How to properly read position monitoring reports?
Dynamic changes in search engine algorithms and SEO activities make it worth betting on tools that allow you to clearly read the position of a site of interest. With the development of technology and the SEO industry, many position monitoring systems have emerged. One of them is Stat4Seo, which our company uses. Based on the data from this tool, reports are generated. With our clients in mind, we have prepared a small guide to reading the reports. We invite you to read it!
What is Stat4Seo and how does it work?
Stat4Seo is a system for monitoring a site’s search engine ranking. With the help of this software, we generate reports that can be accessed by SeoFly specialists and clients. Stat4Seo gives the possibility to generate data in pdf and xls (Excel sheet) format. Thanks to the fact that our company uses an external and independent monitoring tool, you are sure that the displayed position is objective. Our company does not have the ability to influence the data generated in Stat4Seo monitoring – except for the obvious influence exerted by positioning activities :).
Sometimes it can happen that when other tools check the position, they index a different position than the one shown in our report. In most cases, this is due to the fact that our table is updated once a day. So the position of a particular phrase is the position from the hour of the update. Other tools may check positions at other times, and it often depends on the number of monitored phrases and the script’s proxy resources. In the monitoring tool, it is also possible to set monitoring with geo-location in mind, for example, the results given to a user from a specific city, which we do if the client’s business is based on the local market. In addition, results given for mobile devices (different from results on desktops and laptops) and excluding (or not) Google Maps can also be monitored.
Reading a table: step by step
Every day, next to each phrase, its position in the Google ranking is updated – this number tells us where the site currently stands in Google search results. It is worth bearing in mind here that the so-called first page of Google results by default consists of 10 organic results (plus ads). For example, after typing “a quiet place review” on August 1, a subpage positioned for this phrase was in the 5th position (TOP5) in Google searches. The higher the position, the better – it means a higher probability that a user will end up just on our site.
Under each phrase you can see the website indexed under it (this functionality is only available from the user panel on the site). This is not always the main page; sometimes it is a blog article or a subpage. Google’s algorithm itself “recognizes” which page is most related to the positioned keyword. This means that it is worth developing not only the main page of the portal, but also other parts of it.
In red color indicates a decrease in position, and green increase relative to the previous day. A dash indicates that the phrase has not yet been indexed, has not been checked on a given day, or an error has occurred. Zero (0) means that the subpage does not appear in the first 100 Google search results.
Monitoring vs. settlement
At SeoFly we use two forms of billing: subscription or mix fee (base + success fee). The position report is crucial especially for those of you who have chosen the second type of billing, as it is the basis for calculating the amount on the invoice. If you have a subscription with us, the balance sheet can be used to control your SEO activities.
We encourage you to systematically track your performance in the monitoring panels we provide for customers!
