Introduction Video

Want to know where your website ranks in the search results? Our Firefox Rank Checker extension allows you to easily check your website rankings in Google (US and international), Yahoo, and Microsoft Live search.

Want to learn more? Watch this video and/or read on.

Download & Installation Instructions:

• You have to use Firefox version 2 or higher to get this to work. If you have not yet used Firefox go download Firefox, and then come back to this page using Firefox as your web browser.
• Click Here to install the Firefox Rank Checker extension.
• If the Software Installation window is visible click Install Now.
• If not, then:
  • See if there is a yellow bar near the top of your browser.
  • Click the Edit Options button on the yellow bar.
  • Click Allow. Then click OK.
  • Click Here
  • Click the Install Now button.
• As a final step, restart Firefox.

Click on the words Rank Checker in the bottom of your Firefox browser to activate the tool. Enter a URL and keyword combination and click the start button to check it's rankings.

Off the start this tool is set up to grab data from the Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft SERPs. After you install Firefox Rank Checker and restart your browser you may want to configure the extension settings to automatically collect data periodically and/or pull data from international Google search results.

The Theory...

I like being able to check my rankings real quickly without worrying that some SEO company is aggregating my data and/or spying on me. This tool is open source and hosted your computer - designed with privacy in mind.

Looking at the rankings of a couple of your sites that you know intimately well and tracking how they change over time allows you to

• learn how to read the search results
• appreciate and understand general algorithmic trends
• be one of the first people to know when the relevancy algorithms change in a major way

This tool is designed to be quick and easy to use, but to also give you the opportunity to gain the level of insight needed to compete with other SEOs at the professional level. Here is an image of what the tool looks like:

• If your site is not listed in the top 200 results you will see a - (there are a few of them in the above picture).
• If you have long URLs and/or long keywords some of them may be cut off in the results display. If that happens you can still see the full page names and keywords by scrolling over them.
• You can verify your position in the search results by double clicking on the URL...this will open the associated search results in Firefox.
• If you are logged into your Google account in Firefox this tool will show you personalized ranking results (which tend to make the rankings appear better than they are in many cases). If you want to, you can turn personalized web search off in the Rank Checker options / preference settings window.

First Things First:

In the status bar at the bottom of Firefox you can click on Rank Checker at any time to turn this extension on.

This extension has courtesy settings which allow you to ping search engines for data at a slow rate. You probably want to set the delay to at least 2 or more seconds. If you set it at 0 do not be surprised if some of the engines at least temporarily block you for scraping data. To set the courtesy feature you need to

• click on the word Tools at the top of your Firefox browser
• scroll over the words Rank Checker
• click on the word Options
• at the bottom of the options window you can enter in the Delay between queries: whatever value you feel comfortable with (in seconds)

Uploading Keyword/ Website Data

You can upload keyword and domain name combinations directly in the Rank Checker interface by inserting them one at a time.

Next to the add keyword button is a link for adding multiple keywords. It allows you to upload a keyword list matching a domain.

If you want to quickly create a relevant keyword list just to sample how well your site is doing I recommend using our keyword research tool, or our keyword list generator.

If after using the tool you want to clear out the interface you can simply close the tool, or if you want to use it again you can click the clear button.

Firefox Rank Checker Extension Advanced Features:

This free rank checking tool allows you to check your rankings in Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft Live search results, and has the following features:

• International: in the options section (mentioned above) you can select to pull results from international versions of Google and/or Google.com.
• Presets: allows you to grab a list of keywords that you can research data on at any given point in time.
  • useful for segregating data for different websites, different categories, etc.
  • you can save a preset list by clicking on this button inside of the Rank Checker interface
  • you can open a preset list by clicking on this button inside of the Rank Checker interface
• Scheduled Tasks: allows you to look up any of your keyword lists daily, weekly, monthly, or at any periodicity you choose.
  • After you have created a preset list of keywords you can use this feature
  • To use this feature
    • click on the word Tools at the top of your Firefox browser
    • scroll over the words Rank Checker
    • click on the words Scheduled Tasks
    • at the bottom of the scheduled tasks window you can what keyword lists you want to run and how often to look them up
      
      

Want to Export Your Data?

With our free rank checker you can easily export your data to a CSV file. At the bottom of the tool window there is an export button for saving a spreadsheet of your rankings, which is convenient for providing a quick ranking report for clients.

These results can be viewed in any spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, or Open Office.

Inside the presets window there is the option to download the history of that keyword list to a CSV file, which shows you how your rankings for keywords change over time

This spreadsheet lists historical data for one keyword at a time

Possible Future Upgrades:

• Check for multiple listings
• Allow Google extension to be chose on a per preset basis
• Add proxy support (although this is already baked into Firefox - there is even an extension for switching proxies).
• Will see. Depends on feedback :)
• Leave feedback here.

Other Useful Related Firefox Extensions and Goodies:

There are a number of other browser based extensions display other related SEO information. Advanced users may want to give SEO for Firefox a try. We offer a list of related useful extensions on our SEO extension page.

Have Feedback? Know of Any Conflicting Extensions?

If it does not work then throw your computer out the window, or leave feedback and read comments left by others here.

Gain a Competitive Advantage Today

Want more great SEO insights? Read our SEO blog to keep up with the latest search engine news, and subscribe to our SEO training program to get cutting edge tips we do not share with the general public.

Source: http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/

Out of experience? Well, I don’t know, but looked like everyone is so interested in talking about getting successful on Twitter. Well, I followed many of them and, guess what? They enlightened me on the below points. With due courtesy to all of them….

1. Please follow your followers
   Or guess what happens? Your followers would be responding to your tweet and they never hear back from you. Okay, you are a pro - master - guru, blah blah…fine..but that doesn’t mean that you won’t talk or reply. Does it ?
2. Please don’t even dare say “Good Morning” or “Good Evening” or even “Good night”
   Cos, the 300ish guys subscribed to your tweet is not from your neighborhood, they’re most likely from the other end of the world. They may think you’re nuts!
3. Please try to respond, or be a bot
   I can’t think of a good reason why one wouldn’t respond. Unless it’s a bot using your profile. I’ve seen Digg bots (some of them even have the profile pic of that of a robot), but twitter bots? Come on…that’s disgusting!
4. Twitter is not a place to yawn..come’on now for God sake!
   Thou shall not yawn, or do any of those organic sounds. Remember, though you’re on your bed, the world’s watching you..err…listening to you.
5. Be logical
   This is tough to explain. Example? Here goes…

   Mr. X : I’m going out for a movie - Dark Knight.
   Mr. Y : @Mr.X - Man, that’s a cool movie. Yaay!

   (After 30 mins….)

   Mr. X : Just woke up..had coffee, off to Gym !
   Mr. Y : @Mr.X huh??

Makes sense?

As a result of this scrutiny Yahoo and Google/Doubleclick are now both providing an easy way for user to opt-out of ad targeting on their receptive networks. Yahoo and Doubleclick were part of Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) and allowed users to opt-out from their network via NAI’s opt-out tool.

Google

To find out more about Google network cookie and how to opt-out visit http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

Since a lot of you are working in the field of web analytics, you must be wondering how google opt-out will affect the data tracked in web analytics. The simple answer is that this option will not affect Google Analytics. A first party cookie from the site using Google Analytics is used for tracking user behavior on the site using Google Analytics, this cookie is separate from Google ad network cookie. According to Google

“A different cookie is used for each website, and visitors are not tracked across multiple sites…. To disable this type of cookie, some browsers will indicate when a cookie is being sent and allow you to decline cookies on a case-by-case basis. “

Yahoo

Yahoo has been offering that opt-out option for the ads the company runs on it outside partner sites in its network. Yahoo will now extend opt-out option to ads displayed on its own sites. You can read more about this option.
Below is excerpt from Yahoo Press release

Anne Toth, head of privacy and VP for policy, said, "Yahoo! understands the trust of our users is our greatest asset, so we strive to create the most trusted, compelling online experience."
"Yahoo! strongly believes that consumers want choice when customizing their online experience and they have also demonstrated a strong preference for advertising that is more personally relevant to them," continued Toth. "However, we understand that there are some users who prefer not to receive customized advertising and this opt-out will offer them even greater choice."
This new opt-out capability is expected to be available for consumers by the end of August. Users will be able to access the opt-out in the Yahoo! privacy center, which is linked on the home page and nearly every page on the Yahoo! network. Users will also be able to access the opt-out through a link in the public service advertising campaign Yahoo! has been running with online ads across its network to educate users about customized advertising.

Yahoo and Google have taken the steps in right direction but they are not perfect. As I wrote before, both these models are dependent on an opt-out cookie. If you opt-out of these networks and later delete your cookies you will again be automatically opted-in. I have advocated an opt-in model for Behavioral Targeting. This model will remove this dependence on cookie for opt-out. I do realize publishers and ad-networks concern that opt-in model will limit the reach. It is possible that the opt-in model might limit the reach initially but in long run if the value proposition is strong for users then user will opt-in.

What do you think?