OK, that’s not entirely true. But they are giving us some decent information.

I wanted to share a neat little bit of info after I read ‘The value of keyword rankings‘ over at State of Search. There has been (and likely will be for a while) a debate on the need to track keyword rankings. Some believe that it’s a moot point for reasons that regard the advent of various features added by Google (Personalized Search, Universal Search, AJAX SERPS, etc.) or the idea that keyword rankings aren’t as important as conversions and the end goal.

While that sentiment isn’t exactly false, I still believe that keyword ranking reports have their place. And that place is in a toolbox for use by your SEO. Actually, with a few exceptions I don’t even show ranking reports to clients so much anymore, but I run them for every single one. I’ll explain why in another post, but for now, let’s look at something neat that Google is doing.

I first heard about it from Matt Cutts on YouTube, and we have been using this information for some preliminary tracking. For some results, Google will provide a parameter declaring a search result ranking for a given keyword/phrase. So, you could use this information with your analytics software to determine not only what search terms brought visitors to your site, but where you rank for those terms.

Keep in mind we aren’t seeing this for all results pages just yet, but you can catch it every once in a while (it seems to depend on the search, and I don’t know if it’s a specific type yet). Also, I’m going to show you how these ranking results are probably not what you’re used to seeing. Let’s look at an example first.

So, do a search for something like ‘women’s shoes‘ in Google. You’ll get all the normal stuff; paid listings, organic results, etc.

Now, would you kindly right click on the first result, and click ‘Properties?’You’ll get a pop-up with the properties of the link, including an ‘Address.’ Highlight that whole address:

You can actually see what we are looking for from here, but for future reference you may want to paste the whole thing into notepad as you won’t see it all from this box most times.

What we are looking for is the parameter cd=1. This tells us that this is the first listing on the page. Pretty neat, yes? This is what you would use with your analytics software, so get your Dev team cracking on this. Actually, don’t do that yet.

Slight Change in Page One Rankings

Let me show you what happens if we change the search a little. This time, look for ‘orlando hotels.’ You should see a local listing results box up top. Now, check that link’s properties. Aha! That’s number 1, again noted with the cd=1. And, if you look at the link for the first “natural” result, you will see cd=8.

Wanna see something even cooler? Now search for ‘pacifica hotels.’ Now we have a result with sitelinks. I want you to look at the properties of that first sitelink. Remember when I said you have to paste this into notepad sometimes? This is one of those times. Because I’m a pretty cool guy, I’ll save you the trouble:

http://www.google.com/url?url=http://www.pacificahotels.com/central-coast.htm&rct=j&ei=65W8S4UTie72BOiOhOgH&sa=X&oi=smap&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CBMQqwMoADAA&q=pacifica+hotels&usg=AFQjCNHQHkE98cI1LjNRP6YvERT3DkL89w

There’s a difference here. Now we have an added resnum=1 along with a cd=1. This means that we have a first place block of listings, and we are looking at the first listing within that block. If you look at the last sitelink, you will see the same resnum=1 and a cd=8. The next listing, in the SERP? Well that will get a cd=2 with no resnum.

So you can imagine that with a search that returns many results from various other verticals like images, maps, etc. these listing numbers can grow. It’s not as simple as saying “rank 1-10 means page 1.”

Why Is This Important?

Imagine you filter your analytics to show you not only the list of search terms that brought traffic, but also where they ranked in Google. Now, imagine that you are doing your diligence further by identifying the terms that produced conversion.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a clear understanding of these things? Say you have a traffic driver that is ranked number 2, but produces lower conversions than the term that is ranked number 9. You now have a new focus.

Now, before you run off to get your SEO or development team working on this, I give you these words of caution. First, I haven’t even looked at other results like images, etc. I don’t know what if any parameters are used for stuff like that. Also, this is Google we are talking about. Anything could change or be dropped at any moment.