SEO Blog

Here is a post that will help the average SEO/SEM internet marketer out with tracking the rankings on Google via Google. The idea here is, why bother use some software that you have to pay money for if you can do it yourself easily & with no profit loss. It is a rather simple approach that I think will aid many, giving numbers with rankings in Google for keywords. First, we will look at using Google search functionality & what that incorporates. Finally, looking at how we can use Google to track search engine rankings, numbered results.

How I came to this problem

Well, its never been a problem because I’ve always thought of myself as a guru of search that learned from a master at the art. Well, it would be your job for finding this Guru on your own, its not hard & many all ready know this renowned searcher. It came to my attention that many SEO marketers & SEO companies will happily spend good money after a product simply due to their own laziness & inability to due the features that sorta product would offer. One, of those features would be tracking the moving of a company through the rankings on different keywords.

Using Google to track SEO

Well, wouldn’t it be nice to if Google would allow you to see a number along side those rankings, thus, you wouldn’t have to track through the top 100 rankings 10 rankings at a time? Well, what if I told you Google already has such a number system in place to help the SEO marketer, thus, you wouldn’t have to worry about buying a program with this sort of feature included.

First, lets look at a basic Google search query as it appears in your URL address bar. This will help us modify it so Google will show us what we want it to show us & nothing more.

Here are the results for a search query entered into Google’s main page for: “SEO Marketing“.

• http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=SEO+Marketing&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=

Pruning Your Search URL

OK this looks pretty simple. Search? is the basic function and it requires only one parameter to really get results, the other is some ‘fluff’. Can you guess what that parameter is? Thats right q= ..

• http://www.google.com/search?q=SEO+Marketing

The “q=” part basically stands for query, or the question you are posing to Google search function.

That is it, nothing is else is required for a Google search & this will yield the top 10 results for that search query. Nothing, really special & I would hope it is something that all of you SEO masters and Guru’s would know. But, this is just the top 10, how can we get Google to display more than the top 10?

Getting more out of your search

Well, lets look at the top 10 search pages on one page. Thats is simple enough actually. Lets examine the search for the keyword: SEO Company

• http://www.google.com/search?q=SEO+Company

The above is the basic query for SEO company. But, still only shows ten results at a time. Lets give it some more depth.

• http://www.google.com/search?q=SEO+Company&num=100

Ahh, we’ve added two new parts to examine in the URL the function num and the ampersand(&). The ampersand allows us to call more sub-functions of the search function.. Thus, by adding the “num=100″ we’ve increased our results to the first 10 pages of Google’s 10 search result listings all on one page.

Let the SEO marketer examine this data

Well, thats pretty simple. All you have to do is do a find functionality of your browser of choice on the 1st page(which shows the top 10 pages all in one). Boom, there is the result if your search query comes back with the URL you are looking for you have an idea if that company is in the top 10 pages of Google in one fell swoop. But, that is not good enough is it? I mean you don’t know what rank they actually are unless you count down from the first result down to that company’s URL. That is tedious & where most SEO companies & SEO marketers would just turn to a program to do this for them, thus, wasting good money to provide a luxury. Rest assure I will save you that money & you can just send it to Graphic SEO LLC if you feel so inclined.

Lets get those numbered results

OK so you have an idea of how to check to see if a URL is in the top 10 pages of Google with the num=100 part of the search URL. That part is simple, getting it numbered took some digging. Well, its rather simple Google uses much more than the basic search? function. In fact Google uses a wide verity of search functions, some based on browsers, and that part is key for the discovery.

Well, Google too needs to heed to problematic browsers such as IE. IE’s pit falls come in handy to us for this aspect of the search. Google uses the same type for other browsers like Firefox’s Google search bar is rather easy to come across & anyone with or without Firefox can use this bar that is aimed at Firefox browsers.. I’m not saying one is better than the next, but, you will see a main difference.

• http://www.google.com/firefox?

This will display firefox’s start page for Google. Its just like the regular search from Google’s main page. Nothing, spectacular that will aid us in getting numbered results. Its just like using Google’s search?.

• http://www.google.com/ie?
• http://www.google.com/ie?q=seo+company&num=100

That is a golden search term for those SEO guys that want to get numbered listings. It brings up IE’s “start page” for Google. But, this has its major draw backs, it lists Google results with a number. But, it doesn’t display any URL of the pages those links point to.

Thus, if we truly wanted to view what those pages are its rather simple. All you have to do is view the page’s source! Thus, we can now view what those hyperlinks actually point to & the methodology stays the same, just use the find feature to locate the URL of the site you are looking for!

Interpreting the data for the view Source

OK so you have the Google’s results it served for the keyword SEO Company.

Now, we access the find command for that window that has the source for the page in it. Simply, type in the URL you are looking for. Boom! You have the URL, now it is a simple matter of going backwards from that link to the title part of the url. That number located there will be the number that is associated with that keyword search! Its that simple.

ie.

• <nobr>16. <a title

Conclusion

Remember, our SEO Company helps the community of SEO marketers, beginners, professionals; webmasters. I hope this has saved you some money & encouraged you to do some research into how you can better spend those hard earned dollars & not spend it on some program, when all the information you need is at a search query’s distance. Thank you for taking the time to read over our posts & we really do appreciate your commitment on viewing great tips & tricks for SEO & SEM here at Graphic SEO’s blog.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Tips & tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.