Configure Rank Tracker to Use Proxy Servers – Help Guides
Note: To learn how to use Rank Tracker with the Big-G Stealth Extractor click solution has been tested for Rank Tracker v7. 3. 12.
Step 1 – Click on the Preferences Menu and select ‘Misc. Global Settings’ to pull up Rank Tracker’s settings window.
Step 2 – Adjust the ‘Number of Tasks’ Rank Tracker can Perform
To configure Rank Tracker for use with multiple TrustedProxies’ proxy servers, the first thing you should do is adjust the number of tasks Rank Tracker can perform at once.
Generally speaking, you should have an equal number of tasks for the number of proxy servers you have in your software. Example: If you have 5 proxy servers, you can safely run up to 5 simultaneous tasks. The maximum number of simultaneous tasks Rank Tracker allows is 25.
Step 3 – Disable Search Engine Data Center Rotation
To use Rank Tracker with rotating proxies, you must disable Rank Tracker’s own data center rotation. This setting is not compatible while using proxy servers.
1. On the settings screen, click the “Search Safety Settings” heading in the list on the left to bring up Rank Tracker’s general Search Safety settings.
3. Uncheck “Enable rotation of Search Engine Data Centers”
Step 4 – Enable Random User Agents
User Agents allow Rank Tracker to mask your queries as if they originate from multiple computers and customers. You should enable random rotation of user agents when using proxy servers.
1. Under “Search Safety Settings” in the list on the left, click on “User Agents. ”
2. Click “Use random user agents”
Step 5 – Human Emulation Settings
It is critical that Rank Tracker be set up to use the correct human emulation settings. Without these settings being set properly, Rank Tracker will run queries too quickly and it will result in search engines banning your proxy servers.
Your software should be set up according to the following screen, including visiting the search engine’s homepage, random delays of 40 to 50 seconds between queries, random delays between 10 and 15 seconds between pages, and a 60 minute delay after interrupted queries.
Step 6 – Add Proxy Servers
Once you have selected the Number of Tasks you wish Rank Tracker to perform at once, it’s time to add your TrustedProxies’ proxy servers.
You can add these Proxy Servers one at a time, or if you are adding a large group of proxy servers, you may choose to Import them in bulk. If you want to add multiple proxy servers at once, skip to the optional “Add Proxy Servers in Bulk” section below.
1. Click the “Preferences” menu and then click the “Search Safety Settings” and then the “Proxy Rotation… ” menu.
2. Check the “Enable proxy rotation” box.
3. Uncheck the “Use direct connection if no proxies are available” box. This will prevent your own IP address from being picked up by search engines and potentially banned.
4. Click the “Add” button.
5. In the “Address:” field type in the IP Address of your TrustedProxies’ proxy server. This will be a four-part number such as: 127. 0. 1
6. In the “Port:” field, enter 80 – the default HTTP port – or a custom port if you were assigned one.
7. If your TrustedProxies’ proxy server requires Authentication, check the “Proxy requires Authentication” box, otherwise Skip to Step 9.
8. In the “Username:” field, enter the username you were assigned by TrustedProxies.
9. In the “Password:” field, enter the password you were assigned by TrustedProxies.
10. Click the “OK” button.
Step 7 – Ensure you are using the correct number of Search Engines Rank Tracker’s human emulation settings depend on the number of search engines that you have configured in your software. Basically what this means is that the human emulation setting delays are going to be multiplied by the number of search engines that you have enabled. For example: The above human emulation settings specify 15 to 20 seconds, but that is much too quick to access Google. The way to get around this is to configure multiple search engines in your copy of Rank Tracker. If you have Google and Yahoo configured, it will spend 15 to 20 seconds on the Google query and then spend 15 to 20 seconds on the Yahoo query. The net result is that Google will be accessed every 30 to 40 seconds, which is a safe delay that will prevent Google from blocking your proxy servers, resulting in unfinished or delayed reports.
We recommend that you have a minimum of two search engines configured in Rank Tracker at all times. Using a single search engine with the default delays will result in banned proxies.
Optional – Add Proxy Servers in Bulk
If you are going to be adding a large number of proxy servers to Rank Tracker, it’s a good idea to add them all at once rather than add each one manually. Follow these time-saving steps to add all of your TrustedProxies’ proxy servers in bulk:
1. From the settings screen, under “Search Safety Settings, ” click on the “Proxy Rotation… ” menu.
3. Click the “Import” button.
4. Copy/Paste the list of proxies assigned to you into the “Please enter the proxies you want to import (one entry per line):” box. The proxy servers should be entered one-per-line, in a “hostname:port” format. e. g: If you were assigned proxy server 127. 1 over port 80 you would enter: 127. 1:80.
5. Click the “Next” button. It will begin checking the proxy servers.
6. Once it’s done, click “Finish” and then click “Okay. ”
Search Safety Settings | Rank Tracker – Link-Assistant.Com
The basic mechanism behind every rank-checking tool looks as follows: when you check your rankings or any other search engine related factors, the software sends queries to Search Engines. When Google or any other Search Engine receives a comparatively big number of queries coming from one IP address, it may ask you to resolve a recaptcha to confirm the requests are being sent by a human being and not a robot, or even block your IP temporarily. This is done to prevent their servers from overload with automated requests.
SEO PowerSuite offers a number of solutions to that. There are multiple Search Safety options in Rank Tracker, intended to either prevent your IP from being used or minimize the risks of your IP getting temporarily blocked (and reduce the number of captchas that pop up throughout the checks).
Using your direct IP
Using the Safe Query Mode
Using proxy rotation
Using an Anti-CAPTCHA service
In the free version, Rank Tracker will use your IP by default to perform all the checks. To protect your IP from getting blocked for excessive queries, make sure you enable both ‘Show Captcha…’ options under Preferences > Search Safety Settings > Captcha Settings. To prove the queries are not automated, you shouldn’t skip any of the captchas during the search.
To minimize the number of captchas that pop up, you can reasonably limit the number of queries sent, and make them look more human-like.
In Preferences > Search Safety Settings > Human Emulation you can set the program to visit the search engine’s homepage, and enable random pauses between making queries, which emulates natural human behavior.
Commonly, we recommend to enable two first boxes and set the pauses between 3-8 seconds.
In Preferences > Search Safety Settings > User Agents you can set a Specific User-Agent if needed. By default, Rank Tracker is rotating user agents and performs search queries using random ones.
Unless you need a specific user-agent for some kind of sensitive task, these options should remain unchecked.
In Preferences > Misc. Global Settings you can limit the number of tasks Rank Tracker will run simultaneously. By default, it’s set to 5, but using your direct IP we recommend limiting the Number of Tasks to 1-2.
Captcha Skipping Delay should be set 60 seconds. Within this time captchas tend to expire on search engines’ side, and resolving a timed-out captcha makes no difference.
Decide on whether you need the Cache feature (to store the results in cache for 23 hours), or not (if you update the rankings more frequently and need the real-time results).
If you have a licensed version of Rank Tracker (Pro or Enterprise) with an active Search Algo Updates subscription, you can use the Safe Query Mode to run the checks.
The concept behind the mode is that the requests are being processed on our end, protecting your IP from being used, detected, and blocked. With the mode, you don’t see any captchas while the program runs the tasks covered by the mode.
You may check the detailed explanation of mode and the list of tasks it covers here.
The safe querying mode is enabled by default in any registered version of the app. You can check if it’s on by going to ‘Preferences’ and clicking on the ‘Search Safety Settings’.
In case safe querying mode is enabled, some other settings may still be in conflict with it, and may not allow the program to switch to the mode. Check this guide to make sure all the settings are in line with the mode.
Using the safe-querying mode, you can increase the Number of Simultaneous Tasks up to 5 and disable all Human Emulation settings to speed the process up.
The ‘Show Captcha…’ options should still be enabled, to successfully run the tasks the mode doesn’t cover; captchas simply won’t pop up for the supported tasks.
In both free and paid versions of RankTracker, you have an option to use your own private proxies instead of your IP or our safe-querying mode.
With the Proxy Rotation feature on, the program will connect to search engines through the proxies instead of your IP and distribute the requests between them to keep your checks uninterrupted.
This also allows you to speed up the workflow, as you can set a higher number of simultaneous tasks and update multiple projects quickly.
To start using proxies, go to Preferences > Search Safety Settings > Proxy Rotation and enable it. You can Add the proxies by one, or Import them in bulk (the wizard will show the required format of the proxies list).
Once the proxies are imported, you can select any of them to be used, and Check their status anytime.
Check with the proxy provider on the required authentication settings: some proxies require username and password, others require your IP being whitelisted on the provider’s side.
Check the proxies occasionally and make sure to only use Alive ones. Dead proxies and proxies with poor Response Time should be removed or replaced.
Avoid using any free shared proxies (Rank Tracker may rotate them endlessly, unable to find an appropriate proxy for a task). Keep the ‘Look for new proxies…’ option disabled.
Enable the option to ‘Use direct connection If no proxies are available’.
If you’d like Rank Tracker to use a proxy instead of your IP when it performs the tasks requiring direct connection (connecting to your AdWords, Google Analytics accounts, and some others), set up a proxy under Preferences > Proxy Settings. We recommend using the proxy with the best response time here.
Enable the option to ‘Use Proxy’ and enter the proxy address and port.
Tick the ‘Proxy requires authentication’ box if applicable, and enter your username and password.
Check the proxy to make sure it is working properly.
Once the proxies are set up, you can increase the Number of Simultaneous Tasks respectively: we recommend to set it three times less than the number of proxies you have, so that each task would have backup proxies.
To prevent the proxies from getting timed-out, increase the Request Timeout to 90 seconds.
In case the proxies get compromised by the search engines, they may receive a captcha just as any IP, so keep the ‘Show Captcha…’ options enabled.
Human Emulation delays are optional with the proxies, though they may minimize the risk of getting a captcha.
If you’d rather not resolve captchas manually, or if you need to leave the software running unattended, consider getting an anti-captcha key. You can get our SEO PowerSuite Anti-Captcha key here, and paste it under Preferences > Search Safety Settings > Captcha Settings – simply enable the Automatic Captcha Recognition and enter the key code.
The captchas will be resolved automatically in the background, keeping your proxies safe. With the reasonable number of tasks and moderate human emulation settings, even a key for 1K captchas may really last a while.
SEO Proxies: The Best Providers for Rank Tracker & More …
We use affiliate links. They let us sustain ourselves at no cost to you. This list features the best SEO proxies. They’ll let you track ranks, research keywords, analyse competitors, and audit sites with of these providers went through extensive tests. We made sure they: a) can access search engines with the fewest Captchas or blocks; b) support scraping at scale; c) offer many locations to choose from; d) provide great customer are the best proxies for your SEO software or scraping script.
GeoSurfGeosurf’s residential proxies impress with good speeds, high success rates, no connection limits, and 1, 700+ cities to choose from. The downside? Premium pricing and no free trial.
ProsResidential IPsMany locationsUnlimited connectionsTarget countries & cities
SmartproxySmartproxy is another top choice if you need rotating proxies for SEO. They are great performers even at high loads and offer admirable user experience for a very good price.
ProsResidential IPsNo connection limitsGlobal locationsEasy to use
Zyte (Crawlera)If you don’t need many locations, Crawlera does a good job with all major search engines. It handles much of the scraping logic for you, which simplifies proxy management.
ProsPay only for successGood performanceSimple proxy management14-day free trial
ConsEntry plans lock featuresLimited supportFewer locations
InfaticaInfatica’s residential proxies can access the main search engines about 80% of the time. They sustain many requests and are relatively affordable for a premium proxy provider.
ProsResidential IPs100 locationsUnlimited connections7-day free trial
ConsInflexible proxy rotationLimited documentationNo API
RSocksRSocks’ residential proxies perform well with Google, but they wouldn’t be our first choice. The location targeting is limited, and the pricing is time rather than traffic based.
ProsResidential IPsMany pricing plansGreat customer supportCheap for short tasks
ConsFew locationsLimited targetingExpensive for long tasks
Bright Data (Luminati)Bright Data has any feature or location you need. The last place was chosen because all proxies (mobile, residential, datacenter – you name it) had big issues with Google blocks.
ProsLargest number of proxiesEvery city and countryUnlimited connectionsStatic residential IPs
ConsDisappointing performanceExpensiveHow We Picked the Best Proxies for SEOSEO proxies need the same features as regular web scraping proxies. In this case, we paid particular attention to:Residential IPs – you need them to avoid CAPTCHAs and Google blocks. You can use datacenter IPs instead, but you’d better know what you’re locations – especially relevant if you or your clients do business in multiple countries. Location targeting – even if you get access to many locales, make sure you can actually choose them. For instance, if you buy a EU pack but can’t choose German proxies, this will hurt your SEO ncurrent connections – to scrape fast, you need to do many tasks at once. The provider should ideally offer unlimited connections. This may lower the success rate, but the trade-off is worth it. Connections are sometimes also called threads or performance – includes speed, stability, and success rate. We understand that it’s hard to measure performance by yourself, so we’ve made the tests for you. You can find them in our provider (S) proxies – you don’t really need SOCKS proxies for scraping Google. So, save yourself the cost and possible compatibility errors, and go with HTTP(S). Reasons for Using an SEO Proxy ServerThe main reason for using Google SEO proxies is automation. Collecting all the data by hand is simply too slow and inefficient. That’s why you need some you’re reading this page, you’re probably considering a manual SEO tool like ScrapeBox, GScraper, or SENuke. You might even try to write a scraping script yourself. Or you simply need proxies for your own SEO any case, you’re going to be using Google – a lot. While Google’s servers are among the most resilient in the world, the company still doesn’t want you to spam them. So, making hundreds or thousands of requests from the same IP address will very quickly lead to captchas and eventually a same goes for researching your competitors. You’re going to be assaulting their servers with many requests to extract the information you want. After noticing the attack – it won’t take long – they’ll look at where it’s coming from. There’s a high chance your IP will lead them straight back to using SEO proxies, you can quickly and automatically gather large amounts of data, whether from a search engine or the competition. Neither of them will be able to stop your efforts. And they won’t know who’s behind Are Proxies Used in SEO? Companies use SEO proxies in various ways. It ranges from simply scraping Google search results for ranking data, to extracting contact information for outreach, to… Well, let’s just say that marketers are creative. Here are a few of the main use Hat SEORank tracking – SEO is an infinite tug-of-war between companies for first positions on Google. With rank tracker proxies, you can check where your website’s pages stand at a given moment for target keywords and locations. You can do this monthly, weekly, or even daily, depending on your needs and audit – SEO proxies let you quickly scrape the contents of any publicly available website, checking for broken or misconfigured links and other mpetitor analysis – using proxies for SEO, you can extract all kinds of data from your competitors. For instance, you might want to see their headlines and meta descriptions to compare with your own. You could be interested in the images they use. Or perhaps it’s the word count you’re after. There are many possibilities yword research – SEO proxies are indispensable for researching keyword volume across locales, long tail and related Hat SEOSome people use proxies for more questionable purposes. We don’t recommend them, but you should know that such uses traffic – Google’s ranking algorithms consider a website’s popularity, as well as the bounce rate, session duration, and other on-site parameters. Some webmasters don’t shy away from setting up bots with proxies to boost their ranking this cklink building – SEO proxies can also be paired with software like GSA Search Engine Ranker to automatically build a large number of backlinks to your website. The GSA SER method is effective short term, but it can quickly turn against you, as such backlinks tend to disappear as easily as they mment posting – One of the most popular tools for the task is XRumer. It’s marketed as a tool for SEO, but really people mostly use it to spam online forums and comment sections. Some SEO proxy services explicitly forbid from using their IPs with similar rketers also use proxies for social media. You can read our articles on the best Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook equently Asked Questions About SEO ProxiesWhat Is an SEO Proxy? An SEO proxy is a proxy IP address you can use to crawl and scrape the major search engines for search engine optimization purposes.
Are SEO Proxies White Hat? Proxies and automation software are just tools. As with many tools, it largely depends on how you use them. If you’re simply using proxies to track ranks or crawl websites, your actions are completely white hat. In fact, many SEO companies make a living from this. But if you setup up a bot to build fake traffic, do tiered backlink building with GSA Search Ranker, or spam other websites – you’ll be moving into grey or even black hat territory.
Dedicated or Rotating Proxies for SEO? At first sight, dedicated datacenter proxies look like a better option: they’re faster, cheaper, and handle big loads well. The downside is that you really have to know what you’re doing or you’ll quickly get your IPs blocked. Rotating residential proxies are easier to use and much harder to detect. So, we recommend them for Google. Search engines like Yahoo and Bing are less strict.