I am ranked #1 for that silly phrase at Google. So What?
Here's a secret. You can be ranked #1 at Google for the phrase "Waterfall Watches" if you put the phrase on your page 4 times and in metatags twice. How do I know that? I did it in 2001 and still rank number one in Google for the phrase in 2005. On another of my sites I rank #1 for the phrase "Screeching Camels" by simply putting it on the page once in a comment about silly SEO guarantees.
I'll wager that many phrases you've targeted for your business are almost as silly and deliver NO traffic to your pages from the search engines. Don't take that too personally. Simply look at your traffic statistics to see what phrases are bringing visitors to your web site. If your logs show no delivered traffic for keywords you thought were golden, you've targeted the wrong phrases.
I'm always fascinated when discussions of search engines focus excessively on ranking of a particular site in one particular search engine without checking corresponding statistics about referred traffic delivered to the site from the targeted keyword phrase. Referred search visits from engines is not taken into account. Anyone who looks at their rankings without looking at how much traffic is referred and DELIVERED to your site through the rankings is missing the most important part of the story!
When you check your site traffic statistics for where visitors are coming from and in what numbers, for which keyword searches and from which search engines, you will be astonished to see that things you think are important are sometimes not so important. I've struggled for years to gain top rankings for "Small Business Ecommerce" and have achieved #1 at Google #5 at MSN and #13 at Yahoo (at this writing).
But guess what? Nobody searches for that phrase in significant enough numbers to deliver any traffic from it! I'm not saying that this was wasted effort, because in the over 1000 pages at WebSite101 we have enough related phrases that the targeted phrase contributes to the rank of hundreds of related phrases. "Open Source Ecommerce" gets huge traffic for one single page, ranked at # 29 in Yahoo, #7 at MSN and #1 in Google (as of this writing).
But the really interesting thing is that even on phrases that rank equally well across all three major engines, Google delivers referred traffic at a rate of 65% compared to MSN at less than 1% and Yahoo about 5% of all referred visitor traffic. In NO case does Yahoo or MSN refer any clickthroughs at higher than 10% of all referred traffic.
Referred traffic being visitors that clicked on your link from search results or links. This applies both in single instances for specific keywords and cumulatively for all referred traffic.
Hear this very clearly - it has nothing to do with ranking! There are dozens of search phrases that visitors have searched on all three of those engines that deliver traffic to my site that I can't find my own site for in the top 100 results at ANY search engine. In every case, Google delivers more than twice the traffic for every keyword combination than does MSN or Yahoo!. In many cases, I rank HIGHER on both Yahoo and MSN for many of those phrases, yet Google delivers far more referred traffic for those phrases ranked higher at MSN and Yahoo! Does that make any sense?
If your referred traffic from top rankings at MSN and Yahoo send you no traffic, why be concerned that you rank well with either of them? This same scenario has played out across dozens of client sites I've reviewed traffic statistics for. No matter how the site is structured, no matter how many pages they have, no matter what keywords they are targeting.
Search engine referred traffic from Google is always ALWAYS 2 times higher than the other two and very often as much as 10 times. If we ranked engines, NOT on number of searches performed, but on how much traffic they refer, then Google would be more than twice as highly ranked in all cases.
If Google disappeared tomorrow, there would be some dramatically reduced visitor numbers for ALL sites across the web. We would, every single one of us, lose over half of our (organic) search engine referred traffic. Look at your traffic statistics for natural search engine referred traffic (not PPC) volume and which keywords are currently working to deliver that traffic as far more important than your specific # keyword ranking on those search engines.
Avoid the practice of "Keyword Voodoo" to rank for words that nobody searches. Google "Keyword Voodoo" and you'll find me ranked 5 times for that phrase on page one of the search engine results page. "Reciprocal Linking Turkey" will give you the same result, showing my article on several web sites. Each of those does me no good at all and brings no more search engine referred traffic than does my number one ranking for "Invisible Entrepreneurs" used in the title of this article.
Target the wrong keywords and you will become one of those Invisible Entrepreneurs.
copyright © July 14, 2005 by Mike Banks Valentine
Mike Banks Valentine practices ethical search optimization through content aggregation and creation for your website Optimizing press releases for keyword density - distributed online for visibility & more effective link building
Contact Mike at: http://www.seoptimism.com/SEO_Contact.htm
Download Free link popularity software - check inbound links http://website101.com/download/l ink-popularity-software.html
Check your link popularity at major search engines and Alexa
Search engine optimization refers to the technique of making your... Read More
In a perfect world, everyone would be honest.In a perfect... Read More
Many marketers know that search engine marketing is among one... Read More
Why, you ask? Mainly, because search engines want to provide... Read More
Keyword Research will reveal answers to 3 critical questions:1. Is... Read More
There has been a good deal written about the Google... Read More
OK, you published your site, now you just sit by... Read More
This is the first lesson out of 6 that teaches... Read More
What once many people thought they had a penalty, is... Read More
So you need a domain name for your brand new... Read More
After Google latest update nicknamed "Florida", many webmasters discovered that... Read More
Getting a high ranking on Google is a big achievement.... Read More
In today scenario when we talk about Search Engine Optimization,... Read More
As a search engine optimization specialist, I often run across... Read More
This is the first of a series of articles about... Read More
In order to get a top 10 google ranking it... Read More
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is big business. If you... Read More
Thinking about purchasing that premium SEO software that will hyper-optimize... Read More
1. Additional Exposure For Your Site.At the end of 2003,... Read More
Internet Directories and their ImportanceThere are two very pertinent reason... Read More
You need to be extremely careful with keyword research so... Read More
Most webmasters have no idea on how to make a... Read More
Increasing your web traffic and rank in search engines is... Read More
Extra, Extra Google Now Gives you feedback. By Creating a... Read More
I just read an article at SitePro News that really... Read More
How many years did you register your domain name for?... Read More
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) must be considered a process and... Read More
SEO training can be overwhelming. There are literally hundreds of... Read More
Google does not accept payment for inclusion in their main... Read More
Searching online can not only be fun, but you sometimes... Read More
The corporate fundamentals are par excellence! The product is unsurpassable... Read More
For anyone looking to enhance their Google Page Rank (PR)... Read More
Keyword analysis is a major part of search engine marketing.... Read More
Everyone should realize that the search engines (sponsored ads aside)are... Read More
Every webmaster knows that the free search engines are a... Read More
You've selected an appropriate Online Business Opportunity. That is not... Read More
Search Engine Optimization popularly known as SEO.SEO is the process... Read More
As with any good web developer, the ability to time... Read More
Search Engine Optimization, optimizing your website for it to be... Read More
What does all this SEO jargon mean.Have you ever been... Read More
With apologies for the cheap trick of mentioning Paris Hilton... Read More
Making the following changes to your title tag can help... Read More
Today, SEO is swiftly approaching saturation point. More and more... Read More
The "Number One" Question - the question that I (and... Read More
Defining Meta Tags is much easier than explaining how they... Read More
In the following article I will give you some basic... Read More
Search engine optimization is THE most cost effective way for... Read More
Automated search engine robots, sometimes called "spiders" or "crawlers", are... Read More
Bringing visitors to your site from the main Search engines... Read More
While there are many ethical SEO firms serving Internet users... Read More
1. Google love ...Google and all its programming is not... Read More
The most difficult challenge most web designers face is getting... Read More
With the advent of Google Local, a service that helps... Read More
As a member of several search engine optimization forums, I... Read More
In a perfect world, everyone would be honest.In a perfect... Read More
Every business owner I've met has been encouraged at some... Read More
Utilizing effective search engine optimization techniques will improve the page... Read More
Most Internet marketing methods are risky and many will not... Read More
What's the most potent free traffic source on the web?***... Read More
Getting your site noticed by the search engines and rewarded... Read More
Why, you ask? Mainly, because search engines want to provide... Read More
Among the many things you need to worry about for... Read More
In part I - Google Page Rank Is Dead -... Read More
Search engines determine their rankings based on two things: ... Read More
'Are Google's Days in the Dominant Position in Search Technology... Read More
I wish to give a few little tips, about optimizing.... Read More
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) |