Rank Tracking: Choosing The Right Focus With Igal Stolpner

The short answer is Yes. While the Search Console is great and we use it a lot, we track rankings to see trends over time for the things we don't rank for too. Also, GSC totally ignores all SERP features we need to be aware of. All labeled by topics/subtopics.

I don't think there's a magic number for how many keywords to track, I'd say that you need to have a significant diversification per every topic to get a good sense of the trend over time. Not 1-2 keywords for every topic, 10x content piece, large section, etc, but probably in the dozens.

We do report rankings to management, but not all keywords, just significant changes. On the other hand, management has access to our data, and sometimes they do dive in! Clients that want to see rankings are usually way more hands-on from my experience.

I agree with Brian Kato who typically breaks them out by branded keywords, and funnel position (TOFU, MOFU, BOFU), I like that, breaking keywords by their intent. I guess that some keywords could be both TOFU and MOFU as well.

We track the same keyword rankings on both Desktop and Mobile, but separately. We group them by the same topics and subtopics for all of our languages.

Tracking each subtopic separately allows us to spot ranking changes much better, then understand them.

One interesting thing to do is label all keywords with Featured Snippets/'People also ask' to see what happens to the traffic over time as these change. But I wouldn't modify the positions just because the layout has changed, to allow a continued reporting. Also, it's not a bad idea to consider a 'true position' including ads on top of the legacy tracking.

I also like the idea of Koray Tuğberk to calculate the position according to the Pixels. If the first organic web search result's position is below 450 pixels below, you can spend my budget and time for another query group gladly. There is a tool that calculates pixels from the top today - nozzle.io.

And here's the unique approach applied by Boyd Norwood: based on overall SERP features, they first allocate CTR to 4 top-level sections you can see in the top left of the screenshot: paid, no-clicks, organic column 1 and 2, based on recent research and clickstream data.

Then inside each of those sections, we start with a base CTR curve, which is again research-driven and different for devices, branded searches, etc. Next, each pack receives a boost or reduction in CTR, depending on pixel coverage and specific SERP features included. That is normalized to give a CTR allocation per pack.

Then inside of each pack itself, those clicks are allocated to each of the clickable items. The base item level CTR is driven by pixel coverage, with modifiers applied based on specific features inside the item, similar to how the pack modifiers work. Again, those numbers are normalized and put through an exponential decay curve that differs based on the pack layout. With all of the data available to us, I believe we have the most accurate CTR calculation ever made, which flows through to all other metrics.

Even if you tell clients to focus on Organic traffic and conversions, they will still check rankings from time to time. It depends who of course! My best tip is to show them all the keywords for which their top competitor doesn't rank at all.

Top Keywords (continued report). And once a month we check all the new keywords our competitors begin to get traffic for, as part of a new trends' check.
Serpstat Rank Tracker is a useful tool as you can download the maximum number of keywords, divide them into groups by topics, and then track both the positions of your site and the positions of your competitors.

Summing up, it's a very confusing period for everyone. The uncertainty is driving people insane and makes many of them wait. In regards to any kind of spend and our goal is to help them focus on the main.