Reading traditional and video search results

Use Rankability’s traditional and video reports to see where a tracked brand appears, which URL ranks, what changed since a comparable scan, and which competing pages may be worth analyzing or contacting.

Traditional, local, and video results are separate surfaces. The client-level Traditional search view covers Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Brave. Open an individual tracking project and use its Search, Local, or Video tab for deeper traditional history, Local Pack data, or video results.

Before you start

You need a tracking project with at least one keyword and a usable terminal scan. A usable scan is either Complete, or Partial with successful data for the surface you are viewing. Results are limited to the platforms, locations, and cadence selected for that project. A manual scan of one surface does not refresh the other surfaces.

If you are still configuring the project, review supported tracking platforms and set up keyword tracking first.

Use the client-level Traditional search view

Open a client, select Track, and choose Traditional search to review tracked keywords across that client’s projects.

1. Select Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, or All search engines.
2. Choose a 7-, 30-, or 90-day comparison window.
3. Filter by keyword, project, tag, or tracking coverage.
4. Sort by keyword, best position, biggest gain, or biggest loss.
5. Select a keyword to open its individual report and supporting evidence.

The Top 3, Top 10, Top 20, Top 100, Unranked, and average-position summaries exclude keywords that are not configured for the selected engine. When All search engines is selected, rank buckets use each keyword’s best current position across the four engines.

The average-position trend uses usable complete or partial results. A completed unranked result is represented as position 101 so a ranking loss remains visible instead of disappearing from the trend. When multiple usable runs contain comparable results on the same UTC day, the report uses the newest comparable result for that day.

Read ranking states correctly

State	Meaning
No scan	There is no current usable complete or partial scan for that engine and keyword.
Scanning	A scan is currently running; wait for it to complete.
No history	A current result exists, but no earlier comparable usable scan is available.
Not tracked	That engine is not selected for this keyword.
Not ranked	The scan completed, but the tracked target did not rank within the measured range.
New	The target ranks now and did not rank in the prior comparable scan.
Lost	The target ranked in the prior comparable scan and is unranked now.

The Prior scan value is the most recent earlier usable scan for the same project, keyword, and engine. A partial run is eligible only when it contains successful data for that engine. It is not an arbitrary row or a fixed “30 days ago” lookup.

A Partial run means at least one requested platform succeeded while another did not. It does not mean every configured platform was collected. Check the platform-specific status before reporting a partial run as a complete cross-platform snapshot.

Use the individual traditional report

Open a keyword report and choose Search when you need the full ranking-source table and history.

• Use Sources to include or exclude Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Brave.
• Check stale or failed-platform notices before treating the table as a complete current snapshot.
• Review the ranking URL, current and previous position, and source history before deciding that a page gained or lost visibility.
• Use Ranking history to inspect persisted position changes rather than relying on a single snapshot.
• Export the table when you need ranking, source, and analysis fields outside Rankability.

Do not compare a local grid result with a national organic result as though they are the same SERP. Local Pack evidence belongs in the project’s Local view.

When Google AI Overview is tracked for the report, Search also shows a Google AI Overview summary above the rankings table. It reads the latest saved capture for the selected keyword and primary location and says whether an Overview appeared and, where citation visibility is allowed, whether your website was cited, with the capture time. Expand it to read the Overview and its sources; a source on your own website is highlighted. The same answer is also available under AI → Answers.

The summary is separate from organic positions and does not change rankings or SPI. A Search scan does not refresh it. No saved AI Overview capture yet means nothing has been captured, not that the Overview is absent; a failed check reads as unavailable, and an older capture is then labeled as previous.

Read the coverage score

The report’s coverage score measures how much of the current ranking set mentions the client, not how high it ranks. Each unique ranking page counts once: pages on the client’s own domain and other pages with a confirmed brand mention count as covered, and linked and unlinked mentions count equally. Sponsored-only mentions are reported separately and are not counted.

When some pages are still unchecked or could not be analyzed, the score reads At least its percentage, because the true figure can only be higher. Coverage incomplete means nothing covered has been confirmed yet while some pages remain unchecked, Not visible means every analyzed page was checked and none covers the client, and No ranking data means there is nothing to measure. Open the score’s explanation to see how many pages fall into each group.

Add notes to the ranking chart

The ranking charts share one date range, so the lines you compare always cover the same period. Choose Add note, set the Date, and describe What changed? — a page update, a migration, a new backlink campaign — so a later movement in the chart can be read against it. Notes can be edited or deleted, with an undo after deleting, and Google updates appear on the chart as their own markers. A read-only report shows the notes but cannot add them.

Analyze ranking pages for brand mentions

Ranking-page mention checks start when you choose Check mentions. Completing a scan or opening the report does not start page analysis. Existing findings and their check dates remain available; unchecked pages do not imply that the brand is absent.

1. Choose Check mentions on the individual traditional report to analyze current pages without findings.
2. After analysis, filter by Has mention or Not mentioned.
3. Choose Recheck mentions in More actions to refresh existing findings. Review and confirm its usage impact first.

While a run is working, each page being analyzed shows Processing… in place of its analysis state and the table updates itself as results land. That status belongs to the run you started, so it does not survive a page reload or carry across keywords or the AI citations table.

Rankability accepts only URLs found in the project’s persisted Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, or Brave results and processes at most 30 manually requested URLs at a time. This manual action uses pooled on-demand usage. Check mentions skips pages with existing findings. Recheck mentions shows an estimate for confirmation, then fetches the currently visible pages again.

A page this project already analyzed for AI citations is reused here rather than fetched again, and the reverse is also true; the completion message reports how many results were reused. Reuse covers the last seven days and only evidence recorded since the project’s brand settings last changed.

Analysis state	Meaning
Linked	The page mentions the brand and links to a recognized owned domain or page.
Linked elsewhere	The page names the brand as the text of a link, but the link points to another site (or to a section of the same page). It is a mention, not a backlink, and an easy outreach ask: point the existing link at the brand’s site.
Unlinked	The page mentions the brand but no recognized owned link was found.
Not mentioned	The page was analyzed and the tracked brand was not found.
Not available	Rankability could not reach or analyze the page, such as a paywall or login wall.
Not analyzed	No analysis exists for that ranking URL yet.

Traditional page analysis is kept separate from AI Citation metrics and does not change Citation Visibility Score. The CSV export includes mention status, detected brand URL, and analysis date.

Open Report source history to browse the exact ranking URLs and brand mention findings captured in each completed report. The view marks sources new, continuing, or lost against a comparable prior scan. Reports may contain unchecked URLs; their presence does not promise background processing. Download CSV or JSON for the full timeline, including AI citation sources and original AI answers.

For a non-owned ranking URL, use the bookmark action to add it to an existing or new Prospector list. Rankability uses canonical URL membership to avoid presenting the same saved destination as a new prospect. Continue with Using Prospector.

Read video results separately

The report’s Video tab can include YouTube Search, Google Video Pack, and TikTok Search when they are enabled for the project. Google Video Pack is collected with Google Organic and does not add separate usage impact.

A video result can show an owned ranking or a brand mention detected in supported caption, hashtag, or transcript evidence. Treat those as different signals: a brand can be mentioned in a ranking video without owning that result.

Troubleshooting

• If every row says No scan, confirm the first scan completed for the selected platform.
• If an engine says Not tracked, edit the project rather than interpreting the state as an unranked result.
• If results are marked stale, run the appropriate surface scan before reporting them as current.
• If a platform failed, use the available retry. Only successfully returned results contribute completed-work usage.
• If a row opens the wrong evidence, confirm you selected the intended keyword and project, then contact support with the keyword and URL.

Next steps

• Understand SPI and its category weights
• Read AI answers
• Read AI citations