Michaela - don't lookat search results daily, it'll drive you insane. They just don't change that frequently, or if they do, they can bounce around. When that happens, a lot of people over-react...  say you notice a drop of five spots one day. You panic, implement some change and the next day you're back where you were. So it's easy to think what you changed casued your SERPs to go back up. Fact is, it may have just been natural variation and what you did will really result in a drop in a few more days/weeks.

It's much like that often metioned, rarely loved Point2 PI.

I look at mine about every two weeks. I used to put them in a spreadsheet but gave that up months ago -- mostly just because I always forgot to record them.

Monitoring your traffic also monitors your search results in a round about way. Unless you do PPC, or a lot of off-line marketing of your URL, the bulk of your traffic will come from search engines. If your traffic is increasing, it's likely due to improved search results. And UltraStats is a great tool for monitoring traffic (and that is something I try to look at daily)

Here's a program that I use to track my SEO work: http://www.seoelite.com.  Works great.

Sometimes if you check your ranking daily you can be discounted by the search engines.  I learned this the hard way.  Jay is right it will drive you nuts.

My husband told me the best way is the regular, and of course the hardest way.  Type your site into the search engines and see where you are.

I have been looking for a good source to check my back links but every one is coming up with a different result.  It annoys me.

I am pretty lucky with my Galveston site but my San Antonio is new.  If I find any good sources I will be sure and let you know.  Husbands a dork so I will ask him.