What’s the goal of SEO?

I read an article this week about the importance of setting the right goals for search engine optimization. I couldn’t agree more.

Several years ago, the goal of most search optimization projects was to rank higher for specific terms related to your classes. However, that purpose has been steadily shifting toward increasing traffic from search engines.

Consider this, you could rank first on a term that is searched on 10 times per month or rank 8th on a term that is searched on 10,000 times per month. Which would you prefer?

Using “traffic to the site” is obviously a better measure of success than a simple ranking calculation. This article takes that one step further and suggests that the true measure of SEO’s success should bew measured by the increase in business driven by search engines.

This requires a good web analytics system and conversion tracking on your website, but the results can help you hone SEO efforts to maximize ROI.

Here is a link to that article: http://searchenginewatch.com/3633182