Standard operating procedure

SOP: Weekly Rank Tracking Check

A ten-minute weekly routine for checking rankings, spotting drops, and flagging them to the client.

SOP6 stepsAbout 15 minBeginner

Objective

Catch meaningful ranking changes early and separate real problems from normal day-to-day movement.

When to use

  • Every week for active SEO clients.
  • After publishing or changing important pages.

Prerequisites

  • A rank tracker with the client’s priority keywords.
  • Access to Google Search Console.
  • Last week’s notes.

Steps

  1. Open the rank tracker

    Compare this week with last week for priority keywords only.

  2. Ignore small moves

    Movement of one to three positions is normal; note it but do not report it as a problem.

  3. Investigate big drops

    For drops of five or more positions, check whether the ranking URL changed, the page is still indexed and a competitor published something new.

  4. Cross-check Search Console

    Look at clicks and impressions for the affected pages over 28 days.

  5. Log findings

    Add a short note per keyword group with the likely cause.

  6. Flag to the client

    Only send an alert for drops on high-value keywords, with your explanation and next step.

Quality checklist

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Tips and context

  • Open the rank tracker and filter to tracked keywords.
  • Note any keyword that moved more than five positions.
  • Check whether the ranking URL changed.
  • Add a short note to the weekly client update.

Download

A plain-text Markdown copy (.md) that opens in any editor and pastes cleanly into Google Docs, Notion or ClickUp.

Download SOP (Markdown)

Templates for this SOP

  • Template Keyword Research Template A ready-made sheet for collecting keywords with intent, volume, difficulty, target page and priority, so research…

My notes

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