Advanced Web Ranking User Guide

Chapter 8. Interactive Reports

Advanced Web Ranking presents the information gathered from search engines in a set of interactive, easy to use reports. Each report can be viewed by clicking on the corresponding tab in the right-side panel of the main frame.

There are five types of tabular reports: Current Rank, Keywords Rank, Search Engine Rank, Top Sites and Overview. For three of the five types of interactive reports (Current Rank, Keywords Rank and Search Engine Rank) a graphical rank evolution chart is available.

In the tabular reports, you can sort the table rows by clicking on the column headers and you can reorder the columns by grabbing and dragging them by their headers.

All reports will use the color assigned to each URL when presenting their information. An empty report usually means that there is no data available for the selected Search Engine and Keywords. You should do an update to gather some data.

The Current Rank report

There are three available views for the Current Rank report: the Data view, the Extended Data view and the Chart view. You can switch views from the following toolbar buttons:

The Data view

This is a tabular report presenting the current rank information for the URLs you are interested in. For each URL, the following information is available in the corresponding column:

  • URL. 

    This is the actual URL. The protocol field will be omitted for HTTP URLs.

  • Position. 

    This is the position on which the URL was found for the selected Search Engine and Keywords.

  • Previous. 

    This is the position on which the URL was found at the previous update.

  • Change. 

    With the help of icons, this column shows the changes that took place between previous positions and actual positions: moved up "x" places, moved down "x" places, no change, no ranking, added, dropped.

  • Page. 

    This is the search page on which the URL was found.

  • Best. 

    This is the best position the URL has had over time. If you right-click on this column (option-click on Mac OS X), a popup menu will appear showing the most recent date the URL was in this position, and if you select it the application will refresh the view with the information recorded on that day.

The Current Rank Report is tied to a date: the date when the project was updated. That means that the report will display (for each URL in the given Search Engine/Keywords combination), the Position, Previous Positions, Change, Page, Best Position - all for the date when the update took place.

When a new update is executed, you can still access the old data by going back to a previous date (when the update was done). The "Date" drop-down list box in the top right corner of the Current Rank Report allows you to select the date for which the report is generated.

The "Display" drop-down list box in the top left corner of the Current Rank Report allows you to filter the data by using the criteria you are interested in. This option can be either enabled or disabled from the [Filters] toolbar button. The following filters are available:

  • All items. 

    Displays everything, every URL and change available.

  • Changed. 

    Only displays the URLs that have changed their rankings. This filter also includes URLs that have been added or dropped.

  • Ranked. 

    Displays only URLs that are ranked. The ones that are not found will be omitted.

  • Not Ranked. 

    This is the reverse of the Ranked filter: displays only URLs that are not ranked. The ones that are found and ranked will be omitted.

  • Moved Up. 

    Displays only the URLs that have moved up the ranks. The ones that have moved down, maintained their position, or have no been found, are omitted.

  • Moved Down. 

    Displays only the URLs that have moved down the ranks. The ones that have moved up, maintained their position, or have not been found, are omitted.

  • Added. 

    Displays the URLs that have been found in this update for the first time. The ones that were present in the previous update are omitted.

  • Dropped. 

    Displays the URLs that have not found in this update anymore, although they were present in the previous update.

  • In Top NN (10 - 100). 

    Displays everything, every URL and change available, but only for the URLs ranked in the top NN positions. This is effectively the "All items" filter restricted to the first NN positions.

  • Colored. 

    Displays only the URLs that have been assigned a color. All the URLs with the default color (black) are omitted.

The "Compare to" dropdown allows you to select wich update to compare data with.

The Extended Data view

Switching to the Extended Data view (by clicking on the [Extended data] toolbar button) will cause the Current Rank report to switch to a more comprehensive view of all keywords. The information displayed changes when a different Search Engine is selected.

The Extended Data view can be sorted by Keywords or by Search Engines. Just right-click on a URL and choose the "Group by" option that will allow you to sort the view by either keywords or search engines.

You can filter both URLs and Keywords in the Extended Data view by the criteria you are interested in from the "Filter" option. This option can be either enabled or disabled from the [Filters] toolbar button.

[Note]Note

Right-click on a URL in the Extended Report Data view and a new context menu will appear. There are three available options:

  • Open URL in browser (default)

  • Display best position date

  • Group by

The Chart view

This chart will contain information about the rank evolution of all the active URLs in your project, for the selected search engine and keyword. In this way, you can see which of your URLs is best ranked.

In the Chart view, position is represented on the vertical axis, while time is represented on the horizontal one.

The Legend at the bottom of the chart allows you to better understand the information depicted in the chart. You can easily adjust the dimensions of the legend. Just click on its upper margin and drag with your mouse. Then you can scroll through it to see the needed information.

Note that in the Current Rank Chart view there is a line for each active URL in your project, but only the line for the selected URL is thickened.

A filter is available in the top left corner of the Chart view. Type one of the active URLs of your project in the filter box and the chart will display only the line for the specified URL. This option can be either enabled or disabled from the [Filters] toolbar button.

This report allows you to choose a time range for the data that is displayed in the chart. There are 7 choices available:

  • All Data

  • Last week

  • Last month

  • Last three months

  • Last six months

  • Last year

  • Custom range - can be set from the Time Range dialog box.

For this report you can also choose the Position Range for the data that is displayed in the chart. There are 7 choices available:

  • All Data

  • 1 to 10

  • 1 to 20

  • 1 to 30

  • 1 to 40

  • 1 to 50

  • 1 to 100

  • Custom Range - can be set from the Position Range dialog box.

A context menu is available for the chart, with the following options:

  • Save As. 

    Saves the chart view into a .png file. Note that the png will contain only the current view of the chart (so be sure to save the right section of your chart).

  • Export to CSV... 

    Allows you to export the rank evolution data to CSV format.

  • Print. 

    Allows you to print the chart view.

  • Zoom In . 

    You can magnify the chart view on both axes. The area that will be zoomed in has its center in the point where you click with your mouse.

    If you want to magnify only a certain area, click with the left button of your mouse to specify the top left point and drag it to select the desired area.

  • Zoom Out . 

    You can decrease the chart view on both axes. The area that will be zoomed out has its center in the point where you click with your mouse.

  • Show All Data. 

    Redraws the chart so it fits all the data into the view. The same effect can be achieved by double-clicking on the chart, or by drag and drop-ing with your mouse from a lower position to a higher one.

  • Show/Hide Page Markers. 

    Shows or hides the chart's visual markers. These markers help you visualize the position of your website within each search engine result page.

  • Page Markers Settings... 

    Opens a new dialog box which allows you to set the range, the color and the transparency of the Page Markers.