Tracking Historical SERP Positions

How does it inform business decisions for you?

[tedster]

On another thread [webmasterworld.com] there is a discussion about the best way to keep historical records of positioning on various search engines. I have a big question here, but rather than take that thread off-topic, I've started this one.

About two years ago I stopped keeping records of Search Engine Positions - even present time reports. I found they took a lot of time and I seldom made a practical decision on their basis, especially because the various algos shift so frequently. When I need to know about positioning, I just do a present time hand check.

So now I focus on watching traffic numbers, including SE hits and keywords. I keep detailed historical traffic records, correlated with site changes. And I have the time to keep more detailed traffic records than I used to back when I was also tracking Search Engine positions. If a client really wants me to track Positions in addition to traffic, then I'll do that for them - as an extra.

So, here's my question, for those who are doing systematic tracking of Search Engine Position:

What kinds of decisions do historical positioning reports help you with? How does this kind of information filter down to your bottom line, or your client's?

[geranimo]

My clients like the SERP reports, it gives them a warm fuzzy that I am doing my job. Although the number of hits is a better gauge for traffic, the SERP does provide a valuable tool for what keywords are working and what keywords need to be trashed/changed. I compare the keywords that rank to the keywords that bring in the hits, then concentrate on improving the hitting kewords and changing the ranking kewords to something that hits.

Regards
Scott

[tedster]

it gives them a warm fuzzy that I am doing my job.

Yes, I can see that - especially if I were offering "purely" SEO this would help clients stay happy. Since I offer a broader service than that, I sort of train my clients to look beyond rank, so I short circuit the "we're number one" obsession.

How about historical ranking records - are they valuable for you?

[geranimo]

How about historical ranking records - are they valuable for you?

Sorry smack me.. I read your post about the SERP without realizing your focus was historical records. Please disregard / delete my previous comment. I was reading posts for hours yesterday and things sort of blended together.

Haven't used them yet. Seems like this is a new battle each day, where rules change and what happened yesterday does not count. The bottom line is always how many web sales did we process today.