Rankings Overview
Frequently Asked Questions
What's Covered?
This guide offers information about the Rankings Overview section of your Campaign. It outlines each view available and a brief overview of the data included in each. For more in depth information and to learn about how to add or remove keywords and labels, please see the guides listed in the left hand navigation.
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Why track keyword rankings?
Tracking your keyword rankings is the best way to learn how well you're performing in the organic search results for your target keywords over time. If you are trying to increase traffic to your site, you may start by updating your content, creating more content or improving your on-page optimization. Tracking your rankings gives you an understanding the impact of these improvements. If you do see a drop in your traffic you'll be able to identify which keywords dropped and which of your competitors are outperforming you.
With Moz Pro Rankings you can track keyword rankings nationally or locally. With weekly updates you can see how your site is performing over time, and compare your ranking positions and Search Visibility with your competition.
Rankings Report Summary
From the summary panel at the top of your Rankings section, you can see an overview of your Search Visibility, Keyword Rankings and movement within certain position brackets, overall Movement up or down, and how many Featured Snippets you own for your Tracked Keywords. All the data you see in this report is for the timeframe and search engine selected at the top of the report.
Under the Rankings header in the summary panel you'll see how many of your Tracked Keywords are in position ranges of #1-3, #4-10, #11-20, or #21-50. Right alongside, under the Movement header, you'll see how many keywords moved up and down for all your Tracked Keywords for the timeframe selected. You'll also see how many of your Tracked Keywords are not in the top 50 positions.
Pro Tip: Moz Pro tracks the top 50 ranking positions for your Tracked Keywords. Any results beyond the top 50 positions will show as +51 in your report.
Date Ranges and Search Engines
Changing the search engine or date range will update all of the data you see on your Rankings report. By clicking Date Range, you can choose to see data from the last 30 days, the last calendar month, the last 3 months, the last 6 months, the last year, and "all time," which is the length of time your Campaign has been running. You will also have the option to select a specific date range using the calendar in the drop-down view. We start tracking ranking data from when your Campaign is set up, or the next update after you add keywords if you add them after initial setup.
Please note: When selecting a custom date range, the tool will automatically adjust the chosen range to start at the first data collection in the selected range and end at the last data collection in the selected range. This is expected behavior and allows for a more accurate representation of the data set being viewed. In the example below, the date range of November 1st through November 21st is selected and the tool reorients to show data for November 5th through November 19th based on the Campaign’s update schedule.
What if the number of keywords that moved up and down don't tally with my overall keyword movements?
It's important to note that the change values aren't designed to tally between the ranking ranges and the overall movement of your keywords. The first panel shows the number of keywords within each range: #1-3, #4-10, #11-20 and #21-50. The change value shows the number of keywords in each range and if there are more or less in that range since the last update. The overall rankings values show the number of keywords that moved up or down in your whole Campaign.
Search Visibility Chart
If you’ve ever been curious as to how visible you actually are in search results, we’ve got you covered!
Search Visibility is the percentage of clicks we estimate you receive based on your rankings positions, across all of your Tracked Keywords.
Rankings Chart
Now, if you choose Rankings from the dropdown, the graph will show you how many keywords are ranking and in what position. If you have Google Analytics connected, traffic will be overlaid against the bars so you can compare them.
The color-coded columns show your Tracked Keyword's positions grouped in blocks of #1-3, #4-10, #11-20, and #21-50. The gray line indicates the organic traffic (which we gather from Google Analytics).
Don’t care about the terms ranked in the positions #1-10 or #21-50? You can easily filter them out of the graph with the toggle switches at the bottom.
Tracked Keywords Overview
To dig more into your Tracked Keywords data, scroll down and you’ll see a list of your Tracked Keywords Overview sorted by rank. This list will also include the highest ranking URL on your tracked site for that keywords, if there were any changes in the rank, and whether the keyword is being tracked locally or nationally.
Use the headers to sort the data. Click on the keyword to be taken to the Analyze a Keyword page for that keyword where you can learn more about the keyword metrics, and view live SERP results. You can also click on the URL to be taken to that page in your browser or you can also run a Page Optimization report by clicking on the grey icon on the right-hand side.
The URL listed in the URL column indicates the highest ranking URL on your tracked site (based on your Campaign settings) at the time of the data collection. This URL is pulled directly from the SERP at the time of your data collection and cannot be changed in the tool.
If your site is earning the Featured Snippet for a tracked keyword, this will be indicated in the Rank column with a Featured Snippet icon beside the rank. Featured Snippets are counted as rank #1 rather than rank #0 and will be included in your rankings reports.
The option to export your entire keyword ranking history via CSV is available at the top of the table. If you are tracking a lot of keywords and have selected a wide date range, this can take several hours to export. This export will include rankings data for all of the Campaign's keywords for as long as they’ve been actively tracked in the Campaign.
Please note: Keywords with an associated Featured Snippet will not be specially noted in the CSV. They will only have the associated rank and will not note Featured Snippet presence.
URL Column
The URL listed in the URL column indicates the highest ranking URL on your tracked site (based on your Campaign settings) at the time of the data collection. This URL is pulled directly from the SERP at the time of your data collection and cannot be changed in the tool.
How do I change the URL in the URL column?
The URL in this column is pulled directly from the SERP and indicates the highest ranking URL for this tracked keyword. This URL cannot be manually updated or changed - it will only change if a different URL begins ranking highest for this keyword.
If you would like to track rankings for a specific keyword, we offer various tools and solutions to help. Please see our guide on rankings for specific pages.
How can I track rankings for a specific page?
If you need to track rankings for a specific page and keyword combination on your site, you can do so with tools like Page Optimization or Rank Tracker.
Why isn’t there a URL listed in the URL column?
If you are not seeing a URL listed in the URL column, this indicates that your site is not ranking in the top 50 results for this keyword. Moz Pro tracks rankings for keywords in the top 50 results - if your site is ranking 51+ (as indicated in the Rank column) we will not be able to pull an associated URL into the URL column and the column will remain blank.
Rankings Movement
Within the Rankings section of your Campaign, the tool will indicate whether your rankings have changed in the Rank Change column indicated by the green and red arrow.
The value in the Rank Change column compares the first data point in the designated time frame to the last data point. For example, if the date range is set to Jul 12, 2021 - Sep 27, 2021 the Rank Change column will compare the rankings for any tracked keywords on July 12th to the rankings on September 27th to determine the change in rank.
Why am I seeing -- listed in the Rank Change column?
The Rank Change column compares the first data collection to the last data collection within the selected timeframe. If tracked keywords were added after the start date for your selected timeframe, the rank change column will display -- for the change. This is because there aren’t 2 data points available to compare for the rank change.
Why am I seeing a + next to the value in the Rank Change column?
If there is a + after the change value in the Rank Change column (for example, 4+ or 47+), this indicates the keyword moved in or out of the 51+ rank.
Moz only tracks rankings within the top 50 results of the SERP which means that we do not have an exact rank for any keyword which ranks lower than 50. Therefore, if a keyword was ranking 51+ and moved up, the Rank Change column will show a value + to indicate the keyword moved at least that many places in the rank.
In the below example, we see that this site was ranking 34 for the keyword roller coaster bench seat with pulldown bar but dropped to below 50. The Rank Change column shows a change of 17+ because the tool only knows the site is not ranking in the top 50 results anymore, not where below 50 it lands. It has moved at least 17 spots in the designated time frame.
Similarly, we see that this site is ranking 47 for the keyword how do you purchase but used to not rank in the top 50 results. The Rank Change column shows a change of 4+ because the tool only knows the site was not ranking in the top 50 results previously, not where below 50 it was. It has moved at least 4 spots in the designated time frame.
Tracked Search Engines
You can track your keywords across up to four search engines with Moz Pro. Select a search engine from the drop-down at the top of the report to see data for that engine.
You can also select the Engines tab under the Rankings Summary to compare Search Visibility, rankings and changes to rankings for your Tracked Keywords.
This tab is particularly handy for identifying discrepancies or fluctuations between your Mobile and Desktop rankings. Toggle off the other 2 engines by clicking on them from the chart and compare your desktop and mobile rankings — that way you can spot if your mobile rankings have taken a dive. Better to get ahead of this before it starts impacting on your traffic and revenue.
Competitor Rankings
Curious how you and your competition stack up? Click on over to the Competition tab! Here you’ll be able to review the keyword, whether it’s being tracked locally or nationally, where your site currently ranks (based on the search engine filter up top), and where each of your competitors rank. The difference between the current rank and the rank from your last Campaign update will be shown in the Change columns. Take a look at the Search Visibility graph to see your visibility in search vs. your competitors for the keywords being tracked in your Campaign.
Opportunities
If you’re ever curious about which keywords to track, head over to the Opportunities tab. The opportunities you see here are pulled from our keyword data, also available in Keyword Explorer. Here you’ll find keywords that may be sending your site traffic and your site is already ranking for but you’re not currently tracking.
If you decide you'd like to track one of these keywords, just click on the check the box in the Track column to add it to the Campaign.
0 Results in Google Messaging
When tracking keywords in Moz, you may end up adding a keyword or two which do not return results in Google. This may happen if you’re attempting to track long tail keywords or niche, branded keywords that are not often searched.
If this happens, you may receive an email from our team letting you know that some of your tracked keywords require attention. It would most likely look something like this:
Hi there,
In our quest to ensure you’re getting the most accurate ranking data, we want to notify you that some of your tracked keywords need attention.
One or more keywords you’re tracking display 0 results on Google. This means that we can’t provide you with ranking data, because there are no results on the search engine results page. We want to be sure you’re tracking the right keywords – so just reply to this email and we’ll get you a list of impacted keywords to update.
We look forward to helping you get your tracked keywords in tip-top shape!
If you receive an email like this, you can verify the keyword you entered is correct and/or remove the keyword. If you’d like to continue to track the keyword, you can definitely do so! You just won’t see any rankings data for that keyword until Google surfaces a SERP.
How do I identify which keyword isn’t returning a result?
If you’d like to verify if a keyword you’re tracking is turning up 0 results in Google, you can look for a -- in the rank column. If the keyword is showing a double dash for the rank and it is NOT showing a Not Collected tag, this keyword is not returning a result in Google.
You can also verify this information in Google by querying the search term. If no results are found, Google will display messaging that your search didn’t match any documents. Please note: You may still see ads in the search for queries that don’t match any results. These do not count as organic rankings.
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