Clients call us to ask why Google organic search results are so erratic. They get ranking results different from that in the SEO report we just sent, and they get different results they type in the same query.
Clients’ bewilderment is understandable. The time honored ranking report to measure SEO results is no longer quite valid. Year 2010 is going to see the start of holistic SEO. Up to December 2009, you saw personalized results only if you were logged into your Google account. Now you will get personalized results even if have not logged in. The results are based on your recent queries, where you are (location from your Google Account setup or IP address). Your search results may be customized based on past search information stored in a cookie. For searches related to a location, such as search for gift shops, results may be customized for an approximate location based on your IP address. You can turn off personalized search by clicking on ‘web history’ on search results page, and then selecting ‘Disable customizations based on search activity.’
SEO efforts and measures of success have to be holistic. So keyword density and ranking tools are dead. Keywords have to be ‘naturally’ targeted in your web pages. Simply trying to achieve an ‘ideal keyword density’ will not help. SEO results will get measured by organic traffic, ROI and average ranking from Webmaster Tool’s Search Queries page.
The Search Queries page provides valuable information about top search queries on Google that returned pages from your site over a given period of time for each search term:
- Impressions: The number of times pages from your site were displayed in search results pages
- Clicks: The number of times users clicked on your pages in search results for a particular query
- The average position of your page and the URL of the pages that were displayed
The rank or position is an average position because the search query, for example ‘seo company’ includes all queries that included this phrase. Thus data of all queries for ‘seo company’, ‘top seo company india’, ‘seo company in bangalore’ will all be added under ‘seo company’.
The ranking report you get for any SEO Tool will only be a snap shot at a point in time.
You would need to research and target your market in terms of following user-profile factors:
- Demographics
- Psychographic data, such as attitudes
- Personal interest data
- Location
Then develop your website themes and content based on your target market profile. This will help in improving ranking or the position of your website in organic search results.
