There was a tweet today and subsequent discussion about how much high search engine rankings are actually worth.
The example was given of a site that ranks in the top 5 for a particular term, gets 1000 page views a day, and from that ranking it generates $2000 per month, and they used this as the basis for a calculation.
It got me thinking…
About something very important.
The fact is that search rankings in themselves have no inherent value to you the site owner. They have value only in combination with whatever method you’re using to monetize your site.
There’s traffic generation, and there’s traffic conversion.
Neither of them have any value in isolation.
So many SEO’s are great at getting rankings and traffic, but suck at marketing, or turning that traffic into money.
I was waiting for the discussion to mention the fact that the guy was only making $2000 from 30 000 page views and why he wasn’t spending more money on his copy, his advertising, or his sales process – but no mention.
I’ve said many times that you don’t need big traffic to make big money and you don’t necessarily make big money when you have big traffic.
As online marketers we need to have both skills, we need to be able to get people to our site, and convert them into prospects, and those are two VERY different fields of discipline. Where SEO is about algorithms, links and content, selling is about people, and emotions, and persuasion.
Remember, there’s only two ways to make more money online: Increase your traffic, or improve conversions on your offers.
If you can learn to to both simultaneously, you’re ready for the big time.
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Totally agree, Andrew…and on another note…you can get top rankings for low traffic keywords and out convert high traffic keywords.
It is what most regular folks don’t get. Just because you are getting volumes of traffic doesn’t necessarily mean that you are going to make money off it. It really depends on your marketing strategy (what most SEO’s don’t get or don’t care about) and where your keyword is positioned in the search query research funnel.
Funny you should mention this, Andrew. I am just about to redo my “Article Directory List” page — that page gets 100-300 unique hits per day, but does not convert well. It is not terrible, but it is not great. So, I am completely on board with your thinking.
Nice post, mate.
Andrew
I agree with what you say but there is another factor to consider.
Time.
it is very easy to become obsessive about stats and end up wasting loads of time tweaking a site or a page, when it would be much more productive and profitable to leave well alone and produce fresh new contnent.
Paul
Not sure quite what you mean Paul – do elaborate if you will