Stop Paying for Ahrefs: Build Your Own Keyword Rank Tracker for $1/Month

Rank tracking is the bread and butter of SEO. Tools like ProRankTracker and Keyword.com are excellent—they offer beautiful dashboards, daily updates, and white-label reports.

But they also charge a premium. Monitoring just 500 keywords can cost you $50/month.

What if I told you that the underlying data for those 500 keywords costs less than $0.30 to fetch via API?

In this guide, we will build a "Minimum Viable Rank Tracker" using Python and SearchCans that gives you the same accuracy for 1/100th of the price.

The Economics of Rank Tracking

Most SaaS rank trackers are essentially wrappers around a SERP API.

1. They take your keyword.
2. They send it to Google via an API/proxy.
3. They parse the position of your URL.
4. They charge you a markup for the UI.

If you don’t need the fancy UI, you can skip the markup. With SearchCans charging $0.56 per 1,000 searches, tracking 500 keywords daily costs:

500 × 30 days = 15,000 requests
15 × $0.56 = $8.40 per month

Compare that to the $100+ you’d pay for an enterprise plan on other platforms. For more cost comparisons, see our detailed pricing analysis.

Build It Yourself (Python Code)

Here is a script that checks a list of keywords and saves your ranking position to a CSV file.

Basic Rank Checker

import requests
import csv
import datetime

API_KEY = "YOUR_SEARCHCANS_KEY"
MY_DOMAIN = "searchcans.com"
KEYWORDS = ["serp api pricing", "google search api", "best rank tracker"]

def check_rank(keyword):
    url = "https://www.searchcans.com/api/search"
    payload = {"s": keyword, "t": "google", "d": 100}  # Get top 100 results
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"}
    
    try:
        data = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers).json()
        if data['code'] == 0:
            for index, item in enumerate(data['data']):
                if MY_DOMAIN in item['url']:
                    return index + 1  # Rank found!
        return 0  # Not in top 100
    except:
        return -1  # Error

# Run the tracker
results = []
today = datetime.date.today()

print(f"📉 Checking ranks for {today}...")
for kw in KEYWORDS:
    rank = check_rank(kw)
    results.append([today, kw, rank])
    print(f"Keyword: {kw} | Rank: {rank}")

# Save to CSV
with open('rankings.csv', 'a', newline='') as f:
    writer = csv.writer(f)
    writer.writerows(results)

Advanced: Multi-Domain Tracking

Track your site and competitors:

def check_multiple_domains(keyword, domains):
    url = "https://www.searchcans.com/api/search"
    payload = {"s": keyword, "t": "google", "d": 100}
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"}
    
    response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)
    data = response.json()
    
    rankings = {domain: 0 for domain in domains}
    
    if data['code'] == 0:
        for index, item in enumerate(data['data']):
            for domain in domains:
                if domain in item['url'] and rankings[domain] == 0:
                    rankings[domain] = index + 1
    
    return rankings

# Usage
competitors = ["searchcans.com", "serpapi.com", "zenserp.com"]
results = check_multiple_domains("serp api", competitors)
print(results)
# Output: {'searchcans.com': 5, 'serpapi.com': 3, 'zenserp.com': 12}

Building a Complete Tracker

1. Database Storage

Store historical data for trend analysis:

import sqlite3
from datetime import datetime

def init_database():
    conn = sqlite3.connect('ranks.db')
    c = conn.cursor()
    c.execute('''
        CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS rankings (
            id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
            date TEXT,
            keyword TEXT,
            domain TEXT,
            rank INTEGER,
            url TEXT,
            title TEXT
        )
    ''')
    conn.commit()
    conn.close()

def save_ranking(keyword, domain, rank, url, title):
    conn = sqlite3.connect('ranks.db')
    c = conn.cursor()
    c.execute('''
        INSERT INTO rankings (date, keyword, domain, rank, url, title)
        VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)
    ''', (datetime.now().date(), keyword, domain, rank, url, title))
    conn.commit()
    conn.close()

def get_rank_history(keyword, domain, days=30):
    conn = sqlite3.connect('ranks.db')
    c = conn.cursor()
    c.execute('''
        SELECT date, rank FROM rankings
        WHERE keyword=? AND domain=?
        ORDER BY date DESC
        LIMIT ?
    ''', (keyword, domain, days))
    results = c.fetchall()
    conn.close()
    return results

2. Trend Analysis

def analyze_trends(keyword, domain):
    history = get_rank_history(keyword, domain, 30)
    
    if len(history) < 2:
        return "Insufficient data"
    
    current_rank = history[0][1]
    previous_rank = history[1][1]
    
    if current_rank < previous_rank:
        change = previous_rank - current_rank
        return f"⬆️ Improved by {change} positions"
    elif current_rank > previous_rank:
        change = current_rank - previous_rank
        return f"⬇️ Dropped by {change} positions"
    else:
        return "➡️ No change"

# Calculate average rank over time
def get_average_rank(keyword, domain, days=30):
    history = get_rank_history(keyword, domain, days)
    ranks = [r[1] for r in history if r[1] > 0]
    return sum(ranks) / len(ranks) if ranks else 0

3. Alerting System

import smtplib
from email.mime.text import MIMEText

def send_alert(keyword, old_rank, new_rank):
    if new_rank == 0:
        subject = f"🚨 ALERT: {keyword} dropped out of top 100!"
    elif new_rank > old_rank + 5:
        subject = f"⚠️ WARNING: {keyword} dropped {new_rank - old_rank} positions"
    else:
        return  # No alert needed
    
    msg = MIMEText(f"Keyword: {keyword}\nOld Rank: {old_rank}\nNew Rank: {new_rank}")
    msg['Subject'] = subject
    msg['From'] = 'alerts@yoursite.com'
    msg['To'] = 'seo@yoursite.com'
    
    with smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587) as server:
        server.starttls()
        server.login('your_email', 'your_password')
        server.send_message(msg)

def track_with_alerts(keywords, domain):
    for keyword in keywords:
        old_rank = get_last_rank(keyword, domain)
        new_rank = check_rank(keyword, domain)
        
        if old_rank and new_rank:
            if abs(new_rank - old_rank) > 5:
                send_alert(keyword, old_rank, new_rank)
        
        save_ranking(keyword, domain, new_rank)

Scheduling Automated Checks

Using cron (Linux/Mac):

# Check ranks daily at 9 AM
0 9 * * * /usr/bin/python3 /path/to/rank_tracker.py

Using Task Scheduler (Windows):

Create a batch file run_tracker.bat:

python C:\path\to\rank_tracker.py

Schedule it to run daily.

Using Python Schedule:

import schedule
import time

def job():
    print("Running rank check...")
    track_keywords(KEYWORDS, MY_DOMAIN)

# Schedule daily at 9 AM
schedule.every().day.at("09:00").do(job)

while True:
    schedule.run_pending()
    time.sleep(60)

Visualization Dashboard

Create a simple Flask web dashboard:

from flask import Flask, render_template
import sqlite3

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def dashboard():
    conn = sqlite3.connect('ranks.db')
    c = conn.cursor()
    
    # Get latest rankings
    c.execute('''
        SELECT keyword, rank, date
        FROM rankings
        WHERE date = (SELECT MAX(date) FROM rankings)
        ORDER BY rank
    ''')
    
    current_ranks = c.fetchall()
    conn.close()
    
    return render_template('dashboard.html', ranks=current_ranks)

@app.route('/keyword/<keyword>')
def keyword_detail(keyword):
    history = get_rank_history(keyword, MY_DOMAIN, 90)
    return render_template('keyword.html', keyword=keyword, history=history)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run(debug=True)

Enhancing Your Tracker

1. Location-Specific Tracking

def check_rank_by_location(keyword, location):
    payload = {
        "s": keyword,
        "t": "google",
        "d": 100,
        "location": location  # e.g., "New York, US"
    }
    # ... rest of the code

2. Mobile vs Desktop Rankings

def check_mobile_rank(keyword):
    payload = {
        "s": keyword,
        "t": "google",
        "d": 100,
        "device": "mobile"
    }
    # ... rest of the code

3. SERP Features Tracking

def track_serp_features(keyword):
    data = get_serp_data(keyword)
    
    features = {
        'featured_snippet': False,
        'people_also_ask': False,
        'local_pack': False,
        'knowledge_panel': False
    }
    
    for result in data:
        if result.get('type') == 'featured_snippet':
            features['featured_snippet'] = True
        # ... check other features
    
    return features

For more on building SEO tools, see our comprehensive guide.

Cost Comparison

Automated Reporting

Generate weekly reports:

from datetime import datetime, timedelta
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def generate_weekly_report(keywords, domain):
    report = []
    
    for keyword in keywords:
        history = get_rank_history(keyword, domain, 7)
        
        if history:
            current = history[0][1]
            week_ago = history[-1][1] if len(history) >= 7 else current
            change = week_ago - current
            
            report.append({
                'keyword': keyword,
                'current_rank': current,
                'change': change,
                'trend': '⬆️' if change > 0 else ('⬇️' if change < 0 else '➡️')
            })
    
    return report

# Visualize with matplotlib
def plot_rank_history(keyword, domain):
    history = get_rank_history(keyword, domain, 30)
    dates = [h[0] for h in history]
    ranks = [h[1] for h in history]
    
    plt.figure(figsize=(10, 6))
    plt.plot(dates, ranks, marker='o')
    plt.title(f'Rank History: {keyword}')
    plt.xlabel('Date')
    plt.ylabel('Rank')
    plt.gca().invert_yaxis()  # Lower rank is better
    plt.grid(True)
    plt.savefig(f'{keyword}_history.png')

For no-code solutions, check out our Google Sheets automation guide.

Conclusion

SaaS tools are great for convenience, but for raw data efficiency, nothing beats a custom script connected to a wholesale API.

Start building your SEO toolkit today. For more advanced features, explore our documentation or check out our pricing for transparent rates.

👉 Get your API Key at SearchCans.com