Rankwatch Review (Features, Pricing, Alternatives)

Planning to invest in Rankwatch, but not sure if it’s worth it? 

When it comes to rank tracking, Rankwatch is a soldier with extraordinary strengths.
Just like Jon Snow from the Night’s Watch in Game of Thrones. ⚔️

Besides rank tracking, Rankwatch can help you with competitor analysis and generate keyword suggestions too. 

However, is this tool the knight in shining armor for your SEO team? 
Don’t worry. We’re here to answer that question and more.

In this Rankwatch review, we’ll discover what Rankwatch is, five incredible things you can do with this SEO tool, Rankwatch pricing, and its limitations. 

We’ll also briefly analyze two Rankwatch alternatives if you wish to explore other contenders for the best rank tracker throne.👑

This Article Contains: 

(Click on the links below to jump to a specific section)

• What is Rankwatch?
• 5 Incredible Things You Can Do With Rankwatch
• How Much Does Rankwatch Cost?
• 2 Rankwatch Limitations
• 2 Rankwatch Alternatives
• Is Rankwatch the Right SEO Tool for You? 

Let the watch begin. 🏔️

What is Rankwatch?

Rankwatch is a popular cloud-based marketing software and SEO tool that provides website owners and agencies with actionable data on rank tracking, site auditing, and more. 

It also has backlink analysis features that can help you build an effective link building strategy.

Whether you’re a digital marketing firm or a small online business, Rankwatch can help you analyze your competitors’ websites by tracking the keywords they’re ranking for. Additionally, it lets you track their online activities, both paid and organic.

So when the King of Seven Kingdoms asks what his competitors are up to, you can tell them that…

And, if any of its rank monitoring features make your inner voice say, “You know nothing, Jon Snow,” you can refer to their help desk or contact customer support for a demo. 

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5 Incredible Things You Can Do With Rankwatch

Here are the five noteworthy features that make Rankwatch the Maester of rank tracking tools: 

1. Get Relevant Keyword Suggestions

Rankwatch’s keyword research functionality can help you access detailed data on any keyword. And you can get multiple keyword suggestions. 

How does this help? 
Marketing startups and website owners can use this actionable data to find the most profitable, valuable keywords to target.

To check out this feature, we selected the Keyword Research tab from this tool’s side panel. 

Here’s a breakdown of the Keyword Research tab:

• Keywords Difficulty: Shows you how difficult it will be to rank for a specific keyword. The keyword difficulty score is based on how competitive a keyword is.
• Cost Per Click (CPC): CPC shows the amount you’ll have to pay search engines every time a user clicks on your pay-per-click (PPC) ad. So, if you want to use Google AdWords, Rankwatch can show you the cost-per-click data for your target keywords.
• Competition: Scores the keywords between 0.1 to 1.0 to help you assess how competitive a keyword is.
• Search Volume Trend and Geo-Distribution: Get location-based search volume for every keyword. Rankwatch also gives you heat signatures to identify locations with high search volume.
• Keywords Suggestions: Gives you suggestions for both long tail and short tail keywords to boost your rankings. These include organic, paid, and question-based keywords. 
• Keyword Grouping: This tool groups suggested keywords into two categories – primary keywords and question-based keywords. 

We did a quick search for the keyword “pet care,” and here’s what we got: 

We then scrolled down to check out the question–based keyword groupings. 

You can click on any of these groups to get suggestions for related keywords. 

Here are some of the keyword suggestions we got under the “who” keyword group. 

Besides the question-based keyword suggestions, Rankwatch also offers a feature called Hidden Opportunity. 

It identifies the list of keywords that aren’t optimized but are ranking well. You can then track such keywords and also optimize your blog content accordingly to increase organic traffic. 

2. Perform In-Depth Rank Tracking

Rankwatch gives you accurate keyword rankings for your website across any leading search engine like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, etc.  

You can track your keyword ranking across 170 countries covering major languages like Spanish, French, etc., and get local rank tracking reports. 

Additionally, you can see which platform is driving more traffic to your website – desktop or mobile searches.

However, this marketing tool’s keyword ranking data isn’t just limited to domains – you can also track a website’s sub-domains and sub-URLs. 

To see how this rank monitoring feature works, we ran this rank tracker on a popular pet health website – Yourfuzzy.com. We selected Google as the search engine and set the USA as the location. 

We also entered a couple of related keywords like ‘pet health’ and ‘pet nutrition’ to get the SERP data. 

And here’s the SERP report we got:

The first section of the report gave us SERP data analytics like: 

• Alexa Rank: It’s a rough measure of your website’s popularity, considering the number of visitors and the number of pages viewed on each visit. 
• Google Index: This shows the total number of pages of your website indexed by Google.
• Backlink Count: Show the total number of backlinks (inbound links) found on your website. 

This rank tracker also showed us a graph with our ranking keywords and rank range. The circular chart on the right represents the total number of keywords tracked and the number of keywords with a change in ranking position. 

The next section showed us the ranking data for each keyword.

Here’s a breakdown of the search results: 

• Current Rank: Shows the current ranking position for each keyword.
• Additional Rank: In addition to organic SERP ranking data for keywords, you can also see the Google search rankings for local SEO, images, news, Ads, and video results. 
• Initial Rank: Shows the initial keyword rank when you first ran the tool. 
• Highest Rank: Shows the highest rank reached by a keyword over a period of time. 
• Search Volume: Shows the average monthly searches for a particular keyword over a month. 
• SEO IQ: Evaluates the SEO performance of each keyword’s landing page vs. the websites taking the top SERP positions for the same keyword.

Besides the above data, you can also integrate Rankwatch with Google Analytics to get deeper insights like traffic data, page views, bounce rate, time on site, etc.

3. Perform Comprehensive Competitor Analysis

To stay on top of your game, you should know what your competitors are up to.

Just like how Jon Snow wanted to know what the White Walkers were planning. 

Rankwatch’s competitor analysis not only identifies your top competitors but also tracks the organic and paid keywords they are targeting. 

Here’s the SERP analytics we got for Yourfuzzy.com’s competitors:

Under the Organic Competitor column, we got details like top competitors (like Facebook and petcarehospital.com) and the number of keywords they’re ranking for. 

We also got their average ranks, indexed pages on Google, backlinks found by Rankwatch crawlers, and the number of unique domains linking to these sites.

Under the Paid Competitor Analysis, we found the top competitors running ads on Google.

We could even see the snippets of their ad copies. This can give you an idea of why their ads are working and help you craft similar ad content for more traffic. 

However, if you want to add competitors manually, you can do that too by clicking on Add Competitors,  located at the top of the dashboard.

4. Check Competitor Backlinks

You can also use the Rankwatch software to conduct a quick backlink analysis.

This feature can help you analyze your website’s inbound link data and create an effective link building strategy.

To use this feature, we clicked on the Link Center from the side panel. 

Here’s what the backlink analysis looked like: 

This report showed us the total number of backlinks found for the website, including: 

• Active Links: Links that are still present on the website.
• Referring Domains: Websites that are linking to your site. 
• Links Lost: Links that are no longer active on your website or are deleted. 

The backlink dashboard also gave us a comparative graph of the links lost vs. new links in the last seven days. 

We even got details of top landing pages, top linking domains, and top anchor texts. 

Scrolling further, we got more SERP data like:

• Percentage of nofollow links compared to follow links. 
• Percentage of linked text vs. linked images.
• Percentage of backlinks linked to the home page vs. those linked to internal pages. 

Lastly, the report displayed the TLD Distribution. TLD or Top-level Domain refers to the last part of a web address that appears after your domain name.

The TLD distribution in Rankwatch shows the types of TLDs found in your backlinks. Understanding what types of TLDs point to your site can help improve your link building strategy and drive more traffic to your website.

5. Run Site Audits

Rankwatch’s Site Audit feature lets you analyze every technical aspect of your website and helps you identify issues that might be preventing your site from ranking.

We ran a site audit on our selected website, and here are the search results: 

Here’s a breakdown of the data displayed on the left panel: 

• 200 Pages: Pages that are easily accessible and could be crawled by Rankwatch.
• All 3xx Redirection: URLs that redirect to another URL.
• 301 Redirects: Pages that are redirected permanently to a different URL. 
• Non-301 Redirects: Pages that are redirected to a different URL other than 301.
• Broken Pages: Pages that no longer exist or have no content.
• 5xx Errors: Pages that give a “service unavailable” error due to server issues.

On the right panel, you can see that Rankwatch gave us a site score of 72 out of 100, which is considered a good score.

This site score shows how accessible your site is. This patent score is based on different metrics like broken links, missing descriptions, empty pages, etc.

The report also categorized every issue into the following categories:

• High Issues: Issues that you must address immediately, like broken links or duplicate content. These issues will have a negative impact on your SEO strategy.
• Medium Issues: Issues you may address later once you deal with the high-priority ones. These issues can have a negative impact on your SEO strategy. 
• Low Issues: Issues that aren’t urgent but you should address sooner than later, like pages with short URL length.

However, that’s not all the features that Rankwatch offers.

Besides the above flagship features, Rankwatch offers other functionalities like:

• CEO Dashboard: Get a consolidated view of all your projects. It also lets you measure and monitor your performance against key metrics. 
• Free Website Analyzer: Get SEO search results along with details about the technology, social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), and mobile access. 
• White Label Interface: Your client can use it to access their specific ranking data in real-time. The White Label Interface also lets your client generate unlimited reports, offering greater transparency into your SEO campaign. 

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Now, let’s get to the dragon-like burning question. 🐲
How much does this software cost? 

How Much Does Rankwatch Cost?

Here’s a breakdown of Rankwatch pricing plans: 

• 250 Keywords – M ($29/month)
  • Daily rank refresh.
  • Local/city rank tracking.
  • Monitor 145,000 backlinks.
  • Automated alerts.
  • And more.

• 1500 Keywords – L ($99/month)
  • Daily rank refresh.
  • Local/city rank tracking.
  • Monitor 495,000 backlinks.
  • Automated alerts.
  • And more.

• 7500 Keywords – XL ($449/month)
  • Daily rank refresh.
  • Local/city rank tracking.
  • Monitor 2,245,000 backlinks.
  • Automated alerts.
  • And more.

• Custom Plan (Starting from $58/month)
  • Create a fully customized package.
  • Starting with 500 keywords.
  • Monitor 290,000 backlinks.

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But before you opt for any of these packages, let’s find out if Rankwatch has any drawbacks that you should watch out for.

2 Rankwatch Limitations

Here are the two significant limitations we found while using this keyword ranking tool: 

1. Dated User Interface 

With constant innovations in SEO software and UI designs, we expected this rank tracking tool to have a more contemporary appearance.

But, the look and feel of the Rankwatch dashboard is slightly outdated. 

However, the dashboard has super user friendly features and works smoothly. 

Because of this even Jon Snow, who famously knows nothing, can use Rankwatch and say this:

Remember, usability is always more important than aesthetics. 

2. Data Accuracy Issues 

When it comes to running successful digital marketing campaigns, you need the most accurate data. 

But, some Rankwatch users found that this tool’s keyword tracking data did not match the results displayed by a popular search engine. 

However, these data accuracy issues are super rare. 
And you can always use its Site Auditor to see what might be causing these discrepancies. 

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Want to try out some of the Rankwatch alternatives? 
Keep scrolling!

2 Rankwatch Alternatives

Here are the two best Rankwatch alternatives: 

1. SE Ranking

SE Ranking is a popular and robust SEO software that can help you run successful digital marketing campaigns. 

Startups, website owners, and other small businesses can use this tool for keyword analysis, website audit, competitor analysis, and other SEO elements. 

Besides SEO performance tracking, this tool also offers functionalities like white label reporting, social media management, and more.

However, if you’re a small business focusing on local SEO, this tool fails to provide granular geographic data. 

2. SEObility 

SEObility offers features like website optimization, backlink and keyword analysis, keyword tracking, link building, and more.

Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned SEO strategy maker, this tool is suitable for all skill levels. 

This SEO software can detect technical SEO issues and content errors like duplicate content. And it can even spot server errors. However, the tool’s site audit report will sometimes show you SEO errors that aren’t actually present on your site.

Making you wonder…

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Is RankWatch the Right Tool for You? 

If you’re looking for a comprehensive rank tracking tool, give Rankwatch a try. 

Starting at just $29, Rankwatch offers so much more than just keyword tracking. 

It helps you do detailed keyword analysis, monitor backlinks, offers automated email alerts and provides a white label interface for client reporting. 

And, if you need help understanding Rankwatch’s keyword data or creating a fantastic SEO strategy, then connect with the SEO experts at Startup Voyager! We can help you create fantastic content and improve your SEO performance to drive tons of organic traffic to your site!