This isn't limited to gadget blogs, but when you run a blog, I think there are a few motivations or rewards that keep you writing articles.
It could be an increase in page views, or the results of affiliate marketing...
That's true, but my favorite fishbowl pastime is monitoring changes in search rankings.
We don't use any particularly difficult tools. It's a tool that makes it easy to experience the ups and downs of life.
"GMO Ranking Checker"
This very simple tool powers my gadget blog.
This time, we will introduce a review of this divine tool.
- People who want to know the keyword rankings of their website
- Those who want to monitor changes in their website's keyword rankings
- People who want to know the rankings of their competitors
- People who want simple operation and use
- People looking for a service with good browsing experience
- People who want to start cheaply
Easy-to-read data and simple operation
The great thing about GMO Rank Checker is that it has a simple and straightforward interface. From registering as a member to setting keywords, you won't get lost in the interface.

First, go to the official website and click on the "Sign up now for free!" button.

Enter your name and email address. *The easiest way is to "Sign up with Google."
It's a little flight from here.

After you have registered as a member, enter the address of the site you want to observe ranking changes for (your own website address) on the site registration screen, and enter a name that you can easily identify (the name of your website is recommended).

Then, enter the keyword for which you want to observe the ranking change (the search keyword that interests you on your own website). *With the standard "Pro 100" plan, you can register up to 100 keywords. You can also register long-tail keywords.
Customizing metric data

Once you have completed the registration, you will see the screen shown above. I have omitted some of the registration process, but with just this you can create a list of ranking changes. Also, unlike Google Analytics, for example, you do not need to navigate across multiple pages; it is very convenient to be able to view all the indicators on one page.
The initial settings contain all the necessary information, but by customizing it you can create a data table with even more required information.

Specifically, first press the "+" button at the top of the screen.

You will then see the following screen, where you can enter any name you like as an identifier in the "Custom" field. Then, in the "Column" section, check the indicators you want to include in the custom table. Then, click the "Register" button.

This will result in a list of customized indicators like this.
The difference from the normal version is that the number of Google hits and SEO difficulty are added.
It's become much more fulfilling.
The operations up to this point have been very simple and smooth to set up.
I would like to explain each of these indicators.
Below is an explanation of the indicators in the table.
Keyword
This is a list of search keywords that you have set. If a keyword is ranked within the top 10 in search engines, a crown mark will be placed in front of it.
Busan Area
After checking "Account" → "Individual Settings" → "Specify Area" and entering the address, the area will be displayed. Google search results change depending on the location information. For example, if you search for "ramen" in Niigata City, ramen shops in Niigata City will be displayed at the top. By setting the area specification well, you can get accurate search results.
*By the way, if you change the default area, all of your previous data will be erased, so please be careful if you have already collected data and it has been a while since you did so...this includes me.
device
The device you selected when setting the keyword will be displayed. *I chose PC because I wanted to know the search results for PC only. You can also display both PC and smartphone results for the same keyword. *Please note that in this case, even one keyword will be counted as two.
Search Volume
It is an indicator of how many users search per month. The more people there are, the greater the chance of exposure for the keyword you are targeting, but the more competition there will be, so it is best to choose a moderate volume of people while your domain power is low.
G Rank
This shows you the current ranking of the keyword in the target row in the search engines.
It is updated once a day. This is the indicator we are most interested in.
GCompared to previous day
It shows how many positions your search engine ranking has moved up or down compared to the previous day.
It is updated once a day. This is another indicator of interest.
G Hits
It is an index showing how many sites exist when searching for a search keyword. However, it is not very reliable as it may show 0, so don't rely on it completely.
difficulty
This is called SEO difficulty, and indicates the difficulty of ranking for that keyword. It is shown in three difficulty levels: low, medium, and high. This SEO difficulty is determined by various indicators, so please check it out if you like.
G Rank In URL
The Google-ranked URL associated with that search keyword will be shown.
A little trick

In addition, if you click on a search keyword on the left side of the table, detailed indicators and a graph of the trend will appear. This will allow you to get a detailed look at past search rankings.
This will clearly show you which keywords have significant fluctuations in rankings and which ones have no fluctuations at all. In my case, the most volatile keywords fluctuate by about 60 positions every day.
This is basically the function, but it's really convenient because it only costs a few hundred yen. It's a very convenient and useful service, considering that I used to put my browser into incognito mode and search for search keywords one by one manually to find the rankings.
History function

If you select "History" in the red square in the upper left of the image, you can see the ranking history of the keyword for the past month in numerical form. I think this is a very user-friendly feature.
Chart Features

If you select "Chart" in the red square in the upper left of the image, you can see the ranking fluctuations over the past month in a line graph. This is useful for intuitively seeing which keywords are stable and which are unstable.
Page improvement function using AI
It has a unique feature that allows AI to analyze a specified page and give advice on SEO improvement. By using this, even people without SEO knowledge can get detailed advice, so I will give it a try.

Select "Improve Page with AI" from the sidebar menu.

Enter the address of the blog you want to have analyzed by AI and the search keywords you want to improve the ranking for.
Once you have finished the settings, click "Start Analysis".

It will take a while for the analysis to complete, but once complete you will be redirected to the screen shown above.
This is the result of the AI analysis, but the numbers seem a bit extreme... This is an improvement to be made to a single page (the top page in this setting), right? Even if we achieve this, it will be spam...
I'd like to ask GMO's service support about this.
By the way, this function will become paid after the free period ends. Even the cheapest paid plan costs nearly 1 yen per month, so I think it will be quite a blow to individual bloggers.
However, if you register from the address below, you can use it for 2 yen per month, although there is a limit of two usages per month. If you are interested, please visit the site.
AI SEO Director byGMO

By the way, if you click on "Execute AI Rewrite" in the red frame in the image, the AI will rewrite the article of the specified URL. From what I tried, it was quite good, rewriting the original sentence without any problems and adding more substance to it. I wonder if it also takes into account the keywords I set?

I tried rewriting the Hatsune Miku article above, but the rewrite stopped midway. The article was over 2 characters long, so maybe I was being a bit mean?
It would be nice to have some information such as the maximum number of characters allowed at one time.
About price plans

The pricing plans are as follows.
I chose the standard plan for 485 yen.
You can register up to 5 websites and compare them. You can also register up to 100 keywords, so it should be enough for individual bloggers.
However, if you register five websites, the number of keywords will be shared among them, so if you want to do a lot of comparisons with other websites, you may find that you run out of space quickly.
In that case, switch to the 980 yen plan.
If you are a company running a large website, rest assured that we have even more advanced plans available.
Q&A
- Is the Always Free plan really free?
-
Unless GMO changes its mind, you can use it forever for free. There are no particular limitations on the functionality.
- Is it compatible with both Windows and Mac?
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Since it is a browser-based cloud service, it can be used regardless of the environment.
- Do I need any special skills to set it up?
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No, you don't need to paste any special tags into the html, just enter the URL you want to measure.
GMO Rank Checker Review
Even though it's a cloud-based service, the pricing is reasonable.
Because it is a cloud service, there is no need to turn on a PC or other device, and you can access the information when you need it, which is very convenient. Also, many cloud services like this are expensive, but GMO Rank Checker is cheap to use, which is a relief. The functions and UI have been improved to make it easier to use, so I am very satisfied with the price.
Source: ITreviewIt's an intuitive tool
We had been using Google Analytics up until now, but we switched to a tool that anyone in the company could use. When we first tried it out, we were surprised at how easy it was to use. The interface is simple and intuitive, so anyone can operate it easily, and it's very convenient to be able to check search rankings immediately. In addition, we can get a detailed grasp of information necessary for SEO measures, such as competitive analysis of rival sites, so we can think of improvement measures more effectively.
Source: ITreviewYou can check your ranking from anywhere
I like being able to check the search rankings in real time.
When implementing SEO measures, you can immediately see the ranking of your article.
In addition, the simple appearance makes the operation screen easy to understand.
It is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, even for beginners.
Source: ITreview
Improvements we would like to see
- I want an indicator of how much traffic I can expect for that keyword, like "estimated number of visitors."
- I wish the interface was easier to use to delete keywords
- I want a system that allows me to easily swap out keyword lines.
- I would like the level of difficulty or competitiveness to be shown in numbers.
- I would like you to clarify whether the rewrite takes into account the keywords set by AI rewrite.
- I want it to be clear how many characters can be rewritten in one run with AI Rewrite
If these features are implemented, I think it will become an amazing service that will far surpass other tools.
Summary
GMO Rank Checker is a revolutionary tool that allows you to easily monitor the search rankings of keywords you are interested in. You can start for free if you have one registered site and up to 1 keywords.
Competing services cost about twice the price of the standard plan, so this is enough for me.
This frees me from the tedious task of checking rankings every day, allowing me to concentrate on my gadget blog, making it an indispensable tool.
This is typical of such services. There is no code to embed in the tags, so anyone can get started easily.
Even though GMO is a major company, I didn't realize that such a godly tool existed until recently, so I must have been negligent in gathering information. I can confidently say that this is a godly tool!