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Using SEO Reports to Improve Rank
By: Andre Zayas

If your search engine optimization firm provides you with an SEO ranking report each month, it's very important that you are able to understand what the report means. Website marketing is an investment, and your ranking report is your tool for tracking progress and spotting problems. It's like buying a stock, with your report being the prospectus (company profile); only your report is updated monthly and a prospectus is not. They both help you figure out what's going on with your investment and learning to read your rank report will help you constantly evaluate your internet marketing firm's performance.

These reports are normally run for each client once per month, and they show the client's website's search engine rank. If you're on page one for your favorite search term, this report will show you your current standing. You could be on page one or page ten in each search engine at any time, and you want to make sure your website's rank is always improving, at least generally. This is why it is absolutely imperative that your SEO firm provide ranking reports that compare the current month ranks to the prior months' ranks. If your website moved up 20 places in Google, your report should show this very plainly. If your rank drops for a search term, it needs to be reflected in the report.

Quality SEO companies don't hide this information from their clients because it's useful for improvement. Moving a website to the top page for competitive results is not an exact science, especially since search engines change their algorithms frequently (Google changed theirs over 400 times last year - that's more than once every single day!). If your website drops in rank at any time, it's because the optimization for that particular keyword has fallen short of other websites' monthly SEO improvements. Website marketing firms can utilize these monthly reports to keep your website climbing to the top by spotting problem areas and monitoring your competitors. In internet marketing, it isn't uncommon to watch a website take one step backwards, followed immediately by 3 steps forward.

Monitor your monthly ranking report to ensure that your marketing firm is diligently improving your website's SE placement. If you haven't signed up for the service yet, be sure to talk to potential companies about their SEO reports and request a sample. Most will run a report for your website for free, with no questions asked, and simply email it to you. Your monthly SEO ranking report is the key to your website's rank improvement.

About the author
Andre Zayas is a professionally syndicated author. Long Beach Search Engine Optimization