Forget about rankings
Once upon a time (back in the ’90s and early ’00s) organizations mastered a handful of methods that helped them manipulate their rankings in Google’s search results. But that kind of “SEO” hasn’t been a legitimate standalone tactic for years. Regardless, why are so many organizations still looking to use old tactics to be “#1 on Google” rather than focusing on metrics that matter?
The idea of being “#1″ is simple so people like it. But as search engine algorithms have grown far more complex (aka: smarter) and search results have evolved beyond just “10 blue links” being #1 is not that simple (see 80+ reasons why in the slideshow below). More importantly, search engine rankings don’t actually have any intrinsic value. Sales have value. Donations have value. Search rankings do not.
Stop worrying about building links and pleasing Google. Instead build expertise, solve your consumer’s problem and use analytics to track the digital conversions that have a measurable impact on your organizational goals – metrics related to sales and/or user engagement. Use those as your measures of digital success and search engine rankings will be a nice side effect of that success.
