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Marketing & Content

SEO Rank & Mention Tracker

Keyword rankings and backlink mentions tracked weekly, delivered as a readable report.

Saves about ~2 hrs per week

What it does

  • Tracks your keywords across search results on a schedule
  • Watches for new backlinks and brand mentions
  • Logs weekly changes to a sheet so you can spot trends
  • Flags big wins and losses for immediate attention

How it works

  1. Keywords and domains configured
  2. Rank and mention checks run weekly
  3. Changes logged to the sheet
  4. Flags posted or emailed for review

What's included

  • Keyword tracking setup
  • Mention monitoring
  • Weekly report

Set it up yourself

Follow these 4 steps in order. You will need accounts for: OpenCrawl, Sheets.

Step 1: Add your keywords

  1. List 10-30 keywords grouped by intent (money, product, informational).
  2. Add each keyword with its target page (your URL).
  3. Add 3-5 phrase-match variants per keyword.
  4. Create the 'Rank Tracker' sheet: Keyword, Page, Rank This Week, Rank Last Week, Δ, URL.
  5. Keep the list realistic — tracking 50 keywords you don't care about is noise.

Watch out: Group by intent so rank reports stay actionable — 'rank 12 for our money keyword' means something; 'rank 4k for a random term' does not.

Step 2: Set up the crawler

  1. Use OpenCrawl (or a rank-check API) configured with the keyword list.
  2. Set geo/language to your real market.
  3. Add your domain to a mention search so backlinks/brand mentions surface.
  4. Log output: keyword, rank, URL, date.
  5. Test retrieval on 3 keywords.

Watch out: Rank APIs are position-in-time — set a consistent time of day or weekly comparisons drift.

Step 3: Connect the sheet

  1. Write each weekly result to the Rank Tracker sheet (append rows: date, keyword, rank).
  2. Compute Δ vs last week with a formula or in the flow.
  3. Store historical rows so trends are buildable — do not overwrite.
  4. Add a pivot view for 'this month vs last month'.
  5. Test the write once.

Watch out: Append-behavior is what makes trend analysis possible; overwriting kills the data.

Step 4: Schedule the run

  1. Run weekly on Mondays 7am.
  2. Post winners (rank jumped 3+) and losers (dropped 3+) to Slack/email.
  3. Keep a monthly summary of keyword-position averages.
  4. Use the flags to choose what to fix this week.
  5. Re-audit the keyword list quarterly.

Watch out: The flags are the point — a silent weekly dump of 30 numbers gets ignored; 'jumps and drops' gets action.

Frequently asked questions

What does the SEO Rank & Mention Tracker automation do?

Keyword rankings and backlink mentions tracked weekly, delivered as a readable report. Tracks your keywords across search results on a schedule

How much time does SEO Rank & Mention Tracker save?

It is estimated to save ~2 hrs per week. Actual savings depend on your volume.

Which tools does SEO Rank & Mention Tracker use?

It works with OpenCrawl and Sheets.

What does SEO Rank & Mention Tracker include?

Keyword tracking setup, Mention monitoring, Weekly report.

Can I set up SEO Rank & Mention Tracker myself?

Yes. The do-it-yourself guide on this page walks through 4 steps, from getting access to testing the finished automation.