What’s More Important Than Your Search Engine Ranking?

by Early To Rise (05/7/2008)

Issue #2349

  • WEALTHY: 4 indicators more important than how high you rank in Google’s results (Alexis Siemon)
  • HEALTHY: One reason you may not want to exercise in the morning (Craig Ballantyne)
  • WISE: Charles Caleb Colton on attracting people

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

  • Defeating the foe of good writing (Michael Masterson)
  • How one university raised $49 million in a single year (Suzanne Richardson)
  • It’s Good to Know… 911 in other countries
  • Add "roue" to your vocabulary

== Highly Recommended ==

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You’re going to walk in with nothing - no product, no marketing skills, no technical know-how - and you’ll walk out with your own online business.

Best part? You can pick your new business from an area of interest you know and/or love. We’ll get you up and running with everything you need: domain name, running website, search engine submissions… the works.

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Will it take some time? Of course. We’re not interested in giving you hype about overnight millions. Will it take work? Certainly. Anything of value requires effort.

But if you spend five days of your summer vacation with us this July, you might not have to worry about vacations at all in the future… because you’ll be well on your way to having the freedom to do as you please, where you please, whenever you please.

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Set your alarm for 12 Noon EDT, Friday May 9. Check out the countdown here.

- Charlie Byrne

  "A house may draw visitors, but it is the possessor alone that can detain them."

Charles Caleb Colton

What’s More Important Than Your Search Engine Ranking?

By Alexis Siemon

"Get Top 10 Rankings in Google or Your Money Back" read the subject line in my inbox Monday morning. It was a forward from a colleague, Jim - a marketing piece he’d received.

"Can you give ETR a money-back guarantee on their Google rankings?" he joked in his e-mail.

I thought for a minute before replying. "No," I typed. "And I never will." Then I added, "Besides, rankings aren’t really what matters anyway."

Moments later, my phone rang. "What do you mean rankings don’t matter?" said Jim. "Isn’t that the whole point of SEO?""

"That’s a common misconception," I told him. "Think of it this way… It’s kind of like saying the whole point of e-mail marketing is blasting your message out. Isn’t the response what you’re really after?"

Jim’s not alone in his thinking. When measuring the success of a search engine optimization (SEO) effort or campaign, many people focus solely on rankings.

Your website’s search engine ranking refers to where your site’s listing appears on the search engine results page (SERP) for a particular keyword. For instance, if you performed a search on Google for one of your keywords and saw that your site was in the number four position on Google’s SERP, then your site would "rank" fourth for that keyword.

Yes, rankings are important for getting your website noticed for targeted keywords and search phrases. But that’s only the beginning. Many fly-by-night SEO agencies would have you believe the job is done once your site starts to appear in the search engine rankings. But, like any other direct-response marketing effort, there are many Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you should monitor to determine the success of your SEO campaign.

The first step toward measuring these KPIs is to get a great Web analytics tool to measure the traffic the search engines send to your site. There are several available in a wide range of prices and functionality: WebTrends, ClickTracks, Omniture’s Site Catalyst, Mint. Then, of course, there’s Google Analytics - possibly one of the best free tools available right now.

Once you have your tool of choice installed and collecting data, you can start monitoring those KPIs. The first and most obvious of which is:

Unique Visitors

Different analytics tools refer to unique visitors in different ways: "uniques," "absolute unique visitors," "unique visits," and sometimes just "visitors." But they all mean the same thing - your site’s body count. Literally - the warm bodies who are sitting at computers clicking on your search engine listing and visiting your site.

Why is this important?

Measuring the number of unique visitors the search engines are driving to your site can tell you, among other things, how well your title and META description are converting searchers into clickers. Are you writing compelling copy that accurately represents how relevant your site is to the particular keyword you are targeting?

For example, I recently did a search for "loose leaf tea." Among the top results were the following:

Loose Leaf Tea, Oolong Tea, White Tea, Organic, Green Teas, Tea…
Fine handcrafted full- leaf loose teas and artisan tea ware from Asia. Organic, green, oolong, white, black and herbal teas. Teapots and accessories.

SpecialTeas - Premium Loose Leaf Teas
Premium black, oolong, green, and white teas. Blends, flavoured teas, decaf. Herbals and fruit blends. Asian and English teapots and accessories.

Now even though it wasn’t part of my search phrase, I knew that I was interested in both English and Asian teas. So I clicked on the second result. Because this company’s listing had a compelling and comprehensive description of what I would find at their site, I became one of their unique visitors.

Let’s say your site has pretty decent rankings for your targeted keywords (in the top 20), but you aren’t seeing a high number of unique visitors to your site. You may want to take another look at the description of the page that’s ranking. Is it compelling enough? Did you include a call to action? Remember, you have control over how your site’s listing appears in the search engines with your title and description tags. Not only do they get your site ranked in the first place, they also act as your "ad."

Another important KPI to monitor is:

Visits

The visits count is typically the total number of times anyone visited your site. Not to be confused with unique visitors, the visits count includes multiple visits by the same unique visitor. For instance, if I clicked on the SpecialTeas listing three times in a month, I would count as one unique visitor, but three visits.

Why is this important?

The number of visits is important in the same way the number of unique visitors is important. But a high number of visits for a particular keyword could be an indication of your website’s relevancy as well as its value as a resource for that term.

For example, let’s say that in my search for loose leaf tea, I’m still in the browsing phase. I click on the SpecialTeas listing and scan the site, but I’d like to see what my other options are. So I go on to visit five more sites before I decide that SpecialTeas fits my needs the best. Maybe they have the best selection, or brands I’m familiar with, or a very user-friendly website. They fit my needs, and I return to their site multiple times.

This is just one example of why someone would visit a site more than once during a search. It’s helpful to keep in mind that, on average, a unique visitor will visit your site three times before taking an action (e.g., making a purchase). So make sure you have fresh compelling content, clean, easy-to-use navigation, and great products to keep visitors coming back.

This takes us to our next KPI:

Average Page Views

The average page views statistic, sometimes called pages/visit, is the average number of pages a typical visitor views during a visit to your site.

Going back to my loose leaf tea example, I may have gone through three or four pages of a particular site before determining that it was or wasn’t the one that best fit my needs. Someone else who searched on the same "loose leaf tea" keyword phrase may have viewed five or six pages. The average page views for those two visits would be somewhere around 4.5.

Using average page views as a KPI can sometimes be confusing. After all, does a high average mean that visitors really liked your website? Or that they had trouble finding what they were looking for?

A great way to determine this is by looking at the most important KPI of all:

Conversions

Conversions can mean many different things, depending on the goal of your website. Is it to sell products? Get newsletter subscribers? Generate leads?

Whatever your conversion goal is, number of conversions is the most important thing you can measure. Otherwise, why spend all your time on this SEO stuff anyway?

All of the KPIs mentioned in this article work best when used together. In combination, they give you a big picture of what’s happening with the traffic you’re driving to your site through your SEO efforts. If you rank #1 for a keyword and that traffic doesn’t convert, you’ve got some investigating to do.

Take a look at your average page views. If they are low for that particular keyword, maybe your optimized page doesn’t provide enough valuable information to keep visitors interested. If your average page views are high, maybe your site’s navigation is confusing your visitors. So these are things you would test - trying different content, modifying your navigation tools, etc.

If you manage to rank for a keyword that drives a high number of unique visitors, visits, page views, and conversions, you’ve hit the jackpot! And now you have to work even harder to keep that position and maintain that flow of valuable search traffic and sales.

So the next time an SEO firm tries to sell you their services by guaranteeing top 10 rankings, ask them if they will guarantee unique visitors, or even conversions.

[Ed. Note: Alexis Siemon is ETR's resident Search Engine Marketing Specialist. If you've been wanting to start your own Internet business, but have been too intimidated to try, join the ETR Internet Marketing Team at our 5 Days in July Internet Business Building conference. You'll learn everything about how to build your own online business from the ground up. Registration for the conference opens at noon on Friday. Check this page now for details.]

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== Highly Recommended ==

He’d Have Called Them Crazy - Or Worse!

With the Internet, it’s now possible to spend no more than a few dollars, write a couple of very basic ads, and have instant access to millions of potential customers all in a matter of minutes.

If anyone had told Jim Sheridan he could bank thousands in just 24 hours… without any product of his own… without spending a penny on getting it or promoting it, he’d have justifiably said they were nuts.

But Jim made a decision that he would overcome his skeptical nature and give it a go. Boy, is he glad he did! That one deal alone banked him $187,296 in one day.

Take a look at how Jim brought in over $187,000 in a single day!

- Charlie Byrne

A Better Way to Criticize a Piece of Writing

By Michael Masterson

A publisher I know likes to help his writers write better by criticizing their published work.

Once or twice a year, he sits down with them and comments on articles they wrote months before. His comments are usually profoundly good. Yet I don’t think they are very helpful. They don’t help very much because the writers are not emotionally prepared to hear them. They feel that their work is under attack. The natural reaction is defensiveness.

Imagine your spouse criticizing the shoes you are wearing when you are already at a party. "Why didn’t you speak up when I put them on?" might be your natural (and justified) reaction.

I understand why this publisher does what he does. From his point of view, it’s the most efficient way to convey his good ideas about writing. I used to do the same thing, but then I realized I was mostly wasting my time and the time of the writers I was trying to help.

Providing negative criticism of published work is by and large a bootless endeavor. In the writer’s mind, hearing negative things said about it so late in the game feels like Monday morning quarterbacking. The game is over. The score is what it is. Better to focus on the next game.

If you want to help people write better, ask them to show you their work before it is published. If your criticism is likely to be profound (i.e., related to the idea or structure), ask to see it as a first draft. If you just intend to critique more superficial things (grammar, punctuation, and/or facts), it’s better to do it with a final draft.

Give positive criticism - something good about a piece of writing - both before and after it’s published. Since I don’t have time to read the hundreds of articles that my client companies produce every day, I spot-check published pieces and provide positive, post-published criticism where I can.

Saying something good about a published piece bolsters the writer’s confidence and makes him eager to write more. Being positive about a piece in draft form lowers the writer’s natural defensiveness and makes it easier for him to receive negative comments when they need to be made.

It is always better to make your criticism - positive or negative - specific. Specific comments are easier to understand and more likely to result in the desired change. General criticism, even when it is positive, serves to challenge or bloat the ego. The ego is always the foe of good writing.

Rather than say, "Great essay, Joe. You are a genius," say "Great essay, Joe. I particularly liked the story you told in the beginning. It was concise and yet carried a lot of emotion - just the emotion needed to bring home your point."

[Ed. Note: Get Michael Masterson's insights into becoming successful in your business and personal life, achieving financial independence, and accomplishing all your goals on his website. You'll find updates on Michael's books, news on upcoming ETR events, Michael's blog, and room to send in your comments and questions. Check it out today.]

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Letting Your Customers Buy - the Way They Want To

By Suzanne Richardson

My alma mater is making it so easy for me to donate to their endowment - it’s almost impossible NOT to! Isn’t that how you want your customers to feel when it comes to buying from you?

One reason the university’s marketing is so successful (the 2006-2007 Annual Giving Drive brought in over $49 million) is that they employ multi-channel marketing. Some of the channels they’ve used to get in touch: e-mails, phone calls, and snail mail, all giving me easy options for sending in money. Plus, the university website has a safe credit-card option, if that’s the avenue I choose.

In past ETR articles, MaryEllen Tribby and Wendy Montes de Oca have stressed how important multi-channel marketing is to the success of a campaign. Says MaryEllen, "Give the customer as many ways as possible to buy from you. If you do, he’ll be able to buy when he wants, how he wants."

Letting your customers buy the way they want to should be exactly what you aim for with your marketing. You want them to feel that they can buy from you in the way that makes them most comfortable - whether it’s online, via phone, or via the mail. That making a purchase is SO easy, it’s impossible not to buy.

To get your customers to feel this way, make sure you put your marketing message in front of them in as many ways as you possibly can. That means with organic search results. Paid search results. E-mail advertisements. Direct mail. Magazine ads. Newspaper classifieds. The list of possibilities is practically endless.

Three quick reminders: (1) All your advertisements should offer value to your customers. (2) All your sales copy should be truthful. (3) Send e-mail ads only to people who have specifically given you permission to do so.

[Ed. Note: Direct marketing is just one channel you should be exploring when it comes to promoting your business. Get insider secrets from two of the best direct marketers in the business with ETR's comprehensive program. Learn more here.]

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Your Back’s Best Time to Work Out

By Craig Ballantyne

In general, there is no best time for a fat-loss workout. Training in the afternoon should get you the same results as training in the morning. Still, there are some important things to consider when determining when to work out:

  • Will you able to train at a proper intensity at that time, or will you be tired?
  • Will you be able to eat properly before and after the workout?
  • Will you stick to a workout program scheduled for that time?
  • Will exercising at that time be hard on your back?

Why do I bring up that last point? Because Dr. Stuart McGill, an expert in low-back disorders, recommends waiting at least an hour after waking up before engaging in any exercise that includes trunk flexion (i.e., traditional ab exercises like crunches). The reason behind his recommendation: Overnight, the discs between your vertebrae fill with fluid and are more susceptible to injury in the morning.

So don’t roll out of bed and start doing sit-ups. (Most people should not be doing them anyway). And if you have soreness in the lower back, avoid bending over early in the morning. Use a position that is more back-friendly when putting on your socks and shoes, picking up dumbbells from the floor, etc. And no matter when you exercise, pay attention to your form and exercise selection.

Bottom line: You can still have a great workout in the morning, as long as you are extra careful of your back and lifting technique.

[Ed. Note: Fitness expert Craig Ballantyne is the creator of the Turbulence Training for Fat Loss. For a free online source of information, motivation, and social support to help you improve your health, lose weight, and get fit, sign up for ETR's free natural health e-letter.]

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It’s Good to Know: 911 in Other Countries

If you live in the United States, the fastest way to summon help is to call 911. Argentina and Canada use that same number. But what if you are on a business trip or on vacation overseas? Here is a partial list of emergency numbers that you may want to keep on file:

All European Union countries: 112

Australia : 000

Hong Kong : 999

Israel : 100

Japan : 119

Mexico : 060

Switzerland : 144

Thailand : 191

(Source: Travel and Leisure)

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== Highly Recommended ==

Are You Ready for a Thrilling, Positive Change In Your Life?

This may be the life-changing opportunity you’ve been waiting for. If you continue doing everything the same way, you’re going to get the same results. You must make a change TODAY to see a change in 2008.

I’d like to show you how to dramatically increase the chances of making all your dreams - whatever they may be - come true in 2008.

- Charlie Byrne

Word to the Wise: Roue

A "roue" (roo-AY) - from the French - is a man devoted to a life of sensual pleasure.

Example (as used by Rex Roberts in a review of the movie Quills): "Yet he [the Marquis de Sade] acted the roue to the end, carrying on an intimate liaison with a girl who worked at the asylum - he was 74, she was 17."

[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker... build your self-confidence and intellect... increase your attractiveness to others... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]

Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008

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Comments

  1. ron courtney
    May 11th, 2008| 6:55 pm

    Hi,

    Are you publisher as well as everything else? If so, publish my book! It will be finished in about two weeks.

    My first book, ‘A layman’s View: Standing on the Eve of Destruction’, was published by Publish America, a print on demand publisher in late December, 2007. They have done nothing to help market. Still, it has sold some anyway.

    This book is a fiction, and could be very good.

    I need an agent and/or a publisher.

    Ron

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