Search Engine Rankings vs. Traffic

Throughout my experience in this constantly evolving industry, I feel that it is the duty of a Search Engine Optimization Specialist to educate a client on realistic goals for their business. There are many online marketing companies out there that (unfortunately) prey on businesses for one simple reason"¦because they can. A business owner is not expected to know the basic fundamentals of how SEO works and how to measure success. These non-reputable SEO companies know that Mr/Mrs. Business Owner most likely do not understand how this industry works, so they put on a sales pitch to highlight points that really do not matter.

Before involving your website with an Online Marketing company, one needs to know the difference between Traffic vs. Search Engine Ranking. There are companies out there that are built on the notion that search engine ranking is the end all be all of SEO, and that is just NOT true. Sure, rankings are the easiest way to measure "˜success' of a SEO campaign, but that doesn't mean that your website is getting the proper exposure to your target market that it should. I have listened in on countless phone calls between Account Executives and business owners after their SEO campaigns have been running for several months, and I've heard the disappointment in the business owner's voice when they aren't getting results they were promised. The Account Executive will always counter with something along the lines of "But, Mr/Mrs. Business Owner, you are ranking on page one of Google for 10 different terms! I would call that a huge success!" This song and dance will continue for a few weeks or months, and ultimately that business owner will cancel. I have seen this scenario many times, and it sickens me because it gives my industry a bad name.

The truth is, yes, that business owner's website IS ranking high for many terms. The problem is that those keywords have very little competition and nobody is really searching for them. Sure, it might look successful to have all of those page one (or even #1) rankings, but what good does that do for a business owner if it isn't bringing in the traffic? Nothing.

That is why I, along with other true SEOs, look at this industry with an analytical eye. We have moved towards using some form of analytics and away from worrying so much about rankings because of the revolutionary tools that allow us to truly measure success of our work. This industry has changed so much in the past few years that it is almost overwhelming at times, and it will keep evolving so that every person making a search will eventually have their own custom-tailored results. With the rollout of the Google SearchWiki, this customization is already taking shape. We are going to see some major shifts in this industry and I am so excited to see this happen. And once it does, we can finally bid adieu to those companies that only push keyword ranking.