# YouTube Rank Tracker - Keyword Position for Videos & Channels (`seemuapps/youtube-rank-tracker`) Actor

Track where your YouTube videos and channel rank in search for every keyword, by country, with position changes between runs and the top competing videos.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/seemuapps/youtube-rank-tracker.md
- **Developed by:** [Seemu Scraping](https://apify.com/seemuapps) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $5.00 / 1,000 keyword rank results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## YouTube Rank Tracker - Keyword Position for Videos & Channels

Find out where your YouTube videos and your channel rank in YouTube search for every keyword you care about - by country, with position changes since the last check and the competitors ranking above you. No login, no YouTube account and no API setup needed.

### What you get

One row per **keyword x tracked video/channel**:

- **position** - your rank in YouTube search results (1 = top result), or `null` if you are not in the scanned results
- **found** - whether your video or channel appears at all
- **allPositions** - every position your channel holds for the keyword (great for spotting channels that own a search page)
- **matchedVideoId, matchedTitle, matchedUrl, views, channelName** - the video that ranked
- **previousPosition, positionChange, previousCheckedAt, movement** - how your rank moved since the last run (`up`, `down`, `unchanged`, `entered`, `dropped`, `first-check`, `not-found`); `positionChange` is positive when you moved up
- **topCompetitors** - the top videos for the keyword with position, title, channel, views and upload age
- **estimatedResults** - YouTube's estimate of how many results exist for the keyword
- **scannedResults, country, language, checkedAt** - context for every check

Export to JSON, CSV, Excel or Google Sheets straight from the Apify console, or pull results via the API.

### Use cases

- **YouTube SEO rank tracking** - monitor keyword rankings for your videos daily or weekly
- **Channel visibility reporting** - see how many top-50 spots your channel holds for each topic
- **Competitor analysis** - track rival channels and see who outranks you for your target keywords
- **Agency and client reporting** - rank reports across many keywords, videos and countries
- **Video launch monitoring** - watch a new upload climb (or drop) in search after publishing

### How to use

1. Enter your **Keywords**, one per line.
2. Enter the **Videos or channels to track** - video URLs or IDs, and/or channel URLs, @handles or channel IDs. A channel matches any of its videos.
3. Pick the **Country** and **Language** you want to see results for.
4. Set **Search depth** (how many results to scan, default 50, max 200) and how many **Top competitors** to include.
5. Run the actor. Results appear in the **Dataset** tab.
6. **Schedule it** (daily or weekly) to build rank history. Every run compares against the previous check of the same keyword, target, country and language, so `positionChange` and `movement` fill in automatically from the second run onward.

### How positions are counted

- Positions count **organic video results** in the order YouTube shows them, starting at 1.
- Ads, channel cards, playlists, mixes and "people also watched"-style shelves are **not** counted.
- Videos YouTube repeats further down the list only count the first time they appear.
- With **Include Shorts** off (default), Shorts are skipped entirely. With it on, Shorts count too - including those inside the Shorts shelves, in the order shown.
- For a **channel** target, `position` is the channel's best-ranked video, and `allPositions` lists all of them.

### Good to know

- **Rankings move a little from search to search.** YouTube personalises and shuffles results slightly even for logged-out viewers, so a change of one or two places between checks is normal. Look at trends over several runs rather than a single change.
- **Country matters.** YouTube ranks results by where the viewer is, so each search is made as a viewer located in the country you pick.
- **Language matters too.** Changing the language changes rankings, so keep it the same across runs you want to compare. History is kept separately for each keyword, target, country, language and Shorts setting.

### Output example

```json
{
  "keyword": "espresso machine review",
  "target": "@jameshoffmann",
  "targetType": "channel",
  "targetId": "UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ",
  "found": true,
  "position": 1,
  "allPositions": [1, 18, 25, 26, 33, 36, 48],
  "matchedVideoId": "mAYbmcqPphc",
  "matchedTitle": "The Fellow ES1 Espresso Machine Review",
  "matchedUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAYbmcqPphc",
  "matchedIsShort": false,
  "views": 751100,
  "channelName": "James Hoffmann",
  "channelId": "UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ",
  "previousPosition": 2,
  "positionChange": 1,
  "previousCheckedAt": "2026-09-24T12:27:55.442Z",
  "movement": "up",
  "country": "US",
  "language": "en",
  "includeShorts": false,
  "searchDepth": 50,
  "scannedResults": 50,
  "estimatedResults": 2320307,
  "topCompetitors": [
    {
      "position": 1,
      "videoId": "mAYbmcqPphc",
      "title": "The Fellow ES1 Espresso Machine Review",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAYbmcqPphc",
      "channelName": "James Hoffmann",
      "channelId": "UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ",
      "views": 751100,
      "publishedText": "1 month ago",
      "isShort": false
    }
  ],
  "checkedAt": "2026-09-24T12:31:02.118Z"
}
```

### Pricing

You pay per row: one result = one keyword checked for one tracked video or channel. Searching 10 keywords for 2 targets produces 20 results. Each keyword is searched only once per run, no matter how many targets you track.

Tracking a country other than the United States means searching from a local connection in that country, which costs more to run. For non-US countries, each search results page scanned is billed as an extra **international search page** event on top of the per-row price. A search depth of 50 usually takes 3–7 pages per keyword; lower the depth to keep costs down.

### FAQ

**Why is my video "not found" when I can see it in search?**
YouTube shows slightly different results to different people and locations. Check that the country and language match what you are looking at, and try a higher search depth.

**Can I track Shorts?**
Yes. Add the Short's URL as a target and turn on **Include Shorts**.

**How do I build a ranking history?**
Create a schedule for this actor in the Apify console. Each run records its result, and the next run reports the change. Export each run's dataset, or connect it to Google Sheets, to chart ranks over time.

# Actor input Schema

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Search terms to check rankings for, one per line (e.g. 'espresso machine review'). Each keyword is searched once and every target is matched against the same results.

## `targets` (type: `array`):

Your videos and/or channels, one per line. Accepts video URLs or IDs (youtube.com/watch?v=..., youtu.be/..., /shorts/...) and channel URLs, @handles or channel IDs (UC...). A channel matches any of its videos in the results; its best position is reported.

## `country` (type: `string`):

Country whose YouTube search results you want to see. Searches are made as a viewer located in this country, because YouTube ranks results differently by location.

## `language` (type: `string`):

YouTube interface language code, e.g. en, de, es or pt-BR. This changes rankings noticeably, so keep it the same between runs you want to compare.

## `searchDepth` (type: `integer`):

How many search results to scan per keyword when looking for your targets. Targets ranking beyond this are reported as not found. Max 200.

## `includeShorts` (type: `boolean`):

Count Shorts (including the Shorts shelves shown inside search results) as ranked positions. When off, positions count regular video results only, which is how most people read YouTube rankings.

## `topCompetitors` (type: `integer`):

How many of the top-ranking videos to include with each row so you can see who outranks you. Set 0 to leave them out.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. Leave empty and the actor automatically searches from the selected country. Only set this if you want to use your own proxies.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "keywords": [
    "espresso machine review",
    "best espresso machine"
  ],
  "targets": [
    "@jameshoffmann"
  ],
  "country": "US",
  "language": "en",
  "searchDepth": 50,
  "includeShorts": false,
  "topCompetitors": 10
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Fields: keyword, target, targetType, found, position, allPositions, matchedVideoId, matchedTitle, matchedUrl, views, channelName, previousPosition, positionChange, previousCheckedAt, movement, country, language, scannedResults, estimatedResults, topCompetitors, checkedAt.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "keywords": [
        "espresso machine review",
        "best espresso machine"
    ],
    "targets": [
        "@jameshoffmann"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("seemuapps/youtube-rank-tracker").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "keywords": [
        "espresso machine review",
        "best espresso machine",
    ],
    "targets": ["@jameshoffmann"],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("seemuapps/youtube-rank-tracker").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "keywords": [
    "espresso machine review",
    "best espresso machine"
  ],
  "targets": [
    "@jameshoffmann"
  ]
}' |
apify call seemuapps/youtube-rank-tracker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,seemuapps/youtube-rank-tracker"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/kMnZVaUVkPu8UZSWc/builds/hWpE5hbHMiwLcCmFN/openapi.json