Your rankings aren’t telling you what your customers see

“We’re number one now, so why hasn’t traffic gone up?” I still get versions of that question almost every week. For years, SEO has been built around rankings. Clients wanted to know where they ranked on Google, agencies proudly reported monthly position improvements, and SEO software became increasingly sophisticated at tracking every movement. There’s nothing wrong with that. I still monitor rankings every day. The problem is that ranking first no longer means being seen first. Search for almost any commercial keyword today, and before you reach the first organic listing, you’ll probably see paid ads, an AI Overview, shopping results, local…

This is a curated summary. The full story was reported by Search Engine Land.