they are difficult to detect.

That’s where having to look at your own site’s previous ranking list can support you not only see, but also diagnose, drops in your rankings.

Because if you can see where these problems began, it acts like an X on a treasure chest, indicating where to dig.

Let’s put it to the test.

In the 1-2-3 steps outlined above, use your own domain. When the results are returned, change the keyword group (below) to show “Biggest Rating Losses” or “Biggest Click Losses.” Remember that click loss can be caused by a variety of factors, including a decrease in search volume, but rank slippage is the most likely culprit.