Keyword Movement Analysis

What is Keyword Movement?

Keyword Movement is a powerful SEO analysis tool that tracks how your keyword rankings change over time. It provides a comprehensive view of improving and declining keywords, helping you identify trends, spot issues, and capitalize on opportunities to improve your search visibility.

keyword movement

Why is Keyword Movement Important?

Understanding how your keyword positions change over time is crucial for effective SEO because:

  • It shows the effectiveness of your SEO efforts - See if your content updates, link building, or technical changes are working
  • It helps identify potential issues early - Spot declining keywords before they significantly impact your traffic
  • It reveals patterns across keyword groups - Understand which content categories are performing well or struggling
  • It demonstrates ROI on SEO investments - Show clear improvements in ranking positions over time
  • It helps prioritize your SEO efforts - Focus on keywords that show movement potential

Getting Started with Keyword Movement

Accessing the Tool

  1. Navigate to the Keywords section
  2. Scroll down to the Keyword Movement chart

Understanding the Chart Elements

The Keyword Movement tool presents data as a combined chart showing:

  • Improving Keywords (Blue Columns): Keywords that have moved up in rankings
  • Declining Keywords (Red Columns): Keywords that have moved down in rankings
  • Average Daily Change (Line): The average percentage change across all keywords

This dual visualization helps you see both the volume of keyword movements and the magnitude of those changes in a single view.


Using the Filters

Refine your analysis with powerful filtering options:

  1. Date Range Selector
    • View data for the last 7, 30, 60, or 90 days

    • Compare trends across different time periods to identify patterns

      Search Engine Selector

    • Filter results by specific search engines (Google, Bing, etc.)

    • Analyze performance differences between search platforms

      Search Group Selector

    • Focus on specific keyword groups or campaigns

    • Isolate performance for particular market segments

      Category Filter

    • Filter keywords by their assigned categories
    • Analyze movements for specific topics or product lines

Reading the Chart: What to Look For

Positive Indicators

  • More improving than declining keywords over multiple consecutive days
  • Positive average daily change percentage sustained over time
  • Upward trends in the improvement columns
  • Decreasing trends in the declining columns

Warning Signs

  • More declining than improving keywords over multiple consecutive days
  • Negative average daily change percentage sustained over time
  • Sudden spikes in declining keywords
  • Shrinking improvement columns combined with growing decline columns

Using AI Analysis for Deeper Insights

keyword movement analysis

The Keyword Movement tool includes an AI-powered analysis feature to help you extract actionable intelligence from your data.


Activating AI Analysis

  1. Set your desired filters (date range, search engine, etc.)
  2. Click the AI Analysis button near the chart
  3. Wait a few moments while the AI processes your data

Understanding AI Insights

The AI analysis provides organized sections of insights:


Position Change Analysis

  • Significant Keyword Movements: Individual keywords with notable position changes
  • Threshold Crossing Keywords: Keywords that have moved into or out of important ranking ranges (like top 10)

Category Insights

  • Declining Categories: Content areas experiencing ranking drops
  • Improving Categories: Content areas showing ranking improvements

Search Group Analysis

  • Comparative Performance: How different keyword groups perform against each other
  • Search Group Specific Issues: Problems affecting particular keyword sets

Search Engine Comparison

  • Engine-Specific Movements: Keywords performing differently across search engines

Position Range Distribution

  • Distribution Summary: How your keywords are spread across ranking positions
  • Range Movement Patterns: Shifts between position bands over time

Movement Magnitude Analysis

  • Largest Improvements: Keywords with the biggest positive position changes
  • Largest Declines: Keywords with the biggest negative position changes
  • Stable Top Performers: Keywords maintaining strong rankings consistently

T

aking Action on AI Recommendations

For each insight, consider taking these steps:

  1. Review the affected content for the keywords identified
  2. Compare improving vs. declining pages to identify differences
  3. Check for technical issues on pages with declining keywords
  4. Investigate search engine disparities by examining differences in content optimization
  5. Prioritize content updates based on movement patterns and opportunities

Real-World Applications

Monitoring SEO Campaign Results

Track keyword movements before and after implementing SEO changes to measure the effectiveness of your efforts. This helps validate which strategies are working and which need refinement.


Detecting Algorithm Updates

Sudden changes across many keywords, especially when grouped by category or search engine, can indicate algorithm updates. The Keyword Movement tool helps you identify if your site has been affected and which content areas need attention.


Competitor Analysis

When a competitor makes significant SEO changes, you may notice movements in shared keywords. By tracking these movements, you can identify competitor strategies and respond accordingly.


Content Performance Evaluation

Analyze how new or updated content affects keyword rankings. This feedback loop helps refine your content strategy by showing which content updates yield the best ranking improvements.

Best Practices for Keyword Movement Analysis

  1. Check regularly but don't overreact to daily fluctuations
    • Look for sustained trends over at least 7-14 days

    • Normal ranking fluctuations happen regularly

      Correlate with other metrics

    • Compare movement patterns with traffic and conversion changes

    • Look for relationships between ranking improvements and business outcomes

      Segment your analysis

    • Analyze movements by content type, keyword intent, or page type

    • Identify which segments are most volatile or stable

      Track seasonal patterns

    • Some movements may be related to seasonal search behavior

    • Create year-over-year comparisons to identify true improvements versus seasonal shifts

      Use the AI analysis feature

    • Leverage AI to spot complex patterns and relationships
    • Let the system identify priority areas for investigation

FAQ

How is "improving" or "declining" determined?

A keyword is considered "improving" when its current position is numerically lower than its previous position (e.g., moving from position 8 to position 5). Conversely, a keyword is "declining" when its current position is numerically higher than its previous position (e.g., moving from position 5 to position 8).


What does the Average Daily Change percentage mean?

The Average Daily Change percentage represents the average positional movement across all tracked keywords, expressed as a percentage. Positive values indicate overall improvement, while negative values indicate overall decline.


Can I export the movement data?

Yes, you can export the chart as an image using the export button in the chart's corner. Raw data exports may be available depending on your subscription level.

Glossary of Terms

  • Position Change: The numerical difference between a keyword's current and previous ranking position
  • Average Daily Change: The mean percentage change in positions across all tracked keywords for a given day
  • Improving Keywords: Keywords that have moved up in search rankings (lower position number)
  • Declining Keywords: Keywords that have moved down in search rankings (higher position number)
  • Threshold Crossing: When a keyword moves into or out of an important position range (like top 3, top 10, etc.)
  • Position Range Distribution: How keywords are spread across different ranking position bands
  • Search Group: A defined collection of keywords organized by theme, product, or other classification
  • Category: A topic-based classification of keywords that span multiple search groups

Conclusion

The Keyword Movement tool provides valuable insights into the dynamic nature of your search rankings. By regularly analyzing movement patterns and using the AI-powered insights, you can make more informed decisions about your SEO strategy, quickly address potential issues, and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

Remember that keyword movements should be viewed as one part of your overall SEO analysis. For the most comprehensive understanding, combine movement data with other metrics such as organic traffic, conversions, and technical SEO performance indicators.

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