The below is an opinion post. Opinion posts do not necessarily reflect, or contradict, Search Engine People’s business principles.
The practice of tracking search engine rankings is essentially moot. .
The problem: explaining the irrelevance of rankings to clients. Don't get me wrong. The goal of any SEO work should be to achieve the highest search engine rankings possible, but trying to track and accurately measure rankings is nearly impossible. Sure, you can run ranking reports or check a few keywords manually, but those numbers mean little.
The goal of search engines is to provide the most relevant and timely content to the user. Bing and Google have both made major strides to improve the search engine user experience. The introduction of universal, behavioral, intent-based, and location-based search means that searches for the same keyword may yield completely different results for different people in different locations.
So, if rankings differ from user to user, what is the point of even trying to track rankings?
A common client response might then be: "If you cannot tell me where I rank, what results can you show me?"
At that point, I suggest to look at the role of SEO in the greater marketing picture. Isn't the ultimate goal of marketing and advertising to increase revenue? Quick answer: Yes. Measuring website traffic and revenue provides a more accurate look at the effects of SEO.
Every business on the web should hope to receive the most targeted, qualified traffic as possible. Search engines want to provide the most relevant content to users, and with each update, the result is more qualified traffic to the websites users choose to visit.
In my opinion, it is a win-win for both the SEO world and the search engine user.
The future of search marketing is wide open, and I look forward to being around to witness it.
"It’s all about making waves. Engaging with people online or in person is no different. To be the voice of a brand, one must buy-in to every part of that brand, whether it is something you are familiar with or not. One must be the brand. Listen, learn, engage, and grow." The Mantra of Bradford Barker
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Quite on point. Why would anyone (exceptions are always possible though) want ranking or traffic just for the sport? Obviously revenue is what matters in the end. My theory is that only ROI is important. After 1 year you should be able to tell you're better off using SEO services compared to the old way things were happening. And when calculating this ROI you should consider all SEO costs involved including the development costs if any.
I've done similar post some time ago where I discussed this idea in case you're interested http://martokus.blogspot.com/2010/06/tips-on-selling-seo-or-how-to-lure-more.html
.-= Martokus recently posted: How I made 999999964 in 3 days with my personal blog Almost =-.
Sure, if all you care about is demonstrating the effectiveness of your SEO efforts to paying clients, then you don't need to worry about rankings.
If on, on the other hand, you want to measure the effectiveness of your SEO efforts, than you should care about rankings very much.
Let me give just one example why. You target X keywords using Y tactics for Z pages. Are those efforts effective? And how can you tell? If you're not in SERP territory that provides traffic, and you're only relying on traffic, you can't. But the increase in ranking from position 500 to 100 is significant, even though you're not going to receive any CTRs from page 10.
Okay, two examples. The other being that you need ranking to correlate potential traffic, which in turn indicates which keywords on which you should be concentrating. You see equal traffic from "blue widgets" and "azure widgets". Which has greater postential? If "blue widgets" is giving you 10 visits at position 1, and "azure widgets" is giving your 10 visits at position 15, then obviously there's a huge traffic potential for "azure widgets" – work on that, not "blue widgets." Well, if you're looking at rankings.
That you cannot "trying to track and accurately measure rankings is nearly impossible" is untrue, unless you're concentrating on the "accurately" part. If that's the case, kiss your beloved traffic-tracking analytics goodbye as well, as it also provides decent trending rather than accurate search-related data (and for most analytics program's I've used, including Google Analytics and Omniture, the quality of the ranking trend information you're going to receive is probably *better* than analytics).
And "I can't track rankings because of personalization" is an utter canard. Aside from the fact that a couple of decent tests have now shown that personalization has a nominal impact on the rankings of search queries, targeting for non-branded search queries is always predicated on searchers actually being able to connect with you in the SERPs. If you're optimizing for "blue widgets" and some searchers don't get there because, as a result of personalization, they are directed to the Widget Factory, then you're hardly likely to connect with them in any case.
Sorry if this seems cranky, but there is a direct and obvious relationship between rankings and traffic – you know, high rankings bring in more traffic than lower rankings for the same keyword – and it is disingenuous to suggest that only the effect matters, and not the cause.
It is perfectly reasonable for a client to ask about their rankings for keywords that are critical for their success in search. To respond "it's all about the traffic, don't worry about your rankings" is an inadequate response. Sure, traffic from organic search, the revenue that traffic generates and the net ROI for the client are ultimately the meaningful business metrics in play – but those metrics so not exist in some separate reality from that rankings on which that traffic is predicated.
Hi Aaron. Thanks for the comments. I am not suggesting that we really "forget" about rankings. My only point is that ranking reports to clients are not accurate if only run from one location. I disagree with you about the difference in search results resulting from personalization, especially with the rollout of Caffeine. I have noticed several instances of significant changes in rankings from day-to-day for some clients, sometimes even at different times of the day, and that is running a report from a single location.
Of course, it is important to have high search engine rankings, but I believe that to pass on information to clients that is only accurate in one location is a disservice to the client and is misleading.
I agree that the fundamental aim should be to increase conversions… sales, leads, enquiries, brocuhure downloads… whatever the client's particular goal is.
But I also think rankings tracking is pretty crucial in the early days of a campaign. For example, if you get a site ranking in the top three for a certain keyword and you're not getting the conversions, this points you in the direction of assessing how conversion friendly the site is.
As for how to go about checking them… tools can be inaccurate, I agree.And if you have a host of keywords, it might not be practical to manually check them all. But I personally do tend to run frequent manual checks on the most important keywords I'm looking at.
.-= Stacey Cavanagh recently posted: The Annoying Things About Facebook =-.
It important to be careful about rankings if client give more importance to ranking
PS4
There are several good reasons why you should measure your SEO efforts:
1. To justify how much you're spending to management, your client, or whoever holds you accountable for getting traffic to your website.
2. To make sure that all the time and money you're spending on SEO is actually working.
3. To secure more money for next year's SEO budget.
4. To stay competitive.