In order to stay competitive in ANY industry, generating website traffic MUST be a primary concern. It’s not enough to just have a website and fill it with pretty pictures. You can spend thousands developing a site that loads quickly, responds to mobile devices, captures visitor stats and info, etc. etc. However, if no one can find your website, none of these efforts really matter. Regardless of whether or not you conduct business on your website (e-commerce) generating traffic is still a major factor in strengthening your brand.
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Surely, you’ve seen the ads and emails from countless SEO firms touting their ability to guarantee an immediate page 1 ranking on Google. First off, there is no immediate change you can apply that will guarantee this. Increasing your organic search rankings requires a long-term strategic plan that includes a wide assortment of factors. Secondly, achieving this status does NOT guarantee that you will retain it. Search results are in a state of constant flux: changing every minute as site content is reevaluated and new information is presented. Rather than discussing how and when, you first have to focus on why top ranking is necessary in the first place.
Aim for the Sky
Despite search engines like Bing and Yahoo slowly increasing their market presence, Google is still THE definitive place for global search (with no sign of stopping anytime soon). Therefore, it would seem that all SEO strategies should focus on achieving the crown jewel of search: position number one on Google for all of your relevant industry keywords. Yes, the first result on the very first page is obviously the highest achievement, but how does failing to reach this goal affect your business?
The Impact of Falling Short
Right now, you may be satisfied with position #5 or #8 (telling yourself, “hey, at least it’s still on page 1â€) or maybe your efforts have landed you on the top 2nd or 3rd page. You may wonder if generating efforts towards increasing these results will really produce significantly more traffic. While mathematically you may have an argument that your listing is still in the top 1% of ALL generated results, recent statistical usage facts paint a MUCH sharper picture on page 1.
In 2013, the online advertising network Chitika conducted a study on the value of Google Result Positioning by its effect on website traffic.
As you can see, the coveted top spot grabs one-third of all traffic (doubling the amount of the second position). Even more importantly, this study indicates that falling below position 5 removes 75% of potential traffic! Keep in mind that this is still in reference to page 1… results for page 2 and below is even more bleak with the first result on page 2 losing out on 92% of potential visitors.
Varying Data, Similar Results
Ok, so this is just one study. How much stock can be placed in the results of one firm’s analysis? Fortunately, there have been numerous studies on this subject in recent years (we were just focusing attention on one of the most recent and reputable). The chart below shows results from 8 of these studies dating back to 2006. You can see that while the specific numbers vary, the general theme remains: falling out of position 1 removes a large percentage of traffic, while falling out of page 1 eliminates almost all of it.
The Dangers of Rapid Deployment
Now let’s get back to the “how†and “when†of achieving optimal results. As stated before, there is no “quick fixâ€. Firms that promise immediate results and guaranteed top ranking often deploy aggressive SEO tactics that ignore or blatantly break the established guidelines of top search engines. Policing the system has become much more streamlined (especially for top engines like Google) and it’s not a question of “if†but “when†these unethical schemes will be flagged. The penalty: blacklisting from all result pages, which renders your traffic percentage to a lonely ZERO.
Developing a long-term strategy including the creation of rich content around industry-relevant keywords and a variety of other ethical tactics is the BEST recipe for success. The Marketing Team here at TCS excels in SEO for small and large businesses across multiple verticals. From choosing which keywords are most relevant to your business to devising a content-driven strategy around them, our team of experts delivers consistent, lasting results for our clients. If you are looking to upgrade your organic rankings, we would love to hear from you!