YouTube SEO & Rank Tracker: Ranked Keywords, Tags

YouTube SEO & Rank Tracker: Ranked Keywords, Tags

Give it a YouTube video or channel and get every search it ranks for, no keyword list needed. Add competitors and see where they outrank you and which searches they rank for that you don't. The same Actor tracks keyword rankings, collects YouTube search suggestions, and returns video tags, descriptions, views, likes and SEO checks.

Schedule it with Only report changes and get just the news: ranking moves, keywords gained or lost, a competitor's new upload, a new title or new tags.

Export as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or use it as a YouTube SEO API. No browser, no Google account, no YouTube API key or quota.

How it works

1. Choose what to do: Ranked keywords, Keyword rankings, Keyword suggestions or Video details
2. Add videos or channels: video links, youtu.be or Shorts links, channel links or @handles. For ranked keywords, yours first, then competitors
3. Add countries: us, gb, de, in, br... (results differ by country)
4. Optional: switch on Only report changes and schedule the task daily (see Monitoring)

Why this Actor

🔎 Ranked keywords	Which searches a video or channel ranks for (top 50 or deeper), found from its titles, tags, description and YouTube suggestions. Other trackers need you to bring the keywords
⚔️ Keyword gap	Searches where a competitor ranks and you don't, or ranks higher: gap, behind, ahead, only_you
📈 Rank tracker	Positions of your videos or channels for your keyword list, up to 500 results deep, in any country
🏷️ Tags & SEO checks	Every tag of any video, title and description length, hashtags, chapters, and whether your keyword is in the title, description and tags
🕵️ Competitor changes	New uploads, new titles, tags, descriptions, category of competitor videos
🔑 Keyword research	YouTube search box suggestions for any seed, with A-Z expansion
🔔 Only changes	Scheduled runs return only what changed since the last run
💰 Cheaper than YouTube SEO tools	Pay per result instead of a monthly vidIQ or TubeBuddy plan

Use cases

• YouTube SEO audit: see every search your video or channel already ranks for, and which ones are close to the top 10
• Competitor research: the searches a competitor ranks for, including branded ones, and the tags they use
• Rank tracking: daily positions of your videos for your target keywords in every market
• Competitor monitoring: know the day a rival uploads, or changes a title or tags
• Content ideas: YouTube autocomplete keywords for any topic
• AI agents: give your assistant live YouTube search data through the Apify MCP server

Ranked keywords

One row per search where your video (or channel) or a competitor ranks. Real example, freeCodeCamp's "Learn Python - Full Course" vs Mosh's "Python for Beginners", US, September 2026: 80 candidate searches checked in 60 seconds, 55 ranked.

Keyword	freeCodeCamp	Mosh	Status	In suggestions
learn python from beginner to advanced	3	12	ahead	yes
python crash course	4	5	ahead	yes
python full course	7	-	only_you	yes
learn python	5	1	behind	yes
python coding	-	1	gap	yes

Field	Description
keyword, country	The search
position	Place of your video (the first one in the list) among video results; for a channel, the place of its best video, with rankingVideoTitle
status	ahead (you rank higher), behind, gap (only a competitor ranks), only_you; ranked with one video or channel
bestCompetitor, bestCompetitorPosition	The highest-ranking competitor
positions	Positions of all listed videos or channels
suggested	The keyword appears in YouTube search suggestions, so people really type it
source	Where the keyword came from: title/tags, description, suggestion, your keywords
topVideo, topChannel, topVideoViews	Who is #1 for this search
estimatedResults, searchUrl	YouTube's result count and the search link

Candidate keywords per video or channel (default 100) controls how many searches are tested. You pay only for rows, that is searches where one of your videos or channels ranks. Add your own keywords in Keywords to test them too. For a channel, candidates come from its latest uploads (Videos per channel).

Keyword rankings

One row per keyword, country and tracked video or channel (or every video in the results if you track none).

Field	Description
keyword, country, position	Place among video results in YouTube search
target, inResults, isTracked	Your video or channel; found in results
videoId, videoTitle, channelName, channelId, views, published, duration, isShort, isLive, snippet	The video as shown in results
resultsChecked, estimatedResults, searchUrl, url	Depth checked, YouTube's result count, links

Position counts video results in order, as a viewer scrolls. Shorts shelves, "People also watched" rows, playlists, channels and ads are not videos in the list and are not counted. Example: python tutorial (US), Mosh #2, freeCodeCamp #6.

Video details & SEO checks

Field	Description
title, description, tags, category, hashtags, hashtagsShown	Metadata, including every tag of the video
views, likes, commentsCount, publishedAt, durationSeconds	Numbers, e.g. 49,348,860 views, 1,122,844 likes
channelName, channelHandle, channelSubscribers	The channel
titleLength, descriptionLength, tagsCount, tagsCharacters	SEO checks (YouTube allows 100 title and 500 tag characters)
hasChapters, linksInDescription	Timestamps in the description, links
keywordChecks	For each of your Keywords: in title, in description, in the first 150 characters, in tags

Add a channel to get its latest uploads (Videos per channel).

Keyword suggestions

One row per keyword idea from the YouTube search box. Example for sourdough (US): sourdough bread, sourdough pizza dough, sourdough starter feeding, sourdough discard recipes... With Expand suggestions A-Z one seed gave 357 keywords.

Field	Description
seed, keyword, rank	Your seed, the suggested keyword and its order
suggestedFor	The query that produced it, e.g. sourdough w

Only report changes: how monitoring works

Monitoring turns a scheduled run into alerts. It works in three steps:

1. Switch on Only report changes and pick a Monitor name (one name per project)
2. Save as a task and schedule it, for example every morning (Actor page → Save as a new task → Schedule)
3. First run saves the current state and returns everything marked change: new. Every later run compares with the previous run and returns only the differences. An empty result means nothing changed

What you get on later runs:

Mode	What counts as a change	Example row
Keyword rankings	Your video moved at least Minimum position change places, entered the results or dropped out	python tutorial: up, was 7, now 2
Ranked keywords	A search gained (entered), lost (dropped_out) or moved	learn python: down, was 5, now 11
Video details	A competitor uploaded a video (new_video), or changed title, description, tags, category, hashtags or length	tags: before [...], after [...]

Field	Description
change	up, down, entered, dropped_out, new (first run), new_video
position, previousPosition, positionChange	Now, at the last run, places gained (+) or lost (-)
field, oldValue, newValue	Video details: what changed on a video

Good to know: YouTube results shift by a place or two between checks. The Actor keeps the same YouTube visitor between scheduled runs to keep comparisons stable, and Minimum position change (default 2) filters out the small moves. Use a different Monitor name for each task, otherwise two tasks overwrite each other's memory. You pay for the checks, not for the changes found.

Pricing

Pay per result, no subscription:

Event	Price
Run start	$0.003
Ranked keyword (a search where one of your videos or channels ranks; tested searches without a match are free)	$0.002
Keyword ranking check (1 keyword × 1 country, up to 100 results)	$0.002
Keyword suggestion query (up to 14 ideas)	$0.0005
Video details	$0.002 per video

Task	Cost
Ranked keywords for your video and 1 competitor, 1 country (~100 searches)	~$0.12
20 keywords × 1 country, checked daily for 30 days	~$1.30 per month
5 competitor channels, 5 latest videos each, checked daily for 30 days	~$1.60 per month
1 seed with A-Z suggestions (~350 keywords)	~$0.02

Ready-made tasks

Open one, change the videos, channels or keywords, and run:

Task	What you get
Find Every Search a YouTube Video Ranks For	Every search one video ranks for
YouTube Competitor Analysis: Keyword Gap vs Rival Videos	Searches a rival video ranks for and yours doesn't
YouTube Channel Keywords Finder: Searches a Channel Ranks For	Searches a whole channel ranks for

Input example

{
    "mode": "keyword_rankings",
    "keywords": ["python tutorial", "learn python"],
    "targets": ["https://www.youtube.com/@freecodecamp", "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqtD5dpn9C8"],
    "countries": ["us", "gb"],
    "onlyChanges": true,
    "monitorName": "python-course"
}

Tips

• Video ID is the 11 characters after v= in the link: youtube.com/watch?v=rfscVS0vtbw → rfscVS0vtbw. Links, Shorts links and @handles work too.
• Ranked keywords are found, not guessed: every row was checked in YouTube search at run time. YouTube publishes no list of the searches a video ranks for, so very long-tail searches that appear nowhere in titles, tags, descriptions or suggestions can be missed; add them in Keywords.
• Rankings differ by country and language: add each market you care about.
• Send results to email, Slack or Google Sheets with integrations.
• App developers: Google Play and App Store rank trackers work the same way.

Use with the API and AI agents

Run it via the Apify API from Python, Node.js or any HTTP client, or connect it to Claude, ChatGPT and other AI agents through the Apify MCP server: "Which searches does my channel rank for on YouTube in the US that my competitor's channel doesn't?"

Other YouTube tools

Tool	What it does
YouTube Comments Scraper	Comments and replies of videos, Shorts and channels, only-new monitoring
Google Sheets Import & Export	Send the results to a Google Sheet

Is it legal?

The Actor collects only public data shown on YouTube to any visitor, without logging in: search results, suggestions and public video pages. It does not download videos or collect personal data of viewers.