The world of search engine optimisation has become much more competitive. The amount of webpages indexed by Google and the search engines is constantly growing. In addition to this the amount of website owners that have some knowledge of SEO is also increasing. The days where only few websites gave thought to the search engines is long gone. If you want to succeed in your search marketing efforts you need to know your stuff.
Competition is rife
There is so much competition that even those keywords that are seemingly unpopular can prove tough to get good rankings for. If you don’t understand SEO thoroughly then you can really struggle. Even with a good understanding of SEO you can find like a challenge – one day you may have the rankings you covet, the next they have hit rock bottom.
If you have a new site or business then you can experience this type of problem tenfold. Without a mature site search engine optimisation will take some time to establish itself. SEO is a long-term proposition and you won’t see results over night.
Forget rankings focus on targeted traffic
As SEO moves on its important that we also shift our focus away from pushing keyword rankings towards how we can attract targeted traffic and ultimately convert them into sales. By focusing on high rankings you are looking at a very small picture. If your business goals focus on ranking within the top five on Google then you need to reassess. This is not an effective business goal. You should be looking for something similar to this:
‘My business goal is to attract more users to my site that are looking for the range of products I offer.’
Although it’s understandable why you would want your site to get higher rankings for a competitive keyword – after all this would also increase traffic and the chance of conversions. However SEO will not be able to achieve this alone. There is so much competition out there all offering similar things using the same type of content. You need to stand out from the crowd.
Is SEO a waste of time?
No way! However by focusing all your efforts on ranking for the top competitive keywords you will start to struggle. Conversely you needn’t opt for those key phrases with little or no searches. To be successful with search engine optimisation you need to see the bigger picture.
SEO should be about improving the site so that it appeals better to users and search engines. Don’t pour all your money and resources into ‘money phrases’ and forget the other SEO elements.
Think carefully about what your business goals should be. How are you going to attract more searchers to your site and what happens when they get there. The ultimate business goal should be to convert these users into customers. If this is not where your focus is you will fail and even a high ranking position won’t help you.
At www.searchengineoptimization.co.uk we offer a wide range of SEO services to help you achieve those all-important conversions.
