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Posted By:
joeldrapper
58 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://joeldrapper.com)
Category: SEO
7 Comments
Posted By:
joeldrapper
58 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://joeldrapper.com)
Category: SEO
7 Comments
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Comments
Does anyone know what g1smd is talking about in the desphinn when he says:
"Sorry. It's not even about ranks, It is about TRAFFIC and CONVERSIONS. For that you need ANALYTICS and DATA."?!!!
I can't figure out how it could have anything to do with "traffic" and "conversions" let alone not have anything to do wiht ranks!
If anyone has any suggestions on how I can change the title of this article to be more speciffic then please let me know.
@JoelDrapper
I think Ian maybe alluding to the fact that rank checking is yesterday's news now, especially after Google blocked WPG and made statements about automated checks being banned.
Look up some articles on conversions and how to measure them, that is where the smart money is heading now. Especially when you consider that personalised search in Google can give you, your client and your customers different SERPs.
I can rank number one for purple monkey nipples with a good ranking and page rank. If nobody clicks on that link (traffic) and nobody buys anything or signs up for anything (conversions), what good is that ranking? How do I know if I'm getting traffic and conversions? Analytics and data.
@g1smd is saying that limiting your thinking to "is it good position in the SERPs or a good page rank?" is narrow, and you should really be thinking about if this traffic is doing any good. Your post addresses how to track your progress in the SERPs, but does not say anything about the premise that SERPs are better than page rank.
I still find that clients like to have a holistic view of their progress, and that includes rankings. I also think ranking results overtime in a graphic interface is a useful tool. While it may be PASSE to ONLY use rankings as your metric- I think if you're going to keep track of your traffic then it may be as important to track your rankings.
For example, if you get a sudden spike in traffic and conversions, you might need to know if it coincided with a rise in a specific or several keywords vs a flyer or billboard.
In otherwords I think that keyword tracking over time IS still important
@footinmouthdisease
Agreed - some of our corp clients still rely on ranking information to pass up the chain. It can be a useful forensic check but I'd prefer clients were weened off this metric. Google could help significantly by publishing a note on the topic we could refer them too. Something along the lines of automated checks can get your IP banned and besides everyone sees different results in Google etc. etc.
Moving the industry away from rankings would be a very positive step IMO. Not only would it gets everyone concentrating on what *really* matters, it would tackle the snake oil SEOs who sell pointless rankings, as Morgret points out. Once the focus was on results, people would hopefully see through some of these sales pitches.
I thought that google personalized the results, and they were slightely different for every computer. If so then how can they ban checkers?
@joeldrapper
Too many automated requests can get your IP banned (see their TOS). Not such a biggie if you have a dynamic IP assigned each time you log onto the internet (like AOL users) but if you are using a permanent or semi-permanent IP it will affect you.
Not sure how that relates to personalized results - this is about automated searches. Google's SEO guidelines state: "Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google."
There are ways of getting round this of course, making your queries look more natural (random pauses between queries/less aggressive query rate), rotate your requests through an proxy IP pool using Squid or go the official API route. *But* there are very good reasons for moving beyond rank checking, as we have mentioned above.