Enough Already About the Importance of Search Engine Rankings
Most search engine marketers are probably getting sick and tired of all this talk about the importance of search engine rankings.
Web position gold and other automated ranking software stopped working for a time last month which fired up the discussion.
On one side are those that say SEO's shouldn't focus on rankings with clients but on conversions and revenue.
The other side feels that rankings are an important focus, not the only focus, but a good measure of the success of SEO efforts for both the client and the SEO firm.
Naturally, the most important metric is conversions.
What good does it do to rank number one for a key phrase if it isn't producing conversions for you, however you define conversions.
However, you need visitors to get conversions.
I agree with the fact that the focus should be on conversions and revenue but you don't have the opportunity to make a conversion unless someone finds and clicks through to your web site.
Selling is a game of numbers, the more people you get your product or service in front of the better chance you have to make a sale (conversion).
Online real estate is similar to offline real estate: location, location, location.
I would much rather have 3,000 opportunities to convert a visitor because of a high ranking than 500 from a lower ranking.
If I convert 10% of 500 visitors I make 50 sales.
I only have to convert 2% of 3,000 visitors to make the same number of sales or if the conversion rate is the same I make 300 sales vs.
50.
We should always be educating our clients to not focus only on rankings.
The focus is two fold.
Number 1: Get them there.
Number 2: Convert.
Once search marketing efforts have accomplished the goal of getting the visitor to the web site through good rankings the goal is to convert the visitor.
Analytics tell us what visitors are doing when they get to the site.
If they aren't doing what we want then analytics gives us clues as to why.
Is it the landing page, site design, navigation or lack of a call to action or something else? I wonder if those SEO's who tell their clients not to focus on rankings but traffic and conversions are checking the rankings themselves.
I bet they are.
If you are bringing in lots of traffic from long tail keyphrases isn't this because of good rankings.
Search engine optimization professionals implement numerous strategies for clients to help achieve search engine rankings to attract valuable visitor traffic.
Our clients hire us to make their online efforts successful.
We need to not only layout and implement a strategy to accomplish this but let them know how their project is going.
Rankings and conversions tell them this.
Both are important for us and them.
Web position gold and other automated ranking software stopped working for a time last month which fired up the discussion.
On one side are those that say SEO's shouldn't focus on rankings with clients but on conversions and revenue.
The other side feels that rankings are an important focus, not the only focus, but a good measure of the success of SEO efforts for both the client and the SEO firm.
Naturally, the most important metric is conversions.
What good does it do to rank number one for a key phrase if it isn't producing conversions for you, however you define conversions.
However, you need visitors to get conversions.
I agree with the fact that the focus should be on conversions and revenue but you don't have the opportunity to make a conversion unless someone finds and clicks through to your web site.
Selling is a game of numbers, the more people you get your product or service in front of the better chance you have to make a sale (conversion).
Online real estate is similar to offline real estate: location, location, location.
I would much rather have 3,000 opportunities to convert a visitor because of a high ranking than 500 from a lower ranking.
If I convert 10% of 500 visitors I make 50 sales.
I only have to convert 2% of 3,000 visitors to make the same number of sales or if the conversion rate is the same I make 300 sales vs.
50.
We should always be educating our clients to not focus only on rankings.
The focus is two fold.
Number 1: Get them there.
Number 2: Convert.
Once search marketing efforts have accomplished the goal of getting the visitor to the web site through good rankings the goal is to convert the visitor.
Analytics tell us what visitors are doing when they get to the site.
If they aren't doing what we want then analytics gives us clues as to why.
Is it the landing page, site design, navigation or lack of a call to action or something else? I wonder if those SEO's who tell their clients not to focus on rankings but traffic and conversions are checking the rankings themselves.
I bet they are.
If you are bringing in lots of traffic from long tail keyphrases isn't this because of good rankings.
Search engine optimization professionals implement numerous strategies for clients to help achieve search engine rankings to attract valuable visitor traffic.
Our clients hire us to make their online efforts successful.
We need to not only layout and implement a strategy to accomplish this but let them know how their project is going.
Rankings and conversions tell them this.
Both are important for us and them.
