Which keywords to track, and how many
By the Auditmatic team · Updated 3 November 2026 · 5 min read
Four groups worth tracking
- Brand: your name and product names. They should rank first, and a drop signals a problem.
- Money: the few keywords that bring customers.
- Supporting: the guides and posts that feed those pages.
- Competitor: two or three keywords where a named competitor beats you.
How many to track
Start with 15 to 30. More keywords means more noise and more cost, not more insight. Add keywords only when you have a page that targets them.
How often to check
Rankings move around day to day. A weekly check is enough for most sites. Daily checking mostly shows noise, but it helps after a big change or for a keyword you are actively fighting for.
On Auditmatic, a rank check costs about 0.25 cents, so 25 keywords checked weekly come to roughly $0.27 a month, and daily checks about $1.90.
Choose device and location
Rankings differ by country, city and device. Track on the device and place where your customers search. A local business should track a city, not just a country.
Read the results
Look at the four-week trend. One bad day is not a signal. A steady fall across several related keywords is. Compare with the date of any change you made.
Run it with your AI agent
Connect your agent to Auditmatic, then paste this prompt. Replace the parts in angle brackets. It reads real data and asks before it spends anything.
Use my Auditmatic project for <your-domain>. Run estimate_rank_tracker_cost for these keywords: <list>, weekly, on desktop and mobile, in <country or city>. Show me the monthly cost. If I approve, run create_rank_tracker and add_rank_tracking_keywords. Then every week, run run_rank_tracker and summarise which keywords moved more than 3 places over four weeks.
Without a tool
You can do this by hand with free tools:
- List your keywords in four groups in a spreadsheet.
- Check each in Google, in a private window set to your location, once a week.
- Record the position and the date, and chart it after a month.
Questions
Why do rankings change every day?
Results are tested, personalised and refreshed constantly. Small day-to-day swings are normal.
Should I track keywords I do not rank for yet?
Yes, a few of them, if you have published a page for them. It shows how long they take to appear.
Keep going
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