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All Nightwatch metrics definitions

A collection of all the terms, metrics, dashboards, and calculations you'll encounter in Nightwatch.

Maja Nagelj avatar
Written by Maja Nagelj
Updated over 3 years ago

This page contains all the metrics and term definitions used in the various dashboards and data tables in Nightwatch.

Tips to use this page

As this page contains all Nightwatch metrics and terms and it may be hard to navigate, search for a specific term by pressing CTRL + F (for Windows) or Command + F (for Mac).


URL Dashboard

Here are all the metrics used in the URL dashboard in Nightwatch:

Visibility

Average Position

The adjusted average position for all the keywords in the list.

Visibility

Search Visibility

General and calculated search engine visibility metrics.

Visibility

Click Potential

Click potential tells you an estimated number of clicks you should be expecting based on your current rankings and search volume for the chosen keywords.

Visibility

Keyword Distribution

The current distribution of all keywords in Top 3, Top 10, and Top 100.

Visibility

Keywords Up/Down

Count of keywords whose rank improved and count of keywords that dropped.

Traffic (GA)

Total Sessions

Sum of sessions in the selected time period. Change is calculated by comparing sessions from the previous period.

Traffic (GA)

Audience

The number of visits to your page, the number of actual visitors (having at least one session in the given period), and bounces (how many times users enter and exit your site from the same page)

Traffic (GA)

Acquisition

Distribution of users who are coming to your website through advertisements, organic or direct search, or referral links from other websites.

Traffic (GA)

New/Returning

The number of new/returning visitors in a given time period.


Keyword filters and columns

Here you can find all metrics explanations for different keyword columns when setting up new Views:

Keyword filters

Screen Recording 2021-06-28 at 01.32.53.89 PM

Keyword

To filter and list keywords containing specific strings.

URL

To filter tracked URL for a specific keyword (useful for setting up Global Views).

Last position change

To filter the number of the last position changed on the keyword.

Location

To filter and list keywords within a specific location.

Language

To filter and list keywords of a set language.

Position

To filter and list keywords with a specific best position for all tracked rank types.

Previous position

To filter and list keywords with a specific previous position.

Best position

To filter and list keywords with a specific best position.

Position organic

To filter and list keywords with a specific organic position.

Position in local pack

To filter and list keywords with a specific local pack position.

Position in image carousel

To filter and list keywords with a specific image carousel position.

Position for featured snippet

To filter and list keywords with a specific featured snippet position.

Position for knowledge panel

To filter and list keywords with a specific knowledge panel position.

Search volume global

To filter and list keywords with a specific estimated monthly global search.

Search volume local

To filter and list keywords with a specific estimated monthly local search.

Average CPC global

To filter and list keywords with a specific average global cost per click in USD.

Average CPC local

To filter and list keywords with a specific average local cost per click in USD.

Daily change

To filter and list keywords with a specific daily change position.

Weekly change

To filter and list keywords with a specific weekly change position.

Monthly change

To filter and list keywords with a specific monthly change position.

Keyword date added

To filter and list keywords with a specific date they were added to the tool.

Keyword date last updated

To filter and list keywords with their specific last updated date in the tool.

Ranking Full URL

To filter and list keywords with a specific ranking URL.

Keyword tag

To filter and list keywords with a specific tag assigned to them.

Search engine

To filter and list keywords with a specific search engine it was assigned to when it was added.

Mobile

To filter and list keywords with a specific device it was assigned to when it was added.

Keyword columns

Screen Recording 2021-06-28 at 01.34.05.88 PM

Rank

Best rank from all tracked rank types

Organic Rank

Organic type keyword ranking

Image Carousel Rank

The rank of your place on the image carousel

Local Pack Rank

The rank of your place on the local map listing widget

Previous Rank

The previous rank of your keyword

Best Rank

Best rank for a given keyword

Start Rank (Currently available in Reports only)

The rank of the keyword on the first day in the selected date range

End Rank (Currently available in Reports only)

The rank of the keyword on the last day in the selected date range.

Added on

Date when the keyword was added

Last Update

Time passed since the keyword was updated

Last Change

The last ranking changed on the keyword with the time from the occurrence

Evolution

Keyword evolution graph that shows ranking data for the last 10 days

Search Engine

The type of search engine that is used for tracking (Google, Youtube, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, or Google My Business)

Location

Location configured for tracking the keyword (useful for sorting)

Language

Language configured for tracking the keyword (useful for sorting)

D/W/M Change

Daily / Weekly / Monthly change of the keyword ranking

Weekly Change

Weekly change of given keyword

Monthly Change

Monthly change of a given keyword

Results #

Number of total results on SERP by this keyword

Search Volume (local)

Estimated monthly local searches for this keyword (pulled from Adwords API)

Search Volume (global)

Estimated monthly global searches for this keyword (pulled from Adwords API)

Average Cost per Click (local)

Average local cost per click in USD for this keyword (pulled from Adwords API)

Average Cost per Click (global)

Average global cost per click in USD for this keyword (pulled from Adwords API)

URL

Tracked URL for a specific keyword (useful for setting up Global Views)

Daily Clicks

The number of daily clicks on your website URLs from a Google Search results page, not including clicks on paid Google Ads search results.

Daily Impressions

The number of times any URL from your site appeared in search results viewed by a user (daily), not including paid Google Ads search impressions.

Daily CTR

Click-through rate, calculated as Clicks / Impressions.

Opportunities

Opportunities where you could rank or are already ranking (Image Carousel, Local Pack, Featured Snippet, Knowledge Panel)

Competitor columns

When you configure competitors for a specific URL, you should be able to display competitor ranking data:

Rank

Competitor's best rank from all tracked rank types

Organic Rank

Competitor's organic type keyword ranking

Image Carousel Rank

Competitor's rank on the image carousel

Local Pack Rank

Competitor's rank on the local map listing widget

Last Change

Competitor's last change of ranking

D/W/M Change

Competitor's daily/weekly/monthly change of the keyword ranking



Keyword Ranks

Nightwatch also provides the ability to track different ranking types separately:

Rank

Best rank from all tracked ranks.

Organic Rank

The organic type of keyword ranking.

Local Rank Pack

The rank of your place on the local map listing widget. Indicated with the Local Pack icon next to the rank.

Image Carousel Rank

Indicated with Image Carousel icon next to the rank.

Featured Snippet

Indicated with featured snippet icon next to the rank.

Knowledge Panel

Indicated with a knowledge panel icon next to the rank.


Keyword metrics calculations for keywords distribution, average position, search volume, click potential and search visibility index

How do you measure the Top 3, 10, and 100 for keyword distribution?

The keyword distribution section shows you how the keywords that you track are distributed after the last update.

For example, if you click on 'Top 3', you will see only the keywords ranking in the first 3 places on your keywords list. If you click on 'Top 10', you will see all the keywords ranking on the first 10 places and so on.

Under the Keyword Distribution in the Overview section and your keywords list below, you see how your keywords are distributed on the current day. Therefore, if you choose date ranges like last day, last 7 days, last 14 days, last month, etc. - you will see all the keywords and their distribution on the current day.

How is the average position calculated?
Average rank or adjusted average rank is a sum of all rankings divided by the number of keywords you’re tracking for a particular URL or website. For a better representation and comparison, we use a maximum search depth ranking (100 in most cases) for the keywords that are not ranking anywhere in the searched results.

How is search volume defined?
Search volume is defined as average monthly searches for a particular keyword on Google. One is global search volume (the total number of all searches globally) and local, based on the keyword location you're tracking.

How is click potential calculated?
A certain keyword's click potential is calculated by the number of local searches for this keyword (local search volume) multiplied by an average CTR for that keyword ranking on Google. It is a good indicator of how many clicks you should be getting when ranking on the first page of SERP.

How is the search visibility index calculated?
Search visibility index is a metric representing the percentage (values between 0 and 100) of potential conversion traffic a given keyword (or set of keywords) has based on their ranking. Rank #1 is considered 100%, the rest of the ranks ratios being proportional to their average CTR values.

CTR rates that we use for calculating click potential and search visibility (as of Dec 14th, 2018):

CTR Rates

There are other factors involved that will affect your search visibility score:

  • Search volume,

  • Other rankings in SERP, such as feature snippets, map rankings, etc.

Also, if:

  • The position is > 20,

    or

  • The search volume is 0

Then the Search Visibility will be 0.


Site Audit Overview Dashboard

Here are the definitions of the data used for the Site Audit Overview Dashboard:

Site Health

Site health is defined as a percent of non-problematic pages.

Total Pages

The total number of pages on a website.

Problematic Pages

The number of problematic pages on a website.

Warning Pages

The number of pages that the system sees as potentially problematic.

SSL

The status shows whether the website has a valid SSL.

Page Depth

Page depth is the average number of pages that your visitors view during a single session.

Crawlability

A search engine’s ability to access and crawl content on a page.

Status

The number of pages facing a specific status.


Site Audit Filters and Columns

Here you can find all metrics explanations for different Site Audit filters and columns when setting new Site Audit Views:

Page URL

A page URL of the website that was site-audited.

Linked from

The page where a specific page URL is linked from.

Response code

Codes that determine the status of a page URL.

Redirection code

Codes that determine the redirection status of a page URL.

Nofollow

Shows whether your URL is a nofollow link. It will contain a rel="nofollow" tag in the HTML if it is.

Noindex

Shows whether your URL is a noindex link. It will contain a rel="noindex" tag in the HTML if it is.

Linking pages

The number of linking pages found on a page.

Broken links count

The number of broken links found on a page.

Missing alt images count

The number of missing alt images found on a page.

Indexable

Shows whether the specific page URL is indexable.

Internal links

Shows the number of internal links that the page URL is pointing to.

External links

Shows the number of external links that the page URL is pointing to.

Load time (ms)

The time (in ms) taken to load or crawl a specific page URL.

Page title

The title of a specific page.

Title length

The number of characters on a page title.

Description

The description of a specific page

Description length

The number of characters on a page description

Depth

The number of clicks needed to reach a page from the homepage, using the shortest path.

H1

The H1 found on a page.

H1 count

The number of H1 tags found on a page

H1 length

The number of characters on the H1 of a page.

H2

The H2 found on a page.

H2 length

The number of characters on the H2 of a page.

H3

The H3 found on a page.

H3 length

The number of characters on the H3 of a page.

Charset

Shows the HTML charset attribute of a page. E.g. UTF-8, ASCII, ANSI, etc.

Viewport

Shows the width and scaling of a viewport on a page (if it is available).

OG description

Shows the Open Graph description of a page.

OG title

Shows the Open Graph title of a page.

OG image

Shows the Open Graph image of a page.

OG url

Shows the Open Graph URL of a page.

Blocked by robots

Shows if a specific page is blocked by robots.txt

Unique title

Shows if a specific page's title is unique across the website.

Unique desc.

Shows if a specific page's description is unique across the website.

Unique H1

Shows if a specific page's H1 is unique across the website.


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