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Track a competitor's rankings

SERPWatcher has no screen that puts your rankings and a competitor's side by side.

Written by Dev + MKT

SERPWatcher has no screen that puts your rankings and a competitor's side by side. To follow a competitor, create a separate tracking for their domain, with the same keywords, location and device as yours. That tracking uses tracked keywords like any other.

Can SERPWatcher compare your rankings with a competitor's?

Not on one screen. In SERPWatcher, every tracking follows one domain, and its table, charts and scores belong to that domain only. Group by domain on the Trackings page groups the locations of one domain. It does not combine two domains.

If you read that SERPWatcher can track competitors, this is how it works: a second tracking for the competitor's domain, which you then compare with yours.

Create a tracking for a competitor

The quickest way is to copy your own tracking and change the domain:

  1. In SERPWatcher, open the three-dot menu of your tracking, on its card on the Trackings page or at the top right of the tracking.

  2. Select Duplicate tracking. SERPWatcher opens a new tracking with your domain, location, device and keywords filled in.

  3. Under Tracked domain, replace your domain with the competitor's, for example competitor.com.

  4. If your tracking has a Google Business listing, the copy keeps it and Advanced settings opens on its own. Search for the competitor's business there instead.

  5. Select Next step: Keywords, check the counter under the keyword box, and select Start tracking.

If you leave your own domain in place, SERPWatcher shows "Tracking already exists". You can also start from New Tracking and type the competitor's domain and keywords yourself. See Create a tracking in SERPWatcher.

What a competitor tracking costs

A competitor tracking uses tracked keywords in the same way as your own: one per keyword, per location, per device. Tracking 50 of your keywords for one competitor on desktop uses 50 more tracked keywords. Two competitors use 100. See How tracked keywords are counted: locations, desktop and mobile.

Basic, Premium and Agency have no separate limit on domains. Free+ includes 1 tracked domain, so on Free+ there is no room for a competitor tracking next to your own. If you try, Duplicate tracking and New Tracking show "You've reached the limit of tracked domains or keywords."

Compare your tracking with the competitor's

  • Open both trackings with the same dates and compare the Rank column keyword by keyword. To switch between them, select the domain name at the top left of a tracking.

  • For an overall view, use the Trackings page. Each card there shows its tracking's Performance Index.

  • For a spreadsheet, export the keywords of both trackings to CSV and compare the files. See Organize and export keywords: tags, filters and CSV.

A competitor tracking has history only from the day you create it. It follows your plan's update schedule, like your own trackings.

See competitors without a second tracking

To check who outranks you for one keyword, open the keyword in your own tracking and select Preview SERP. It shows a stored copy of the Google results page that SERPWatcher checked, with every site on it. You need no second tracking for this. See Why your SERPWatcher ranking differs from what you see in Google.

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