Checking your rank from your own desk tells you what your neighbours see
Free, works on Google country domains, and keeps a history.
Search results are local, which means the rank you see is the rank for wherever you happen to be sitting. If you are checking how a client in another city shows up, your own result is close to useless.
So you set a location, search normally, and this reads the results page and tells you where your domain landed and who is above you. It keeps a history too, because a single position is a number and a trend is information.
One thing it is not: this does not make you anonymous or hide who you are from Google. It sets the location used for the search. Your account and your history are untouched, and any tool claiming otherwise is overselling.
How to use it
- Enter the domain you want to track and the keyword.
- Type the location you care about. The place name goes to a geocoding service to become coordinates.
- Search on Google as you normally would.
- Read the position, and the list of who is ranking above you.
- Come back later and the history shows whether anything you changed made a difference.
The one thing here that leaves your browser
To turn a place name into coordinates, the text you type is sent to Photon, a free geocoding service run by Komoot on OpenStreetMap data. That is the only outbound call in any of my extensions and I would rather put it in the first screen than in clause nine.
What goes: the location text. What does not: your keyword, your domain, your results, your history, or anything identifying you. It happens at the moment you type a location, never in the background.
What it can access, and why
| Permission | Why it needs it |
|---|---|
| Google search domains | Fifteen specific Google country domains, listed explicitly. It reads the results page to find your position. |
| Local storage | Your tracked keywords, domains and position history live on your machine. |
| Other sites (optional, off by default) | Only if you want to test how a non-Google site sees your chosen location. Granted from the settings page, never at install. |
Full detail in the privacy policy.
FAQ
Is this the same as a proper rank tracker?
No. A rank tracker runs on a schedule, checks dozens of locations, and stores the history server-side. This checks the search in front of you, when you ask. It is the right tool for spot checks and for showing someone their actual position on a call. For a grid across a whole city, on a schedule, you want a real tracker.
Will Google notice and start showing me CAPTCHAs?
It might if you do a lot of searches quickly, because you are doing normal searches and Google rate-limits humans who behave unusually too. This does not automate searching for you, which is the behaviour that actually triggers blocks.
Why fifteen Google domains rather than all sites?
Because that is all it needs. Rank checking happens on Google search pages, so those are the only pages it is declared for, and a fresh install shows no scary permission warning as a result. The all-sites capability exists for the location testing feature and stays off until you turn it on.
Does the location setting affect the rest of my browsing?
Only while the feature is on, and only for what you have granted. If you have not enabled the optional all-sites part, it applies to Google searches and nothing else.