The Maine SEO Blog

About a month ago, it seemed that Google blocked WebPosition Gold for good.  However, just yesterday a post on Search Engine Roundtable proved otherwise. Here is the gist of the post:

Just about a month ago we reported about the issues people were having with WebPosition Gold and other rank checking tools. We first thought Google was going after these rank checking tools but then we learned that the issues were due to Google testing out new HTML structures and layouts in the search results pages.

After reading the article, I ran a client’s ranking report on WPG and found that yes, in fact, I can get Google’s ranking results again!  At the same time, I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say it: while higher rankings are the short-term results you want from SEO, better conversions are the long-term goal.

Nicki Hicks
Psyched About WPG

After threatening for quite some time, Google finally did it: they blocked WebPosition Gold from making searches.  If you check out Google’s Guidelines, you’ll see that they strongly recommend NOT using anything like WebPosition (they use the name specifically).

Personally, I like the program.  It’s a quick and easy way to show clients their rankings on their top 40 (or so) keywords on whichever search engines you’d like (I typically stick with the top four, but Google is obviously the one that really matters).  It is, however, quite possible and only slightly time consuming to search for your keywords on Google and collect a list of rankings the hard way.

After reading a Search Engine Roundtable article on the matter, I did my own little test.  I ran a report for one of our clients and found that, yes indeedy, no Google results were found for any of my keywords.  I suppose this means it truly is back to checking rankings the old fashioned way!

The problem is that high rankings look so good and are such an easy measurement to see if your SEO is actually working.  But it’s incredibly easy to get caught up in the whirlwind that is: “YES! I moved up two spots today!” or “NO! I’m on the second page at Google. Yesterday I was on the first! What happened?!”  For what it’s worth, it’s been proven that it’s actually better to be at the top of the second SERP (#s 11-13) rather than the bottom of the first (something like #s 7-10).  It just goes to show you, rankings are great; but what really matters is the number of relevant users and conversions your site gets.  That, my friend, is the point of good SEO.

Nicki Hicks
Ex-WebPosition User