As Google continues to personalize search results, the data you see in ranking reports might not mean what you think. Why? They only tell you what rankings would look like in a non-personalized search. Most of your customers, meanwhile, see rankings driven by their behavior—so your Web page might rank 3rd, 25th, or not at all depending on a particular user's activity.

"Therefore," writes Lorianna Sprague in an article at MarketingProfs, "a ranking report is now an indicator of relevance, not a metric for judging the average click-through rate of a listing in position X or to determine what your traffic should be."

How should you proceed to keep your rankings healthy when each customer sees a different SERP landscape? Sprague recommends a strategy that includes:

Social engagement. "If your competitors engage with their market via social campaigns and initiatives, and you don't, you'll be missing out on the added ranking factors that place your site in front of searchers," she notes.

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