Campaign Keywords Vs. Rank Tracker

[NickSamuel]

Hi Mozzers,

Was just wondering what the difference between the two tools are, and why they have independent keyword limits?

Thanks,

Nick

P.S

Apologies if this has been asked before or if I've missed some documentation, I had a quick search but couldn't find a similar question!

[SamuelScott]

Thanks for the question!

For the most part, all rank-tracking tools are pretty much the same. Most tools out there incorporate two things: 1.) Choosing a search engine and country and 2.) Adding a parameter to show non-personalized results. the rankings that will be delivered will then include (only) those two factors.

However, the actual SERP that any person actually sees will be personalized and reflect his search history, the device he is using at the moment, whether he's logged into his Google account, his Google+ activity, his physical location (especially when searching on mobile devices), and a lot more that we probably don't even know.

So, it's important to know that any "ranking" that a person sees via any tool is always going to be an estimation. There are more than 200 ranking factors (as best as we can know) and no tool can incorporate all of them to present the exact same picture that Google sees -- chiefly because we don't know all of those factors and we don't know everything about that factors that we do know.

So, the actual ranking positions that a person sees will often not line up exactly with what a tool shows. Tools pretty much give you a good guess as to a ranking, but it's still just a guess. What I would recommend: People should care more about the overall trend than a specific ranking. If the tools show that rankings are slowly but surely increasing over time, then you're on the right track. It's a marathon, not a race.