Want automated SEO rank tracking with Slack alerts? This tutorial shows how to build a keyword rank monitoring workflow in Needle that tracks your rankings and alerts you to drops.

Overview

The workflow automatically checks your keyword rankings daily, compares them to previous positions, and sends Slack alerts when rankings drop—turning manual rank checking into automated intelligence.

Key Actions

1. Scheduled Daily Trigger – Runs every morning to check keyword positions
2. Rank Checking – Queries search engines for your target keywords
3. Position Tracking – Records current rankings and compares to historical data
4. Drop Detection – Identifies significant ranking decreases
5. Slack Alerts – Sends notifications when keywords drop by X positions

What You'll Need

• Keyword List – Target keywords to monitor (stored in Google Sheets or config) Tip: Include your website URL and target country for accurate tracking
• Slack Channel – For ranking alerts (e.g., #seo-alerts)
• Alert Threshold – Define what constitutes a significant drop (e.g., -3 positions)
• Rank Tracker Tool – Needle search or integrate with SEMrush/Ahrefs API

How It Works

Every day at your scheduled time:

1. The workflow reads your keyword list from Google Sheets:
   • Keyword
   • Target URL
   • Last Known Position
   • Country/Language
2. For each keyword:
   • Searches Google (or other search engine)
   • Finds your website's current position
   • Compares to last known position
3. Rankings are categorized:
   • ✅ Improved: Moved up 2+ positions
   • ➡️ Stable: Changed by -1 to +1 positions
   • ⚠️ Dropped: Decreased by 2-4 positions
   • 🚨 Major Drop: Decreased by 5+ positions
4. Google Sheets is updated with:
   • Current position
   • Change from yesterday
   • Timestamp
5. Slack alerts are sent for drops:
   • Warning: "Keyword '[keyword]' dropped from #5 to #8 (-3)"
   • Critical: "Keyword '[keyword]' dropped out of top 10 (#7 → #14)"
6. Weekly summary shows overall ranking trends

Wrap-up

With this Needle workflow, you get instant visibility into SEO performance without manual rank checking tools—catching ranking drops early so you can investigate and fix issues quickly. Perfect for SEO teams, agencies, and content marketers managing keyword portfolios.