Even business owners who don’t know a lot about online marketing tend to obsess over their keyword rankings. It’s not hard to figure out why – achieve a high search engine position on Google and you could draw hundreds or thousands of targeted potential customers to your website every week.
While a lot of business owners know where they sit in terms of keyword rankings, however, they aren’t always sure how to improve them. In order to get more information, they take a deep dive into the art and science of search engine optimization. That’s a dense topic, though, and one that can leave beginning marketers feeling more confused than ever.
I don’t want any of my readers or clients to be confused. So today, I’m going to share a handful of things I think all of you should know about keyword rankings…
Keyword Rankings are Built on a (Mostly) Simple Formula
Google and the other search engines use complex algorithms to determine keyword rankings. However, they essentially boil down to a simple formula: does the keyword in question appear in your website, along with other related searchable phrases? And if so, are other reputable websites related to that keyword linking to yours? When you can answer those two questions, you can figure out roughly where you sit in the keyword ranking mix.
Not All Keyword Rankings Matter
Business owners tend to assume that a higher search position for any phrase is a good outcome. That’s not always the case. Sometimes, high keyword rankings for big terms just result in lots of visits to your website, but no sales or inquiries. In some extreme cases, they can even generate time-wasting phone calls and emails. That’s why every search engine optimization campaign needs to start with careful keyword research. Otherwise, you could find yourself aiming at a goal that really doesn’t have a lot of value to your company.
There is a Simple Way to Improve Keyword Rankings
Again, search engine optimization can be a complicated topic. At the most basic level, though, it’s important to understand that you can improve your keyword rankings quickly and significantly just by adding new content to your website. That’s because every new page or blog post registers as a separate document in Google’s eyes. And, the more of them you have with substantive ideas and more uses of a specific keyword and related terms, the higher your ranking is going to be.
Higher Keyword Rankings Aren’t Always the Answer
Improving your keyword rankings is an important step towards building a winning online marketing campaign, but you’ll get diminishing returns from search engine optimization over time. Once you are already getting lots of traffic from Google, your best move is to maximize the amount of conversions you can get from those visits, not to simply pull in more and more searchers. It’s always great to raise your keyword rankings, but don’t miss out on new sales opportunities for the sake of traffic stats.
If your keyword rankings aren’t as great as they should be, there are two questions to ask. The first is whether a stronger search engine position will actually help you win more sales. If you believe it would, then the next step is to figure out what you need to do to improve your keyword rankings and attract more buyers to your site.
Feel like you could use some help raising your keyword rankings for important search terms, or just want someone to help you take your online marketing and search engine optimization campaign to the next level? Contact Biondo Creative today to see what we can do for your business!