Are You a Ranking Junkie?

Search engine rankings is one of the most overrated factors when it comes to evaluating the success of a SEO project.  A lot of people want to get ranked No. 1 for every single keyword under the sun. In reality, that is not possible unless you are in a very obscure market. If you are in the financial industry, you are going to have to go ahead with thousands of competitors, and while you may get top rankings on a lot of your keywords with the right campaign, it is more likely that you won’t be able to dominate these hyper-competitive markets.

Unfortunately, many businesses treat the No. 1 position on top engines as a right. Everybody thinks that they have the best website in the world, and they “deserve” to be number 1. I won’t argue with you about whether you have a point there. But reaching the top 10 positions on search engines such as Google is more of a privilege, and it requires hard work and persistence. And you can’t just lock in top positions. I have seen so many businesses which invest in SEO only to cut it all off once they have reached their ranking goals. In reality, you are not going to stay in your top positions unless you continue to beat your competitors in the field of organic search. If you stop optimizing, those folks will pass you by.

Most businesses know that your rankings don’t change every hour, but that hasn’t kept them from checking theirs every single hour. Call it whatever you like, but ranking obsession is not healthy. Instead of constantly worrying about where you are on search engines, you should focus more on what others are doing right that you should be doing for your website as well. Being a ranking junkie hasn’t made anyone a SEO superstar.