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Step 8: Understand Search Tracker Metrics
Once you have provided the required information for your desired locations, Search Tracker will begin tracking and providing a variety of metrics about how your locations are performing in search.
This section will detail all of these metrics, what they mean, and how to interpret them to create meaningful insights for your business.
Search Result Types
In order to understand the various metrics provided by Search Tracker, it is important to first understand the different search result types tracked by Search Tracker.
Search Tracker tracks three different result types that are commonly shown in Search Engine Results Pages:
| Knowledge Card | Local Pack | Organic Results |
|---|---|---|
| A dedicated panel, often found on the right side of your screen, which returns facts about your search. | A dedicated panel of local business listings that appears in response to search queries for products or services provided by local businesses. | Traditional blue link results, which may include a link to one of your entity’s websites. |
Each of these different categories has different weights when it comes to calculating Share of Intelligent Search (see the Share of Intelligent Search section below) - for example, Knowledge Cards have a higher weight than Organic Results because they are more prominent, and therefore, more likely to be clicked.
In addition to these three categories, Search Tracker also tracks the Ads returned in the SERP, and similarly attempts to map those results to either your own locations or to a competitor. Ads, however, do not factor into Share of Intelligent Search.
Share of Intelligent Search
The most important metric from Search Tracker to understand is Share of Intelligent Search.
Share of Intelligent Search is the best way to understand how your location’s presence in search results change over time, or compare to your competition. It is an estimate of the percentage of times a customer will choose your business after running a search.
We calculate Share of Intelligent Search using a proprietary weighting system that represents the likelihood that result is clicked based on a number of different things, including:
- The position of the result,
- The result type
- The number and type of other results shown
For example, a result in the 1st position will have a higher weight than a result in the 6th position, because it is more likely that a user will click on the 1st result than the 6th.
For every result your location matches with, we combine the weights of those results as the Share of Intelligent Search for location and that specific search.
Other Search Tracker Metrics and Dimensions
In addition to Share of Intelligent Search, Search Tracker provides a number of other metrics, each of which provides insight into a particular aspect of the SERP.
Search Tracker Metrics
| Name | Description | Data Type |
|---|---|---|
| Ad Matches | The total number of ads matched to the location or one of its competitors. | Number |
| Ad Presence | The percentage of searches where the location or one of its competitors has at least one ad. | Percentage |
| Average First Local Pack Match Position | The average position of the first match in the local pack in the search engine results page if one exists. | Number |
| Average First Match Position | The average position of the first match in either the local pack or organic results in the search engine results page if one exists. | Number |
| Average First Organic Match Position | The average position of the first match in either the local pack or organic results in the search engine results page if one exists. | Number |
| Average Local Pack Number of Results | The average number of results in the local pack when it appears in a search engine results page. | Number |
| Average Local Pack Position | The average position of the local pack when it appears in a search engine results page. | Number |
| Knowledge Card Existed | The percentage of times a knowledge card showed up in search results. | Percentage |
| Local Pack Existed | The percentage of times a local pack showed up in search results. | Percentage |
| Local Pack Presence | The percentage of times your business appears in a local pack when one was shown. | Percentage |
| Local Pack Share of Search | The share of search for all local pack matches in the search engine results page. | Percentage |
| Matches per Search | The average number of matches on the first page of the search engine results. | Number |
| Organic Share of Search | The share of search for all organic matches in the search engine results page. | Percentage |
| Search Requests | The number of search requests that were successfully analyzed. | Number |
| Share of Intelligent Search | The share of search for all matches in the search engine results page. | Percentage |
| Total Matches | The total number of matches on the first page of the search engine results. | Number |
Search Tracker Dimensions
| Name | Description | Data Type |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword | Identify Search Tracker events by the keyword used in the corresponding search. | String |
| Match Position | Identify Matches per Search according to your match position. | Number |
| Match Type | Identify Matches per Search according to how your website showed up in the SERP. | String |
| Query Templates | Identify Search Tracker events by the query template used in the corresponding search. | String |
| Search Engine | Identify Search Tracker events by the search engine used in the corresponding search. | String |
| Search Result Type | Identify Matches per Search by those from the Local Pack, Knowledge Card, and Organic. | String |
Important Nuances
Ad Matches and Ad Presence
One important note about the Ad Matches and Ad Presence metrics is that they include both ads for your locations, and ads for your competitors. In order to view just your own ads, or to filter to a specific competitor, you can use the Competitor dimension / filter under the Competitors section in the dimension picker in Report Builder.
Average First Local Pack Match Position vs. Average Local Pack Position
These two similar-sounding metrics actually represent different things.
Average First Local Pack Match Position is specific to your location, and measures the average position within the Local Pack that your location first appears.
For example, if Apple tracked its Apple Stores with Search Tracker, the below result would have a First Local Pack Match Position of 3, because that is the position of the first match with an Apple Store location.
By contrast, Average Local Pack Position refers to the position of the entire Local Pack within the SERP as a whole. So for the above example, the Local Pack Position would be 1, because it is the first result in the entire SERP. Share of Search vs. Organic Share of Search vs. Local Pack Share of Search As described above , Share of Search is calculated based on the position and result type of all of the different results returned in a search, including Organic results, Local Packs, and Knowledge Cards.
That said, Share of Search can also be calculated just within the scope of a particular result type. That is what Organic and Local Pack Share of Search capture.
Organic Share of Search indicates your Share of Search among just the organic results, ignoring Local Packs and Knowledge Panels. And similarly, Local Pack Share of Search is calculated using just your location’s ranking in Local Packs.