No SEO position is ever guaranteed. You might have a page ranking on the first page of a SERP (search engine results page) one day and see it drop to the second page a few days, weeks, or months later. Fortunately, the opposite is also possible: your pages can gain positions over weeks or months.
SERPs are constantly evolving, which is why SEO is a regular task that requires long-term commitment. Adhering to best practices in organic search helps minimize the volatility of your rankings in search engines.
Today, we will introduce you to a feature of the Semrush tool that allows you to track these changes on a day-to-day basis.
Why are SERPs volatile?
As we mentioned, SEO positions in search result pages are unstable. There are various reasons that cause these fluctuations.
We can highlight two main reasons:
- Major updates to the ranking algorithm (e.g., Google Core update)
- Deployment of a new ranking algorithm with specific rules
These are the primary reasons that influence organic rankings. However, it's important to note that your positions can only be volatile due to penalties or manual actions, for example.
Fortunately, there are indicators like Semrush Sensor that allow you to monitor a volatility score daily to determine whether you are losing or gaining positions due to your own actions or a shift in the SERPs.
The Semrush Sensor SERP Volatility Score
Semrush Sensor is a tool that monitors the volatility of SERPs. With its indicator, we can easily obtain a assessment of search result fluctuations across search engines.
Semrush Sensor provides a daily volatility score out of 10:
- A score between 0 and 2 indicates low volatility;
- A score between 2 and 5 indicates normal volatility;
- A score between 5 and 8 indicates high volatility;
- A score between 8 and 10 indicates very high volatility.
By tracking the evolution of this score, we can know if our web pages' positions are at risk of changing in search engines. We can also see the impact of modifications and updates to search engine algorithms on the SERP.
In the variance section, we can observe the differences in scores from one day to the next and identify trends.
Moreover, in the "Winners and Losers" section, we have an overview of the domains tracked by Sensor that either benefited from or suffered due to SERP volatility. On the side, we can also see the category-wise evolution.
Volatility Score by Category
Semrush Sensor does not just provide an overall volatility score. We can conduct a more in-depth analysis of this score by studying the volatility for each category of site.
On the left side of the dashboard, we can see several categories (Arts and Leisure, Autos and Vehicles, Finance, Health, Games, References, etc.). We can click on one of the categories to study the evolution of positions in that specific domain on the search results pages.
Thus, depending on our field of activity, we can determine whether we are positively or negatively affected by the volatility in SERPs.
Volatility Score by Country
Just like the categories, we can add a filter by country. In fact, volatility scores can differ greatly between countries like France and the United States. Thus, according to our SEO strategy, we can study the overall evolution of positions on search engines for each country.
Volatility Score by Device
In addition to categories and countries, we can also examine the evolution of results on mobile or desktop. In SEO, there are specific ranking factors for mobile, leading to different positions on computers and phones. Consequently, the volatility score might not be the same.
For all these filtering systems, we can make comparisons and study the impact of high volatility on our different websites, for example.
The key takeaway is that the Semrush Sensor indicator can provide insights into significant changes in your positions on search engines like Google.
Tracking this score allows for an assessment of the impact of a Google update and whether our web pages benefited from this shift. In any case, to mitigate or respond to these fluctuations, we strongly recommend always adhering to Google's SEO recommendations to maintain organic traffic to your website.
