SEO Isn’t Necessarily About Rankings

| SEO

SEO Isn’t Necessarily About Rankings

 

Since the beginning of SEO, businesses have been obsessed with rankings. Ranking number one for a chosen keyword has been the driving force behind most SEO campaigns.

However, this misguided goal is missing the point of what SEO is really about, TRAFFIC!

Your main goal should be driving as many relevant people to your website as possible. Of course, ranking at the top spot for popular keywords is crucial but ranking highly doesn’t necessarily mean you will be driving tons of traffic to your website.

For example, ranking position 8 for one keyword, could be driving significantly more traffic than ranking in position 1 for another.

Thinking only in terms of rankings will likely cost you more traffic than the popular keywords you are focusing on brings in. Focusing all your time, effort and budget into specifically ranking for one popular keyword, will mean missing out on all those longtail keywords that will likely be easier to rank for and draw in a lot more traffic.

“Popular” keywords will generally only account for a small percentage of your overall traffic from organic search. The larger share of your traffic will come from longtail keywords.

These longtail keywords will only generate a small amount of traffic (often fewer than 10 clicks a month) but if you rank for a lot of longtail keywords, the traffic you can generate to your website will be substantial.

How do you go about ranking for longtail keywords?

First, make sure your website is completely “search engine friendly”, that means built with mobile in mind, well-structured and user-friendly!  

Next, it’s hard to intentionally target niche longtail keywords like you do with the popular keywords so the key to generating a lot of longtail keywords is to write a lot of useful, interesting and informative content.

All the content you produce should be descriptive, answering all the question that you think your audience may ask, as well as covering topics of interest.

You don’t necessarily have to focus too hard on adding keywords within the content you are posting on your website, as long as it’s interesting, informative and not full of jargon.  

The more content you post, the more likely your longtail keywords will appear in the search. Keep writing long, informative and descriptive posts and watch as the traffic pours in over time!

Luke Stanley