Rank Tracking and SERP Movers

What rank tracking does

Rank tracking measures where your domain ranks for a set of keywords, stores each measurement, and shows you how your positions change over time. A single run checks up to 15 keywords, records each position, and returns your current standings with the delta versus the previous check. Running a check costs 1 credit; reading your stored rank history and movers is free.

Positions are measured by StretchSEM's own SERP engine (the same multi-source engine behind the SERP checker), so tracking works out of the box with no external provider.

Running a rank check

1. Open Tracking (or run Track ranks from Research or a project).
2. Enter your domain and the keywords to track (up to 15; commas or new lines).
3. Optionally add a competitor domain for head-to-head comparison — it's checked in the same SERP fetch, at no extra cost.
4. Run. StretchSEM checks each keyword, saves the positions, and returns a results table.

Reading the results

Each keyword row shows:

• Position — your current organic position, or null if you're not in the fetched window.
• Previous — your position at the last check.
• Delta — the change. A positive delta means you moved UP (to a lower position number). Negative means you dropped.
• Status — new (first time you rank), lost (fell out of the window), up, down, or flat.
• Competitor position / gap / lead — if you added a competitor: their position, the gap (positive = you're ahead), and who leads (you, competitor, or tie).

The run summary tallies how many keywords are ranked, improved, and declined, plus your head-to-head lead counts against the competitor.

SERP movers

The movers view reads your stored history (free) and surfaces the keywords that changed the most since the previous daily check, sorted by the size of the move. It counts improved, declined, new, and lost keywords — the fastest way to see what shifted this week without scanning every row.

History and trajectory

For each tracked keyword, StretchSEM keeps a daily history (one point per day) and a short sparkline series of recent positions so you can see the trajectory at a glance. Keywords are sorted best-rank-first, and the history is capped to the most recent ~30 days per keyword for a clean trend line.

A realistic example

A local bakery tracks wedding cakes toronto, custom birthday cakes, and gluten free bakery, with rivalbakery.com as the competitor. Week one: they rank #8, #4, and not-in-window; the rival leads on the first term. They publish a new wedding-cake page. Week two's check shows wedding cakes toronto moved from #8 to #5 (delta +3, status up), the movers view flags it as the biggest gainer, and the head-to-head now shows you leading. gluten free bakery appears at #12 for the first time — status new.

Building a tracking habit

1. Create a project-type campaign with your target keywords and top competitor.
2. Run Track ranks on a regular cadence (weekly is common).
3. Each week, open movers first to see what changed, then review the full table for context.
4. Feed declines into the On-Page Optimizer and Content Briefs to recover positions.

Tips

• Keep tracking lists tight (the top 10–15 keywords that matter) — one credit covers up to 15.
• Add a competitor: it's free within the same run and turns tracking into competitive intelligence.
• Run on a consistent schedule so the day-over-day deltas and movers stay meaningful.
• A null position isn't a failure — it means you're not in the top results yet for that term.

Troubleshooting

A keyword shows null / "lost". You're not in the fetched results window (typically the top ~15) for that term right now. Use content and on-page work to climb back in, then re-check.

Positions look noisy day to day. Search results naturally fluctuate. Focus on the trend in the sparkline and the movers view rather than a single day's number.

A check returned no positions. A SERP source was temporarily blocked; the run is refunded. Retry in a moment.