How we turned Google Search Console into a handy rank tracking tool that SEOs love

Hey there 🖐I’m Roman Makarov, one of the co-founders here. Let me walk you through how we created a rank tracker based on Google Search Console data — and why this tool will be a lifesaver for you too.

About our team: We’re a data-driven SEO agency for SaaS companies with over 13 years of experience. Every day in our work, we craft ambitious SEO strategies that help tech products, apps and platforms boost organic traffic, drive MQLs, and increase MRR. We also build in-house affiliate websites and sell them on platforms like Empire Flippers. Yes, we are great at creating profitable projects, and we know how to use SEO to multiply every dollar invested by 10-20 times.

As you know, keyword positions in most popular SEO tools don’t match real positions in Google's SERP. SEO tools often display high rankings for keywords that don’t actually exist and get no clicks. As a result, the rankings are high, but the traffic isn’t coming.

Here’s an illustration of how Ahrefs sees the jayserach.com website compared to Google Search Console: 

If you check jaysearch.com on Ahrefs and Semrush, you will see a 15-fold increase in organic traffic over the last year.

VS

Based on Google Search Console data, the website traffic has grown by 1.5x only.

Based on Google Search Console data, the website traffic has grown by 1.5x only.

The difference between the data from third-party tools (like Ahrefs and Semrush) and the actual numbers in Google can be as much as 10x.

What’s behind this mismatch? It’s because third-party tools consider no-click keywords that generate no real traffic. This has happened to us many times on client projects. We saw high keyword positions but got little traffic and leads. So we thought, why not evaluate keyword positions using Google Search Console? This tool is provided by Google and its data aligns accurately with Google Analytics, so it reflects the true state of things. That’s just what we need! 

1. Google Search Console is ideal for rank tracking, but...

Daily rank tracking with Google Search Console is such a hassle! You choose a page, go to Queries, choose the keyword, check positions, reset the keyword, choose another one, check positions, reset, and so on — keyword by keyword, page by page. Donkey work! 🫏

As you probably know, Google Search Console doesn’t allow you to save filters, so you have to set them up from scratch every time. As a result, every session takes quite a bit of time, and there’s no way to make it quicker. 

We wondered, does everyone else in the industry face the same challenges? As it turns out, the SEO community has made several attempts to build a rank tracker based on Google Search Console.Integration with Google Data Studio was one of the most popular solutions, but it had one drawback: you still had to do too much manual work to prepare the required data for analysis. This integration felt more like a workaround than a robust SEO tool. 

The solution seemed almost obvious. We needed a version of Google Search Console customized for SEO. We imagined a tool where you could group and save keywords by pages, get daily position updates, and apply SEO filters for more effective data analysis.

This would make SEO so much easier!

This would really simplify SEOs' daily tasks and boost productivity.

2. What does the perfect rank tracker look like? The story behind JaySearch.

The tool began as an internal solution. Working with our colleagues from the JetDevTeam, we developed a solution to get keyword ranking data from Google Search Console. Then we tested the system on real data for one of our clients’ projects. It worked perfectly, and that’s how JaySearch was born.

A: SEOs have created several band-aid rank trackers based on Google Search Console, using Google Data Studio and Google Sheets. It takes a lot of time to get SEO insights from these tools.

Too many wasted time to get SEO insights ... 🥱

A: SEOs have created several band-aid rank trackers based on Google Search Console, using Google Data Studio and Google Sheets. It takes a lot of time to get SEO insights from these tools.

VS

B: Here’s how JaySearch works: (1) group your website URLs into meaningful clusters, (2) slice GSC data using SEO-focused filters, and (3) track core keyword rankings and spot potential keywords in the grid table to drive organic traffic. 

Done! All keyword ranking data is in one place, ready for advanced SEO analysis 💪⚡💥

We’ve honed JaySearch for both clients' projects and our in-house websites. Here are several things we carefully considered when building our rank tracker. 

1. Accurate data directly from Google Search Console. Google is the only accurate source of data on keyword rankings. This is why we explored every opportunity offered by the Google Search Console API. By the way, some important data on GSC is only accessible through the API. With JaySearch, we’ve made it available to everyone.
2. Daily position updates. Every SEO starts the day with the same routine: enjoying a cup of tea while checking keyword rankings. JaySearch takes this ritual to a new level, making the process faster and much more convenient. 
3. Quick project setup. We know how tedious it can be to set up SEO monitoring for a new project. It can take hoursto gather all the pages, choose keywords to track, and configure the rank tracking tool. In JaySearch, you can set up a project in just 3 minutes. 
4. Access to 90 days of historical data upon new project setup.  Most classic rank trackers only provide data from the project’s start date, which makes them less useful for analysis and hypothesis building. With JaySearch, you have access to 90 days of historical data after setup. It can be especially useful when Google rolls out an update, and you need to review 1-2 months of ranking history. 
5. The tool should be just as fast as Google Search Console. Sometimes, a project contains thousands of keywords. We needed the rank tracker to process them all quickly and filter them in a snap. And with JaySearch, we did just that.
6. Quick access to SEO insights.  GSC can give you a ton of valuable SEO insights, like untapped keywords that can bring more traffic, long tail keywords, etc. To uncover these insights, SEOs have to go through a frustrating process of uploading data to Google Sheets or using Regex. In JaySearch, we have added built-in filters to uncover these insights.
7. Share reports with just one click. You can share your reports with clients and colleagues in a breeze, just like in Google Docs. 

3. What’s next?

JaySearch is the tool for SEOs by SEOs. We developed it as the go-to solution for handy and accurate keyword tracking. Now that the product is up and running, we use it every day on our clients’ websites, and we continue to enhance and refine the tool. We’d love you to experience its value too! Give it a try and share your feedback. Let’s make the perfect rank tracker together!

Roman Makarov,

Head of Organic Growth, HighTime Agency