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Buying an SEO Platform: What to Expect When it Comes to Historical Data

Written by Andrew Klein | July 1, 2020

The SEO platform you choose needs to give you easy access to your historical ranking data for multiple reasons, but maybe most importantly: in case you ever want to switch to another platform or tool in the future.

After all, this is your data that you’ve already paid for, and you should be able to intake it into your own systems.

This is a major point to consider when selecting an SEO platform. It may not seem so; after all, how could a feature be relevant to me if I later decide to leave that platform?

But it’s a proactive point to consider so you don’t run into any trouble down the road.

If you're in the process of evaluating SEO software, use our evaluation checklist to compare platform capabilities side-by-side.

The Challenge of Switching SEO Platforms

When you switch from one SEO platform to another, there are two major fears that arise: downtime in reporting, and potentially losing the data.

Downtime in Reporting

Changing platforms may cause some SEOs to worry about lost time in reporting and time lost due to the migration -- which isn’t acceptable at the organization, especially at the enterprise level.

This downtime can also be amplified by the time it takes to train an entire team on how to use a different tool set. If you use multiple point solutions, this training period of adoption is only going to be extended.

Note: We built seoClarity so you don’t have to worry about these migration issues coming into our platform. You can be up and running in 15 days or less if your old provider gives you easy access to your data.

Integrations and Losing Historical Ranking Data

A second fear is losing data. To avoid this, the SEOs will throw in time and resources to get the migration accomplished successfully.

What costs are going to be associated with the switch to make sure all goes well? What investments have to be made to get the historical ranking data (that they already paid for)?

Recommended Reading: 5 Tricky SEO Challenges That Only an SEO Platform Solves

Access to Historical Ranking Data

When looking for an SEO platform (or tool) be sure to keep access to your historical ranking data top of mind. This can completely mitigate the problems listed above, so it’s crucial you understand.

Here’s what we’ve seen in the market … Point solutions don’t address this well. Most of these tools only house six months of historical data. And then getting it out is an entirely different process.

For SEO platforms, you need to ask them before committing. You need to know the procedure (and cost) for getting your data out.

Be aware that some platforms have hidden costs when you are planning to migrate from one platform to another.

Make sure you understand what type of data you’re getting. Be aware of the following things:

  • All the same tracked keywords moving forward? Or, will it be different?
  • Weekly importing of the historical data
  • Daily data
  • Keyword
  • Ranking URL and landing page
  • Rank position
  • Date
  • Device: desktop or mobile
  • Search Engine: Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Yandex, etc.

Getting Your Historical Ranking Data Out of seoClarity

We make it easy for you to pull your historical data right out of the platform.

You can download 14-days worth of your historical ranking data at a time right from Rank Intelligence one device and search engine at a time (e.g. Google mobile, Google desktop, Bing mobile, etc.).

Recommended Reading: The Better Choice: API or Custom Data Extracts?

One million rows is available for instant download right from the platform. And, there’s no cost. This is your data, and you’ve already paid for it with your subscription -- it only makes sense that it’s readily available to you.

If you need more than 14-days worth of data in a bulk export, you can send a ticket to support and our Technical Support Team will assist you.

We have it all laid out on our ranking data API page.
 

What We See with Other Providers

We’ve heard horror stories of trying to get historical ranking data out of other providers. There are high costs for pulling out the data you’ve already paid for, and complications getting the right data out.

Here are nuances from the main ranking providers we see:

  • High cost for pulling out historical data
  • General confusion of whether or not API is included
  • Confusion on how the data is being pulled out

Again, this is why it’s critical that you understand your provider’s approach to historical ranking data before you sign a subscription.

Summary

Not having direct access to your historical ranking data can present a lot of problems. But, those problems can be avoided!

If you have a complete understanding of how data pulls work with your provider of choice, you’ll be better able to seamlessly switch to another provider and migrate into that new provider with no troubles, if you so choose.

At seoClarity, we allow you to directly download your historical ranking data at no cost.

More advanced and specified data pulls can be done with the help of seoClarity’s Technical Support Team as well.