Those of you who work for yourselves likely never have to deal with this, but for those folks working in-house gigs or agency gigs, running ranking reports for a given swath of keywords is likely one of the most frustrating and demoralizing prospects you come across during the course of your work.
And if it’s not, then you need to seriously rethink your approach to SEO.
First and foremost, it should be the goal of all SEOs to understand how their efforts translate into visits and conversions (and pageviews for content sites) not just rankings. After all, what good are rankings if they don’t translate into tangible traffic?
Moreover, the idea of delivering aggregate ranking data as a success metric is an absolute exercise in futility and misdirection. Not sure of what I’m driving at? Consider this example:
A prominent insurance provider derives roughly 50% of their conversions from a single mega term that their site ranks well for in the major engines. They rank well for many other terms as well but the mega term is still the core of their organic search business model. So clearly, not all keyword rankings are created equally.
A ranking report can only tell you how many terms rank in a certain range, like for example the first page of results. What they cannot do is give you insight into the value of individual keywords. For that, you must turn to analytics data (visits, conversions, revenue, etc…).
To put it into concrete terms, a client could rank for 90 out of 100 keywords but still drive less conversions than a competitor that ranks for only 10 out of same 100 keywords if one or more of those 10 keywords is a mega term.
There are several other similar examples, but the point is more or less the same; aggregate ranking reports simply cannot tell the full story. For that, a robust analytics methodology is required.
P.S. Make sure to read Part II, were we will discuss why even individual keyword rankings can be misleading, especially when they come in the typical ranking report format.
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Yeah, we are trying to downplay ranking reports and really emphasize the importance of analytics data and conversion metrics to our clients. The problem is that since everyone else provides ranking reports to their clients we have to. I am sure every other SEO Agency feels the same way. Most clients still believe that it is important data and if you don’t provide it in their eyes you are offering a less robust service.
What you can glean from ranking reports is so limited and does not come close to telling the whole story. We still provide them but I hope their comes a day when ranking reports finally get the attention they deserve and we can stop running them.
You’re absolutely right, Mark! Maybe we should ban together to do away with SEO 1.0 ranking reports altogether!
Or just attempt to educate our prospects and clients from the get go.
Stayed tuned for my follow up to this post…
I just blogged about the same thing.
Hey Catfish! By all means, post the link to your post so that we can compare and contrast.
Yeah, I am all for an industry effort to do away with ranking reports. Of course, there would be a few that would still offer them and position it as enhanced service and reporting.
Yes, good post.
I have not done a “rank” report in about 5 years now. Why do SEO’s bother with this?
Many of us have concluded a long time ago that a report such as this is a big waste of time. I think many SEO’s still give them out because it was including in selling the client in the first place.
If a client wants to see something, ask him/her to do a search on Google for his/her terms. If he/she is not on the first 3 pages then you know you have more work to do. Simple. No need to run some damn report for this as a client can do that themselves if they really need to know.
Besides, you stated the obvious in your article. Nothing else matters if the site does not sell anyway. LOL
Why do SEO’s do these type of reports anyway? I’d love to know the exact reason, and also the exact benefits to these reports.
I’m waiting to hear the benefits. Anyone?
Also for very large sites often long tail keywords are much more important. They can drive 95% of the traffic while the top 25 or so keywords get 5%. It’s can be hard to explain to somebody why it’s not worth stressing over those top few keywords, but sometimes people find the concept hard to get their head around.
Traffic + conversion = results
Rankings without traffic or conversion is useless.
We’ve had the same problem. Running the SEO division after someone who was ranking nuts has caused a world of pain. I’d rather have 1 payday keyword and work on that than try to hit 30+ that just won’t convert.
People want their reports, it makes them feel like they are getting their money’s worth. A pity really, I’d much rather count leads/sales. A site that has 10 visitors that all convert is better than a site that has 10,000 visitors and one conversion. But what would I know? I’m just there to get rankings…
There’s nothing more frustrating than clients who insist on measuring the success of an SEO campaign with rankings for very broad keywords.
Oh wait, yes there is – how about working for an SEO agency that sells their contracts based on a guaranteed number of page 1 rankings in six months?
I suffered such an unfortunate employment for more than a year.
Imagine how it felt to have to tell prospective clients that “we guarantee 50 page 1 Google rankings in six months or your money back.” Yes, I did that. Worse yet, people actually bought into it. It was no cause of shame for my boss, but it drove me out of the company.
Thanks for the hilarious (and sad) anecdote, Mike!
Keeping in mind that the bottom line is the only stat that really matters….
Its not really cut and dry…
Ranking reports have actionable uses. With all the shady SEO firms out there with do noting, at the very least, ranking reports tell if work is being done. Knowing what key word phrases you own can be highly lucrative also.
A ranking report which pulls up rankings for terms u dont know you rank for is highly useful. The “top search queries” in google webmaster tools can tell you what pages on your site are poised to take over rankings your are not even aiming for. Then you can revisit that section of your site, and beef it up.
Long tail phrases have a higher conversion rate than the big terms on a ranking report. The url in my name has over 1700 long tail phrases which drove traffic to the site in the past few months.
My personal feeling is that SEO should be done by the ad agency, and be highly incorporated into the entire marketing plan.
Most SEO firms have to use them still because other deliverables dont usually pan out quickly.
sorry for the fragmented response
Thanks for the feedback, Marc!
I’ll try to respondto each of your statements as best I can:
1) Knowing what key phrases you own is only useful if you know what type of traffic and conversion those phrases drive. Hence the need for analytics, not a standard ranking report. A ranking report can’t give you that info.
2) A ranking report that pulls up rankings for terms u don’t know isn’t a ranking report at all. It’s an analytics platform. That’s what makes tools like Google Webmaster Tools so great. They give you information that you can’t find by simply running a ranking report on a pre-determined set of keywords.
4)You reference long term phrases that drove traffic. That means you’re looking at analytics , because ranking reports don’t measure traffic.
5) Why would an ad agency handle SEO? If anything an interactive agency, SEO shop, consultant, or in-house guru. Traditional ad agencies usually have the most outdated SEO methods.
You make a great point, one that as an SEO I have frustratingly been trying to make for years. Many website owners want to rank #1 for the keywords they think are important, and think that the more #1 rankings they have – the better.
This simply isn’t true, as often even ranking high for 1 keyword can outrank #1 rankings in other keywords, and ranking for too many keywords only hurts your ability to target specific words.
That is why I have been building KeywordEnvy.com since last November, to combine keyword ranking reports with analytics to show which keywords are the most valuable, and to chart their changes through seasonality. It’s so essential for me now to understand how rankings effect my keyword traffic, and vice-versa.
KeywordEnvy is in a private beta right now, but we’re launching soon. I’d love to set you up with a demo account and get your opinion before we launch to the public.
Thanks for all the great feedback!
I’ll make sure to check out that tool.
Sorry it took so long..lol. Here is the link:
http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/2008/06/why-top-10-listing-in-google-continues.html
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