Business owners have been battling for the number one rankings on search engines for years, and while there is a benefit to ranking number one in Google and other search engines, there are more important things to focus on. When you consider how much competition there is for the number one spot, you can easily see how much time, energy, and resources someone could expend trying to outrank their competitors.
In the past, ranking number one on search engines was the most important priority, because that spot received about 32.5 percent of search traffic, while the second position would get only about 17.6 percent of traffic. After the third position, web traffic dropped significantly.
Now, however, organic rankings aren’t always the most noticeable results on the page. With Google’s local 3-pack, Knowledge Graph box, and rich answers, searchers aren’t always clicking on the number one ranking website on the search results page. These new search entries are often more eye-catching, and they get more clicks than the number one ranking page in the Google search.
Additionally, keywords are now even harder to target than they were before. You need to find a selection of keywords that have a lot of traffic without much in the way of competition, but that isn’t easy in today’s world. Plus, keywords in the context of SEO have changed a bit. Instead of looking for exact matches, Google looks for the most relevant content, even if it doesn’t have the most exact keyword matches. For this reason, updating your SEO strategy is critical.
Are Google Rankings Important at All?
Rankings on search engines do still matter, but that doesn’t mean that you should be hung up on ranking number one. If you are in the top-ranking spot, that’s great. However, it isn’t always an option, and it isn’t as important as it used to be. You don’t want to focus so much on ranking number one. Instead, it is more important to focus on leads and sales.
Factors You Should Really Be Focusing On
As a business owner, you want leads and sales. This means that you need to stop thinking about the short-term goal of ranking number one on Google and more on the long-term goal of customer acquisition. When you start to focus on customer acquisition, the metric you are most concerned with is the cost per sale. This metric measures how much you paid to get one sale, and it is beneficial for both SEO and PPC campaigns.
For some businesses, a $20 cost per sale is great, but if your products or services don’t sell for a lot more than $20, then that isn’t a great cost per sale for your business. You need to determine what an appropriate cost per sale is for your company and products.
At the end of the day, you want to maximize your ROI or the amount of money you are driving from search. You will want to employ a strategy that allows you to show up as often as possible on Google and the rest of the Internet to get leads and new customers.
If you can rank number one on Google without spending a lot of money and other resources, that’s great! But don’t stress yourself out or spend a ridiculous amount of money just to get that first ranking on Google when you can put that money to better use and make more money from it.
What is the Best Strategy?
Determining the best SEO strategy for Google rankings may be a little different than the best strategy for leads and sales. However, it is still important that you work hard to rank on search engines because search engines are the easiest way for potential customers to find you. You don’t necessarily need to worry about hitting the top spot. However, you will want to land on the first page.
There are other things that you should do to make sure that you are maximizing leads. One way is to improve your click-through rate because your click-through rate has a direct impact on conversations. This means that the better your CTR, the better your conversion rates will be. To improve your CTR, you should have a clickable title tag and meta description, which can help you receive more clicks than other websites in the search engine results.
A catchy headline is another way that you can get people to choose you over the other websites on the results page. Finding an interesting headline that hits an emotional chord could be the best way to get more clicks than your competitors.
Placing your calls to action in the appropriate places on your landing pages can also benefit your leads. When you are thinking about your CTAs, you want to create an “F” shape on your page. When you place your CTAs in the correct place, you are more likely to generate leads. You can even use tools to track where your website users are clicking the most, and then you can adjust the design of your website and CTA placement accordingly.
Writing blog posts can also help you get more leads to your website. In fact, if you start ramping up the number of blog posts that you write each month, then you will have a better chance of ranking higher on Google, which can lead to more users landing on your website.
To learn more about SEO strategies that can help you build new leads, contact Rank Fuse at 913-703-7265. Our team of SEO experts can develop a strategy that is customized to your business and website’s needs. Speak to one of our experts today.
