5 Reasons Why Rankings Are Not a Good Way to Measure Your Web Marketing

Using keyword rankings is a flawed and outdated way to measure your SEO. Back in the early days of web marketing, search engine rankings were a perfectly good measurement because search results were consistent and it was easy to directly correlate rankings with keywords used to enter a site.

That's not the case anymore. There are many reasons why keyword rankings aren't a good way to measure your SEO and marketing efforts.

Here are the top 5

1. Personalized Search Results

Search results are personalized. We all see different, personalized search results based on our history, who we're connected to, local search results and our IP address. Securing a #1 ranking (as you see it) for a certain keyword does not mean that your website is in front of your target audience.

2. Distracts You From Other Important Stuff

Focusing on rankings can negatively impact the type of content you create. Putting too much emphasis on making sure your content includes all your keywords will make your content unnatural and probably will not resonate with your audience. "Writing for Google" is not an acceptable, worthwhile tactic.

3. Conversational Search

The way people search has evolved. Now, more people are more likely to search using longer, more conversational phrases like, "How do I make baked Alaska?" Hummingbird, Google's last algorithm rewrite, looks at context and the user's intent.

4. Out Of Your Control

Last year, Google made over 550 algorithm updates. Recently, Google announced that all searches will be encrypted. This means that Google Analytics will no longer indicate keywords used to enter your site. Trying to measure your success on something that is outside of your control doesn't fairly track your efforts and can be very frustrating.

5. Popular Keywords May Not Target Your Audience

Great rankings don't matter if they don't attract the right audience. Be sure you are using the language your audience uses. Learning about your audience's digital habits helps you understand how they search, at what point of the buying/information-seeking process they search, and more. Create an audience persona to gain valuable insights about your audience.

So, how should you measure your success?

There are lots of other metrics that provide more valuable insights than rankings.

1. Volume - Overall traffic and channels are a quick way to track progress.
2. Engagement - Time on your site and number of pages viewed are a good indicator of visitor engagement.
3. Sales & Leads - Of course, setting up conversion goals for calls to action are vital to understanding how your audience interacts and moves from a visitor to a prospect. Keep in mind that if your business is more likely to receive phone calls than web forms, you'll need to setup call tracking to really understand how visitors convert on your site.