SEO & keyword ranking reports

One of the questions we often get asked is: how often do you provide keyword ranking reports? Monthly, we answer. Can you provide it weekly, we get asked in return? Why would you need those weekly, we are tempted to ask, but choose to decline in a more polite manner.

Suffice to say, the obsession with "keyword rankings report" is one of those things a SEO agency has to live with. Not that it is totally bad--- afterall, it is one of the ways clients get an idea of what is happening with their SEO campaign. The problem is when that report is taken as indisputable evidence of the success or failure, or the competence or lack thereof, of the SEO agency.

The evolution of search engines means that position ranking reports need to viewed with a handful of salt. Search results may vary from location to location- why, even computer to computer. We've seen numerous examples where users sitting a couple of metres apart and searching for the same phrase have been shown a different set of results by Google, even when none of these users were logged in. So, how could one rely entirely on the ranking report, typically generated using a software?

The challenge for a SEO agency is to try and get clients (and often, prospects), focused on the right metrics. While Google Adwords says it very powerfully,"It's all about results", for us the focus has to be "It's all about results that matter".