Revenue > Keyword Rankings

Read time: 2 minutes

Most weeks I hear some version of:

‘We want to get X keyword to number 1 position, how much will it cost? / how long will it take?’

On the surface, it’s a very legitimate question.

But it is fundamentally flawed, for more reasons that I can list, but a few reasons:

1. Number 1 position when searching from where?

2. Number 1 position when searching from what device?

3. Most pages rank for hundreds, or even thousands of keywords - what about all of those? most of the ones you are considering probably convert at a better rate than the one you are targeting.

4. Unless you were previously number 1 for the keyword, it’s likely you have no idea how well it converts or actually helps the business.

5. This type of approach generally derails campaigns - you can’t get that no.1 ranking, the campaign is a failure, SEO doesn’t work.
   ETC

Here’s how my thinking has changed on that type of question, and what we’re moving to instead.

A better question to ask is:

How can an investment in SEO help us drive more conversions and revenue to the business?

When you focus is on conversions and revenue, you stop caring about keyword rankings (or at least they are not the most important KPI).

And you start focusing in on wider things that drive impact:

• Being more strategic and open minded about the actual strategy required to make an impact, and the timelines and investment required

• You start to care about why only 1 out of every 100 people who land on your website converts

• Focusing more on overall visibility, people make several visits to a website these days before converting, and they do so at several stages of their journey

• Focusing on share of search, how are you doing vs competitors

• Focusing on pages and groups of pages, rather than keywords

• You stop thinking of SEO in a silo

• How SEO can reduce spend on other marketing channels

Revenue > Keyword Rankings.

Ready to get involved?

→ Grab an Actionable SEO Video Audit: The lowest cost-point way to get our expert insight and actionable tips on how to get more organic traffic to your website.

→ Book a 15-min discovery call: Decided you’re ready to commit to an SEO campaign? Then let’s talk.