A Diff is a comparison workflow that lines up two RankGear workbooks and reports what changed between them — in factor scores, in rank positions, and in optimization progress.
| Term | Diff |
|---|---|
| Category | Product and Workflow |
| Also known as | Diff Report, Compare Runs |
| Where it appears | Compare → Diff |
What it means in RankGear
Diff lives under Compare → Diff. You pick two workbooks — typically an earlier run and a later one for the same keyword and market — and RankGear produces a side-by-side report of the deltas between them. Rather than re-reading two full analyses and holding the numbers in your head, you get a single view that names what moved: which factors shifted, how the ranking picture changed, and where recorded optimization work advanced. It is a reading tool built on top of your saved runs, not a new measurement of the page.
How to interpret it
Read a Diff as a record of change between two snapshots, so the reading is only as sound as the inputs behind it. Before you trust a delta, confirm you are comparing like with like: the same target page, keyword, and location, with the second run genuinely later than the first. A shift in a factor value tells you the comparison set or the page changed between runs; it does not tell you that any single change caused a rank move. Treat the direction and size of each delta as a lead to investigate, and check it against the artifact RankGear says it produced rather than an assumption about what should have happened.
| Change type | What the Diff shows |
|---|---|
| Factor changes | Which factor scores rose or fell between the two workbooks, and by how much |
| Rank changes | How the target’s position and the competitive set shifted between runs |
| Progress changes | Which recommended optimizations were marked done or advanced since the earlier run |
Example
You analyze a service page for “emergency plumber near me” in early March, apply several of the recommended changes over the next three weeks, then run a fresh analysis in April. Opening Compare → Diff with the March run on the left and the April run on the right, you see the page climbed two positions, three content factors moved toward the recommended range, and the progress column confirms the edits you logged. One factor moved the wrong way, which gives you a specific thing to look at next.
Important considerations
- A Diff describes RankGear behavior and reports change between two saved runs; it is not a ranking signal in its own right.
- The comparison is only valid when both workbooks cover the same page, keyword, and market — comparing mismatched inputs produces deltas that mean nothing.
- A factor or rank delta is correlation, not causation: it shows that something changed between runs, not that a particular edit produced the move.
- Factor scores rest on comparative, provider-scale indicators drawn from the pages RankGear analyzed, not on Google’s internal scores, so read every delta as a comparative lead rather than a verdict.
Related terms
Part of the RankGear glossary · how RankGear measures · the 870 factors.