Christian Little

As an Internet Marketing Professional, I am often asked: Why is my site not being found? My keywords are easy, why am I not ranked? Why is my site lower than my competitors? This article will answer all of these questions and then some.

Why do some sites rank better than others

Google currently uses over 200 criteria to determine where your site should fit into their rankings. They use a combination of your sites authority, links, and several other metrics. For each search term, Google assigns a ranking based on all criteria. Your on-page optimization could be absolutely perfect, but if you don’t have quality inbound links chances are you will not rank well for an even moderately competitive keyword.

Search Terms

For example, take a guy that sells watches. Naturally, the client wants to be ranked #1 for the keyword watches. It is always difficult to explain to the client that their site is simply not going to be #1 for this keyword. The time and money involved in this campaign would be way too much.

It is always much better to target more specific keywords. Perhaps targeting a specific manufacturer or even model number is a much better plan. Indeed, if the client really feels that the keyword watches is the only way to go, this plan will put us on that path. The only difference is we will get quality traffic while we climb the steep hill.

One more quick thought on keyword selection. It does you no good to be ranked at the top of a keyword that nobody is searching for. Often customers “know” what their users are searching for to find them. It is not uncommon to find zero searches for any given keyword in Google. When this is the case, being number one will not matter at all!

Why bother with Search Engine Marketing

Many people think of the Internet in an extremely negative light. They try to compare it to traditional marketing methods. People that are still living in the 80’s actually think the best marketing they can do is the local yellow pages. They really think that people still look in the massive phone book to find local businesses. The customer you want is a customer that has already made up his mind on which product to buy. When you stop at the gas station, you get gas. You will always buy, no matter what. The same can be said for a customer that is searching for a very specific product. If a customer does a search for Seiko model #SPC011, he knows exactly what he wants. When he clicks your link and is looking directly at the product he wants, it all comes down to price. The individual is not shopping for watches, he is shopping for a very specific watch.