Are Search Engine Rankings That Important?

[thejenn]

Authored by: Stoney deGeyter

Full Text: http://www.searchengineguide.com/degeyter/007360.html

A Snippet:

Top rankings are not the only means to generate traffic. Good SEO can bring traffic from many avenues, not just the search engine. But is that still SEO? No, not in the strictest sense. Can other marketing efforts bring in just as much traffic as top search engine rankings can?

[211Club]

This is why SEO and SEM are important:

Why does my company/organization/website need SEO?

The majority of web traffic is driven by the major commercial search engines - Yahoo!, MSN, Google & AskJeeves (although AOL gets nearly 10% of searches, their engine is powered by Google's results). If your site cannot be found by search engines or your content cannot be put into their databases, you miss out on the incredible opportunities available to websites provided via search - people who want what you have visiting your site. Whether your site provides content, services, products or information, search engines are a primary method of navigation for almost all Internet users.

Beginner's Guide to SEO by Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz.org

Yes, there are many different ways to attract traffic to your website and savvy marketers muster their resources to utilize as many of them as possible. Ultimately, though, getting conversions is a percentage game and the more qualified prospects that are drawn to your website the more net conversions you will have.

Even with blogs, articles, RSS feeds, and all the other Internet based channels – and even by employing off-the-Internet channels such as print advertising and mailers – the largest numbers of qualified prospects are available through high rankings on the major search engines for relevant keywords.

211Club
Seattle, WA

[rishicoupland]

I disagree to a certain extent: with the point about Search Engine placement always being the biggest driver. I've had cases where editorial pieces (Radio and press) have driven much more traffic than a top five SE placement: In these instances it was an intangible offering in a competitive environment, to be fair, but I think sometimes the weight of editorial is overlooked.

People are more and more cynical I find and are looking for more than just a good placement in Google to indicate you have something special to offer.