The Only 3 Keyword Monitoring Tools You Need

Keyword monitoring encompasses two key aspects. The first involves tracking a webpage’s ranking within search engine results. The second focuses on monitoring websites and social media platforms for the presence of specific keywords.

Therefore, marketers utilize keyword monitoring tools for two primary objectives:

In this article, I’ll go through three tools you’ll need to get both jobs done.

Featured tool: Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a complete SEO tool. You can use it not only for keyword monitoring but also for your entire SEO strategy.

The primary factor that sets Ahrefs apart is its superior data quality. Boasting one of the most active and extensive web crawlers globally – arguably the busiest within the entire SEO industry (study) – Ahrefs delivers highly comprehensive insights. Additionally, it offers an expansive keyword database containing over 22 billion keywords, including the largest collection dedicated to the U.S. market.

Key use cases

Ahrefs provides three powerful tools within its suite designed to assist with keyword monitoring: Rank Tracker, Site Explorer, and Ahrefs Alerts.

Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker 

Rank Tracker is an essential tool that allows you to effectively monitor your keywords and track your ranking progress over time.

Simply enter a keyword or a list of keywords, select the desired location and language you wish to monitor, and Ahrefs will begin collecting the relevant data for you.

As your data begins to come in, you will automatically receive weekly updates on your rankings. If you’d prefer more frequent insights, you also have the option to receive daily updates to monitor your progress more closely.

The essential metrics to monitor in Rank Tracker include share of voice, search position (both on desktop and mobile), traffic, and SERP features. You can focus on specific keywords or group your keywords with tags for bulk analysis.

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If you’re interested in evaluating your position against competitors on Google, there’s a dedicated report available. It provides a comprehensive comparison across all the essential metrics, giving you valuable insights into your performance.

Ahrefs’ Site Explorer 

Would you like to discover which keywords a website ranks for? Simply open Site Explorer and review the Organic Keywords report. This will provide you with valuable insights into their keyword rankings and historical performance.

You can also analyze your competitors by examining the Paid Keywords Report, which reveals the keywords they bid on and the destinations of their paid traffic.

Ahrefs Alerts 

Ahrefs Alerts is a powerful tool that provides automated email notifications. It is especially useful for keyword monitoring, as it enables you to:

• Be notified when a site ranks for new keywords.
• Be notified of new content that contains a keyword or a search query. 
• See new mentions of your brand and products. 

For instance, you can use it to track web pages that mention your competitors but omit any reference to your brand. Additionally, you can apply advanced filters, such as Domain Rating and website traffic, to streamline your link-building efforts and save valuable time.

Note

Would you like to identify unlinked mentions of your brand and products? Use Web Explorer, another powerful tool within the Ahrefs suite, to seamlessly track these references across the web.

Pricing 

Ahrefs pricing begins at $99 per month. However, if you opt for an annual subscription, you’ll receive two months free.

Additionally, there are two complimentary tools available: Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, which enables you to access Site Explorer features for your owned websites, along with other functionalities; and our Keyword Rank Checker, which allows you to quickly determine a website’s ranking in any country for a specific keyword.

2. Media monitoring tool 

Featured tool: Mention

Mention is the essential tool you’d want to leverage to track who is talking about your brand or your competitors online, as well as what they’re saying. It’s a go-to resource for social media managers and public relations professionals in their daily activities.

This tool is designed to monitor social media platforms, forums, and traditional websites. With higher subscription plans, you can also extend your monitoring to include select TV and radio stations.

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Please note that while SEO and media monitoring tools may share some overlapping features, they are designed to serve different marketing channels. SEO tools primarily focus on organic search optimization, helping you improve your website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results. In contrast, media monitoring tools are tailored to track and analyze social media platforms, enabling you to monitor brand mentions, engage with your audience, and gather insights from social conversations. Understanding these distinctions ensures you choose the right tools for your specific marketing objectives.

Key use cases 

Here are some ways Mention can assist you in monitoring online discussions related to your keywords:

Analyze keyword mentions across multiple platforms

If you want to not only monitor your online presence but also analyze your mentions in detail, Mention offers you the following features:

• See keyword popularity in time. 
• Get a sentiment analysis. 
• Get a breakdown of the sources. 
• See countries where your keywords were mentioned. 

It all begins with clearly identifying your goal, and this tool allows you to be as precise as possible. Beyond basic boolean operators, you can even specify the proximity between words or phrases, enhancing the accuracy of your search.

For example, I can establish a keyword alert that notifies me of U.S. conversations mentioning Ahrefs’ data, where the words “Ahrefs” and “data” appear within six words of each other.

What I particularly appreciate about Mention is the custom reports feature. It allows you to select and combine various insights provided by Mention, enabling you to compile them into a comprehensive, tailored report.

For example, this report presents a comparison between the Apple Vision Pro and the Meta Quest Pro, focusing on their sentiment and source metrics.

It’s also worth mentioning the sources where Mention can look for your keywords. Here’s a complete list:

See influencers interacting with your keywords 

Mentions include a dedicated feature for influencer analysis.

You can use this to generate a report highlighting key influencers discussing your brand. Additionally, it enables you to identify individuals interested in your work and compile a list of potential partners.

Respond to mentions of your brand and products

Social media teams will really appreciate this feature. When you come across an interesting mention, you can assign it to a team member, allowing them to respond directly within the app.

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The starting price is $49 per month. If you choose to pay annually, you’ll receive two months free.

Featured tool: Glimpse (the Chrome extension)

Glimpse is designed to make your life easier if you need to:

• Quickly react to keyword trend changes.
• Base your decisions on possible future trends. 
• Monitor your niche for trending keywords. 

If you’ve ever used Google Trends, you’ll find Glimpse quite familiar. It is a powerful tool built on top of Google Trends, designed to enhance your experience with additional data and advanced features, such as detailed channel breakdowns and trend forecasting.

Note

Could you just rely on the free version of Google Trends? Sure, you can, but I believe you’ll be missing out on a lot of valuable features. Don’t just take my word for it – try using Glimpse instead. Then, see if you can disconnect from it for a while and determine whether you can truly do without its insights.

Key use cases

Here’s how a trend tracking tool can elevate keyword monitoring to the next level:

Discover and track trending keywords in your niche 

Glimpse provides an advanced feature for keyword monitoring: niche monitoring.

Navigate to the “Discover” tab, identify your niche, and the tool will reveal trending keywords that are gaining popularity. A valuable feature of this report is the branded keyword indicator, offering useful insights for enhancing your SEO strategy.

Discover is a valuable tool for e-commerce professionals and content creators who focus on trending topics. While it doesn’t replace comprehensive market research, it serves as an excellent starting point for generating new product ideas and identifying popular interests.

Once you discover a topic that interests you, you can set up an alert for it. Glimpse will then notify you of any changes or emerging trends related to that subject.

Gauge a keyword’s popularity in various channels 

If you need to analyze the popularity of a specific keyword, Glimpse offers the following capabilities:

• See “into the future” with the trend forecasting feature. 
• See keyword popularity across social media channels. 
• See back as far as 2004 (for some keywords) if you want to study the long-term trend.

For instance, a marketing agency might utilize this feature to recommend the most effective social media platforms for promoting a particular product or service.

Glimpse + Ahrefs 

Trending keywords identified on Glimpse can serve as an excellent foundation for conducting keyword research using Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer, an integral part of the Ahrefs toolkit.

For instance, Glimpse indicated that “wide toe shoes” is a popular trending keyword. By analyzing this term in Keywords Explorer, we discover an alternative phrase with similar meaning – “wide toe box shoes” – which, in turn, has greater search volume on Google.

You can instead focus on this keyword to attract more traffic.

And so, starting our keyword research from “wide toe box shoes,” we can get insight into:

• Keyword Difficulty.
• Dominating search intent.
• Secondary keywords we can include in the content. 
• Other related keywords we can create separate content for (a few examples below). 
• Other content ideas from sites that rank for “wide toe box shoes.”

And more. 

Pricing 

Glimpse, the Google Trends extension, is priced at $49 per month. However, if you opt for an annual subscription, you’ll receive two months free.

You can also enjoy limited access to a portion of its features at no cost, with up to five free searches each month.

Final thoughts 

To effectively monitor SEO and social media keywords, utilize both Ahrefs and Mention – two comprehensive tools that provide thorough insights and coverage.

If you’re looking to analyze trends and gain a competitive advantage, be sure to try out Glimpse as well.