Filter/Sort by # Position Changes
planned
Justin Mosebach
It would be awesome if we could filter/sort the data by the number of position changes in ranking.
Example: If several keywords jumped up in ranking pretty significantly over the past (week/month/etc), it'd be nice if we could easily see which keywords are improving. And vice versa with declining.
Fedor Fokin
planned
Fedor Fokin
Tim Soulo
under review
we need to understand how that functionality is useful/actionable
M
Max
Tim Soulo: it's the first thing I do when I log into a rank tracker, see which keywords have moved up and which have dropped.
It's one of the most actionable indicators a rank tracker can show, I can quickly see what keywords have improved or if there is an issue with others.
All other rank trackers have this function,it's major con for ahrefs tracker.
Pedro Teixeira
Tim Soulo: In essence, it measures volatility.
In fact, it seems to me much more significant tracking larger changes than a (normal/expected) oscillations of 1/2 positions in the SERPs that will happen whether you do SEO or not.
I understand your example uselessness, however this featured would pair with the positions filters you already have and you are not accounting for that - you could look at volatility only in the 1st page.
So using your example: On a jump of +7 positions in the first page (from #10 to #3) VS a jump of +2 positions (from #5 to #3), I’m still more interested in understand, and believe there’s an underlying SEO/content/dev reason impacting the first, rather than the second.
Ie: high volatility most likely explains either:
a) human influence (whether this is dev/content/SEO for the good or for the bad) rather than normal fluctuations, or
b) algorithm changes - yet another great reason to be alert.
To wrap up, volatility is one of the most sought out signals in the world of SEO for which there are several tools as you probably know - it means change. The magic, and where ahrefs would excel with this feature, would be giving users the availability to access this metric but personalized to their own website - how precious is that?
Tim Soulo
I'm afraid we cannot promise you to ever release that functionality, because the "# position changes" is a very relative metric.
If a keyword goes from #85 to #35 - that is a jump by +50 positions. But it means nothing, because you're still on the 3rd page and don't get any clicks.
But if you go from #12 to #5 - that is a jump by +7 positions only, but the difference in traffic would be significant.
And that is why we don't see much value in creating such filter/sorting, sorry
M
Max
Tim Soulo: it clearly means something in both cases, you are doing something right, you have increased your rankings.
Justin Mosebach
Tim Soulo: Right, but you know you're headed in the right direction if you go from #85-#35... it means that if you put some more focus on the page, you'll have a good chance of making it to page 1... why wouldn't you want to know that?
Justin Mosebach
Max: Exactly!
Gabriel
Tim Soulo: Just want to echo the same sentiments here: it's featured in pretty much every other rank tracker I've used, it's helpful for monitoring volatility, it's helpful for spotting major problems (especially in large keyword lists) at a glance, etc.
As to it being relative, you're already tracking and displaying the delta next to the position, so not sure why it can't just be broken out as its own sort field?
Justin Mosebach
Fedor Fokin Any update on when this might be added? Seems popular enough to take action on it :)
Fedor Fokin
Justin Mosebach: Hi Justin! Unfortunately, that's not a priority at the moment. Have you tried the Grossing report? It shows changes at different time periods and allows sorting by them.
M
Max
Also looking for this option, I think all rank trackers I have used have it too.
Fedor Fokin
M
Michael
That suggestion's already on the list here: https://ahrefs.canny.io/rank-tracker/p/filtersort-by-position-changes. Please go upvote that one.
Justin Mosebach
Absolutely!
M
Michael
Justin Mosebach: Please upvote this: https://ahrefs.canny.io/rank-tracker/p/filtersort-by-position-changes :)
Justin Mosebach
Michael: Done!
Fedor Fokin
Merged in a post:
Sort by "change"
Pedro Teixeira
The point of a tracker is to record changes. I'm very surprised that Rank Tracker doesn't allow the user to sort by changes or use this metric to filter.
This is something so expected that I took for granted your tool had when I saw the screenshots. SEO reporting is not about absolute positions, it's about what went up or down - that's the real insight that can be turned into an action - not a static position.
Although you have it in red/green, you can't sort and the number is not available as well after extracting data without some manipulation.
Currently there's no way to get very basic insights such as keyword that dropped from the first page. The tool allows to check only keyword changes within a range which is pretty much useless. Eg: Declines From 1 to 10 will show only keyword drops within the 1st page but not out of it. eg: 8 to 11.
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