SEO Ranking Reports: Accounting For Search Visibility Changes

We person a immense occupation with reporting connected keyword rankings.

On 1 hand, SEOs person grown accustomed to monitoring their hunt motor rankings and utilizing those metrics to find success.

On the other, results pages person changed truthful overmuch that reporting connected conscionable the fertile presumption doesn't uncover the afloat interaction of SEO connected the company's bottommost line. 

So, however bash you make an SEO rankings study that accounts for these changes successful hunt visibility? What bash you see to marque the ranking information invaluable and actionable for the cardinal stakeholders?

The reply to these questions starts with a look astatine wherefore traditional fertile tracking is broken. 

Table of Contents:

• What Is an SEO Ranking Report?
• Challenges When Creating a Ranking Report
• How to Account for Changes successful Search Visibility successful a Ranking Report
• How to Overcome New Search Visibility Challenges

What Is an SEO Ranking Report?

An SEO Ranking Report details wherever your website's pages basal successful hunt motor effect pages (SERPs) for targeted keywords. It highlights the show of your keywords, tracking improvements oregon declines implicit time, which is important for knowing the effectiveness of your SEO strategies.

These reports besides play an important relation successful helping gain buy-in by showcasing the worth of SEO to executives.

Beyond specified rankings, SEO ranking reports tin besides shed airy connected competitory positioning and unearth opportunities for optimization.

Essentially, an SEO Ranking Report acts arsenic a compass, guiding SEO professionals successful refining their strategies to heighten visibility, thrust traffic, and ultimately, boost conversions.

Challenges When Creating a Ranking Report:

The Problem with Traditional Rank Tracking

Consider however you presently way your rankings. You acceptable up a fertile tracker to bash 1 thing: measure wherever your domain is connected the SERP for a fixed keyword.

And there are galore types of rank tracking tools connected the market.

Of course, an precocious fertile checker delivers much insights than conscionable the rank. It tells you what different hunt listing types it recovered connected the leafage and further accusation astir those insights.

(SERP Features presumption successful seoClarity.)

Unfortunately, assessing fertile presumption contiguous is proving much and much difficult. 

For one, Google hunt results disagree betwixt users. Google personalizes them to a person's location, hunt history, and different factors.

Then, there's the full contented of mobile vs. desktop rankings.

SERP dynamics are antithetic too. The hunt motor expands hunt results constantly, aft all. Just look astatine the progression of the SERP for the query "hotels" implicit the years: 

In short, with each the assorted SERP elements – video carousel, ads, featured snippets, and truthful connected – rank presumption 1 doesn’t warrant beardown hunt visibility.

The Value of Rankings Has Changed

Since hunt rankings fluctuate betwixt users, their computers, and locations, it's astir intolerable to corroborate with immoderate certainty the one existent keyword fertile position of a page. 

What's more, a leafage tin fertile for tens oregon hundreds of keywords of varying hunt volumes, galore of which you hadn't adjacent thought of erstwhile creating it.

In the past, we could subordinate ranking astatine the apical of SERPs with an astir guaranteed summation successful integrated traffic.

Today, however, we tin ne'er beryllium that certain.

Unfortunately, there’s adjacent much atrocious quality for SERP chasers: specified reduced visibility results successful little engagement. As a result, less users announcement your listing.

The above, successful turn, could construe into a smaller CTR, traffic, and results. All cardinal KPIs for SEO.

Recommended Reading: Reporting SEO: How to Take SEO Reports to the Next Level

How Users Interact With SERP Results Has Changed

In the aboriginal years of oculus tracking for results pages, studies observed what was called a "golden triangle" oregon F pattern, wherever searchers would glimpse archetypal astatine the apical integrated results, past implicit to the ads successful the close sidebar, and past (to a lesser extent) backmost down to a fewer much integrated results.

Then successful 2014 a achromatic insubstantial from Mediative called “The Evolution of Google’s Search Results Pages & Effects connected User Behavior” outlined a caller hunt signifier among searchers.

The survey showed that by 2014, users were pursuing a much vertical pattern. This is mostly due to the fact that Google introduced different hunt listing types successful assorted sections of the leafage (such arsenic moving the apical 3 oregon 4 ads to the apical of the main column).

Plus, mobile devices person changed the mode we interact with the hunt results.

(Screenshot from Mediative’s achromatic insubstantial showing the caller hunt pattern.)

Does It Make Sense to Track Keyword Rankings At All, Then?

Absolutely, although you request to beryllium much conscious of each the factors I referenced supra erstwhile doing it.

Rankings are, aft all, what executives attraction astir arsenic a main KPI.

Recommended Reading: Highlight Your Wins With Custom SEO Dashboards 

Much much truthful than the fig of backlinks you've built oregon the audits you've acceptable up.

You spot the value of backlinks for authorization and audits for method clarity, but rankings gully a clearer representation for your executives: 

1. They bespeak SEO success, although, without the precision they erstwhile had. 
2. Rankings bespeak imaginable problems with SEO. Sudden ranking fluctuations mightiness suggest algorithmic oregon different changes affecting your site's visibility.
3. They connection insights to find imaginable issues with your site.
4. Provide an wide investigation of your SEO efforts.

For adjacent much reasons wherefore you should proceed to way your rankings, I urge this resource: Yes, It's Still Important to Track Keyword Rank

That said, I urge a caller attack to SEO fertile reporting

How to Account for Changes successful Search Visibility successful a Ranking Report

We’ve already established a flaw with the accepted fertile reporting. You cognize that fertile presumption does not ever correspond with your existent hunt visibility.

But, what tin you bash to study connected it? Is determination different attack to uncover the existent worth of your rankings beyond a generalized template?

As a substance of fact, there is different attack here.

Doing so, however, requires utilizing a antithetic mode to measure the SERPs. Instead of relying connected ranking presumption arsenic the main metric, you indispensable crook to measurement the pixel tallness of each constituent connected the SERP to measure however acold down is your listing.

We telephone this Share of Visibility.

By approaching rankings this way, you found whether your listing is disposable erstwhile the leafage loads oregon if a idiosyncratic has to scroll to scope it. Plus, it tells you however galore scrolls it takes.

This goes good beyond your accepted SEO ranking study oregon immoderate different analytics tool. (Although, Google Analytics is an indispensable for immoderate SEO!)

Analyzing the pixel tallness delivers different captious insight: it tells you however overmuch existent property you person connected the leafage for your keyword. Because, depending connected the benignant of listing, your domain whitethorn look arsenic a tiny listing oregon a box-sized result.

Share of Visibility is here, far surpassing different fertile reporting tools connected the market.

See however SpareFoot leveraged Share of Visibility to summation integrated CTR by 20.8% 

How to Overcome New Search Visibility Challenges

Now that you cognize however to study connected rankings contempt hunt visibility changes, let's spell implicit immoderate methods connected however to accommodate your SEO strategy truthful that your show shines.

As an SEO, you request to alteration your reasoning erstwhile it comes to rankings – the SERP is changing, and you person to support up. So, what tin you bash to destruct the antagonistic effect of little rankings?

I urge the pursuing 3 strategies.

1.  Aim for a bully rank, alternatively than a apical one

Historically, an SEO’s extremity was to scope the apical of the SERPs for definite keywords with a bully hunt volume. Enjoying the archetypal presumption guaranteed the highest click-through rate, visibility, and idiosyncratic engagement, aft all.

But, arsenic we’ve already discussed, that’s nary longer the case: a apical ranking doesn’t automatically construe into traffic.

Fortunately, the caller mode users interact with the hunt results besides suggests that the other is true: a little ranking presumption mightiness make engagement, too. The lone request for it to hap is that users announcement your listing.

So, alternatively of putting each effort into reaching the apical spot, absorption connected optimizing your listing for engagement.

In short, guarantee that it stands retired from different domains you vie with connected the page.

One mode to bash this is done the schema markup. Incorporating the schema markup to your listings allows it to basal retired among the crowd, positive it enhances hunt visibility.

Here is an illustration of a SERP listing that has incorporated the FAQ schema and prima rating:

     (SERP for the hunt query "capo bay hotel.")

The diagnostic draws the searcher's oculus to the listing and offers much accusation straight connected the SERP, which increases the worth of your listing arsenic well.

Even though the TripAdvisor listing is below the URL for the existent edifice resort, the schema makes the listing attention-grabbing. 

You tin besides usage Content Fusion, our AI-driven contented optimization tool, to get an wrong look astatine however the competitors operation their content. Content Fusion analyzes the top-ranking sites’ metadata for your people keyword, and reveals patterns and cardinal presumption they usage successful their listing structure.

Similarly, cheque which of the most converting words your competitors usage (and which ones they don’t) to spot opportunities to pull your audience’s attention.

For example, for the query “things to bash successful Chicago,” I usage Content Fusion to spot what meta-titles and descriptions the top-ranking websites have. Based connected that, I tin constitute metadata that stands retired and includes the astir captious on-page elements.

(Metadata study successful Content Fusion.)

2. Compete for the different SERP features

You cannot halt different SERP elements from pushing your listings down the leafage — but you tin articulation them!

Recover immoderate of that mislaid visibility by positioning your domain successful those hunt listing types arsenic well.

For example, place which queries trigger the Answer Box and past people it by penning contented optimized to look there.

Similarly, if your marque produces videos regularly, YouTube SEO strategies tin assistance them fertile successful the hunt results arsenic well.

(The Answer Box study successful seoClarity.)

3. Increase your page’s relevance to fertile it for much keywords

Finally, update your contented to guarantee Google understands what the leafage is astir amended and ranks it for much applicable phrases.

Use Content Fusion to probe what further topics to screen connected your leafage to beryllium an authoritative source. It evaluates the top-ranking contented and delivers insights on:

• Keywords and semantic phrases to add:

• Other topics users hunt for astir your main keyword:

• Outline structures of top-ranking content:

With adjacent elemental contented tweaks, you’ll make a leafage that’s much applicable to what your assemblage is looking for, presumption it arsenic a much authoritative resource, and summation the fig of hunt phrases it volition fertile for.

Don't conscionable instrumentality it from maine — spot 7 real-world examples of however Content Fusion accrued hunt visibility. 

Conclusion

Google hunt results pages are nary longer a static database of results we’ve known for truthful long.

All the caller elements – the video carousel, featured snippets oregon PLAs – person changed the worth of rankings. As a result, apical positions nary longer warrant idiosyncratic attention, a coagulated click-through rate, oregon traffic.

Rather than beryllium discouraged by these changes, it's clip to reevaluate your rankings and deliberation astir the SERP differently. You indispensable measure the SERP existent property that your domain really covers. By doing this, you summation the worth of the rankings you already hold.

seoClarity's Share of Visibility allows you to support your SEO ranking reports successful enactment with the existent SEO climate. Enhance your ranking reports with this revolutionary mode to analyse and people your visibility successful the SERP. Schedule a demo with our squad today.

Editor's Note: This station was primitively published successful January 2019 and has been updated to bespeak the astir up-to-date accusation successful the SEO industry.