Posts Tagged SEO
Getting Started with Google AdWords and AdWords vs SEO
Posted by James Chaitali in SEO on January 26, 2012
Google Adwords is one of the most well-known PPC marketing systems available today. Google Adwords can be used by businesses of any size to increase their traffic and grow their customer base.
How Does Adwords Work?
Google Adwords allows you to effectively buy your way to the top of the page for certain search results. You’ve probably seen the “Sponsored Result” links at the top of the list of search results. Those results are placed there by webmasters that have purchased placement for the key word or phrase that you searched on. If you click on the sponsored result, then the webmaster will have to pay Google for that click.
Google AdWords campaigns, if well managed, are a great way to get targeted visitors. Learning the intricacies of Adwords can be challenging, however, so many people opt to hire an Adwords consultant, instead of attempting the task themselves. The initial outlay of hiring an Adwords consultant may look like just “another expense”, but it is a good investment if you are not confident in the world of PPC.
AdWords vs SEO
Using AdWords can provide similar results to SEO, in that you will see an increase in traffic from a well-run AdWords campaign, however AdWords is not the same as SEO. An AdWords campaign is a short term measure – when you stop funding your AdWords account, the traffic will stop. SEO is a long-term investment. SEO involves building links and improving the quality of your website so that it ranks highly in the search engines for organic search results – ones that you aren’t paying for. The work that a good SEO agency does should continue to serve you, in a subtle way at least, for a fair while after the campaign ends.
Getting Started
It’s easy to get started with both SEO and Adwords. The first thing any serious webmaster should do is set up a Google Webmaster Tools account. This can be used to track a lot of different things to do with your website, and is invaluable for both SEO and PPC marketing.
Tracking and testing are vital parts of PPC marketing, and AdWords. Before you can judge the effectiveness of your campaigns, you need to have a baseline idea of your traffic and your conversion rate. It’s a good idea to keep a spreadsheet with information about your traffic, conversion rates, incoming links, keywords, and other details on a month-by-month basis so that you can see how your campaigns are going.
You can test the waters with a small budget, but you should be prepared to invest a steady amount over a period of a few weeks or months to see how well a campaign is going to perform.
If you have the time and inclination, you can achieve a lot doing SEO yourself. However, SEO work can be time consuming. Hiring an SEO agency can save you a lot of time. Working together with an adwords consultant will allow you to build sustainable long-term traffic, whilst also running seasonal or topical short term PPC campaigns to take advantage of openings in the market.
3 Successful SEO Marketing Strategies
Posted by jtoney in Blogging, Facebook, Guest Posts, Link Building, Marketing, SEO on December 2, 2011
It seems today there are a million ways to increase your site exposure. New SEO strategies are popping up weekly, some more effective than others. As websites grow, more people are veering away from basic SEO marketing and expanding alternative techniques. This sparks the creation of new strategies that when utilized with the basics, can increase your page rank and overall traffic. Therefore, we should take a look at these growing trends and see if your site can benefit from them.
Coupon Marketing:
With the current economic state, coupon shopping has become widely used. Many shoppers refuse to pay retail and spend hours clipping, printing, and collecting coupons. This trend has increased the use of coupon marketing among SEO professionals. However, coupon marketing is about more than just dangling a deal and hoping someone bites. By registering coupons with known coupon distributors such as couponchief.com and retailmenot.com, you are able to reach a customer base that was once foreign. The bargain shoppers receive these coupons through emails as well as Google search results. Since these sites are instantly indexed as new coupons are created, there is little wait for your marketing to take effect.
Along with a wider range of prospective traffic, these coupon sites build backlinks that are solid. With your site address posted to their site, your page rank increases. Since these sites have grown in popularity in the last 3 years, their rank is more than enough to be beneficial.
Credit Card Marketing:
Many sites seem to stay away from credit card marketing due to the bad wrap it has gotten from spammers. However, by choosing the proper credit card affiliates you will be able to increase your traffic with credible backlinks. Larger banking institutions allow for affiliate programs which allow you to offer benefits and rewards people may not get otherwise.
With the current rise in bank fees, credit processing fees, and ATM charges, many consumers are looking for an alternative to their current bank. This is a great time to research credible credit card merchants and find one that you can utilize for SEO marketing and increasing your traffic.
Social Networking:
Using the trend of social networking has become a highly respectful and successful means of SEO. By creating discounts on Facebook, tweeting your latest news on Twitter, and getting LinkedIn, you are exposing your site the possibility of a massive traffic increase. Combined with other SEO strategies you can create a page following beyond the occasional browser.
Many are utilizing coupon marketing with Facebook since their promotion of Facebook Coupons. For those selling items, this is a great way to increase sales. However, it is also a great tool for those who monetized their blogs, are offering discounted affiliate deals, and are looking for a way to increase traffic to their sites. By creating fan-based coupons, discount codes, and Facebook fan-only deals, you can require members to “Like” your page before seeing the deal.
Creating a new tab in Facebook
The most popular way of creating these fan-based deals is by creating a new tab in Facebook that requires members to “Like” their page. Here are instructions on how to create that:
1. Log into your Facebook page and type “Static HTML: Iframe Tabs” in the search bar. Click the first search result in the dropdown list.
2. Next click the “Add Static HTML to a Page” button and select the page from the drop down list. This will take you to your Facebook page.
3. On your page click on “Edit Page”, navigate to the “Apps” section and click on “Edit Settings” for the “Static HTML: IFrame Tabs” application. You will get a pop-up for you to enter the custom tab name. Enter the name you want visible on your tab and click “Save” then click “Okay”
4. Next the “Static HTML” editor will load and you will need to click the “Enable FBML” box if it isn’t already selected.
5. In the editors “Enter your Content Here” box you will need to type or paste the following code:
<fb:visible-to-connection> <img src=”YOUR COUPON IMAGE URL”> <fb:else> <img src=”URL TO AN IMAGE TELLING THEM TO LIKE PAGE FIRST”> <fb:else> <fb:visible-to-connection>
6. The first URL you replace will be to your coupon image. The second URL will be to another image you create advising them to “Like” you page first. Once they “Like” your page, the coupon will be visible under that tab. Each time you want to change your coupon you will need to change the first image URL with your new coupon image. After entering the URL’s click “Save and View Tab”. The page will load showing you what your new fans will see when they “Like” your page.
For those who just want to increase traffic without offering coupons or discounts, this technique can be used for anything you want you entice members with. It could be as simple as a new and interesting post on your blog where you use the title to entice them to click “Like”, or it can be a product review for something new. Whatever you want to use to convince them that it is worth it to click “Like” is up to you.
In the ever changing world of SEO, many are starting trends that will last long into the future. Following the current economic state, new products, and the trends of blog readers will increase your options for SEO marketing and allow a more versatile strategy. Take a look into your current SEO marketing plan and see if you have room for more.
Need More Web Traffic? Why Just Focusing on SEO Isn’t Good Enough
Posted by Kirsty LaVier in Blogging, SEO on June 20, 2011
If you want to make the most out of your website, you need a solid SEO strategy. However, relying on the search engines for all of your traffic is the web equivalent of putting all of your eggs in one basket. The search engines change their algorithms all the time. Sometimes, those changes are minor; other times, they make major changes that have a drastic effect on the rankings. Since you can’t control what the search engines do, you can’t rely solely on them for all of your traffic.
So, what else can you do to drive traffic?
Lots of things! Start by building an email list. It’s not hard to add an opt-in box on your website. That way, you’ll still be able to communicate with people even if you suddenly lose your rankings. A quick email can let all of your subscribers know about your latest product, a new deal you’re offering, or your newest service.
But what about getting new traffic?
There are plenty of ways to do that, too! Start by jumping into the social networking revolution. Companies all over the world are becoming visible on Twitter and Facebook. Both websites offer you a great opportunity to get more customers, spread your message, and communicate directly with your target audience – all without depending on the search engines! A solid article marketing or guest blogging strategy can get your name and your link out there – even if your website isn’t very visible on the search engines. As an added benefit, every time you publish an article or do a guest post for a blog in your niche, post a link to it on your Twitter and Facebook pages. After all, you can never have too much self-promotion!
And, you can take advantage of one of the newest trends in web content – videos. Web videos are getting more and more popular. You can upload them right to YouTube, then post a link to your website, tell your email list about it, and post a link to the video on your Twitter and Facebook pages. If your video is interesting, it can quickly become viral on the social networking sites – even before the search engine spiders have a chance to index it!
And, if you want to add some advertising into the mix, Interspire shopping cart has a tool that can automatically create an AdWords campaign for your products. That way, if you lose your rankings, you can have ads that are right at the top of the search results.
By diversifying your traffic, you can actually see more results than you can with even the best SEO strategy. After all, when it comes to web traffic, you can never have too much of it!
What are your favorite methods besides relying on search engines for generating traffic to your site?
Looking at 3 Measures and Metrics for Website Quality
Posted by Jess_Spate in Blogging, SEO on May 18, 2011
Quantifying how good a website is very difficult. What are the signs of a great website? Plenty of visitors, lots of links from other large and excellent websites, Facebook fans, mentions on Twitter, good clean HTML and attractive design. Rolling all that information up into a single, easy to understand metric is very tricky. Then there is the question of actually extracting all that input information in the first place. Some of those factors can’t really be quantified, especially without human intervention.
PageRank looks primarily at your link profile
There are two popular approaches to measuring website quality. The most common looks at the link profile on the assumption that good sites get more links. PageRank (PR) is the best known of these metrics, and it takes into account both the number of inbound links and the quality of linking sites. It’s usually expressed as a digit ranging from zero to ten, the higher the better. It’s been around for a while and it’s nice and simple.
A lot of people use PageRank to attract linking partners and sell advertising space, but there is a problem. Published PageRanks are only updated every few months, so a new site that has worked hard for three months and now has plenty of inbound links may still have zero PR. Many pro bloggers and SEO folks have moved away from PR for that reason. The replacement metric of choice is usually mozRank, which uses similar concepts but leaves behind the delay problem that annoys so many low PR webmasters. It ranges from 0 to 10 and is a little more precise than PR, because values are reported to two decimal places.
Replacing PageRank with MozRank
There are a few variations on mozRank, but perhaps the most powerful is the concept of mozRank Passed. This metric aims to quantify the amount of power a link from a particular page conveys. It takes into account the number of outbound links, the page’s own mozRank and several other factors. It’s not in popular use yet, so it’ll be very interesting to see whether the SEO community thinks this measure is valuable over the long term.
Alexa takes a look at your traffic
The second site evaluation strategy is to use the number of visitors. That’s all very well for webmasters who have access to their own visitor data, but when you want to check out the competition you won’t have access to their analytics accounts. So, how to estimate visitor activity? Alexa Rank is the most widely used metric of this kind, and they use browsing data collected from every user with an Alexa Toolbar installed. Their rank is based on a relatively small subset of internet users- the exact number of Alexa Tool users isn’t public knowledge- but downloads number in the tens of millions.
Because it’s based on small statistical sample, Alexa Rank is only really useful for big sites. It is a true rank with values ranging from the millions to number one, the lower the better. Google firmly occupies the top spot, followed by Facebook and YouTube. An active PR5 commercial website might have an Alexa Rank in the hundreds of thousands, and a value of a million is reasonable for a medium-sized PR3 blog.
No Single Metric Gives a Proper Pictures of Website Quality
While it’s quick and convenient to quote PR, mozRank, and Alexa Rank (and many people pick just one), no single measure gives a full picture of website quality. As a mathematician I hate to say it, but the best tool for evaluating a site is still the human eye. Does the design look sharp? Is the navigation easy and intuitive? Is it actively updated? Most importantly, is it useful, funny, or interesting?
Numerical metrics are great, but they still need to be combined with the evaluation of a human being to be really informative. When you’re looking for a linking partner or evaluating a business opportunity online, always check the PR and the other ranks, but use your own judgement too. Sites that are obviously putting a lot of effort into content may start out ranking poorly but they’ll soon start to rise- just because a site has zero PR and low mozRank doesn’t mean it won’t make a good investment.
9 Steps to Successful SEO Copy
Posted by TimArends in Guest Posts, SEO on May 11, 2011
Website promoters know that most traffic comes from the search engines. They also know that two of the major factors that affect ranking in the engines are inbound links to one’s site and keywords. Significantly, these two factors work together: the keywords on your site tell search engines what your site is about, and the backlinks to your site tell them how important your site isThe combination of the two factors determine your relevance. And relevance is, of course, what the search engines are all about.
There’s been a lot of talk about HTML meta tags and their importance. It’s wise to view these meta tags almost as street signs, which is how the search engines look at them. Specifically, the keywords in the tags should match those in the copy or your site will not be indexed for those keywords. Of course, the engines also take into consideration how often the keywords are used on the page. You shouldn’t overuse keywords in your copy, but you should make sure that it at least contains them. The trick is to make your copy keyword rich but not to compromise readability. Readability is important to your visitors — after all, they are the ones who will buy your product or service.
Keep the following nine guidelines in mind and you will be better able to make the copy on your site appealing to both visitors and search engines.
1. Categorize your site
Keep the structure of your site in mind. If you structure your pages around certain benefits, it will be easier to categorize them by keyword. For example, if you have a site that sells handmade Macbook and iPad carrying cases, you could divide it into separate pages for Macs, iPads, iPhones and so on, then segment each section into the different models and capacities. This way, your narrowly focused pages will be able to target more specific keywords.
2. Find your keywords
Subscribe to www.wordtracker.com for a day, type in the key points of products you’ve identified on each page of your site, and analyze keywords your customers will use when they’re searching for your products. Naturally, these are the words you will want to use in your copy.
3. Use phrases rather than single words
Needless to say, there’s much more competition for single keywords than there are for longer key phrases. Research also shows that, as Internet users become more search savvy, they’re more likely to search for specific strings rather than individual words. They’re learning that they can find what they’re looking for much faster by being more specific. So think about what’s unique about your business. For example, if you sell handmade Macbook and iPad carrying cases, then use this as your primary keyword phrase. In this way you’ll have a better chance of ranking in the more targeted searches. WordTracker can help you find the most appropriate phrases.
4. Focus on the important phrases
Don’t try to include every possible keyword phrase that could relate to every page. Focus instead on one or two phrases per page. For example, for your Macbook cases page, you could focus on the phrase ” handmade Macbook carrying cases.” On your iPad cases page, focus on “handmade iPad cases.”
5. Get specific.
Don’t just say “our cases.” Instead, wherever you would normally use that phrase, use instead the phrase “our iPad carrying cases.” Be careful though. Never sacrifice readability for keyword placement or you will risk annoying your visitors.
6. Put your keyword phrases in your links.
Tie your pages together with text links so that the search engines will see that the pages are related. For example, on the bottom of your “handmade iPad carrying cases” you would include a text link to your “handmade Macbook carrying cases” page. You can also include a similar link within the body of the page. For example, “In addition to offering handmade iPad carrying cases, we also offer handmade Macbook carrying cases” with the relevant phrases being links.
7. Use key phrases in your headings.
As you probably know, headings help readers to scan your website, but they help the search engines too, since they assign more value to phrases that are marked with the heading tag. Therefore, be sure to include your key phrases in your headings as well.
8. Don’t worry about keyword density
This may seem surprising, but I do not think you should pay too much attention to the keyword density of your text. This is because concentrating on keyword density almost inevitably results in poor quality copy. Fortunately, if you follow the other tips in this article, obsessing over keyword density will be unnecessary.
9. Write, write, write!
This may seem obvious, but copy really is king! If writing is a chore for you, consider using a voice dictation program like Dragon Dictate for Mac or Dragon NaturallySpeaking for PC. This allows you to write just as quickly as you can speak. Of course, careful proofreading will be necessary, but this is true no matter how you create your content, and many people find dictating much easier and mor natural than speaking.
These guidelines will help to ensure good search engine optimization for your copy. The main thing you want to do is find a balance between copy that is written for the search engines and that which is written for your real human visitors. In the final analysis, the latter always takes precedence over the former.
When the Google honeymoon is over, the keyword fight begins!
Posted by Daniel Snyder in Keyword Research, SEO on April 11, 2011
Ah, Google. The Search giant that SEO “experts” around the world love to pretend they understand. As the years go by Google evolves, their search algorithms change, and it becomes apparent that very few really know anything about their complex search algorithms. Google is in fact very cautious about what they say and confirm about the way their search engine works, and some of the more complex theories can only be speculated about. Starting in 2004 the debate about the google sandbox has raged around the web, though it is now generally believed that the sandbox is a myth, and google has more or less denied its existence. It is still not unusual to run into webmasters who believe their site has become ‘lost in the sandbox’. This confusion around the way google operates has led to hundreds of speculative articles and so called SEO Experts who pretend they know what they’re talking about and offer advice based on their speculative opinions.
The Google Sandbox is a myth. What about the google honeymoon?
A recent google phenomenon that I’ve been hearing about is the “Google Honeymoon”. The essence of the google honeymoon is this. New sites are receiving unusually high ranking in the SERPs for their targeted keywords. This temporary honeymoon period can last for an unpredictable period of time (anywhere from 2-8 weeks, so I’ve heard), and after the honeymoon is over the site drops in the SERPs to a more realistic or natural position.
I have read differing opinions on the google honeymoon as individuals speculate on its existence, how it works and what its purpose may be. I have my own opinions as well, but remember it’s ridiculous for anyone to assume they know what google is up to.
Three theories as to why the google honeymoon exists:
1. Google may use the honeymoon as a way to get trending topics or news in to the top of the results pages. Google is assuming that new content is more relevant than older content, so it artificially inflates the position of new content in the SERPs. I think this theory is bogus. Google has clearly communicated over the years that they want to promote quality content. Pushing anything intentionally to the top of the SERPs, especially content that has not yet proven itself or demonstrated that it is authoritative is completely contradictory to google’s traditional modas operandi.
2. The google honeymoon is designed as a method to gather information and statistics such as CTR (click-thru-rate). It’s a quick shot at fame for a new site in order for google to assess whether the content of the site is valuable and whether or not it is matching the keywords and drawing clicks. I think this theory is even more bogus than the first one. Again reiterating my point above, I can simply not see google ever associating themselves with behavioral statistics in this manner. Pushing unproven content to the top of the SERPs is totally against anything google has ever declared publicly.
3. The site is actually ranking naturally, but as google assesses it, the site drops in the SERPs based on a varying number of factors. I agree with this theory the most. By agreeing with this theory I am actually offering up a whole new opinion, and here it is…
The google honeymoon is not a specific part of the google algorithm but rather a natural side effect.
Google is always at work on their top secret search engine algorithms, the most recent “Panda Update” caused many sites to drop severely in the SERPS (sites who according to google are lacking in quality content). There are a ton of speculations about what kind of content google is interested in promoting, but rather than speculating let’s hear from google directly. Google’s goal with search is this “Our goal is to return highly relevant results for every query.”
Why would a site suddenly drop in the SERPs?
- One part of the Panda Update is that Google has knocked sites with too many banners or affiliate ads (links) and seriously dropped their rankings.
- Too much backlinking too soon. These links could appear as unnatural to google and will affect a sites position in the SERPs.
- Not enough variation in anchor text, again google sees this as unnatural.
- Duplicate content. Even spun articles can have tracers in them that google could potentially spot.
The Panda update was all about rewarding sites with original and unique content. Content that google would consider as authoritative and content which is easily classified as highly relevant.
My Experience with the Google Honeymoon Effect
I launched a niche site at the end of February which ranked quite well in its first six weeks. I was targeting 3 primary keywords and 7 longtail keywords, and they were all ranking well, many of them were in the top 10 and a few of them were in the top 3 results. By the way if you think your keywords are doing well, they may not be doing as well as you think, read this article to find out the number one mistake website owners make when assessing their keyword ranking.
The niche domain was brand new and all SEO efforts were undertaken by myself. From the on page SEO to various link building tactics (including web 2.0 properties, social bookmarking, site commenting, obtaining some .edu and .gov backlinks, link wheels etc.). Suddenly at the end of the sites 7th week and in only a 24 hour period of time all my targeted keywords went from their well placed position on the first page to completely out of the top 100. To believe that this is the cause of an algorithm on a timer that suddenly went *ding* and said “your time is up, the honeymoon is over, your site is now going to rank more naturally, hope you enjoyed your five minutes of fame.” is absurd and ridiculous. The drop in the SERPs must be explained more logically, for whatever reason google has determined that the site is not worthy of ranking that well. Perhaps the backlinking methods were far too unnatural for google, and the site has been temporarily ‘penalized’. Perhaps google has determined the content of the site is designed for only one reason, to push a reader onto another website (to generate affiliate sales). Whatever the reason, as a webmaster I can not give up. I don’t expect google will be letting me know what happened any time soon. For now I suppose I’m a recipient victim of what I now call the google honeymoon effect. Though it is a setback, it is not the end of the site. Developing some original content, slowing up on my link building tactics, and ensuring that the built out links are more natural will cause the site to rise back up naturally over time. Remember time is a significant factor in the value and ranking of a site, the older the domain the more established and authoritative a site is considered by google. New domains should anticipate a lot of movement in the SERPs.
Is the google honeymoon an aspect of google’s search algorithms or something far less sinister, and more along the lines of what I propose simply a natural side effect. Sound off: What’s your opinion on the google honeymoon?
You think your keywords are ranking well, but are they really?
Posted by Daniel Snyder in Keyword Research, Marketing, SEO on April 1, 2011
Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The topic of keyword ranking for the first page in google’s search results is super popular, and lately I’m always reading articles about how I ranked page one of google in only 5 days or other similarly titled stories. The biggest mistake people make when determining how well they are ranking for their keywords is in not using any tools to properly identify their placement in the SERPs. I made the same mistakes for a long time, until I became aware of some trade secrets and important tools that will help any blog or website owner determine their actual ranking in the search engine results pages.
Think you’re ranking on page number 1? Think again.
Just searching google for your keyword phrase is NOT the best way to find out how you’re ranking. In fact the results can be completely misleading. Whether you are aware of it or not, you probably have a google account and you’re probably logged in right now. Any searches you do in google will display skewed search results customized for you and based on your search and web history. Didn’t you find it a little curious that your own website was always coming up so high in the SERPs? Perhaps you thought your on-page SEO was that good! The reality is that unfortunately google knows a lot more about you than you think, and the results you’re getting are NOT the results the rest of the world gets when they search that keyword or keyword phrase. At the very least, log out of your google account and try the same search again. You may be surprised at how different the results are. In order to rank at all you may first want to learn some in-post SEO techniques, take a look at this article about Moving up in the SERPs.
So how do I find out where my keywords are really ranking?
Three Useful Tools to gauge your keyword ranking in the SERPs
- There are a number of tools available that will measure and even track your keywords and where they are ranking. One of the best, and the one I am using is SEScout. SEScout is free and all you have to do is set up an account, enter your domain name and up to 10 keywords that you are tracking, and SEScout will collect data from google and bing, let you know where those keyword(s) are ranking and also let you know any up or down movement. (You can track more than one domain and a whole lot more keywords if you register as a paid user)
- The well known marketing tool Market Samurai also features a rank checking tool (in the paid version only), that will also let you know how your keywords are performing in various search engines.
- SEOBook is another very useful site, and they also offer a browser toolbar which has a ton of fantastic SEO related tools built right into it, including an SEOXray (which analyzes the on-page SEO of any page you’re looking at), keyword highlighting, nofollow link highlighting, site comparison, and of course a keyword rank checker.
The Real Truth about first page Click Through Rates and Keyword Ranking
Research shows that only a little more than half of searches result in any clicks at all (read more on this). Let’s create an example, say you are trying to rank for a keyword phrase that receives 50,000 searches in a month (that’s a lot!). It would be fair to say that about 30,000 of those searches will be clicked through on the first page of google’s search results. If you are ranking number one you’ll likely get about 16908 of those clicks. Ranking number two will land you 4035 clicks, and ranking number three will earn you 3054 clicks. These are respectable numbers for sure, if you are able to get to any one of those top three spots you’ll be driving a fair amount of traffic to your site. But after the third position the numbers drop off significantly. Position four would only get about 1200 clicks, and the ninth slot would earn about 435 clicks. Interesting to note that the 10th position get’s more clicks than the ninth. Take a look at the chart below to get a graphic representation of the click through rate on the top 10 SERP spots.
image source
Now the above example assumed you were attempting to rank for a keyword that got 50,000 monthly searches! That’s a going to be a highly competitive keyword, and the competition is going to be fierce. It is unlikely (if not impossible) that any new domain or any person attempting to rank well for a keyword with that many monthly searches could do it successfully in any short period of time. What is much more realistic is targeting keywords that get about 2-10,000 searches a month.
1 Click every 3 days, what!?!? The reality of the numbers.
Here’s the (sad) numbers for a keyword I’m attempting to rank for on one of my niche sites. The keyword receives about 720 monthly searches. We can immediately assume then that the first page of results will get about 390 clicks in a 30 day period. I’m currently ranking 8th on google for this particular keyword. The eighth slot gets about 2.91% of clicks, so that means about 11.3 clicks per month for me. Which if I break it down even more is about 1 click every 3 days. Ouch! Now if I did well and managed to get that keyword phrase up to slot number one I would get 219 clicks per month or 7.3 clicks per day. Yep, that’s it. Is it worth it? Is that a keyword to target. You have to measure that for yourself.
Successfully Ranking First Page in the SERPS: not all that exciting sometimes
There is a lot of hype around ranking first page in google results, and often times the numbers look big. Too often people are caught up in looking at the number of monthly searches. Just like the example above when you are looking at data you’ll see numbers like that (720 monthly searches), that sounds respectable, but too often website owners fail to compute the data, and analyze just how many clicks that may mean for them. Honestly it is NOT HARD AT ALL to get on the first page of search results in google. The secret everyone is after is getting in the top 3 results for a highly competitive keyword that will actually drive a lot of traffic. Boasting about ranking on the first page doesn’t mean a whole lot without significant traffic numbers to back it up. I could have written an article about how I got my keyword phrase to rank on the first page of google in only 5 days, but if you found out that the click through rate was about one click every three days you wouldn’t have been very impressed would you?
I hope you found this article informative and helpful in your keyword analysis and SEO endeavors. Share your thoughts on keyword ranking.
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