Just How Important Are Top Rankings?

Another insight to the iProspect study:

"As I've explained time and time again to small business owners, there's something to be said for going after the long tail. I've given dozens of companies examples of what I call 'alternative keyword targeting.' The idea here is to skip over the super popular, super competitive phrases that apply to your market and to go after the highly specific, less competitive phrases instead"

This observer points out an important factor in marketing that we continually emphasize in our Internet Marketing Clinic, which is, pay attention to the long list of keywords that are relevant to your business.

There are several important reasons for this statement.

• It is typically easier to rank on more specific, less frequently used terms.
• These terms may also reflect a more targeted searcher, which is better for your business.
• Your ability to provide material on your target page that responds directly to the query string is better when it is more focused.
• Ranking on more terms that are related will help you to rank on the more competitive terms.

Once again we see that effective marketing on theInternet involves a longer view than just ranking on top terms, and persistence will pay off.