SEO Rankings period Outcomes
What Lost, Gained, Recovering, Sustained growth, Rising, Falling, Volatile, and Stable mean on the aggregated Rankings table — with plain-language rules and examples.
When your Rankings date range covers 4 or more days, you can turn on Show aggregated data. Instead of one row per daily check, each keyword gets a period summary — including an Outcome label that describes the story of the period.
In-product help deep-links to /help/knowledge-base/metrics/seo/seo-rankings-period-outcomes.
Where to find it
/projects/:id/search/:contextId/ranking → enable Show aggregated data (available when the selected range is long enough) → Outcome column.
How Outcome is decided (plain language)
Every check in the period is either ranking (position 1–100) or not ranking (outside the top 100). We look at it in two steps.
Step 1 — Were you in the top 100? We split the checks into an opening third and a closing third.
- In the top 100 for most opening checks and out for most closing checks (including the latest) → Lost.
- The reverse → Gained.
- In at the start and end but mostly out in the middle → Recovering.
- Kept flipping in and out, or ranked on only one check → Volatile.
Step 2 — How did the position move? Using only the ranking checks, we take the middle value (median) of the opening, middle and closing thirds. The median ignores one-day spikes, so a single bad crawl cannot flip the label.
A move only counts if it is bigger than normal day-to-day noise for that position:
| Position | Smallest move that counts |
|---|---|
| Top 3 | 1 position |
| 4–10 | 2 positions |
| 11–20 | 3 positions |
| 21–50 | 5 positions |
| 51–100 | 10 positions |
Moving from 2 to 4 is a big deal; moving from 62 to 64 is noise. That is why the margin grows with depth.
Outcome labels
| Outcome | What it means |
|---|---|
| — | Not in the top 100 on any check in the period. There is nothing to label (this is not Stable). |
| Lost | Dropped out of the top 100 and stayed out at the end. |
| Gained | Entered the top 100 and is still there at the end. |
| Recovering | Slipped or dropped out mid-period, then came back near where it started. |
| Sustained growth | Moved up by at least twice the margin above, on more than one closing check, and the middle of the period agrees. |
| Sustained drop | Same, moving down. |
| Rising | Moved up by at least the margin, but not enough to call it sustained. |
| Falling | Moved down by at least the margin, but not enough to call it sustained. |
| Volatile | Large swings with no net direction, or repeatedly in and out of the top 100. |
| Stable | In the top 100 and within normal noise for its position. |
The first matching label wins, in this order: — → Lost → Gained → Recovering → Volatile (flapping) → Recovering (position dip) → Sustained growth → Sustained drop → Rising → Falling → Volatile (swings) → Stable.
Examples
These examples are real check series. NR means not in the top 100 on that check.
Sustained growth — 7, 7, 7, 3, 3, 2, 3
Opening median 7, closing median 3. That is 4 positions near the top of page 1, well over twice the margin (2), and the middle (3) agrees → Sustained growth.
Sustained drop — 4, 4, 4 … 14, 14, 13, 14
Opening median 4, closing median 14. It fell from the top 5 to page 2 and stayed there → Sustained drop.
Rising — 47, 43, 42, 37
Opening median 45, closing median 39.5. That is 5.5 positions at depth ~40 (margin 5): a real move, but not twice the margin → Rising.
Falling, not sustained — 42, 42, 84
A large drop, but only on the latest check. One reading is not a trend yet → Falling.
Stable despite a blip — 93, 73, 92, 92, 92
The 73 was a one-day spike. Medians 83 → 92 is a 9-position move at depth 90, below the margin of 10 → Stable.
Volatile — 88, 15, 23, 26, 95, 6
Huge swings, with roughly the same median at the start and end → Volatile, not Rising.
Gained — NR, NR, NR, 25, 25
Out of the top 100 at the start, ranking at 25 at the end → Gained. The Trend sparkline shows the NR checks as markers along the bottom, so you can see the entry point.
Lost — 5, 5, 4, 4 … NR, NR, NR
Ranked around 4–5, then out of the top 100 for the rest of the period → Lost.
Recovering — 9, 9, 9, NR, NR, NR … 8, 8, 7, 8
Dropped out for about two weeks mid-period, then came back at the same position → Recovering.
Stable, not Lost — 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, NR, 7
A single not-ranking check before returning to 7 is a blip, not a loss → Stable.
Tips for reading the table
- Pair Outcome with the Trend sparkline and Initial / Latest / Best ranks. Outcome is the summary; the sparkline is the check-by-check picture, including not-ranking checks.
- Filter Outcome (for example Sustained drop + Falling + Lost) to find keywords that need attention in this window.
- Changing the date range recalculates Outcomes. A keyword can be Rising over one week and Stable over a month.