To rank or not to rank…

…that is the question.

Does personalized search render ranking reports obsolete?

There was a time, not too long ago, when I had to spend considerable energy fighting some client’s obsession over ranking, pointing out that ranks don’t necessarily mean targeted traffic, leads, conversions, or sales. It feels a bit strange then to tell you that in the last weeks and months I found myself defending rank as one metric (of many).

Most of my clients do still care very much about ranking, reporting on ranks, and using it as a success metric. I think there are good reasons for that. Still, when talking about ranking I usually de-emphasize it as a metric. However, several clients, prospects and other SEOs challenged the usefulness of ranking reports alltogether, in many cases to a point of ignoring ranking reports completely. In one case I had a lengthy, and heated email back-and-forth with a prospect. So, that’s when I thought it was time to put my 2 cents into the mix.

Obsessing over rank is bad, ignoring it is too

Let’s get this one out of the way first. I am not obsessed with ranking. I don’t recommend daily, weekly or (often even) monthly checks. As pointed out above, there are many more important metrics to look at. BUT, there are some good reasons to not ignore rank as a metric and perform checks at specific times, and over time.

Why do people say rank checking is dead then?
I could sum up the arguments against rank checking in one sentence as follows:

In my view people are missing the point here. It’s not about proving that term “x” will rank at spot “Y” for everybody. Instead, rank reporting can be one way of showing incremental return of the various SEO efforts one may undertake – over time. It’s not an exact science, and doesn’t try to be. Google calls it “average” rank for a reason in their Webmaster Tools. When not obsessing over rank, but rather checking at intervals that make sense (for example before any SEO efforts to benchmark, or after to show improvement), it can help to analyze how successfully one has gained authority in the eyes of Google (or any other search engine). Again, this still doesn’t mean you receive the targeted traffic you hope for, or that you will gather any conversions or sales from it. But it does show that – at least as far search engines are concerned – you have increased your page’s relevancy for the keyword term in question.

Ranks change and fluctuate all the time
It’s true, rank does fluctuate, but does that keep us from indicating a steady improvement of rank over time? No, it doesn’t. You won’t rank on spot 1 for a term one day, and spot 50 the next under normal circumstances. You may fluctuate in the 50 to 75 ranks as you start out, and maybe after your work, you fluctuate between rank 20 and 30. Is that not an improvement that shows you did something right in the eyes of the search engine?

Also, I am not sure the fluctuation is as high as many make it out to be. Once you get up higher in rank, fluctuation seems to decrease quite a bit. Take a look at this study by Green Light Digital, they analyzed 1,000,000 URLs and 1,000 keywords. They found only 8% of the analyzed queries fluctuated once or more during a 24 hour period.

What about personalized search?
Similarly, personalized search does not keep you from reporting on rank trends over time. Obviously, you want to make sure that the way you test rank is consistent. Use software that doesn’t accept cookies and always queries from the same location (proxy). Or dedicate a box to only use for rank checking. There is much confusion about personalized search and rank checking out there. For example, just logging out of Google does not mean you will not see personalized results. Google will use your web history when you are signed it, but when you’re not, it will still look at browsing history through a stored cookie that Google keeps on their servers. You can opt out of the latter cookie tracking; I encourage you to read the official Google pages on personalized search, but below is a quick overview from Google:

(Click image for a larger version. Read more from the original source here)

So why check rank?

1. Rank metrics are a good benchmark when optimizing for certain searches
2. Rank metrics can allow you to correlate some of your SEO efforts to improved traffic for those searches
3. Rank is fairly easy to report, especially when other metrics are scarce
4. Tracking rank can give you insight into how search engines view your competitors.
5. Rank tracking can help you understand how your sites are viewed by the various different search engines, or in different countries.
6. When correlating rank with average click-through from SERP positions, you can get an estimate of traffic potential for your target rank.

How to check for rank correctly in a personalized search world

• Personalized or not, don’t obsess over ranking. Checking rank once a month is sufficient for most cases. Think about what you do for SEO, and when it might make sense to check. Use traffic alerts if you use Optify to be informed of big changes.
• Never forget that ranking data is just a piece of the puzzle. Looking at your actual traffic coming in, conversions, and engagement metrics are the more important numbers. If you can, combine and relate them all.
• Ensure you check rank from a consistent source (computer) that is opted out of personalized search (does not accept cookies). I will shamefully plug Optify here, but of course there is other software out there, or – if the volume allows – you can do it manually (log out of Google, and opt out of search history tracking when not signed in with Google. See above links.).

I hope this was useful and as always, your comments and feedback are highly welcome!

Marko