SEO MYTH #04: "SEO is all about ranking"
While there’s a strong correlation between search results placement and clickthrough rates, ranking is not the supreme end goal that it used to be.
Studies of clickthrough rates and user behavior have shown that searchers favor the top search results – particularly the top-three listings. However, it’s also been shown that on subsequent pages, being listed toward the top of the page shows similar click behavior. And with search results now being appended with rich text/nippets, results that appear below the top three search results are getting much higher clickthrough rates.
Even before all of that was applied, rankings did not guarantee success. Theoretically, you could rank quite well for a term, get tons of traffic, and not make a dime from it. Is that what you really want? I don’t think so.
This is a big misconception: that higher rankings mean more search traffic. It is true that people will see your listing, but it does not mean you will get more click-throughs. There are a couple of reasons for this:
1. You’re trying to rank for keywords that are unrelated to your field. To address this, make sure you pick and choose your keywords carefully by conducting keyword research for SEO.
2. Your meta descriptions are not appealing and inviting for the user. To solve this, be sure to think about what language will compel people to click through to your page.
3. The top result isn’t always an organic listing. This is especially true when product listing ads steal away clicks from organic search results). To combat this, consider paid search on queries that are mobile-oriented with four ads on top.
4. The top result could be a Featured Snippet, which can garner more clicks than a #1 listing. To address this problem, make sure your content is ranking on Page 1 and is well structured.
