Ranking Reports (email exchange outlining the uselessness thereof)

Conrad Saam | October 28, 2015

First the Backstory:  We have a particularly prickly client in the car accident space who started with a pretty big mess and we’ve been doing some janitorial SEO for them for roughly a year.  The client has been aggressively courted by another agency (who will remain nameless) during our entire tenure, via emailed doomsday ranking reports (that the client forwards to me):

May 5:  I wanted to send you your current ranking reports for the major cities in XXXXXX.  Please take a look at them when you can and call me when you are ready to discuss them.  I am going to have to send you 3 separate emails because of the attachments, so I apologize in advance for cluttering your inbox

August 18: There is another lady in my office marketing XXXXXX accident as we speak.  Can I expect the signed agreement back today so I can get you up and running?

August 21: Let me know which cities you want to start off with and I will send you out the proposal so you can read it and view our written guarantees.

October 26: I have attached your current ranking report to this email.  You are nowhere to be found on Page 1 anymore.  Are you ready to remedy this yet?

Not our style to be so aggressive; but I’m a big boy.  More importantly, it gave me an opportunity to go back to the client and show how actual business results don’t correlate with ranking reports.  My email exchange with the client from the latest doomsday ranking report is below.

Client:

what do u guys make of this?

Mockingbird

It confirms the uselessness of ranking reports.

Your organic traffic is up 16% since his last “report”.  Your business from organic has more than doubled since his last “report”.  Your local traffic is up 27% since his last “report”.   The specific terms in this “report” that you “aren’t ranking for” are centered around car/truck accidents.  Yet over the past 30 days, 5% of your traffic enters your site on pages about car and truck accidents and you’ve appeared in queries including truck car or auto over 3,000 times.

Your impressions on Google searches are consistently increasing – over the past 90 days you are up roughly 50% (see graphic below.)

Oh – and below is a list taken from Google’s own reporting on your site over the past 30 days that shows queries for car, auto or truck in which you’ve actually appeared on the first page of search results.  (And remember – these results are fluid and personalized so you won’t be able to replicate exactly what their reporting shows, but….)

truck accident attorney XXXXX

XXX XXXX truck accident lawyer

XXXXX truck accident lawyer

XXXXX hills truck accident lawyer

car accident lawyer XXXXX

XXXXX car accident lawyers

car accident injury lawyer

XXXXX hills car accident lawyer

XXXXX car accident lawyer

truck accident attorney XXXXX

lawyers for car accident

truck accident attorney XXXX XXXX

XXXX car accident attorneys

XXXXX car accident attorney

car accident injury attorney

truck accident lawyer XXXXX hills

attorneys for car accidents

car accident attorney XXXXX hills

XXXXX truck accident lawyer

car accident attorney XXXX XXXX

car lawyer

car injury lawyers XXXXX

XXXXX XXXX car accident attorney

truck accident attorney XXXX

XXXXX truck accident attorney

XXXXX truck accident lawyer

XXXXX hills car accident attorney

truck accident attorney XXXXX hills

truck accident lawyer XXXXX

XXXXX truck accident attorney

car accident lawyer

XXXXX car accident lawyer

car accident attorneys

car accident

car accident lawyers XXXXX

car accident near XXXXX XX

truck accident attorney XXXXXX

car accidents lawyers

trucking accident lawyer

XXXXX county car accident lawyer

car accident lawyers XXXXX county mi

car accident attorney XXXXX county mi

XXXXX county car accident

truck accident attorney XXXXXX

XXXXXX car accidents attorney

XXXXXX county car accident

car accident attorney XXXXXX

car accident attorney XXXXXX

truck accident attorney XXXXXX

XXXX county car accident

XXXXX county car accident

Client:

thanks i think this means they r full of shit.   evan will be helping me with my ads now so i don’t go jumping in bed with every scum bag operation that sends me what looks like the next coming  of our savior

Coudn’t have said it better myself.  Beware anyone who offers guarantees OR ranking reports.  And be double aware of anyone citing both.