One Tuesday, SerpWatch told me my flagship keyword, "rustic guitar effects," was at Position 1. Position 1. I nearly choked on my bagel. I immediately opened an incognito window. I typed the URL. I searched.
The avalanche started small. My 1-star review finally appeared, dragging the average down to 4.6. Then a few more honest reviews surfaced. Then a blog post: "The Truth About SERP Trackers: Why Your Data is a Lie."
Then I discovered SerpWatch (not its real name, but close enough). It was a sleek, crimson-dashboarded app that promised to do the counting for me. It would track my rankings across 500 keywords, on every device, in every zip code. I downloaded it with the fervor of a prospector buying a metal detector. what my serp app review
I went back to the app. I noticed a new pop-up: “We see you haven’t reviewed us yet! Share your experience to unlock a free month of Premium History!”
But sometimes, late at night, I open the old App Store page for SerpWatch. My review is still there, buried under 4.8 stars and a thousand "works great!" posts. I scroll past the screenshot of my "Position 1" phantom win. One Tuesday, SerpWatch told me my flagship keyword,
Not page 4 of the SERPs. Page 4 of my own sanity . The app was hallucinating. I refreshed the dashboard. It still said Position 1. I cleared my cache. Still Position 1. I changed the zip code from Austin to Houston. Suddenly, I was at Position 33.
I titled it:
But then, the cracks appeared.