{"id":18115,"date":"2021-07-28T05:00:54","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T05:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brickmarketing.com\/?p=18115"},"modified":"2025-07-01T16:07:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T16:07:51","slug":"fixating-rank-waste-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brickmarketing.com\/blog\/fixating-rank","title":{"rendered":"Fixating on Rank is a Waste of Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It is a misconception that rank is a measurement of how well your SEO is performing. These days, while it is still being measured, the end result is one that doesn’t seem to have much of a bearing as to how well your website is performing organically overall. Also, at the end of the day, none of that even matters if you somehow aren’t connecting with the right audience and are not increasing your business. Website traffic does nothing for your business unless the end result is an increase in business.<\/p>\n

While we do pull keyword reports from Google Search Console regularly, it\u2019s not what we focus on. We keep it on file more for \u201cjust in case\u201d purposes if we notice any irregularities and need to try and trace it back to a specific keyword or page. That\u2019s because focusing strictly on rank isn\u2019t giving you a clear picture of how the campaign is performing. Here are some of the main reasons why it\u2019s a waste of time to fixate on what your rank is:<\/p>\n

Search results are personalized<\/h3>\n

Google wants to give its users the best possible experience which is why they take a whole range of factors into account when someone searches, such as their location, search history, and device used to search. This makes rank a difficult measurement to go by, especially for small, local businesses. Even a distance of a mile or two can make a difference in which pizza shop, hair salon, car garage, etc. shows up at the top of a search result. Google wants to make its users lives easier and by showing whatever business is closest at the top, it\u2019s doing just that.<\/p>\n

Rank fluctuates<\/h3>\n

Ensuring that you have a user-friendly, optimized website that is full of great content and generating inbound links from trusted websites is critically important for SEO purposes and to improve your presence in the search engines, but that\u2019s really all you have control over \u2013 your own web property. The rest, unfortunately, is beyond your control. You can\u2019t control what your search engine competitors are doing and you can\u2019t control the search engine algorithms. This is why rank fluctuates. You might rank #8 one day and #5 the next. The web is changing so often that it\u2019s impossible to maintain any rank position forever, no matter what you\u2019re doing (or not doing).<\/p>\n

Rank doesn\u2019t always correlate to sales<\/h3>\n

\"\"
\nIn many cases a top ranking will result in more traffic, but is it correlating with more sales? Is the traffic that keyword is delivering converting? Is it a transactional keyword? Or is it driving traffic from an audience that is just looking for information, but will never convert? Focusing too much on rank means that you aren\u2019t focusing on what matters, and that is whether the keywords generating traffic are also generating sales. It might be nice to say you\u2019re ranking #1 for a specific keyword, but is that keyword driving any traffic or sales? If not, it hardly means anything that it\u2019s #1.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not saying that rank doesn\u2019t matter at all. Of course it does. But it\u2019s not something to obsess and agonize over. Instead, focus on organic traffic growth over time and whether that organic traffic is converting. That will give you a much clearer picture of whether or not your SEO campaign is working.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a misconception that rank is a measurement of how well your SEO is performing. These days, while it is still being measured, the end result is one that… More Info<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17866,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFixating on Rank is a Waste of Time | Brick Marketing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fixating only on rank isn\u2019t giving you a clear picture of how the campaign is performing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brickmarketing.com\/blog\/fixating-rank\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fixating on Rank is a Waste of Time | Brick Marketing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fixating only on rank isn\u2019t giving you a clear picture of how the campaign is performing.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.brickmarketing.com\/blog\/fixating-rank\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Brick Marketing - Digital Marketing Agency\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-28T05:00:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-01T16:07:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.brickmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/how-ad-rank-determines-ad-position-in-adwords-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick Stamoulis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Stamoulis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/fixating-rank#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/fixating-rank\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nick Stamoulis\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dd420fc038644ad2ee1a62912b6368fb\"},\"headline\":\"Fixating on Rank is a Waste of Time\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-28T05:00:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-01T16:07:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/fixating-rank\"},\"wordCount\":583,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/fixating-rank#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eqo6k4wde6o.exactdn.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/how-ad-rank-determines-ad-position-in-adwords-150x150.jpg?strip=all\",\"articleSection\":[\"SEO\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/fixating-rank\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/fixating-rank\",\"name\":\"Fixating on Rank is a Waste of Time | Brick Marketing\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/fixating-rank#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/fixating-rank#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eqo6k4wde6o.exactdn.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/how-ad-rank-determines-ad-position-in-adwords-150x150.jpg?strip=all\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-28T05:00:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-01T16:07:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dd420fc038644ad2ee1a62912b6368fb\"},\"description\":\"Fixating only on rank isn\u2019t giving you a clear picture of how the campaign is performing.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/fixating-rank#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/fixating-rank\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/fixating-rank#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eqo6k4wde6o.exactdn.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/how-ad-rank-determines-ad-position-in-adwords-150x150.jpg?strip=all\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/eqo6k4wde6o.exactdn.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/how-ad-rank-determines-ad-position-in-adwords-150x150.jpg?strip=all\",\"width\":150,\"height\":150},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/blog\\\/fixating-rank#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fixating on Rank is a Waste of Time\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.brickmarketing.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Brick Marketing - 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