Monitoring Google through MozCast

At Ethical some of our favorite tools come from SEOmoz and one of their lastest creations is actually free for everyone to use and watch.

As many of you know at MozCon 2012 a great tool was unveiled that monitors goods updates on the algorithm. SEOmoz calls this tool MozCast. It watches the top ranks of different keywords and the changes of these daily depending on the movement of the rankings and how extreme they are can tell you if the algorithm is actually being manipulated or not. Like the weather channel you get a report on how Google’s weather is.

Watching for smaller updates

This tool is awesome and after using it and following it on Twitter (hint, hint) it can actually help explain some of your sites strange analytic occurrences. Google gives public update announcements every so often, but as SEOs we know that these are happening a lot more often than Google will actually admit to. Using MozCast allows you to see the general activity of Google and how it might be affecting your website.

Easy to Understand

MozCast is pretty easy to use too, if the temperature is high or has stormy conditions then there is something going on with the movement of rankings and changes. Allowing for you to see just how often the update are happening with Google and to help put a little more information to maybe be a cause for drops or spikes in analytic data.  To use MozCast effectively you need to be aware that the weather given today was actually yesterday’s weather report and not the current day. Unfortunately, Moz can’t predict the future, yet.

The Forecasts

All of the data collected (out of 1,000 chosen keywords) is put into two reports for historical reference, a five day forecast and the 30 day forecast.  Both have different uses for the same presentation of data. Obviously the five day forecast only gives me this week’s info, but this can really help to know why your rankings may be dancing around when you go and check them. This is a great quick reference tool for if you are just browsing for some reasons behind the movement.

The great data is the 30 day and farther forecast which will give you the comparison for the month and how Google movement has occurred. The data helps to give a more definitive idea of what is a possible update and what was just another status quo day. The spike on this graph is the higher temperatures or larger changes in the rankings. Compare these with your analytic data and you might find some interesting similarities.Forecast from August 9th, 2012

Not just and SEO tool

If you are a SEO this is a really great tool, but this isn’t just for SEO’s. The MozCast provides changes on the movement of the internet’s number one source of information. Being today’s source for finding businesses, how to’s, and general knowledge on a subject this is good way to see what Google is doing with all of the information it has. Though this is just a monitor of Google and what changes are going on it is very valuable and I highly encourage to at least take a look if not follow it and use it consistently.

Follow on Twitter for regular updates @MozCast