Why do I see a sudden drop in keywords on 1st Place in AWR?

In a nutshell, as of Oct. 2023, Advanced Web Rankings (AWR) started to assign position #1 to the Google Flights search box. So, given that the Google Flights search box appears for most flight-related keywords, most keywords tracked on AWR that used to be in position #1 will now be reported in position #2.

The following guide will help you delve into the AWR reports to inspect this change in reporting on the AWR side.

Source: Advanced Web Rankings (AWR) > Distribution Report 

This is how the distribution report looks for an airTRFX customer on Advanced Web Rankings (AWR)—our keyword-tracking tool for non-branded keywords.  

The two bar charts above describe the month-over-month change in keywords ranking on the SERPs in the following position categories: 

The purpose of this blog post is to address a recent common question that some customers have raised: Why is the keyword distribution report showing a drop in the keywords ranking in First Place on AWR? 

Don’t worry. We got you.  

Here is a brief explanation of why you would probably see a sharp drop. But most importantly, it will help you detect whether it is a drop.  

Why truly a drop?—Well, the bottom line is that in the last few months, AWR has started tracking the Google Flights SERP feature and categorizing it as an organic result.  

With this new release, AWR is now attributing the first position to the Google Flights SERP feature, pushing down all organic results by 1 position. 

First off, What is Google Flights?— Here, the search query “Flights to London” showcases how the Google Flights SERP snippet looks like: 

Good!—Now, How do I know if AWR is attributing the first position to Google Flights? 

The first step is to identify the timeframe in which the drop takes place. 

That said, if we go back to the bar chart at the beginning, we can see that the shift in rankings in this airTRFX example takes place between October 04, 2023, and October 18, 2023.  

The question is: If there is a drop in the first place, who is taking that position? 

AWR provides a useful report called “Top Sites” time comparison. It allows you to track the changes in positions at a keyword level. Let’s look at the behavior of the keyword “Flights from Singapore to Osaka” within the timeframe mentioned: 

There you have it!  

The URL ranking for our chosen keyword seems to shift from position #1 on October 04, 2023, to position #2 on October 18, 2023. And, as you can see, the Google Flights ✈️ SERP feature takes the first spot in the gray square, granting the first place to the 4 airlines featured on the Google Flights SERP box.  

With the inclusion of the new SERP feature as an organic result, AWR updated the SERP preview a few weeks later in November. So, let’s take a closer look at what the SERP looks like on November 15th. 

Wait, but how can I confirm this is impacting the whole SERP? 

Similarly to the Top Sites, AWR offers a report called “Top Sites In Time.” Here, you can see all competitors sliding down 1 position within the October timeframe mentioned earlier: 

This could be a good place to start digging. We suggest following the same process for a handful of your top-performing keywords. This means keywords ranking in first place to see if they were affected by this change and confirm if they are now being reported in 2nd position.  

With this in mind, we can ensure that there isn’t realistically a drop caused by performance, low-quality content, a core algorithm update, or simply a competitor taking over. Instead, it is simply an effect of the new attribution method AWR has deployed. 

To learn more about how to track Google Flights and whether you are being featured on Google Flights, check out this AWR blog. 

On another note, please keep in mind that in the last few months, Google has started to index their own ‘flight’ pages (e.g. https://www.google.com/travel/flights/flights-to-london.html) 

 Here is an example of how Google’s flight pages look like in the SERP: 

Come on, Google! - You already own a good chunk of the SERP real estate with the Google Flights SERP Feature.  

Fine, it seems like Google’s flight pages are joining the rankings, too. 

We are currently researching the potential piece of cake that Google’s flight pages could be taking in the SERP. Stay tuned!