Search engine rankings no longer good for measuring seo?
 

I am reading a book, which says that rank tracking / search engine rankings are no longer good indicator of seo work, because of personalized search. Serps are dynamic, and different for different people, according to the book.

The advice there is to use Google Webmaster Tools, and look at the keywords there, as a better source of info.

Do you agree? What is your opinion on that? I would say that rank tracking is still good.

I agree that ranking is a flawed metric to report on but surely at the end of the day if you have a search engine strategy for traffic then you have to rank quite well for useful keyword phrases, with volume and in your chosen country - regardless of their personalisation, location, favourite cheese etc. and you have to agree with the client that tracking will be difficult.

At the same time you can track other metrics such as signups, social signals etc.

You don't need to look after for ranks, nor for quantity SE traffic (unless you sell banners per impression).
You need highly targeted SE traffic that makes you meet your goals, or engage/convert...

And yes, SERP listings are personalized.

For as long as search engines have been delivering personalised results to users your search ranking has been a useless metric.

Measure success in SEO by how much search traffic you get that sticks and doesn't bounce :2 cents:

god i wish you guys would not talk about this here :2 cents::2 cents: this is going to get indexed :disgust

I thought GFY was a nofollow site?

only share news ? :)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...hL._SY300_.png

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

search results are still only personalized for people logged in to their google account right? So what has changed since personalized search results began quite a few years ago?? I mean, its been what?.... 7-8 years now? More?

clueless :2 cents::2 cents:

like you im not here to show my ass every day

you are correct. seo has nothing to do with search engine rankings anymore.

I think personalized search sucks ass.
I don't want to get put in some hole where everyone else is looking at something different than me.

Beginning on December 4, 2009, Personalized Search was applied to all users of Google Search, including those who are not logged into a Google Account.

Alienation. It's what they do.