When Being Number One Ceases to Be Adequate (or Even Relevant)

June 6, 2009 by Butterfly Filed under: SEO

Companies looking for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services, invariably approach SEO companies, individuals and other entities with a solitary goal – to make their companies Number One against particular search terms that they specify to the search engine optimizers. In their quest for Numero Uno status, they fail to realize the significantly more important value of using the right keywords. For instance, if yours is a company that sells jewelery online, and you are Number one on the search string, “Mickey Mouse”, it is highly unlikely that your Number one status on that particular search term would be of any use to you. Therefore, before you embark on a particular SEO campaign for your company, think about the goals that you wish to achieve through the entire exercise. Think way beyond just attaining Number one status on a particular set of keywords, even if they seem relevant.

For instance, pay heed to the conversion rates of the visitors, as well as their relevance to your business. To elaborate, suppose you have got the keyword sets right. Continuing the above example, you have managed to attain Number one status on the keyword search string “Pearl Jewelery from India”, whereby you happen to be actually selling pearl jewelry from India. Are you actually analyzing the visitor pattern of your website? Perhaps, the profile of your visitors in such a case, is that they do come by your website, but eventually do not make a purchase. You need to analyze the reasons behind such unexpected and undesirable (at least from your point of view!) customer behavior. Perhaps the design or the look and feel of your website is not impressive enough for them to actually make a purchase. Perhaps your credibility, as perceived through your website, does not seem strong enough for visitors to fulfill their purchase plans. There is also the possibility that your ‘Privacy Policy’ does not seem strong enough. Perhaps your purchase form is so long and elaborate that your prospective customers feel daunted to go through with the purchase. Last, but not the least, you may either not be providing adequate payment options to customers or the security on your website may not be strong enough for customers to feel secure with their data. As you can see, the possibilities are endless, and in quite a few of them, SEO has simply nothing to do. Therefore, it is critical that you pay heed to all the numerous factors that may be dissuading sales on your website, and not look at SEO as the sole savior and enabler of all the online sales that you wish to make.

Yet another factor that I have observed many companies ignoring is the relevance of the search engines to the geographies where they intend to be selling. For instance, in China, being Number one on Google may not be very useful, where the ‘Baidu’ search engine is far more popular. Similarly, for many other non-native English speaking countries where international search engines may not be as popular as the local ones. At the same time, you must have your pulse on your prospective clientele completely; there could also be the possibility that visitors coming in through Baidu may not be as strongly likely to make a purchase as those coming in through Google, in China. In this case, even with a smaller gross number of visitors, visitors coming in through Google would warrant much more attention as they would be the ones with the much needed purchasing ability and willingness.

Therefore, consider all of the numerous factors surrounding visits to your site, and the ensuing sales on it, before you embark on an ambitious SEO plan.