Reporting on local keyphrases with the snack pack

[BaggySEO]

Hey guys


I just wondered if anyone has had trouble with presenting ranking reports to clients since more local Snack Packs have been pushed out by Google (point #5 of Joy's great article a few month's back)? We're finding that our reports look like tons of keyphrases have dropped out of the top 3, when actually because the website link in maps has been removed, our software thinks that the first result is actually the first organic result. In the below example, Specsavers was reported to be at #2 (because maps was counted) but is now reported at #3. (N.b. Specsavers is not my client)




I just wondered if anyone else is finding this issue and how they are dealing with it? I'm sure rank reporting software will catch up in time, but it looks like I'll be manually checking rank until then!

Cheers.

 

[Myles Anderson]

Not sure what ranking software you're currently using, but most locally-geared trackers should still track pack rankings through a few methods -

1. Follow pack links through local finder pages which still display website URL so ranking can be determined from there

2. Track brand names/ business names in SERPs as well as website address

3. Track phone number in SERPs as well as website address

We offer these 3 options in BrightLocal which typically covers the bases that our customers need.

Happy to explain more if that would help.

 

[James Watt]

I use brightlocal, they've been great. I was wondering for a minute what you meant even with your post, sounds like you're using an inferior rank tracker.

 

[Tim Colling]

I too use BrightLocal for client reporting and for my firm's own internal analysis for rank tracking by various search locations. It's excellent for that. Its other reporting tools are also pretty good although there are still some bugs there which seem never to get fixed. Not too bad, just makes for a few awkward moments each month while we review metrics with clients.

About the only thing I don't use BrightLocal for is citation audit, cleanup and creation work.

 

[Myles Anderson]

Thanks James - we appreciate the support

 

[Myles Anderson]

I too use BrightLocal for client reporting and for my firm's own internal analysis for rank tracking by various search locations. It's excellent for that. Its other reporting tools are also pretty good although there are still some bugs there which seem never to get fixed. Not too bad, just makes for a few awkward moments each month while we review metrics with clients.

Hi Tim - thanks for vouching for us. On the bugs point we know that sometimes we mis-report on local citations. Just last week we added some enhanced filtering to new citation tracking reports that looks to have eliminated most of these erroneous listings. We haven't applied these filters to existing reports yet but we will do once we 100% confident of their success.