Is search engine ranking really so important?
Posted on Tuesday 28th April, 2009 by Lewis Jenkins
Many clients think that being number one in Google is the only thing that matters. It could be argued that it barely matters at all.
Why is my site not number one in Google search results?
We get this question quite a lot.
I often have to explain to our less tech-savvy clients, which understandably is the majority of them, that we have little control over search engines such as Google.
The trouble is of course, everybody wants to be top of the Google rankings, and for some there is almost an obsession with it.
As web designers, we do as much as we can to ensure that our sites are well built and accessible to the search engines. Google gives us guidelines to follow and we adhere to these as much as possible.
Google guidelines also state, “Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines” and I think that this is an important point. The purpose of many sites is to provide a service of some sort to visitors who may arrive at your domain through many non-search engine methods.
These methods include :
- Direct links from forums that you may participate in, for example within your signature
- Direct links from business listings, such as yell.com
- Direct links from industry-specific websites
- Finding your link on your stationery, business cards, letterheads, brochures etc
- Advertising, for example newspapers, industry-specific magazines, local radio
- Word of mouth, recommendations and previous happy customers
- Meeting you at trade shows, business seminars or even in the pub
- Sponsored ads, such as www.google.com/adwords
… to name but a few from the top of my head.
I advise our clients to concentrate their efforts into more traditional targeted advertising, rather than ’sitting back’ and waiting for Google to bring in new business.
I will also tell them that if somebody finds their site via a search engine and goes on to commission work or make a purchase, that they should consider it as ‘a bonus’, rather than ‘the norm’.
Finally, I tell them that if a high Google ranking is their only business plan, then that is no plan at all.
Most searches return many thousands, if not millions of results, and it is very probable that each of those site owners routinely send their web designers emails to ask, “Hey, why is my site not on page one of search results?”
This is a predicament that we all face. It is mathematically impossible for us all to rank highly simultaneously. Yet we are also expected to work miracles – “Hey, you’re the web guys, just get on with it!”
As much as I hate it, occasionally we are forced to tell our customers that we don’t have an exact answer for them. We actually don’t know how to improve their search engine ranking for specific keywords and phrases, beyond doing what Google advises.
Search engines are built on complex mathematical algorithms that are constantly changing and adapting, and these are never public knowledge. As much as we read the right books, subscribe to the correct blogs and scan the Google help pages, all we can do is speculate about what may possibly work, and what probably won’t.
I feel that too much emphasis is placed on search engine placement, as if the survival of any business depends on a favourable result. We would all do well to look at other avenues of attracting new leads, such as those listed above.
Ultimately, I believe that we should all concentrate our time and efforts in to doing what we do best – providing the best possible service for our customers. When it comes to generating new business, nothing beats a personal recommendation from a satisfied client.
Tags: ranking, search engine
