It’s Always “Rankings Rankings Rankings”

SEO has always been “Rankings Rankings, Rankings.” Well, I have a revelation for you! You DON’T need them to drive traffic, sell products, and have clients. Rankings are a side effect, not a product.

Now I know what many of you are asking, if I am not in the SERPS,

“Where shall I go? What shall I do?”

Perhaps I should Explain? No?

Explanation -Why Rankings Don’t Matter

Rankings are a thing of the past, they were used in the olden days to mark your keyword territory and to gain foot traffic on your website.  Now, while this still technically applies today, Rankings should not ever be your primary concern when running a campaign. Rankings like I state previously, are a side effect, a mere symptom that occurs when SEO and SEM are put into place.  So how does one get traffic? How will I sell my product? How will anyone know who I am?

You work for it. Most good actors had to work like dogs to get where they are, most good CEO’s had to work like oxen, most SEO’s who are well respected had to work their absolute butts off to become so!

That is what you need to do(not necessarily the work part), get respect! With social media now exploding, with the amount of blogs out there, with the variety of mediums you have at your disposal, you need to increase the YOU!

Think of it this way, a company, or person for that matter, that you highly respect, recommends a product, a book, a website, that they themselves respect; what are you going to do? You’re going to check it out that’s what! Even if just to see what it is!

Now to answer your questions from earlier…

Let’s Start With Traffic

If I am not ranking, how do I get traffic? First off, many people are looking at this wrong, yes, wrong. Traffic is not what matters, what matters is the quality of that traffic and the conversion rate of that traffic.

So how do we pump up conversion? Target your site’s demographic, and write for that demographic. You need to separate yourself from the others, becoming a site that is distinguished, not by price, but by quality, ethics, and level of respect. You want people to say, “You went to Jared!” or in simpler terms, you want people to be impressed, to feel honored to even be working with you! That my friends, is the goal.

I don’t care if you hate and loathe Rand Fishkin from the very depths of your soul, if you were given the chance to work with him on a project, you would still feel honored by it. Not to mention you would gain automatic respect, even if your an a-hole. This is true even if he responded to your article, I can’t count how many times I have begun following an RSS due to someone writing a Reply/Rebuttal Post to someone else.

So anyways, back to getting this traffic thing, PPC. There…I said it. You want customers, buyers, and leads? Use PPC, Ads, commercials, and social media. Why? You need to smack your brand everywhere. As long as you optimize your site, write content, and gain the respect of your peers and customers, organic results and rankings will follow.

OFFLINE EXISTS DO NOT BE AFRAID OF IT!

You see how that title is all angry and capitalized. That’s how I feel about people who do not advertise and or inform actual foot traffic of their existence. If you are an SEO Company and you are targeting small business, start locally, do a free seminar at the chamber of commerce, talk with local business owners, use flyers, use posters, use billboards.

You know distilled right? You probably know SEER as well, yah? Well did you know that to get where they are, they did not just open up a site and say, come search us! They more than likely pitched the local companies in their area, then increased that area, and eventually became big enough that companies now go to them!

That my friends is how you do it, start local, start small, you don’t just become a firm and pitch Walmart, you start and practice with the locals around you.

Same for e-commerce, inform everyone locally, in your area, your town, your county, your state, your region. It is magic my friends. The rankings will build themselves.

But I Am Unknown! No one will Listen to me!

Horse Poop! If you pay attention, stay up to date, and have relevant things to say, people will listen. It is also the reason why you need to build your personal brand and your business brand. Even better, take a look at probably one of the greatest Marketers and Promoters of our time! Andy Warhol. Man was a genius self promoter and marketer, he changed the world of consumerism as we know it!

Point is, if you write well, provide informative content, and market yourself effectively, you will get traffic, you will get leads, and you will sell product.

How will anyone know who I am?

Through Networking, volunteering, guest posting, writing responses to others, using twitter…etc…etc…etc.

Put yourself out there, voice your opinion. Email people you respect in your industry, tell them why you respect them, and tell them how much you admire them, and ask them about how they were able to make it to where they are, and what advice they have for a person, or company, that is trying to follow in their footsteps.

(Notice it is all about them and Not you, this is networking 101 people.)

So DO NOT worry about your Rankings

Rankings will worry about themselves. Apply best practices, network, and gain respect. That is what the game of internet marketing is all about.  If people respect you, they will listen to what you have to say, if they listen to what you say, you can tell them any damn thing you want and they will believe you. So you tell them to buy, they buy, you tell them to go left, they will go left. Consumers as a group want people to lead them, to tell them where to go, what to wear, what to buy, how to buy it, when to use it. Marketing and psychology are the staffs that guide the sheep.

Life is an Adventure Guys, Go Forth and Enjoy!