Track rankings in SEMrush

Track rankings in SEMrush

1. Navigate to the position tracking tool in SEMrush, type in your domain, and click on Set up.

Choose Root domain if you want to track the rankings for your whole domain, including subdomains. The other options are subdomain, URL, and Subfolder. Type in your location or zip code and your full business name, and click on Keywords.

2. Type in your target keywords in the sandbox and add them to the project.

If you have Google Analytics already set up: Click on Google Analytics and connect Google Analytics account. Sign in with your Google account to provide SEMrush access to import keywords. Click on Start tracking and wait 24 hours for the tool to collate all the results.

3. Click on the Competitors discovery tab, and under the competitor map, take note of the average position and keywords of your competitors.

4. Scroll to Competitors to see the full list - beside the name of each competitor that you want to track, click on the gear icon and click on See as a competitor.

Add a URL to the blacklist if it ranks for similar keywords as your website but doesn’t directly compete with you.

5. Use the Rankings Distribution tab to see the distribution of traffic and rank between your URL and your competitors'.

6. Click on the Overview tab, and look at the visibility trend, estimated traffic, and average position to see SEMrush’s prediction for your traffic and click-through rate.

Click on Notes to see information around search engine optimization and Google algorithm updates. Take note of them to improve your SEO efforts. Click on Add notes to add information about your website that might affect traffic, such as website maintenance.

7. Scroll down to Rankings Overview and click on SERP - take note of the SERP features that show up and check under SERP features to see if your page has them.

Note down the ones your page doesn’t target for optimization. Look at the other columns in the Rankings Overview table to see an increase or decrease in your rankings for your keywords. Click on the Pages tab to view the estimated traffic, average position, and total volume for each page.

8. Click on the gear icon in the top right, click on Triggers and click on Add new trigger.

Select from the list of triggers and how much change you want to track to get notified by email when it happens. Create another trigger for your competitors by going through the same process but choosing your competitor’s domain.

9. Click on Get weekly updates by email to receive periodic updates from SEMrush on your rankings.

Take note of the changes in your rankings and keywords, and that of your competitors, in those updates.