Conditional formatting is workbook cell styling that changes with a cell’s value or state — for example, a measured zero on a tracked page shown in red — so a sheet’s outliers read at a glance without inspecting every number.
| Term | Conditional Formatting |
|---|---|
| Category | Reports, Workbooks and Exports |
| Also known as | Cell Highlighting |
| Where it appears | Workbook sheets |
What it means in RankGear
In RankGear’s exported workbook sheets, some cells are colored or highlighted by rule rather than by hand. The appearance a cell wears is driven by the value or state it holds, so a reading that sits at zero, falls far from the reference set, or flags a problem stands out visually against the rows around it. The formatting is a reading aid layered on top of the measurements: the underlying number is untouched, and only how it is presented responds to what that number is.
How to interpret it
Read the color as a pointer to where to look, not as a score in its own right. A highlighted cell is telling you the value crossed one of the sheet’s rules — a measured zero on a tracked page, say — so start with the sheet’s summary and legend to learn what each color means there, then follow the flagged cells into the factor rows or supporting sections behind them. Because the rule that colors a cell can differ from one sheet to the next, check the legend before inferring meaning; the highlight adds no information the value itself does not already carry.
| Cell appearance | What it signals |
|---|---|
| Highlighted (for example, red) | The value crossed a rule for the sheet — often a zero, a missing reading, or a figure far from the reference set |
| Plain / unformatted | The value is within the sheet’s normal range and needs no visual flag |
Example
You export a workbook after analyzing a page and open the sheet that tracks per-factor readings. One cell for your tracked page shows 0 against a red fill while the reference columns beside it are populated. The red is not a penalty — it is conditional formatting drawing your eye to a factor the page scored nothing on, so you can decide whether that gap is worth acting on. Edit the page and re-run the analysis and the value recomputes, and its color moves with it.
Important considerations
- Formatting is presentation, not evidence. A colored cell carries no more weight than the plain number underneath it; do not treat the highlight as an additional data point.
- A workbook is a snapshot of one run. Compare highlighted cells only against sheets produced with like-for-like settings — a different keyword, URL, or competitor set is not a fair comparison.
- The values the colors respond to are RankGear’s comparative measurements against a reference set, not Google scores. A red or green cell says nothing about whether the page will rank, and correlation with ranking is not proof of causation.
- Colors follow each sheet’s legend, and a rule can vary between sheets. Read the legend before reading meaning into a highlight.
Related terms
Part of the RankGear glossary · how RankGear measures · the 870 factors.