First, let’s fire off an accusation.

Not at anyone per se, but more of a statement of fact as we see it. Rank Trackers today are slightly misleading when it comes to telling you how to measure your search engine rankings. I’m not implying that the data they’re presenting is wrong – not at all. But more along the lines that the data they’re presenting is too literal. Measuring your ranking performance based on just search positions isn’t as insightful anymore as opposed to a ranking metric with intelligence behind it.

Let me explain.

Data is only relevant when it can communicate an insight beyond the obvious. Imagine a scenario where two companies are competing online. Company A is doing all it can to rank higher and in the SERPs, their site is ranking higher. But. Company B is working smarter. Through better optimization techniques, they’re managing to pull in more traffic with a lower SERP ranking. If you were to ask any digital marketer or SEO professional, they would tell you that Company B is doing a better job since it’s able to extract more ROI from it SEO efforts. (Although I’m loathe to admit that for some clients, Company A is the way to go. Sigh.)
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