There Should Be More to your SEO Consultant Than Rankings By David Leonhardt, SEO ConsultantPerhaps one of
biggest misconceptions in SEO is that ranking at Google and Yahoo is all that counts in search engine optimization. Potential clients come to me with a single goal: "Get me a top-ten ranking at Google." Some will also mention MSN, and a few will rhyme off a list of search engines and want to rank well at top 200 of them.
It is time to separate fact from fiction.
Yes, your SEO consultant can get you a top-ten placement at Google. But...
1.If placement is for "dirty brown shoes", it probably won't help your shoe store one bit, even if I get you first place ranking. Few people are actually searching for that term.
2.Being number ten might not help much either, depending on term. People searching for "Essential Nectar liquid vitamins", will probably click on first result they see, or at least on one of "above-the-fold" results that do not require scrolling. On other hand, someone searching for "liquid vitamins" might check through two pages of results to familiarize herself with options available.
3.If your title tag reads like a cheap list of search terms, it will not be enticing. For instance, if it reads: "vitamins, liquid vitamins, multivitamins, multi-vitamins", you might skip over it in favor of next result that reads "Liquid vitamins from Liquid Vitamin Supplements Store".
4.If your description tag is a mess, people will more likely skip over your listing, even if it does rank number one, in favor of one that sounds like what they are looking for. Google and others use description tag usually when term searched for is found in it, so make sure to include your key search terms in a description tag that actually reads well.
I recently responded to a forum question, which went something like this: My site ranks number one for this term at this engine. The term is searched this many times per day, and engine has this percentage marketshare. Can I expect this many visitors?
