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Okay, so maybe that’s not entirely true. If you want your website to generate more sales and/or leads, you’re probably going to be more successful if you have a bunch of top 10 rankings. But as true as that last statement may be, there are three reasons why I would argue your keyword rankings aren’t as important as you think they are.
Search engines aren’t the only way people can get to your site. They can also get there by clicking on a link from another site to yours or they might type your domain directly into the web address bar. In fact, it’s not uncommon for a website to get as much or more traffic from a source other than a search engine. If you focus too much on keyword rankings, you may neglect the people – and the business potential they bring- who come to your site in other ways.
There are billions of searches made in Google, Bing Yahoo!, Baidu, and other engines every day. There are so many searches, in fact, that Google claims as many as 20% have never been seen before. So, when you consider your website’s rankings, make sure you have an idea about how often the terms are being used by your target audience. In other words, if you optimize for a keyword that no one is actually searching for, you may get that top ranking, but you won’t have any traffic to show for it.
Most importantly, a good ranking doesn’t always mean more business. The science behind what causes people to make a purchasing decision goes well beyond the scope of this post. However, when it comes to the connection between keyword rankings and revenue, it’s important to remember that a keyword is indicative of a person’s mindset. In short, a searcher might be in research mode (using informational searches), or they might be in buying mode (using transactional searches).
If the goal of your website is to generate more sales or leads, optimizing for a keyword that is informational won’t get you the boost you were hoping for, even if you secure a top ranking. You’ve got to make sure the keyword you’re targeting is transactional instead.
If you’ve ever judged the performance of your website based on rankings without having first considered these three points, don’t feel bad…you aren’t alone. And if you’re asking yourself “what should I do now?” don’t worry…we’re going to cover that in our next post.
