Checking Your Search Rankings from Another Place
In plain English: a search engine looks at roughly where you are and builds the results around that. The list you get at home is not quite the list someone gets in the next city, and in another country it can look very different. If you run a small website, a blog or an online shop, that makes it hard to know where you really stand.
A proxy sorts out the "where" part. It is a go-between server that passes your search along, so the search engine sees the proxy's IP address (the number that identifies an internet connection) and answers as if you were searching from there. Below you'll find which proxy type to start with, how to read SERPs, the results pages, for a different location, and how to keep your checking polite. Throughout, we only mean public results, checked in line with each search engine's terms of service and whatever laws apply where you live.
Written and kept up to date by the people who run Budget Proxies. If a step no longer matches what you see on your screen, let us know through the contact page.
What this guide walks you through
- Why your ranking looks different somewhere else
- Which type should I start with for rank checks?
- What are you checking? Find your row here
- Is checking rankings allowed?
- Your first rank check in three steps
Why your ranking looks different somewhere else
Search engines adjust what they show using a few clues, mainly your location, your language and the device you're on. Search for "dentist" and the results lean towards surgeries near you. Search for a product and the shops and prices tend to be local ones. If you only ever check from one spot, you see one version of the results, and it can easily give you the wrong idea about how you're doing elsewhere.
The answer is to run each check through an IP in the place you care about. Use residential proxies (IPs from ordinary home connections) when the exact location matters, and datacenter proxies (IPs from server companies, which cost less) when you have a long list of keywords to get through. For the product details, see our proxies for SEO page.
Which type should I start with for rank checks?
Datacenter: lots of keywords on a small budget
Datacenter proxies (from $2.49/GB) answer quickly and go easy on a small budget. They suit checking a long list of keywords for a whole country, such as "where do I rank across the UK?". Switch on rotation, which hands you a new IP automatically, so each IP only handles a few searches.
Residential: when one town or city matters
If you need to know how you rank in one particular city, or the search engine is fussy about traffic from servers, use residential proxies (from $3.98/GB). They show what a real household in that city would see. A habit that saves money: use datacenter for everything by default, and switch to residential only for the searches where the exact town makes a difference.
What are you checking? Find your row here
Find the job closest to yours in the table and start with the type beside it. In the rotation column, per-request means a new IP for every search, sticky means keeping one IP for a while, and auto-rotate means the mobile network changes the IP for you from time to time. Rotation is included in every plan.
| What you want to check | Type to pick | Rotation | Why we suggest it |
|---|---|---|---|
| A long keyword list, country-wide | Datacenter | Per-request | Less per GB, and quick with big lists |
| Your ranking in one city | Residential | Sticky | Matches what a local searcher sees |
| How rivals show up in results | Residential | Per-request | Real home IPs in the right place |
| Results on a phone | Mobile (4G/5G) | Auto-rotate | The view from a real mobile network |
Is checking rankings allowed?
Looking at public search results is an everyday thing to do. To keep it that way, follow a few simple rules and avoid the usual beginner mistakes:
- Stick to results that any member of the public could see, and play by the search engine's terms of service.
- Don't fire off searches as fast as your computer can manage. Keep a sensible pace and let rotation spread your checks over many IPs instead of leaning on one.
- Set the proxy's location to the place you actually want to know about; otherwise the results won't tell you much.
- Save your results and skip repeats, so you never check the same keyword twice for no reason. You pay for data, so this saves money too.
One honest note: no proxy can promise that a search engine will answer every check, and its terms always come first.
Your first rank check in three steps
Rank-checking tools usually have a place in their settings for proxy details, and ours fit straight in. They work over HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS5 (the two common ways software talks to a proxy), and you sign in with a username and password or by whitelisting your IP, which means adding your own address to an approved list. Choose from 55+ countries; your proxies are ready as soon as you've paid. Step one: estimate your data on the proxy calculator. Step two: see what each type costs on the pricing page. Step three: buy now and paste the details into your tool.
Questions beginners ask
Not sure what to buy? Start at step 1
Here are our four types, from the lowest price per GB upwards. Try a small amount of the first one that could work for your project, and only move up a step if a quick test lets you down.
Sites without bot protection, big batches of public pages, automation and SEO tools
Protected sites, ad checks, market research and seeing what one place really sees
Apps and platforms built for phones, plus testing your own mobile app
Well-guarded sites, where a better success rate is worth the higher price
Small first order? Datacenter from $2.49/GB · billed on the data you actually move · ready straight away · 30 days to use it · no traffic logs.
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Read the guide →Got a particular job in mind?
Ready to try your first proxy?
Choose from 55+ countries, pay from $2.49/GB for only the data you use, and get your login details straight away. If a step trips you up, human support is there 24/7.
