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Tracking Web Page Ranking
Tracking Web Page Ranking

Tracking Web Page Ranking

Measuring your SEO ranking and goals is the best way to keep improving them. Tracking helps you understand what the next steps you need to take are, and if your current efforts are working the way you anticipated or not. It also helps you set your priorities right to keep refining your SEO performance, which is indeed an ongoing process.

The website’s primary goal could be selling a product, raising awareness or any goal for all that matters. The best way to achieve any website’s end goal is to drive traffic to it by attaining higher ranks on SERPs (search engine result pages). Otherwise, conversions are not going to happen.

 

Setting SEO goals to measure!

We’re sure you’ve heard this at least a million times in your lifetime, so we will be brief. Your goals should be smart; not an acronym! Smart goals are by definition measurable since if you can’t track them, you won’t be able to understand if you’re improving anything or not, and whether you should be changing your strategy or not.

These goals will also be specific; it doesn’t matter what the industry is; end goals are always specific and clear goals. So ask yourself or your client some questions before you start: What is my historical performance like and what do I need to improve? What is the monetary value of new leads? What is the primary outcome that measures my SEO success?

Once you have the answers to these questions in addition to evaluating other additional metrics, you will gain a clear understanding of how to go about tracking and improving your SEO performance.

   

What are Google’s main web page ranking factors?

 

Ranking signals are actions by the user that send a message to Google that your site is worth ranking. These signals help you move up the ranking ladder and attain higher visibility. A link pointing to your website is a ranking signal, and so is your site’s loading speed or relevance. These are all direct ranking signals. Indirect ranking signals also affect your site’s authority and help it rank higher indirectly. They don’t have any direct influence on Google’s evaluation of your site. However, they can still increase your ranks substantially. If someone of prominent influence shares your article on a social media platform, leading to a large number of people visiting your website, that’s considered an indirect signal. But it leads to direct ranking signals, like people linking to your article or page. While direct ranking signals will receive the most significant share of your attention, indirect signals are also worth incorporating in your SEO strategy.

So here are the main ranking factors that you should consider to rank higher!

Backlinks

Backlinks are one of the most crucial ranking factors. It is a direct reinforcement of authority which can significantly increase traffic. There are a lot of factors to distinguish a valuable backlink from one that is void of value, and you can learn more about that in our full link building guide. The two main factors to consider for now are relevance and authority. The website or page from which you receive a link must be relevant to your site’s content to be of value to you. The second factor is authority, an authoritative site linking to you passes on its authority to you as well.

Search intent

Every query type requires a different kind of results and content. So if someone is looking to buy coffee machines online, the results will match his query by offering products that he can buy from e-commerce pages. But if someone’s search intent is to research coffee machines and understand how they work, the result will vary in a way that matches his needs, by showing him informative content around the topic “coffee machines”.

Understanding this ranking signal helps you write your content and optimize it around the queries you want to rank for. You can do so by looking at current ranking results for your target query. Look at the style of content pieces that are ranking on top, what is the dominant style? It could be videos or web pages; If the content style is video, it would be somehow impossible to rank higher for this query unless you create and optimize a video.

The second factor is the content type, and it could be landing pages, blog posts, category or product pages. If the search intent is buying like in these queries “buy coffee machine”, “espresso coffee machine” or “LG TV 4K”, then the results will mostly be e-commerce pages. The content format is another point to consider when optimizing your content. The format could be listicles, how-to articles, news or tutorials. So, work at aligning your content with the query’s search intent by understanding what type of results and content rank high for it.

Page speed

This ranking signal is a problem for pages that deliver the slowest experience, so it’s about making sure your site is fast enough to make sure the user’s experience is smooth. TTFB, the time to first byte, should be under 1.3 seconds for mobile pages. Which means mobile pages should display content in under three seconds of visiting the page. It’s an essential factor, but it’s not mainly for search ranking purposes. By improving the user experience, you’re benefiting from other positive engagement and behavioural signals that directly affect your ranking. Analyze and improve your site’s loading speed using Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

 

Mobile-friendliness and user experience

Mobile-friendliness is another primary SEO ranking signal. More than 55-60% of people worldwide use their mobile device to browse online, making it essential to optimize your website for mobile devices. Also, keep in mind that Google draws its results from mobile-optimized sites first, a process known as “mobile-first indexing”. To ensure your website is mobile-friendly, test your pages using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.

To ensure optimum user retention, you should build your website to benefit users and enhance their experience. Provide easy-to-read useful content, responsive and intuitive design, avoid spammy and intrusive ads and ensure well-organized structure and navigation. Metrics like click-through rate (CTR), bounce rate, dwell time and time on page are behavioural signals that may help you analyze your users’ experience. So, focus your attention on creating great content and ensuring a better experience for your site’s visitors to make sure you rank higher on SERPs.

 

What is web page rank tracking?

 

Rank tracking is checking your pages’ positions for keywords that you optimize for in search engine result pages (SERPs), which is a very important SEO KPI. These keywords include the ones you use on your website, ones that your competitor ranks for or other terms that you wish to rank for. By analyzing the organic positions of these keywords, you can measure your progress and set new goals. It’s important to have historical data to gain a clear understanding of your position and overall organic traffic potential. These main factors can influence keyword ranking: 

  • Device used
  • Personalized results
  • Time
  • Location/IP address
  • Search settings
  • Google data centres synchronization
 

 

 

There are two main ways to conduct rank tracking: through using Google Search Console or other tracking tools. Google Search Console allows you to see valuable data, including your rank positions and progress in organic search results. Under the performance tab, you will find the report, and you can set filters to look at your average position, impressions, CTR (click-through rate) and clicks for each search query. There are also other tools that you can explore and choose from. Some of the main features that you’re looking for in an SEO rank tracking tool are accurate keyword positions, search volumes, updated data, potential organic traffic and historical data. You will also need metrics to help you evaluate how changes in ranking positions influence organic traffic.

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Tips for web page rank tracking and engagement metrics

 

Ranking first for every keyword you optimize for is not your only priority, the goal is to track your overall progress to improve your positions and organic traffic. Sometimes ranking in the middle of the first SERP can bring you more quality organic traffic than ranking in the highest positions. Also, a slight drop in one keyword’s ranking position can signify more than a significant increase in other keywords. So make sure you work with both current and historical data that are updated regularly and make use of aggregated metrics and indexes that calculate what’s behind the ranking changes.

Tracking your SEO performance through engagement metrics

The user’s behaviour, once they reach a website, is a popular metric to measure its SEO success. Engagement signals include the following:

Conversion rate

You can divide the number of conversions by the number of unique website visits to calculate your conversion rate. The conversion rate can be linked to any specific desired action; it could be email signup, account creation or service purchase. Figuring your conversion rate helps you gauge the return on investment (ROI) that your website traffic can deliver.

Pages per visit

If your goal is to keep users on your website and encourage them to take next steps during their visit, then pages per visit can be a useful engagement signal for you. It helps you understand the user’s behaviour and how he encounters your site.

Time spent on page

Is the average time people spend on your website enough for them to consume your content? If not, then it could be a negative thing. It depends on your intent behind the page, if it’s a full guide on a particular topic then you expect users to spend time on it. Some pages, however, do not require a long time to consume like a “contact us” page, for example.

Search traffic

The same way that ranking is a valuable factor; search traffic is essential to make sure you keep on ranking high. The point of showing up in SERPs is to be chosen by searchers as the potential answer to their query. Google Analytics can help you find out all you need to know about your site’s traffic.

Bounce rate

Bounced sessions mean that users left the page without browsing it any further, which have always been tied with site quality. Depending on what type of content you offer, high bounce rates are not necessarily a negative signal. Some users might visit your site for a quick answer on something, for your contact details or to even bookmark it for later use. However, your site’s bounce rate can still signify poor user quality, so make sure your website is user and mobile-friendly.

Scroll depth

A useful metric to measure site quality is scroll depth. It measures how far visitors scroll through individual webpages. To make sure visitors are reaching your key messages and significant content, test various ways of showing the most relevant content higher up on your page. Also, look at the quality of your content, make sure it’s enticing enough to keep the user on the page. You can also use Google Analytics to set up scroll depth tracking for your site’s pages.


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