Search Engine Journal wrote a pretty good article about bad SEO practices. Really a good article – and I’m not kidding. It is good. But…
Of course the #8 bad habit is: Focusing on Keyword Rankings as the Main Measurement of Success
Yes I agree fundamentally, but the supporting rational is the problem, the 3 bullet points below are weak.
Here is the except:
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In a world of personalization, location tracking, web history, and now voice search, keyword rankings don’t always give us a true picture of how we are doing.
People use a wide variety of queries to search for products and answers.
I’m not saying that you ignore keyword rankings, but what I am saying is that you have to start diving deeper into the data.
- What type of traffic are you getting?
- What are the conversions?
- Are people engaging with your website?
These are the questions you should be answering.
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Hmmm…just those 3 THINGS, huh? Did someone forget to ask; “What if you don’t rank?” You get NO traffic.
- Type of traffic: if you get NO traffic, what TYPE of traffic is NON SEQUITIR!
- Conversion: if you get NO traffic, there is NO conversion!
- Engagement: if you get NO traffic, there is NO ENGAGEMENT!
Look. These articles are usually about shifting the focus from ranking to other things. But if you don’t rank, everything else if MEANINGLESS. Those OTHER 3 THINGS are always easier to handle as an agency than actually getting your client to rank in search results. Aren’t they?