We all love good search engine rankings. But one thing I’ve been realizing more and more lately is that we need to stop treating search engine rankings as if they are the goal of our online marketing efforts. In fact, too many people are running the wrong race. Rankings are not the goal, they are the trophy of a job well done. [Tweet This]
Let’s take a step back and think about this a bit. Google’s primary goal is to deliver relevant websites in their search results. And how do they know they are relevant? Not because they use the keyword, though that helps. No, they know a site is relevant because the world at large has already voted. They vote with links, with social media, with conversions, or by investing time on the site.
Website architecture and keyword optimization are an important part of search engine optimization, but one big aspect of those things is to ensure search engines can asses the site properly. The other major aspect is all about the visitors: creating an experience that matches and exceeds their expectations and making sure they find the information they need to ultimately decide to do business with you.
When Google can look at the date and use that to determine that you’ve won, you have earned top search engine rankings as your trophy. But if you’re not meeting your visitor’s needs, it doesn’t matter how “optimized” your site is. You won’t get the trophy. Period.
So stop looking at rankings as the goal and just consider them a reward for a job well done. When you do that, you begin to start running the race for pleasing visitors and customers. Not only will you start seeing your sales grow, but you just might get the Google trophy!