Are you REALLY on the first page of Google?
As a new webmaster, you will probably be checking your stats much more frequently than you need to. Almost ALL of us are guilty I that. (I know I was!) It's perfectly understandable. What better way to measure your progress than to have the approval of the BIG G, right?
So you've published your new article and you type your keyword phrase into the Google search bar and there it is....... your new article on page one! (Or so you think). First of all, the fact that Google is aware of your article is great, but it's probably not quite there yet.
Google tends to return biased results based on previous search queries. If you are signed into your Google account when conducting a search, you are not likely to see the same results as anyone else.
Thanks for raining on my parade Steve!!!
No problem, it's what I do.....lol But seriously, I don't want my friends becoming too enthusiastic under false pretenses :) So, I want to show you how to find your REAL stats.
Google Webmaster Tools
I believe many people underestimate the true usefulness of this tool. Webmaster tools provides stats based on actual search terms. Some of your pages will be found for keyword phrases that you weren't even targeting. Some of them will even be a bit bizarre but traffic is traffic right?
The image below is a screen shot for the stats from one of my sites. The search terms would be to the left on your screen. (I'm keeping mine private :) )
Impressions shows how many times my site was shown on Google for a given search term.
Ave position is where your page is actually showing up in the search results
Many of the results you see in this sample are variations of a single keyword phrase. My best performing page is on the first page of Google for 35 variations!
This is not a testimony to how great I am, it's a testimony to how great the training is here at WA!
If your pages are not where you want them to be yet, it simply means that you need to build more authority. Keep pumping out quality content on a regular basis and your site will be rewarded with better ranking across the board!
I hope this was helpful and inspiring for some of my newer friends :)
Recent Comments
59
Steve,
Outstanding info, very inspirational, content truly is king and that is the road to being taken seriously as an authority regardless of the niche.
Thanks,
Gary
Wow Steve nice stats. quit bragging lol. I know you work hard at what you do and follow the training here. Thanks for sharing.
Hey Evelyn, that is about 6 months of hard work spread out over a year. This year I'm being much more consistent and no more long breaks for me! :)
I can relate to this for sure. I was so super stoked to be on page 1... then it all came crashing down! Thanks for being so honest! I'm learning every day though. Hopefully one day I'll have as many keywords as you do in my webmaster tools! Right now I only have 1 :(
You have some great page titles for your visitors to click on once they're there. Now you just need to work on some keyword focused content:)
Steve, this is the only info I've been looking at for my own site.
I would also add that the "Ave. Position" column is just that: An average. It doesn't mean you're always shown at that number.
For example:
If you see 100 Impressions with an average position of 10.0, then your site may actually have been ranked anywhere from 1.0 down to 20, 30, etc. within those 100 impressions. They just averaged out to 10.0.
Only one Ave. Position is 100% accurate: If you're 1.0, you're 1.0. You can't average to 1.0 with numbers other than 1.0 in the mix.
One more thing: Keep in mind that searching while logged out, or incognito, may result in different rankings each time you check. I think it varies continually, and is also based on how many times your system has searched that phrase. I've always suspected they change the results when you continually search but never click, like they're trying to find something closer to what you want. Just a theory.
Bart
P.S. Someday I'm going to have a fancy signature like yours.
You're right that it's only an average number. But as you can see, the lower that average number, the higher your click through rate tends to be and THAT is what we're after.
I created my signature at cooltext.com
Yes, I agree. These numbers are great, probably the most accurate we have, and we do want them to move closer to 1.0 over time PLUS get higher click through rates. I just didn't want anyone reading this to think a 10.0 on their stats means they're always at position 10.
Thanks for posting this, Steve. Actual rankings for actual search terms are all that matter.
Bart
New discovery... After logging into Google Webmaster Tools, and clicking Search Traffic, then Search Queries, click on one of the Queries in the resulting list.
Google will show you the various positions your site appeared when that term was searched, plus the stats for each position.
Thanks for adding that. There are ways to dig even deeper for more information. Certainly mote than I could cover in a single blog post :)
If you pick a term with a high impression count, it's amazing to see how the click through rate (CTR) falls off drastically as the positions increase.
It sure does. But once you get a few pages there, new content seems to move in that direction much quicker:)
Excellently explained.
May I ask you how you created your signature? It's really cool looking.
Thanks for your post. :)
Very helpful Steve. Are the same results given when you search incognito as what webmaster tools gets?
Thanks and have a great day!
Incognito is more accurate than searching while your signed in (obviously) but I don't even bother with that method. What Webmaster tools shows is much more accurate I believe AND you will see how well you rank for phrases you would never even think to search for yourself.
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thank you helps me understand google stats a bit better,