Why Your Website's Search Engine Rankings Are Important

by Matthew Rotterman

Published on this site: June 14th, 2005 - See more articles from this month...

I recently spoke to someone who operates a website that sells motorcycle parts and asked her how good her search engine ranking is. She told me that search engine ranking is not a concern for her because she operates a very niche market and that those who are actively seeking the parts that she sells “know where to look”. She seems quite content with the number of visitors that she is getting to her site and the amount of sales that she is making each month. I attempted to explain to her that she could dramatically improve her website ranking and thus her sales if she were to employ some keyword optimized articles, like those we create for our clients, to improve her search engine ranking results. She did not seem to care about this and did not want to spend any money on getting keyword articles to improve her search engine ranking because again, those that are seeking what she sells “know where to look.”

If the above true story sounds like a conversation that you might have with a person like myself, then there are a number of things that you need to reconsider. Let’s review my conversation mentioned above to show the importance of search engine rankings.

First of all, she is convinced that the people seeking her product can find her website. This may be true if the customer spends a great deal of time surfing through multiple sites and has a monumental amount of patience. It is true that word of mouth probably does send her the majority of her customer base and this is fine if she does not want any more customers. Her search engine ranking is so far down on the list that for all practical purposes, her website does not exist to those who type, “motorcycle parts” into google or yahoo. I encouraged her to think about the lack of patience that she has when searching for things on the Internet and how that transfers to those searching for her products. I am just as guilty as anyone in this, if I am searching for something on the Internet, I will likely stop reading the 400,000 results after about the first 20-30 websites. If the item I am looking for is not in those first 20-30 results, I will most often type in a different search phrase such as “motorcycle accessories” vs. “motorcycle parts”. This concept was lost on her as well.

This is another area where keyword articles come into play to improve search engine rankings. What EXACTLY does a person type into the search engines when looking for her motorcycle parts? One person will type in “motorcycle parts” while another types in “motorcycle accessories” and a third person may type in “motorbike parts” and a fourth types in “motorbike accessories”. A fifth person might even type in “motorcycle carburetors”, with or without the “s” on the end of “carburetor.” Basically, there needs to be an article for each of these five terms to help direct search engine traffic to her site so that no matter what the potential customer types into the search engine, they are directed to her website. This concept was lost on her too.

The third idea that she did not consider was the basic financial concept of return on investment (ROI). Return on investment simply means that if you spend $100 on marketing and as a result of this investment, you increase profits by $1,000 then you would have a 900% ROI. This percentage is calculated after subtracting the initial $100 spent on the marketing campaign, then dividing the remnant by the $100 invested, and finally multiplying your result by 100 to get your ROI value.

{ROI = [(Payback - Investment)/Investment)]*100}

So, would you like to make $900 by spending $100? I would. The woman that I spoke to failed to realize the potential return on her investment, because she did not want to invest her cash on hand into the future of her business. Most successful website operators have realized the importance of marketing and search engine rankings. They know that they need to be listed in the top 20-30 results if they want to get the clicks, and they know that keyword optimized articles help them to achieve these high rankings.

Decide where you want your website to be located in the search engine rankings. Do you want to make “some” money like the woman in my true story? Or, do you want to dramatically exceed your current profit margins by increasing your website traffic? Just as it was with her, it is up to you to decide if you want to make ends meet with your online business or if you want to really make some money by investing in your marketing.

Matthew Rotterman is a writer and editor at: KeywordText.com.
"Keyword Text" managed to bring together several writers and editors to provide a few low-cost writing services for those who are working hard to become more profitable. They offer Content Creation Services which include: Exclusive WebPage Content and Reprint Articles. Keyword Text also offers very attractive Volume discounts. Compare us to our competition, you will be surprised. http://keywordtext.com/dir.pl/ktc/index.html