12 first pages · 4 countries · mobile + desktop
Northsky is on the first page for this query two times in three, but almost never where anyone is looking: a median position of 4.5, with an AI Overview and an average of 2.4 ads above it. On a phone in the US — the largest segment — nobody saw the link without scrolling past three screens, and the overview answered the question before they got there. The people who did reach it mostly opened it and liked what they found. The problem on this query is not the product, and it is not really the ranking. It is that position four on a page shaped like this one is not a position anybody sees.
A position means nothing until you know what sits above it. This is what the first page was actually made of when your buyers looked at it.
“Opened your result” counts panelists who chose to click through after seeing the page. Everyone was paid the same either way.
One query, one product, one day. A rank tracker reports a single number for all of these rows.
| Segment | Found you | Median rank | On screen | AI Overview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
United States · Mobile signed in | 2 of 4 | #7 | 0 of 4 | 4 of 4 |
Portugal · Desktop | 3 of 3 | #3 | 2 of 3 | 2 of 3 |
United Kingdom · Mobile signed out | 2 of 3 | #5 | 0 of 3 | 2 of 3 |
Germany · Desktop | 1 of 2 | #4 | 1 of 2 | 1 of 2 |
Privacy-first analytics you can read in one screen — named in the overview almost every time.
A thread of founders arguing about what they actually use. Panelists opened it first, twice.
A written comparison by someone who sounds like the reader.
The other privacy-first option, with pricing in the snippet.
A listicle. Dated, and panelists said so.
“Set up in an afternoon is exactly what I wanted to hear, and it was the only result that said it in the title.”
“I read the AI answer, tapped the Reddit thread, and never scrolled far enough to see it.”
“The description is all features. Everyone above it told me what it costs.”
“Opened it and the landing page answered in about five seconds — more than I can say for the two above it.”
“I'd never heard of it, and nothing on the result told me anyone else uses it.”
Three in four panelists got an overview, and it cited Northsky in only two of those. Several said they read it and stopped. The competitors it does cite are the ones with a page written as a direct answer to this exact question.
With an overview and two to three ads above the organic list, nobody in the mobile segments saw the link without scrolling. The desktop segments, at a similar rank, mostly did.
Four panelists independently contrasted the description with the results above it, which lead on cost or on a plain statement of who it's for.
The results that won the click were a forum thread and a written comparison — both carrying other people's opinions. Two panelists said they trusted those precisely because a company hadn't written them.
The current title ranks fine and reads as a product name plus a feature. The panelists who clicked all quoted the same phrase — set up in an afternoon — and the ones who didn't all named the missing price. Both belong above the fold of the snippet.
Northsky — analytics for solo founders, set up in an afternoon
Privacy-first, no cookie banner, $9/mo. One snippet, one dashboard, nothing to configure. Built for one-person teams.
A short, direct answer to this exact question — who it's for, what it costs, what it doesn't do — on its own URL. The domains the overview cites all have one; Northsky's closest page is a feature tour.
Free to ship, and it addresses the two things panelists said out loud. See the proposed rewrite above.
It took the click from two panelists directly, and it feeds the overview. Being named there by someone who actually uses the product does more on this query than moving from four to three.
The same query, the same segments. Position is the wrong thing to watch — watch the share of panelists who see the link at all.
Unprompted, from people in the market. Each one is a check you could run next.
12 readable first pages out of 14 submissions, on google, captured by real people from their own devices and accounts. Every panelist was paid the same whether or not Northsky appeared, and whether or not they clicked. Phrasings accepted: best analytics tool for solo founders; simple analytics for indie hackers.
Twelve readable first pages across four countries is enough to see a pattern, not enough to trust a percentage to the point. The mobile segments are the largest and the least favourable, which is representative of this query's traffic but not of every query. This is an example report on a fictional product, shown to illustrate the format.
Generated September 11, 2026