Visualising search engine rankings by keyword in Excel

Step 1: Collect your data

To be able to produce a chart like the example above, you’ll need Microsoft Excel, and a rankings checker that will export rankings data, by search engine and by date. For tracking rankings over time, I’m using Advanced Web Ranking.

Start by putting your data in an Excel table named “rankings” just like this:

Create a pivot chart

Pivot tables were designed for exactly this type of application, and making them is heaps of fun. Let’s start by selecting “Insert > PivotTable >PivotChart” in the options along the top of your Excel ribbon.

You should see a window appear like the one below. Make sure you’ve named the correct range and select “New Worksheet“, followed by OK.

Drag and drop your legend, axis and value fields

The cool thing about making a pivot table is the drag and drop functionality when you’re creating the row labels and values for the table. Here’s the visual explanation of where to put your keyword, date and position data:

Now, filter for the keywords you’d like to create a chart for. It’s quite impractical to create a chart with hundreds of keywords, but you can add a good number for comparison purposes. Head to the “Column labels” drop down and filter for the keywords you’d like to build the chart for:

Filter by search engine

If you’ve collected data on multiple search engines, you’ll need to add a filter. Drag the “Search Engine” field down into the “Report Filter” section, and select the search engine you’re interested in using the drop down at the top of your pivot table.

Format your chart nicely

If you’ve followed the instructions so far, you’ll see a slightly noisy and weird looking bar chart, so next we’ll create a line chart to show the positional changes over time.

For pure charting awesomeness, a simple right mouse click on the chart, followed by “Change chart type > Line“, will do the trick. Finally, you’ll need to reverse your Y axis, leaving position 1 at the top and your lower rankings at the bottom. Using your right mouse button, click on the axis and select “Format axis” – you should see a window like this:

The end result

After spending some time having fun with formatting, you can create really nice charts. Here’s mine:

Hope you find this approach useful – it’s certianly handy for visualising rankings over time. Enjoy!