Is it Silly to Think Rankings Build Businesses?
Everybody I speak with is always so worried about where their website ranks in the search engines. To many times I speak with someone and they feel like their business is just going to sky rocket when they get onto that first page for a certain keyword they want to rank for. Yes rankings are important but they are not the reason why websites are successful. It is important for businesses and website owners to really understand that having a website rank does not equate to a successful business. Building a business online through a variety of proactive marketing efforts including search engine optimization is how you get your online business really growing.
Building an online business is simply that, a business. Finding loopholes in the search algorithm and pouncing on them does not help a website grow and prosper. All the major search engines are slowly closing those loop holes and leaving the flood gates wide open for websites and business owners that are looking to proactively brand themselves online the right way. I receive many calls from people asking me why their site does not get more conversions when it ranks on page one of a search result for their chosen keyword. They claim the website ranks well but nothing happens. Websites do not grow from rankings alone. This is where SEO has encountered a fundamental flaw in its life cycle. Too many people focus all their attention on rankings and not the actual process of building a business. Many out there practicing SEO have this theory that marketing a business is a direct reflection from search engine rankings. It is important to understand that the buying habits and patterns of all audiences across every vertical market are changing. The recent economic climate has caused many industries to change their buying behaviors. It has caused potential buyers to look at things in a new light before making any type of purchase or inquiry.
Online businesses are no different than any other type of business in the sense that buyers more so than ever require reassurance before they purchase anything and this happens with proactive branding. If a website owner approaches their website with marketing in mind the rankings will follow naturally over time. Assuming a website is already optimized the link building should be approached with marketing as the number one priority. Putting marketing as the main ingredient in any link building campaign allows a business to really build their brand and generate the right type of visitors. Website visitors are slowly starting to realize that even organic rankings don’t really mean that your business is the right business to do work with. Potential clients want to see your brand on sites like Facebook and Twitter being active in the community building trust for yourself or your brand. Trust is very important for potential customers and can only be obtained through proactive online SEO marketing.
17 Responses to “Is it Silly to Think Rankings Build Businesses?”
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Nick,
These are great insights! Too many people are obsessed with what they can achieve in the rankings. Rankings don’t convert, websites do! Even if you’re in an industry where getting on page 1 would be difficult for the most popular terms, there are many ways to drive traffic to your site. I agree – focus on your overall marketing strategy, of which organic search/SEO is only a part.
It is certainly part of it. Every study I have read indicates people will not go beyond the first two pages of search results.
Therefore, it certainly helps to have your company come up on one of those pages. It gives a company a chance to be found.
That is only part it, as I said Such things as third party endorsements are very important.
Nick,
This is absolutely true – think of the brand and use the site to build trust. You said it well, “The recent economic climate has caused many industries to change their buying behaviors. It has caused potential buyers to look at things in a new light before making any type of purchase or inquiry.” There is so much information out there, no one even buys a pair of shoes any more without extensive research. The “buyer” is in a kingdom, with the ultimate power of, “No.” You have to answer the unspoken questions raised in the decision making process – and give naturally compelling reasons for the “Yes.”
Thanks everyone for the excellent additional comments! The key is to build your business online one step at a time…
At the end of the day, planning for the long haul is an integral part of the web planning. The short sighted victories of top rankings, regardless of the costs, take the eye off of the prize.
Hi Mike,
Great point about keeping the eye off of the prize with short sighted view points…I wish more people could understand that simple but key point!
Well said Nick!
I guess we have all been a bit guilty of jumping on the bandwagon with this one. There are no shortcuts to ranking, rightly so, and it should only be achieved by trustworthy and quality content over a reasonable period of time.
Keep it up,
Regards
Rifki
Hi Rifki,
Thanks for the comment…yeah I wish people really understood that there are no real shortcuts for SEO…
I totally agree with you on this Nick [like I have started to do on many SEO issues]…building out the full scope of SEO is more important than ever. Being at the top of the SEs is not the end of the road. Well done sir.
Alton j.
Hi Alton,
Thanks for your comment and for reading!
Great article, it gives a better understanding about the important role that link building plays in in driving costomers to my site.
Hi Gary,
Thanks for reading, glad the post helped!
Sage advice as always, sir!
No question, I can say through personal experience of my business growth that rankings alone are inadequate for total success. They still make me tingle though!
Just like you can not have a successful brick and mortar business without both brick AND mortar…and inventory and systems, and policies, and etc., etc., you can not build a web business just on rankings. Seems only logical when you consider that life in general is too complex for any individual aspect to be the only necessary ingredient for success.
As always, many thanks for generating a sensible, honest dialogue on this often over-hyped subject.
Lorraine
Hi Lorraine,
Great point and analogy comparing rankings to brick and mortar inventory, systems, etc…as always thanks for being such a great loyal reader
If you are getting visitors but no sales conversions, it’s time to do some split-testing or try this: find 10-20 sites that sell the same products and/or services that you sell. Compile them and then get as many people as you can to rate which one they would choose to do business with. The more people that participate, the better. Then emulate the “winning” site. Including testimonials, credentials, awards, community and charitable organizations that you are a member of, and especially photos and videos of the principals of the business all go a long way in building trust.
Oh, and let’s not forget the importance of answering the phone and how the phone is answered!!! Your receptionist can gain or lose sales for you if she doesn’t have good phone answering skills.
Hi Sally,
Very true and great points! Especially about the skills and touch point of answering the phone properly…it is the total package for sure! Thanks again for stopping by!