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Best method for tracking true keyword ranking overtime?
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It seems as though week to week ranking monitoring can be very volatile, and comparing over the course of a month only takes into account the absolute change and not whether the rank has been jumping up and down in the 3 weeks between.
What is a good method (Moz tool or not) for tracking a true change in average rank?
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I agree with Elliott and Oleg's answers, it is better to measure performance with changes in organic traffic to the landing page that you are optimizing. With all the personalization and increased importance on device and location, it is very difficult to measure a 'true' ranking.
However, if you are set on tracking rankings, I would recommend (and use) the following:
- Search Analytics Report in Google Search Console: Unfortunately only shows 90 days worth of data but it is free and will provide you data on your site's average ranking position (Avg. Position). You can adjust the filters to see the average ranking position for a specific query (or query set) or individual landing pages.
- SEMRush: Personally, my favorite keyword tool (no offense Moz!). This will require signing up for a paid subscription (as the free subscription does not take you very far) but you will be able to track individual keyword rankings in 'projects'. Their least expensive plan ($99.95/month or $999.40/year) allows you to track up to 500 keywords and will provide you with organic visibility trends, individual keyword rankings (over time), average position, estimated traffic, ranking distributions, landing page reports, and more. If you are willing to spring for the 'guru' package, you can look up historical ranking and search volume data as far back as January 2012.
- Moz Rank Tracker: Another great tool for tracking keyword performance over time. If you are willing to upgrade to Moz Pro, you will be able to track rankings here. What I like about Moz's rank tracker is that it allows you to track rankings against specific competitors, it allows you to track both mobile and desktop rankings side by side, and you also have the option to track keywords nationally or in a specific location. I am also a fan of the SERP features report, great for identifying featured snippet and instant answer opportunities that you may not have known were there. Moz is offering a 30 day trial, may as well give it a shot!
Hope this helps, good luck finding the tool that is right for you!
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I agree with Oleg's point: your KPI should be traffic, not SERPs. Over time your traffic data will give you a very clear read on how well your article is performing organically.
With that said, we're antsy SEOs and when we drop from number 7 to number 22, it's pretty hard to sit there and wait calmly for the next Moz report to come out next week. This isn't scalable, but when I see keywords that I really care about performing in a surprising way, I like to go throw them in this free tool: http://www.whatsmyserp.com/serpcheck.php.
Refresh the results a few times and you'll get a sense of the range of your SERP, rather than just a single snapshot. Google seems to be moving things around constantly, so the single snapshot may not make the most sense anymore. I wonder if Moz is thinking about taking several snapshots and averaging them -- or doing a rolling average over time -- to level out some of the volatility we now see.
Or we can all learn to be more patient and take SERPs with a grain of salt!
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Organic visits to landing page would probably be the most useful
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