Senuto as a tool of SEO specialist at Wirtualna Polska

Working in the SEO department at Wirtualna Polska – one of the largest Internet portals in the country (belonging to the so-called “big 4”: WP, Onet, Interia, Gazeta) is full of challenges. Dozens of sites, more than a dozen different thematic areas, daily minor or major changes in Google’s algorithm.

When you’re dealing with daily incoming user visits from Google numbering in the millions, keeping your hand on the pulse is especially important, because even the slightest fluctuation in position translates into significant changes in organic traffic.

To reign in the situation, you undoubtedly need efficient procedures and tools to keep things under control. One such tool is Senuto, which I use for a quick daily, as well as broader weekly review of the situation on our sites and in Polish search results in general.

What’s going on in Google?

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This is a question I ask myself every day (especially in recent weeks), as do many other SEO professionals.

A daily quick glance at the Search Engine Changes tool allows you to assess whether there has been any reshuffling at Google today.

In case there is an update to Google’s algorithm, by observing the change history graph, we are able to check:

1. Has the Google update already ended, or is the so-called “rollout” (implementation of algorithm changes) still in progress?.
   In my opinion, there is no point in analyzing the implemented algorithm until there are signs that it has come to an end. Otherwise, it may turn out that we have done a Sisyphean job, because after the analysis, there will again be significant changes.

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2. What was the scale of the Google update? Was it an earthquake or just a bump?

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At the beginning of August, one could see larger-than-usual changes in search results, which, as it soon turned out, was the result of Google’s algorithm update.

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A few days later, it turned out that we were dealing with some really big changes….

…and looking at the graphs further one can doubt that the implementation of the algorithm is already over.

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In addition to the graph of changes, I also check who got relatively the most visibility in Google today, and who was reduced.

This allows me to find out what practices (or tricks) are currently good for Google, and what practices may be penalized with a drop in visibility.

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Who won, who lost?

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In my work, a special day is Monday. This is when I do more review of the search results situation and analyze the sites under my care.

One of the steps is to see how the visibility in Google of the largest Polish sites, i.e. our close competitors, has changed.

The obvious goal of the SEO department is to gain as much visibility in Google as possible, so by looking at the competition, we see what their sites are growing on (new sections, new subject areas), as well as what mistakes they have made (so we can avoid them).

When the changes are greater than a few percent (usually changes of 2-3% are the norm), I take a closer look at the site in question. Maybe some changes were made to the site, some redirects were made from another site, or maybe there was some technical slip-up?

Such analysis and review of competitors usually takes me about an hour.

This week the top sites by number of words in the TOP10 with no major changes:

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For major Google algorithm updates, I check a lot more sites, trying to find common factors (similar industry, site structure, similar technical issues).

How is the situation in our services?”

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A fixed point of the daily review is checking the visibility in Google for the domains and subdomains for which I conduct SEO activities. This makes it easy for me to catch whether there is anything wrong with a particular site.

Usually this is my morning coffee activity, so time-wise such a review does not exceed 30 minutes.

I use the Visibility Analysis module for this.

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To get the full picture, I compare this, of course, with organic traffic (in Google Analytics or another statistics system), because:

• a drop in visibility does not necessarily mean a drop in traffic (e.g., when the positions of keywords that were in the TOP10 anyway have dropped)

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• increase in visibility does not necessarily mean an increase in traffic (e.g., when a lot of new keywords appeared, but in TOP20-50 results)

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Therefore, it is important to examine visibility changes separately for TOP3, TOP10, TOP50.

It is also common to change the positions of keywords that are foreign brands (i.e. company names, for example) and this does not translate into traffic, because usually CTRs for such keywords are quite low (less than 1%). In such cases, too, often the change in visibility does not translate into a change in traffic.

Read also: What do we know about CTR from SEO? A study of 8,452,951 phrases.

What specifically dropped/increased?

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In cases where we see significant changes in visibility on our site,I check further to see which specific groups of phrases or pages were most affected by the change.

I currently use the beta version of Senuto Monitoring for this purpose, where I can see how the position has changed in comparison between today and yesterday:

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It also performs a similar check in the Day Comparison tool. Although this is where I miss the ability to quickly filter results into increases/decreases/no change.

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When analyzing a competitor’s site in a similar manner, I use the Gained/Lost Words tool to examine exactly what keywords have experienced declines/growths.

I usually check here what words entered the TOP10 and what words dropped out.

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I usually do such a comparison just after a major algorithm update or, for example, after implementing major changes to the site.

In the case of a larger number of keywords, I usually do further analysis already in Excel, checking whether there are any regularities (whether increases/decreases took place on a certain type of pages or a certain group of phrases).

Content Support Tools

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The above-mentioned activities are mainly for review and basic analysis.

Besides, Senuto also works well for me as one of the most important tools for content development. For this purpose, I use:

• checking for which keywords we lack visibility relative to competitors (competitor analysis, separate words),

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• monitoring number of words visible in Direct Answers,

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• keyword databases and the Related Words tool for analyzing keywords and commissioning articles to be written.

Of course, with so many portals and editors, it’s impossible to analyze every topic, so knowledge of how to use Senuto is something I try to pass on to editors during training.

SEO in Virtual Poland – Summary

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Senuto is an important tool for both my daily and weekly review of the situation in Google search results. Using the Senuto tools I described above gives the ability to quickly and efficiently review changes in the SERPs, which is a key value when working on multiple large sites simultaneously.

I see many more areas for development of the tool here, such as notifications about sudden drops in visibility, or reports automatically sent to email.