How to understand a site's current ranking
-
I know this is basic stuff, so sorry for the beginners post...
I offer primarily web design services, and I need to know when taking on a new client, how can I assess the current 'lay of the land' for their site in terms of their SEO? I have had some issues in the past where launching a new design negatively affected their performance for their keywords, and obviously I would like to avoid this in future without having to go to 3rd parties.
In particular I have an issue where the client themselves are very bad at giving information about what keywords they currently rank for, and what SEO activities they may have done in the past. How can I make these assessments myself?
thanks for any help
p
-
Google Analytics is King!
-
As the others have said, Analytics for sure. In addition to that, through question and answer with them, you can ferret out the main keywords they want/need to rank for.
In terms of seeing what they rank for right now:
Use Semrush to see what they are raking for right now.
Also, find out who their competitors are and use Semrush to look them up as well.
Hope that helps!
-
Yeah Analytics will contain all their top keyword and you can check their placements with the SEOmoz rank tracker or just searching those keywords in Google yourself. Make sure to pay attention the current websites
,
to X, and meta tags. When doing the new site, use the same tags.
I also recommend getting a second opinion. Look up someone you work with regularly or even post to SEOmoz and get someone to take a second look. It's normal to miss something so a second set of eyes is handy.
-
You need to get access to their analytics and, if it isn't linked, their google webmaster tools logins.
These together will give you the data about their most important landing pages and the terms that are driving traffic. It's not the whole picture, but it is a good starting point.
Additionally I would look at what pages have external links and ensure those get 301 redirected too.
You are right to be concerned by this. I am currently monitoring an international brand who have just made a massive SEO fail on their re-design. They're loosing 10% of their search visibility every 3 days at the moment and do not appear to be aware of this. That also shows how important it is to keep monitoring both analytics and error logs post launch.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How does my competitor website jump from a natural ranking of 10 to 1 in a matter of days?
OK this has really got me baffled, and I really hope the MOZ community can give me the answers I am seeking.... My statements and queries below are my own opinions and thoughts. I am not an experienced SEOer and I am learning all the time, so if I have written something incorrectly, please feel free to correct me 🙂 I have been told that natural rankings take time, and I have read with the recent algorithm changes from Google, that purchased links do not have an effect like they used to. I have also read somewhere that google has clamped down on bogus article writing (MOZ please clarify) But what I am seeking some clarification on is, how does my competitors website, that has had a natural rank of #1 in the past, suddenly drop off; for a lengthy period of time, then suddenly re-appear at #10 on page #1, then some three/four days later, hit #1? I have read that natural rankings are purely natural. I.e. a domain owner cannot pay google to boost their natural ranking. But is this really true? Why is it when I speak to a close colleague of mine in the same industry, he mentions that his maps listing has dropped off, and after making a couple of phone calls to his SEO guys in India, maybe a day or two later, magically his maps re-appear? I really am starting to question is a "natural ranking" really "natural?" I have heard that some of these SEO agencies do have some tools that dramatically effect the natural ranking of a domain. What are these tools?
Competitive Research | | Giorgio680 -
Why do some sites perform great but show no data on the tool bar?
Hey everyone, Been a paid member for 3 days and this is my first time posting 🙂 I have a quick question about competitive analysis with the MozBar. I do not want to point out the exact website (unless that is something cool to do on this forum), but there is a site ranking for a single keyword in the local 7 pack in slot one, which is also slot one for the SERP entirely. When I go to look at the page in more detail, the MozBar is showing no DA, PA, anything at all, and the Open Site Explorer is showing no links internal or external. I know that the page has to have at least some of these elements populated in order to be ranking for a term this competitive, so why is the bar not showing anything? The bar works GREAT on other sites below this one. Thanks for any help!
Competitive Research | | tonyflorespsa0 -
What is a desirable range for a keyword's difficulty rating?
Hi all! I am new to the world of SEO and just getting started. As I am doing keyword research I am consistently finding difficulty ratings in the 40%-50% range. Is this considered a "par" rating or should I be looking for "a longer tail" rating? Thanks
Competitive Research | | jclayton180 -
Competitor's Ranking's Reports are Showing Blank Values for Rankings
When selecting competitors to see how they rank for specific terms in the ranking's report page here, it loads the page normally, but without any actual rankings. Where values should be, it lists all values as our competition not ranking whatsoever (for all competitors). I'm not sure if there is something we're doing wrong, or perhaps we just need to wait for a refresh, but if anybody could help out, that would be wonderful!
Competitive Research | | ACLens0 -
Question about Keywords & Ranking
I hope this isn't too basic of a question, but I am confused about something. If you use the Keyword Research tool and type in "Stained Concrete Flooring", the 3rd result (stainedconcrete.org) has the lowest numbers of any of the sites in the top 8-10... Is it because they have a large amount of traffic? or is there some other factor that I am missing?
Competitive Research | | Timvroom0 -
Free SEO tools appearing in SERPS for a site
Hi there, I've just taken over a site and it doesn't have a huge amount of shelfspace on the SERPs for it's brand name. Looking at the results that are there are a lot of free SEO tools that are coming up. They haven't had an SEO before so it's not coming from their side. There's such a lot of them I was wondering if anyone had come across this before - is it simply a competitor looking at the seo, could it be one of the seo analytics packages using free sites or is there anything else to be aware of. I can start knocking the sites down the SERPs but just wondering if anyone has a good solution for this. thanks Shiv
Competitive Research | | Shivvyt0 -
Why does website rank? PA-39 DA-24
This website is pretty nice, well done. The few links they do have are nice and clean, from his brothers website, very much white hat. However, it appears that they aren't doing much of anything from an SEO standpoint. This site, is PA31 DA21 is also doing unusually well. In both cases, these guy are outranking the best know, most famous, and most trusted company in the industry who is PA84 DA81. This is a HUGE company that wins the most awards and gets tons of media coverage both in print and on televisiton shows. I'm also noticing that the websites that are ranking well in my niche (every keyword) all have the name of their company at the beginning of the title tag, those with the name of the company at the end of the title tag are consistantly a few ranks lower. This seems to be consistant across all search terms. My niche is highly competitive for a very low amount of traffic. Adwords is crazy expensive for some of these keywords! That said, one valid sale generates a significant amount of money. Would love to hear your thoughts. I'm thinking the first company is being treated so well becase G considers them to be virgins, the purist of white?
Competitive Research | | dmac0