Checking SERPs

What methods do you use for monitoring your website in search results? For a long time, I was simply checking positioning in Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. I didn't really monitor every small movement and actually spent most of my time doing as Google Webmaster Guidelines alludes to -- create content that keeps your readers coming back.

Creating content wasn't the hard part, I was a photographer with access to some places in the Pacific that people will never set foot on -- like Iwo Jima. The hard part has been trying to keep up with SEO, because it's not like baking a cake. If the rules for baking a cake changed every month, I don't think you would have as many bakers, and probably might have fewer people who want to eat cake. (That was my try at a metaphor.) So, unlike so many of you who like doing SEO, I think I stumbled into it accidently and see how it would be exciting for people who enjoy change and opportunity.

Within the past year, I have tried to understand the way Google personalizes search results. I was told directly by someone about G+, because I couldn't understand why certain things on G+ kept showing up in search results.

On Digital Point I was reading as the Penguin update was rolling out, and I am glad I did, because I was staring at my screen wondering why in the ^&%$ my World of Warcraft BM hunter profile was on page 1 of Google for my name.

So, my question is, when you are looking for a reliable way to track the placement in search results for websites you manage, is there a best way you go about doing this that is freely available? I am not against paying developers for the products they put forth, I just don't make money doing what I do at the moment.

Thanks in advance for any knowledge that you can lend me.

I learned
276




SciZone