Top Rankings? Traffic? Both?

Filed under: Linking, Search Engines, Traffic by mike |

Why do you do what you do? Do you want TOP RANKINGS???

Do you want TRAFFIC???

Ideally you want BOTH!

One is not good without the other!

In our quest to build successful web sites with lots of keyword packed content, we often get sidetracked and spend time on things that aren’t really doing much in the way of ROI.

Return on Investment

ROI is not just for ad spending like PPC – it’s also a “return on investment for time spent on a task” or if you like acronyms – let’s call it ROIFTSOAT.

The reason I bring this up is that I regularly see Article Underground members targeting keyword phrases that are either TOO EASY or TOO HARD.

The keywords that are too easy usually bring in very little traffic – even with a number one ranking.

The keywords that are very hard to rank for (on the first page of Google) also usually bring in little or no traffic unless you’re ranked near the top. These ULTRA competitive keywords can be almost impossible to get a top ranking for! Everybody wants to be on page one!

What I am trying to convey here is that it’s not where you RANK or what you are targeting that veryoften will bring in the most traffic and make you the most money.

In fact – if we’d slow down and snoop around our stats a bit we would most likely find that there are MANY keywords bringing us traffic that we have NOT targeted.

I’m not saying web publishers shouldn’t target keywords with low traffic or extremely high traffic volume – I’m just suggesting that we remember the purpose of putting up our pages and loading them with great keywords and then going out there and getting links pointing at them is for the purpose of bringing TRAFFIC to the pages.

It’s more important to get traffic than meaningless rankings.

If we’d study our stats a bit we’d see all kinds of unusual keyword phrases. There are many weird combinations of words. People search in crazy ways some times and our web pages get traffic from top rankings on keyword phrases we may never realize are on our sites.

The moral to this story is to OPEN OUR EYES and find what is bringing us traffic. Identify the keywords and then find out WHERE the traffic comes from.

If we see we are getting 25 visitors a day and we’re ranking #45 on Google for a phrase – all we need to do to increase the traffic is boost our ranking up above #45.

And if we’re getting traffic for being #9 on a page – imagine the boost we’ll get if we can move our ranking to #5 OR #2 OR #1!!!

So – do you want top rankings or traffic or both???

Comments (48)

48 Comments »

I suppose that I am guilty like many others for not keeping a close eye on my stats and working to improve the results.
So you have provided me with a good reminder.Traffic has always been my weak point so anything I can do to improve that is always welcome.

Comment by Roy Miller — November 28, 2009 @ 5:16 pm
Hey Mike, a happy weekend to you too!

Very simple strategy (and I already knew this). Unfortunately, I fogot.

A famous advertising statement is (not sure of the exact quote); “sometimes people don’t need to be told but they do need to be reminded.

Thank you for reminding me of this traffic generator.

Bob Pardue
<a href=http://"http://www.bobpardue.com" SC modeling portfolios photographer

Comment by Bob Pardue — November 28, 2009 @ 5:22 pm
Hi I totally agree with your article I have been putting up articles for about 2 months now and some of them did nothing but some did bring in some small change.I started researching the keyword phrases and changing them a little.It did help some but I am still making peanuts after posting about 80 articles with adsense and affiliate ads.I will take your advice and try and pump up the keywords that are working but its not as easy as some may make it sound.

Comment by tom — November 28, 2009 @ 5:48 pm
Your so right, when i publish pages within my sites i new it was a great idea to optmize them for other keywords, google ranks pages, not sites great post mike

Comment by steve — November 28, 2009 @ 6:15 pm
Great post. Sometimes it is the little things that make all the difference.

Comment by Tim — November 28, 2009 @ 6:46 pm
Yep… We all need to be reminded on occasion – even of things we know :’>

Comment by Mike — November 28, 2009 @ 9:16 pm
Great post Mike. It is very easy to forget to go back and look at your stats on what can improve your traffic. It is these little things that if done on a regular basis will always improve our sites.

Comment by Terry@BloodSugarMonitors — November 28, 2009 @ 9:19 pm
You know, I do look at my traffic stats everyday but I really haven’t analyzed them for their keyword ranking. It’s such a simple concept and it was one of the main things they teach when you start your program but how easily we forget when we move further along into our programs. Thank you for the reminder. I’m going to go back through each page and evaluate my keywords.

Comment by Michelle — November 28, 2009 @ 9:31 pm
Mike – Do you use anything besides google analytics to analyze stats, like webtrends or ? ..anyone else use anything they are having great results with? Thanks

Comment by Deb — November 28, 2009 @ 9:49 pm
Stats reveals what keyword visitor used to reach the page and it is very important to check stats very often to see how we can tweak the pages to get to first page of google .

Comment by jamesqq smith — November 28, 2009 @ 10:06 pm
Hi Mike,

Your post makes a lot of sense but like anything else things don’t exactly work the way they should.

For example the crazy keywords people sometimes put in which find our site would hardly make sense on a page. If the phrase is not making sense it would look silly in the content.

But you are very right about the futility of being on the first page if there is no traffic to speak of.

I wonder if you’d consider having comment luv and keyword luv plug in installed in this blog. They give better links than just a dofollow.

Vance

Comment by Vance Sova — November 28, 2009 @ 10:36 pm
Does anybody know how long it takes Google to react to keyword changes? I review my stats (Awstats and Analytics) on nearly a daily basis, look at the popular keyword phrases and often tweak my page keywords accordingly, but it seems to make no difference to my (low) traffic. Backlinks are quite good (too many ‘0′though, and not enough ‘3′ let alone ‘4′)and my direct referals from articles are also quite good. I suspect that Google also makes changes organically, ie slowly. Am I right?

Comment by Kieran Gracie — November 29, 2009 @ 6:19 am
Hi M.Mike as Always you have some great tips to share and Tweet about it because i think we all want Traffic and Top Ranking for our Site, but some time we forgot to do go back and look at your stats.

Take Care and Thanks

Eric

Comment by Eric — November 29, 2009 @ 6:26 am
Thanks for an easy-to-follow plan for better traffic, Mike. Many of us don’t take the time to study our stats, forgetting that this is one of the easiest ways to up traffic.

Comment by Rika Susan's Free Laminate Flooring Buyer's Guide — November 29, 2009 @ 6:35 am
Hi Mike
I find it amusing looking at the phrases used by searchers to get to my site. It seems most of them can’t spell – their grammar is appalling, I get visitors for keyword phrases that I wasn’t aware that I even had i.e. not targeted.
I have some no1 and 2 search positions for my new site – but even so – I don’t get much traffic.
Isn’t SEO wonderful?
So your article certainly hits home!
regards
Graham in UK
P.S. I’ve got good reactions from people who do visit my site.

Comment by Graham in UK — November 29, 2009 @ 8:51 am
Great info indeed. I will take you up on your advice. It does make sense and I will start taking a better look at my stats.Thanks

Comment by Connie — November 29, 2009 @ 8:57 am
This really is something to think about, because a lot of us, myself certainly included, are guilty of not paying attention to our stats, and the ranking that brings in the $.

I will try to see if i can make a difference to my sites and my income in 2010, hopefully this will be the year where i start making real money online.

Thank you Mike for being the person you are, you deserve good fortune.

Janno

Comment by Janno — November 29, 2009 @ 9:55 am
Thanks Mike,
So simple, yet so important! Like Roy said in his comment, I have the stats, I know that they provide great information, yet I often forget to review them, and “try to fly solo”.

When I first started owning and updating websites and blogs, I used to check those stats regularly. Maybe I thought that I knew everything that I needed to know…and didn’t need to check them anymore. Whatever the reason, I was wrong. I need to get back to basics and start checking them regularly, especially as my business grows. Thanks for prompting me to get back on track.
Alex Mitchell

Comment by Alex Mitchell — November 29, 2009 @ 10:41 am
I’ve learned that checking my Google Analytics on a regular basis is a goldmine when it comes to seeing how people search for my site. And using those very keywords has boosted my rankings much more quickly than I would have thought. GA is a valuable tool, but any stat-keeping program you use has much to teach us about the value of paying attention to what the stats are telling us. Thanks for the reminder!

Comment by Easy Appetizer Recipes — November 29, 2009 @ 2:59 pm
Someone asked about other analytic s besides google. I use statcounter at http://www.statcounter.com. I had problems with the google one as it froze up my sites. I just use statcounter at the bottom of my page. I can find where people come from, IP addresses and their keywords to find me.

Comment by gail duckett — November 29, 2009 @ 3:32 pm
I use google analytics and am just getting used to it. But the search terms are really different than what I’m targeting sometimes!

Comment by business opportunity from home — November 29, 2009 @ 4:34 pm
Hi Mike
After reading this article and before commenting I went to check some stats for my christmas site Best Christmas Toys I am no 5 on google for my main keyphrase but most of my traffic is coming from a keyphrase that I am not targeting and my site is no 89 on google for that phrase, so after further investigation I found that most of my traffic is not coming from Google but from Yahoo, great post Mike,

Spencer

Comment by spencer @ best christmas toys — November 29, 2009 @ 4:35 pm
Hi, Mike

Thanks for the information. I am still working on my web traffic. Your advice is right on for needing both rank; traffic. Thanks,
Eleanor

Comment by Eleanor Lynar — November 29, 2009 @ 6:05 pm
Absolutely right. Those stats are goldmine. It is also personal to your website. I have increase my conversion and traffice by focusing on these keywords.

Comment by Tou — November 29, 2009 @ 8:27 pm
I encourage people to get involved with things they enjoy doing to build a business online. However they also need to treat it as a business and do the things required for success. This includes checking stats and tracking and testing everything.

Comment by Social Media Science — November 29, 2009 @ 10:14 pm
Yes, you are right. we need to identify the keywords and then find out where the traffic comes from. so we can know that we have targeted right keyword phrases or not.

Comment by PHP Web Development — November 29, 2009 @ 11:38 pm
Nice post. We so often forget about the little things as we get busy with all the other things in life.

Comment by Nursery Decoration — November 30, 2009 @ 11:55 am
It’s so true when you said that people use the strangest keywords. I experienced that when I checked my stats. And of course it’s true that as long as you get traffic, it doesn’t matter where you rank on google!

Comment by Nahid — November 30, 2009 @ 1:55 pm
Greetings Mike,

This may sound dumb coming from a person who has been doing internet marketing for the last 5 years.

I would love to know what keywords are getting me visitors.

The only tools I use are Google’s web master tools and the stats available on cpanel, and to be honest I do not find them helpful at all.

Could your please suggest a program I could use that will tell me exactly what keywords are bringing me visitors.

I joined Article Underground to get more traffic to my websites, but am still to reap the benefits of AU’s power, because I feel I am not doing the right thing.

I am at my wits end, so please suggest me a good program I can use to first know what keywords are bringing the traffic that I am already getting, so that I can write an article around that keyword post it to my website and then post links on AU’s blogs pointing to that article.

Regards

Noel Benjamin D’Costa

Comment by Basic Puppy Training — November 30, 2009 @ 2:54 pm
Hi

Your piece made me think about how I do my own searches and realise that sometimes I do put in some weird terms. It’s sometimes not the obvious things that work the best.

Comment by Evangeline — November 30, 2009 @ 3:30 pm
Hi Mike, thank you very much for your very informative article. I invite you to share your knowledge with more people through my website. Thank you.

With regards,

Comment by web designer Goa — November 30, 2009 @ 10:18 pm
Hi Mike, thanks for your posts. I have just started my site and I am implementing a lot of your tips Jim from <a href"http://www.www.pleaseinterruptme.com" Please Interrupt Me

Comment by Jim J — December 1, 2009 @ 11:15 pm
Thanks Mike, I’m in the process of creating a new website and I need all the tips I can get.

Comment by Khadeejah — December 3, 2009 @ 4:58 pm
Really nice and gr8 website.

Comment by Saiful Islam — December 4, 2009 @ 3:36 pm
Yep. When starting a site. I don’t know what to I can rank for easily. I just try to get backlink to my site from a bunch of keywords. When I start seeing more people coming from a particular keyword, I would now concentrate on that keyword that brings me traffic.

Comment by Eau Parfum — December 5, 2009 @ 9:36 am
Great post on improving traffic, very useful Have a look on this as well may be its useful for you.

http://www.msinghinteractive.com/blog/tag/online-marketing-techniques/

cheers

Comment by Ricky — December 5, 2009 @ 6:58 pm
Hi Mike, I’ve always been a big fan of AU.
That’s a great point about the stats, I’ve only recently been looking over my stats, thanks to your past advise on this.
I found some great keywords that I was #3 for and i never inteded to do that. So I email my client and tell them i just got you a good position for so and so. That keeps them happy.

I have a site that gets hundreds of visitors a day and so few clicks. then i have a medical site that only gets a few visitors but with just a couple of clicks I can make $10 a day.

Do your keyword research and choose carefully.

Comment by Rolfo — December 9, 2009 @ 5:43 pm
thanks for the traffic getting info!

Comment by chiropractors white plains — December 12, 2009 @ 4:59 am
Hi Mike:

Thanks for your insights. I am starting to apply the principles to my own websites and those of my clients and am seeing good results.

Best regards,
Francois

Comment by Francois — December 26, 2009 @ 1:37 am
not forget that to increase traffic and visibility of a page is always essential content of this. is not just marketing>!

Comment by vivere all'estero — January 7, 2010 @ 6:59 am
Backlinks are quite good.
hmm… nice results.
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Comment by pavelitbay — January 13, 2010 @ 7:14 am
Everyone in the top ten played each other, so the 5 who won will probably at least be in the top 6. I say top six because TCU barely lost. Anyway I’m asking because I’m an iowa fan i i want to know where we’ll be. Also when do you think the official rankings will come out?

Comment by french arabic — January 15, 2010 @ 11:06 am
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Comment by cheap ed hardy clothing — January 16, 2010 @ 1:17 am
I am agree with you, top ranking is equal traffic.

Comment by Stefhanus | Carbon Copy Pro — February 2, 2010 @ 7:32 am
Thanks to your article, I decided to check my stats again, and quickly realized I had just switched hosts from Godaddy to Inmotion. Apparently Inmotion automatically enables stats and had built up a database, so far nothing surprising, but I’m going to check the raw stats (which Inmotion has, Godaddy doesn’t) to see if there’s anything interesting.

Comment by Doug - SEO Portland — February 12, 2010 @ 11:20 pm
yes of course, top position affect traffict and gain income…

Comment by Penginapan murah Jogja — February 23, 2010 @ 12:41 pm
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Comment by discount air max shoes — February 24, 2010 @ 8:17 am
It is the game in the internet. The more traffic you have the more you will likely to win. A hard work a little investment and tons effort will really get you there.

Comment by Trey Smith — March 9, 2010 @ 12:56 am