Learn from the Experts: How to Boost Organic Traffic with Rank Tracking

As Wincher is a keyword rank tracker, we often get customers asking us how to use SEO rank tracking data in the most efficient way. Even for SEO experts mastering rank tracking it isn’t an easy task. It requires basic knowledge in different digital fields, lots of practice and attention to detail.

So, we decided to ask the experts in the digital marketing niche. Below, you’ll find a bunch of helpful tips and tricks on how to use rank tracking data and metrics to increase your positions and see which of your SEO efforts are delivering the results you desire.

Founder of AdRock Marketing, an expert in digital marketing. Dennis has large experience in Google Ads, Social Media Ads, Search Engine Optimization. 

VP of Marketing at a healthcare IT company, the operator of SunsetMarketing. Erik has enjoyed success in B2B sales roles, leadership of a medical software channel sales organization, and integrating business operations through various M&A activities.

SEO and Web Development professional with 6 years of experience in both web and traditional advertising, promotions, events, and campaigns. He has worked on integrated campaigns for major clients such as Vectone Mobile, Delight Mobile and Daily Mail. Currently, Omi Sido is Senior Technical SEO at Canon Europe.

What are the most important factors for you when choosing the right rank tracking tool?

Dennis: “It is really important for me that the rank tracking tool is giving me the right data at the right time. I love data and love to make data-based decisions but in order to do so I need the best data available in both aggregated and nearly raw formats. 

The second important point would be a good user experience. So clearly structured interfaces where the presented data can help me to answer the questions I am working on right now and supports me in validating or falsifying my hypotheses I build for the improvements of client projects.”

Erik: ” The most important factor in choosing a rank tracking tool is a no brainer and it’s having access to accurate, on-demand data. You’ve got to be able to trust that the reporting from the tool is the reality. Next, access to competitive reporting gives your keywords a relative position against competing domains and content.

Knowing where you stand is an important first step in prioritizing SEO efforts. Finally, the ability to slice and dice the data into geographies and devices gives you valuable granularity into how (and where!) your keywords are performing well or where improvement is needed. “

Omi: “We know that rankings offer invaluable insights for SEOs so picking a ranking tool that works best for your organization can be challenging. With that in mind, every SEO needs accurate, on-time and reliable ranking data with the best quality.

As an SEO I don’t want to question the data a tool is giving me, so I am always comparing data coming from different sources.”

How do you use rank tracking data? Just as a visual picture of the current situation or as a resource for improvements?

Dennis: “This is a really interesting question. We are using rank tracking data in various forms:

First of all we use it for reporting purposes. The client clearly wants to have hard results for the investment in our services. We gladly offer this reporting on a wide scope of Data and KPIs but the ranking for specific Keywords is usually one of the main KPIs. Clear rank tracking data helps greatly to create a satisfying reporting.

But the second, and actually more important, use case is the support in our work. Rank tracking data can give very clear hints about what can be improved on the page and what form of content will be successful, even in the short term. One classic example would be to discover that we rank for a relevant Keyword but haven’t even published content for this specific Keyword. Creating a piece of content for that Keyword nearly guarantees to rank great then.”

Erik: “Rank tracking data has to be more than just a visual picture of the current situation. If you’re not using it as a resource for improvements you’re going to like looking at the data less and less over time. Monitoring your positions gives you the ability to tweak content, emulate and improve upon competitor strategies, and provide a pathway to ranking success. Trending ranking positions over time is one of the most important things you can do to know if your strategy is working or needs to be revised.”

Omi: “There are many ways we can utilise the data coming from our ranking tools. I normally group the data in the following four ways:

1. Pages that rank for the same keyword (or group of keywords) – it is very important to make sure that the best ‘converting’ page is not being over ranked by a page that doesn’t bring anything to the table. If necessary, delete the ‘wrong’ page and redirect to the right one.  
2. Keywords that none of my pages is ranking for (but I know that these keywords are important to my business) – Funny enough finding a bunch of keywords that you want to rank for is the easy part. The hard part is figuring out what and how long it’ll take to rank for those keywords. 
3. Pages that rank well without my effort – if the search query is relevant to your business, then continue optimizing it further to get higher positions but if the search query is not relevant as I said earlier think again whether it is worth having this page in the future.
4. Competitors data for uncovering keyword potential – monitoring the positions of our competitors can inform our own SEO strategy for actions that can bring positive results.”

There is a quite frequent situation when website owners and marketers permanently track ranking for 20-30 keywords without doing keyword research and adding new keywords to check the positions. What is your opinion about that?

Dennis: “Well, having some core Keywords that are really important for the business isn’t a bad thing in my opinion. I think the problem begins when there isn’t a lot of research for new additional Keywords. Keyword research has to be an ongoing task in order to find new opportunities that can ideally support the set of core Keywords the businesses define for themselves.”

Erik: “Set it and forget it works great with slow cookers, not so much with SEO. Even in industries where the keyword pool is relatively narrow and shallow you’ve got to have a cadence for proper keyword research and making changes to your position tracking list. There’s a 2nd order effect of not actively managing keywords in position tracking and it’s that you won’t have the content that speaks to “new” keywords. You can’t stagnate.”

Omi: “SEO is an ongoing process. Your customer needs are always changing. Your competitors are always trying to up their game. The way people search for your products and services in different cities and countries is not the same. The device landscape is rapidly evolving: do you know which device is working best for your website? The list goes on and on.

Tracking the same keywords without constantly monitoring your niche and without adding ‘new’ and valuable keywords for your business can be disastrous for your SEO strategy.”

What advice would you give to business/website owners on how to use ranking data properly?

Dennis: “My advice would be to broaden the scope of focus. You might have some core terms that you want to rank for, but so do a lot of different businesses too. If you focus too closely on only the core terms you might lose a lot of additional opportunities that will give you great results in the short term but will also give you the ability to dominate on your core terms in the long run. Build hypotheses, test them and then analyze the data in order to constantly move forwards.”

Erik: “Rank tracking data is important both for owners and for SEOs. For owners who are outsourcing their SEO efforts, rank tracking data is one of several ways to gauge ROI and oversee the project. If the owner is contributing to SEO efforts then being proactive with rank tracking data is the only way to use the data properly. Be sure you’re using the data to tweak content that needs it and set a cadence for refreshing the keywords being tracked so that you’ve got an accurate representation of your site’s performance.”

Omi: “Keyword tracking data is probably one of the best ways to see if your efforts are delivering the results we are looking for. 

If you make a change and you see rankings increase, that’s probably a change you should continue making. If you make a change and my rankings stay static (or in some cases decrease), that specific task is probably not something you should continue to spend time doing.”

We hope that these tips will help you to get more out of rank tracking updates for your website. Feel free to join Wincher to track unlimited keywords and get accurate and insightful reports on your SEO performance.

As always, we’re glad to hear your feedback. Please let us know what you think about this post in the comment field below.