It's All Geek To Me - March 1st 2006

It's the Internet's version of the age-old question:  "Does size really matter?"  Is your placement and rank on Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL or Ask Jeeves really that important?  Do you need to be #1 to succeed, or is it really only needed so you can feel good about your site?  Is feeling good about your site more important than its financial success?"  Read on to find out what I think and why.

My Rank is Bigger than Your Rank - - - So What To An old Myth That's Become "Fact" I am amused to see how "old" the Internet is getting, and how some pieces of ancient advice have become so ingrained they are accepted as unquestioned facts. It is especially laughable when the advice was wrong in the first place. These are my current favorites: "We need to be on the first page of results" "People don't read below the fold on search engines" "If you aren't in the top 10 you aren't there" Hogwash. Rubbish. Malarkey.

The first thing wrong about this is that the original advice was based on a very small study done by an MIT professor on 27 - no lie, twenty seven - of his students. Subsequent studies using more acceptable methodologies have shown that people actually are most likely to click on the fourth result, or lower. Some recent and interesting work has been done on the way people initially view a page, and this has become a very referenced article in national print media. (and hey, this study even had 46 people).

The second, and most important, thing wrong with the "first page" advice is that it totally confuses the web site owner into focusing on something not important, or even worse - keeping score in a game no one else watching.

Let's get really simple here - the only reason any of you care about search engines is because they bring traffic - aka potential sales - to your site. The best way to see how much traffic search engines actually are sending your way is to look at your web statistics reports. (confused? - here's an old IAGTM on site stats). This will show how many actual people came from Yahoo, Google, MSN, AOL, and the rest of them.

The worst game a web site owner can play with a marketer is the "number one's" game - as in, how many number one result rankings do we have? The more there are, the better - or so the game goes. Then we get into measuring "number two's," and so forth - but this overlooks the most important consideration - - the actual amount of site traffic.

Think about it - a number one result for "hand milled architectural maple trim" is not impressive when compared to a number 7 result for "maple trim" - it is not clear which would produce more traffic, and thus potential sales, for your web site.

Search Engine position can be important, but it is critical to remember that it is a precursor to traffic and possible sales, not actual traffic. Allowing your primary focus to be on your position in the results is a bit like assuming you couldn't possibly have a car accident because you drive a Volvo.

So if search engine position isn't where Entrepreneurs should focus, where should they put their energy?

Traffic and Conversion Rate.

The two most important things to know about your web site are how many people came to it and how many bought your product. This will give you the site's conversion rate (if one in fifty buy, it is 2%) and allows you to focus on making your site better so you can improve it.

If you find that your conversion rate is good but you need more traffic to meet your sales goals, don't worry about it - there are lots of ways to increase visitation, and the engines have made it very simple in recent years - you can just buy the visitors you need.