The second part of SEO vs. EGO will focus on the perspective of the SEO Specialist, rank, and traffic volume.
When I first started in search engine optimization I was very focused on the actual rankings of the pages within my site. I had done my keyword research, found the most commonly search phrases, and optimized away. With my very first site, I had targeted a single phrase that appeared to have search volume that was through the roof. The actual search volume turned out to be false and I will explain in a later post about “quality SEO tools”. Maybe the title will be: “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Tools of SEO”.
With a brand new domain, almost zero knowledge of SEO, and a lot of time, blood, sweat, and tears, I studied SEO and built a website that had reached #4 on Google for my keyword phrase in just four months. I was extremely excited. I reached #4 and sat back to watch the leads roll in. My EGO was content. To say the least, I was quickly disappointed with the overall results.
I learned a couple valuable lessons from this. The first was to be sure to use accurate tools when conducting keyword research. The bottom line, the keyword tool (name is similar to “underture”) provided very misleading data. I later learned why this was from one of my colleagues. Even though there is no perfect keyword research tool, I’ve decided on Google’s Keyword Tool for my purposes.
The second lesson I learned was that focusing on only one specific term is a critical mistake. I was putting all of my eggs in one basket and not looking at the big picture. It’s now my opinion (and should have been from the start) that each page on any given website can be crafted to target 3 to 4 relatively broad keyword phrases. Within those 3 to 4 keyword phrases you should see a number of “long tail” search results as well. If you try to target more than 4 phrases, the search engines might have a hard time determining the content of that page. If this happens you will have a hard time ranking strong for any term you’re targeting.
So how does all of this relate to SEO vs. EGO? As an SEO Specialist, EGO is a handicap. Rankings don’t mean squat if the site isn’t getting traffic. Without search traffic, there isn’t any hope for conversion. And without conversion, you might as well pack up shop and go home.
I realized as long I focused a little less on ranking #1 for one specific phrase and began focusing on creating useful and unique content, the traffic will flow.
