As the world of search has grown to include behavioural and geo-graphic signals, many optimizers began to wonder about the value of ranking reports. The conventional thinking being that if we cannot definitively know the ranking of a given page, how do we valuate it?

Those in the world of ‘Local SEO’ are keenly aware of the issues related to targeting specific markets and Google data centers. If you are targeting more than one market then it becomes extensively harder to attain and measure related rankings. If we now look at personalization elements relating to geo-graphic locations and behavioural data, rankings become even more of a moving target.

Are rankings relevant? (download The Google Re-ranking Study )

We decided to look at some isolated (informational) queries with a group of volunteers from around the ol USofA to see what may or may not be happening. Considering the weight that rankings have always played in the SEO industry, this was an area well worth investigating. The main goal of this particular exercise was to see if there was enough to warrant further investigation into other query types/spaces.

While there are certainly a variety of potential factors that do cause re-ranking across individual queries, it is not as much chaos as you may think. If anything there was a degree of stability among top rankings, simply more of re-ranking of top document than wholesale change.

This does mean there is still some inherent value to be had for top search rankings in Google – although more adaptation is prudent. This though, is nothing new in modern search optimization. Get the report today!!

For more… please feel free to download the report; The Google Re-ranking Study

NOTE; if you volunteer for future studies, we will send raw data from those studies for your own analysis – it’s optional though.