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In this edition of Web Enlightenment we'll be talking about how search engine rank is like a fur coat.

This newsletter focuses on giving you practical, interesting insights into how to successfully use technology as a tool to improve the way you do business. Bridging the gap between knowledge and understanding that all entrepreneurs have will help you make money online.

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Rank is like a Fur Coat, pretty but useless

The first thing I should say is that while there are fur coats that are actually excellent coats for this issue I'm talking about your "typical fashion" fur coat - a jacket that looks really good but is actually a lousy coat.

Search Engine rank is just like that - it looks good but it is usually meaningless.

The first thing to be aware of is that in the land of Search Engine Optimization (making your site 'better' from Google's perspective) we all use reports, the core report is usually called something like Search Engine Rank Analysis.

This report provides info on the major engines and what your current rank is for a particular term. Most of the time these reports are archived so when you check again in a month you can tell whether you've "moved up" or "moved down" in the rankings.

You often hear executives boast about their "number ones" - and what they are talking about is the number of terms for which they have achieved a first place ranking in a major engine.

The purpose of working on search engines is to increase your site traffic - and we all know a person only becomes a prospect when they actually visit your site.

Site visitors themselves should be judged on their conversion rate (how many visitors does it take to make a sale) and so they are hardly all created equal. The two ends of the spectrum can be thought of as cost per click marketing - which often has conversion rates of more than 10% - and pop under banners - which usually have conversion rates of about one tenth of one percent. Neither of these methods is "good" or bad", conversion rate simply changes what you can reasonably pay for any advertisement. Priced correctly any form of web advertising can be effective when judged by the numbers.

So here is the single most important thing to remember about rank: Search engine rank is related to site traffic but is not of and by itself what makes traffic happen. There is no direct causal relationship between search engine rank and site traffic.

The biggest reason for this has to do with word specificity and traffic on particular words.

Suppose you sold customizable organically themed T-Shirts in rural Maine where I live. You might be interested in a bunch of terms, but those terms are not all created equal in terms of traffic or sales.

A "number one" ranking for custom organic maine t-shirt may in fact not generate as many site visitors as a number 15 ranking for custom t-shirt - this is because there are many many more people who search for custom t-shirt.

So if you have a plethora of "number ones" and you have low traffic and lousy sales the most common cause is that you are a master of words that no one really cares about.

Then things get a bit more complex when you take conversion rate into consideration - one thousand people who search for custom t-shirt will usually have a much lower conversion rate than folks who searched custom organic maine t-shirt.

So what should an Internet Entrepreneur do?

• Establish a desired word list
• Regularly check your rank for those words
• Work on your site content to improve your rank and judge your efforts there by rank gains and losses
• Keep your eye on what matters - site traffic and visitor conversion rate, the only things that lead to actual sales

If you have a desire to get yourself something pretty you should forgo search engine rank. If I may be so bold I'd suggest that if you want something pretty you should visit one of my clients and their new diamond themed web site Day's Rocks.

Upcoming Speaking ...

Recently the folks from Internet Retailer asked me to speak at their conference next summer and I was delighted to accept the invitation.

The details on the conference are still forthcoming and I would never want to be accused of spilling the beans early but I can tell you that I'll be on a panel talking about "Optimizing a site for Internet search engine results - without breaking the bank".