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 am I always outranked by site X? Here are the answers to all of these questions and more.
Why do some sites rank better than others
Google uses over 200 metrics to rank your site. This is a combination of Page Rank, Inbound Links, Link Quality, On-page Optimization and many other things. Google adds up all of these items and gives you an overall score for each individual keyword or phrase. 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.
Keywords
Often I get approached by a client that sells watches, for example. Of course, most watch store owners want to rank high for the word “watches”. It is always difficult to explain to the client that their site is simply not going to be #1 for this keyword. It is simply too much time and too much money to go after such a competitive keyword.
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. After a bit of research, it may be determined that absolutely nobody searched for that keyword in the previous month on Google. All the optimization in the world will not make you a nickel!
Some cliens look at the Internet in the wrong way. 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 still believe that when a guy buys a watch he fires up the 2000 page book and finds a jewelry store. The customer you want is a customer that has already made up his mind on which product to buy. When you go to the grocery store to buy a can of soup, you ARE going to buy a can of soup. You will always buy, no matter what. The same can be said for a customer that is searching for a very specific product. When the client searches for something very specific, he already made up his mind. If he clicks on your link and you have the product, the sale is totally up to your price, terms and delivery options. The individual is not shopping for watches, he is shopping for a very specific watch.
