Most Dropped and Most Risen Keywords
The Most Dropped and Most Risen widgets on your Dashboard show the tracked keywords with the biggest ranking changes in the last day. Instead of sorting by raw position change, they use an importance score that surfaces the changes that matter most to your business.
What counts as dropped or risen?
Position change is calculated as: previous position minus current position.
Negative change = ranking worsened (dropped)
For example, moving from position 15 to position 10 gives a change of +5 (risen). Moving from position 5 to position 12 gives a change of -7 (dropped).
Why importance scoring?
A keyword dropping from position 3 to position 6 is usually more important than one dropping from position 85 to position 92, even though both moved 3 positions. Similarly, a high-volume keyword with strong commercial intent matters more than a low-traffic informational query.
Importance scoring combines multiple signals to rank changes by their real business impact, so you see what actually matters at the top of each list.
How importance score is calculated
Each factor contributes a specific signal:
| Factor | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| |Position Change| | Larger moves get more weight. A 10-position drop is more significant than a 2-position drop. |
| (1 + Clicks) | Keywords already driving traffic have more at stake. A drop on a keyword getting 50 clicks/day hurts more than one getting zero. |
| (1 + CPC) | Higher CPC signals commercial intent. Losing position on a $5 CPC keyword has more business impact than on a $0.10 keyword. |
| ln(1 + Impressions) | More impressions mean more visibility is at stake, but log-dampened so a keyword with 100K impressions doesn't completely dominate one with 1K. |
| / min(Old, New Position) | Dividing by the better position amplifies changes near the top of search results. Moving from position 2 to 5 matters more than 52 to 55. |
A real example
Suppose two keywords both dropped 3 positions:
| Keyword | Position | Change | Clicks | CPC | Impressions | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "buy running shoes" | 3 → 6 | -3 | 45 | $2.50 | 3,200 | 395 |
| "shoe history timeline" | 82 → 85 | -3 | 0 | $0.10 | 150 | 0.2 |
Both dropped 3 positions, but "buy running shoes" scores nearly 2,000x higher because it has real traffic, strong commercial value, and the drop happened near the top of search results where visibility changes dramatically.
Display limits
Each widget shows up to 20 keywords, sorted by importance score (highest first). Only 1-day changes are shown in the movers widgets. For 7-day and 30-day trends, check the Position Changes cards above or visit the Tracked Keywords page.