10 SEO Tools to Check Google Algorithm Updates and Changes

One thing that is constant in Google SEO world is ‘change’. According to Matt Cutts, Google makes changes to its algorithms at least once a day, and, on average they tend to roll out at least 400 updates per year. Whilst most of these changes or updates are minor such as a country specific change, better synonyms or SERP features improvement, but the major algorithmic updates such as Panda, Penguin make significant changes in the search results.

Keeping track of these changes and how they affect your website is a difficult and time-consuming task. Knowing when Google rolls out updates can help you explain changes in the website rankings and organic traffic.

So, how to track and monitor these day-to-day changes in Google algorithm?

Below are ten best free tools (also known as SEO weather tracking tools) that will make your job easier.

1. Mozcast
2. Algoroo
3. SERPMetrics
4. Advanced Web Ranking Tool
5. AccuRanker – Grumpy Tool
6. RankRanger
7. Google Webmaster Tool
8. Google Analytics Tool
9. Barracuda Digital’s Panguin Tool
10. Moz Algorithm Change History Calendar

Let’s explore in detail.

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Should SEOs trust these tools?

Not completely. If you’ll compare the reporting of these tools, you’ll find that they often show different results. It dependents on the keyword, geography and market areas being tracked. Instead, you should also look for the changes you made to your site, Webmaster, and analytics data to get a better picture of fluctuations in the ranking and organic traffic.

@rustybrick yes

— Gary 鯨理／경리 Illyes (so official, trust me) (@methode) January 18, 2016

In addition to SEO weather tracking tools data, below are some points you should make sure to check before making a change in your SEO strategy:

1. Manual action applied or lifted
2. Transition from HTTP to HTTPs
3. Robots.txt blocking important pages
4. New site design being indexed
5. Changed the URL structure
6. Site being hacked
7. New backlinks being indexed or removed
8. Other reasons such as disavowed file updated, domain redirected to another one etc.

What do you think about these tools? Which one is your favorite? Have something to add? I’d love to hear you all in the comment section.