Thread by @izzionfire

Remember, there are situational "ranking factors" that are out of your control. You can't have a direct impact on things like:
- perceived relevance
- searcher habits
- seasonality
- competitor activity
But you should be aware of them, and adjust strategies if needed.

Part 1/14:

[2/14] Let's take perceived relevance. Why perceived? Because a Search Engine can only make an assumption on the searcher's meaning and intent.

This is improving astonishingly, but if you're simply far away from the perceived relevance then you have no chance...

[3/14] That is, unless, you:
1. Study the SERPs to better understand the perceived relevance of a query
2. Identify ways of ranking there
3. AND assess if your brand *can* rank there
Easy peasy.

[4/14] Actually a good quality in an SEO is someone who sets realistic expectations and knows when it's not worth time or resources hunting to rank for a query where they are likely irrelevant. Pick your battles, yo.

[5/14] Unique searcher habits. Different ppl have different experiences and interactions with search. Whether they prefer to discover content in... Discover, head directly to images/videos, click the 1st result, read snippets. You can create a persona but it won't always match!

6. If you're ranking amazingly well in web search but a % of searchers prefer to head over to video results, then you lose out. Again, you can't influence this but you can be present in all _relevant_ search facets & ecosystems to capture those!

7/14: Seasonality is a fun one. Whether it's a yearly holiday or a time of day, the search results can shift a lot depending on seasonality, especially for certain broad queries and niches. A user's intent is fluid. Search results gotta match that yo.

8/14: I wouldn't focus so much on "rapidly changing your content depending on what's more _relevant_ right now", but what's more important is being able to attribute increases and declines to this situational factor, and not something you did yourself.

9/14: Being hyper-aware of seasonality when planning and forecasting is also really important. You should know when to scale efforts up (to be ready in time for peaks) and when resources are better spent on more strategic, long-term projects.

10/14: Then we have your competitors. Those darn competitors! *shakes fist*

Your SERP rivals can have a huge impact on your organic growth. You can win by doing nothing if they lose.

You can lose out big time when you're doing everything "right", because of their success.

11/14. You can observe competitors. Sneakily, by dropping a visual ping on some of their pages, incognito subscribing to their marketing activities, using their services, buying a product, doing whatever recon you prefer. Dw, they probably spy on you too.

12/14: You should understand their focuses. BUT you should never copy them. Even if it's taking the same CTA or page layout, you can never be fully aware of how their pages are performing. Maybe they suck.

Be inspired, but do your own user analysis and research.

13/14: And if they are absolutely amazing and outperforming you at every single chance. Maybe it's not an SEO issue. Maybe their product and services are absolutely brilliant.

Well, don't get bitter. Get better.

14/15... This concludes my small story on situational ranking factors! I missed out a lot (I didn't want to focus on the obvious pandemic one), but remember that so much can influence your page's rank that is out of your control.

15: Rather than just using these factors as excuses for drops, learn from them. Keep adapting your strategies to target queries more relevant to your offerings, focus on what the user is looking for, keep measuring and testing, and you'll be *influenced by them positively*.