Keyword rankings are not the exclusive of performance indicators for a website. In fact, rankings can display a skewed picture of what’s truly taking place in your digital marketing campaign.
The idea is straightforward – you decide on a phrase that embodies your product or service, and then work to start ranking for those phrases.
Let’s say your website offers details on your Smartphone Screen Repair Company in Boston, Massachusetts.
Logically, you will want to rank high for the key phrase “smartphone screen repair in Boston.”
You optimize your meta descriptions and title tags, you create blog posts that are specifically worded to include the perfect amount of keyword density, you create links on important websites in the smartphone screen repair community, get listed on screen repair directories, and begin a strong social media presence, all in an attempt to rank higher for that search term.
After all of this work, congratulations, it worked! You now rank the first page for “smartphone screen repair in Boston!”
The problem is, you’re not noticing much of a gain in your organic traffic or your company’s bottom line.
What went wrong?
The reason that your plan did not succeed is because you started with the wrong goal.
Keyword rankings are just an indicator, they are not the only thing that is important. When you prioritize rankings as your main focus, you end up overlooking what your potential consumers actually want. Click To TweetSo what do your prospective customers want?
Well, they don’t have an interest in what you think they want to see. They want help with their problems and issues.
So, this leads to the important question: “how are you going to help them?”
Begin by evaluating what search terms are working for your website currently. An analysis of various clients exhibited that much of the organic traffic currently existing was grouped into three main groups:
1. Potential consumers with questions and requests for help
People use the internet as a means to find solutions to their problems, and you will gain their spending dollars and loyalty when you provide the ability to help them solve those issues.
What are the questions you usually hear from your current customers? I bet it’s not “Do you have replacement smartphone screens?”
But, if that’s the keyword you’ve exclusively focused on, then that is the question you are answering.
It’s more typical to witness long-tail keyword terms being searched such as: “How much does it cost to install a replacement screen on my smartphone?” or “What’s the correct way to replace a smartphone screen?”
Since you won’t be able to anticipate all of the questions that a consumer will potentially ask, it’s very challenging to create a comprehensive index of keywords to keep track of this kind of web traffic.
The solution for this is to increase your online presence. Present yourself as a thought leader in the locations where viewers are talking about your industry. Interact with consumers on social media, participate in promotions and events that bring attention to your brand in a general way, not just in association to one specific keyword or offering.
2. Potential consumers searching for product reviews
Since we can now plug into the capital of human experience and knowledge through a device the size of our hand, figuring out what consumers have to say about a particular product or service has become extremely easy.
When was the last time you didn’t look at product reviews before making a significant purchase? By taking a look at websites such as Ebay.com or Amazon.com it is easy to see how much consumers enjoy sharing their opinions. You can take advantage of this by staying current on the latest products, services, and trends in your specified industry, and incorporating that information on your website.
3. Potential consumers who were already aware of the business and searched for it by name
This is a fantastic situation to see. It reflects that you have achieved success in building a brand that potential consumers recognize, retain, and look for. The question now changes to: “how do you influence more consumers to search for you by name?”
Ranking Incompatibility
Ranking categories are all very broad and cannot be enclosed in a set of search phrases.
Rankings by themselves will not reveal how successful you have been at reaching and converting these traffic sources. Click To TweetSo, What are Rankings Good For?
Keyword rankings perform an important function, and a carefully planned and cultivated keyword list is vital for any successful marketing campaign.
However, instead of centralizing around them, use them as an indicator instead. Generate a list of terms that showcases your most profitable offers. You will continually adjust this list as time goes on, and it will illustrate to you how your overall efforts are being received by the digital community, both by search engines and users.
For help with keyword research, check out our article: “How To Do Keyword Research Like A Boss”
Additionally, you need to monitor the continually shifting list of top performing keywords over a given period of time, whether this is weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. How closely does it match the keyword list you have created? What outliers do you see on the list? What segments of your website are lacking in these keywords?
This is crucial knowledge that can help to guide your entire marketing platform. When you examine the keywords that your consumers are using, you earn insight into the specifics that drive traffic in your industry at this time. The gain of this information is extremely more valuable and profitable than just going off the assumption that you already know which keywords are searched by users most often.
By performing these actions your company gains the ability to reach and stay at the top of the online conversation in your industry, presenting your potential consumers with the things they are currently looking for.
The Bottom Line
DO NOT get caught up in the arms race of being number one for all of the keywords you have chosen to use.
It is all too common that a company wastes valuable resources and time on a campaign that will not actually benefit their bottom line in the ways that they expect it to. Ultimately is your company’s main focus ranking the highest for keywords, or is it obtaining new customers and making more money?
It is illogical to focus on a few specific keywords if your company’s goal is to increase sales. You can begin to dominate keyword areas by taking a website-wide approach leading to extremely more sustainable and lucrative results.
You must utilize ranking tools and keywords in a way that benefits your company.
If you think seems like an enormous task, you would be correct. This process will require attention, time, effort and expertise. Fortunately help is available. At AdInfusion.com we have assembled a team of experts eager to help by providing you with a free customized website report and our expert advice on how we can aid you in reaching your goals.
We look forward to working with you and your company and helping to guide you towards a profitable year!
