Does your website search rank matter to your bottom line? …to your sales? …to your websites visitors?
Yes. Sorry. It’s a rhetorical question. You and I know the answer is “Absolutely”. If you don’t rank ahead of your competition, sales will suffer.
Does Google provide most of your organic traffic? Probably.
How does your website rank with Google? Well that’s the problem isn’t it? You don’t know. You are likely living in a “matrix” thinking that you do know. How many incorrect decisions are you making and how much is it costing you? (you are about to find out)
Millions of people believe (assume actually) that Google Search Console (GSC) is a reliable source of search rank for your website. And this source is incorporated into most search rank reporting services – which is easy and profitable to do. With this data propagated so ubiquitously, the assumption must be true. Lets stop assuming and question popular beliefs shall we?
Take a close look. Login to your GSC. Go to > Search Traffic > Search Analytics, Google displays the “average position” your website gets for a KEYWORD.
What is AVERAGE POSITION anyway? Well “Average” position must mean there are many positions. That means for that KEYWORD, there are different SERPs (Search Results Pages).
So how could your website differ in rank for a particular keyword? If you search for my business, that keyword should display my business listing in a certain position every time? No? …well position in SERPs could differ by time or location? 5am or 5pm might be different. Or searching from Almeria, Spain or 3 miles from your business. Aha! So its actually a difference in the location of the “many” persons doing the searches that produces many positions to “average”
So now you know that Google is not providing you with useful search rank reporting on a local (or hyperlocal ) basis? They are averaging global search results. We arrived at this conclusion without looking at any reporting or explanations from Google. But you can verify this conclusion for yourself – quite easily actually. But first ask yourself; Do you sell your product to people in Almeria, Spain?
Seeing is believing: Login to your GSC. Go to > Search Traffic > Search Analytics. Find a keyword that contains your business name AND has an average rank that is NOT #1. Then click on the little icon there. It will open an actual Google SERP page using that keyword. Chances are very high that you actually rank #1. And there you have it.
Google just displayed a SERP specific to your location. You are located close to your business (I’m assuming). But many people who might stumble upon your listing in the SERP may be located many 10’s, 100’s, 1000’s of miles away – in which case your listing was NOT #1. And that explains the Average Position. What good is that? That does not help anyone make better online business decisions. (but it might cause you to erroneously increase your bid and therefore spend more in Adwords!)
Here is one of our real-world examples:
Google says we average 8.1 for our business’s name. Now click on that little icon there next to the “Queries”. The below screenshot is the actual SERP we got (may I point out, it’s provided by Google) which shows we are #1 and we got the Business Card too! How much more #1 must we be to move the average up a few notches from 8.1? As we pointed out already, our next step might be to increase our PPC bids in the belief that we are performing poorly in search results. That incorrect information can be expensive!
It should now be obvious to you that Google Search Console does not provide usable search rank reporting ( esp not on a local level ) upon which to make informed Internet Marketing decisions, but millions of people assume it does, and hundreds of search rank solutions repackage this data and represent it as if it were accurate. (or would you like that blue pill instead? )
SearchStation does provide accurate search rank reporting upon which you can make intelligent Internet Marketing decisions and out maneuver your competition and this post is meant as a Red Pill for your delusion – get SearchStation.