Do Search Engine Rankings Matter?

In a word, yes, search engine rankings matter. In theory, absolutely. In practice, less and less.

Some SEOs will tell you that search engine rankings are irrelevant. That they don’t believe in rankings, and all that matters to them is traffic and conversions. Well yes, traffic and conversions ARE the desired end result, and those are the definite goal of the client. But monitoring how well a website is ranking, and tracking what well ranked terms are leading to clicks and what well ranked terms are not, is all part of the same puzzle. Knowing as much as possible about a website’s keyword rankings is very important.

The problem is that being able to stand behind a list of high search engine rankings is no longer possible.

Not too long ago, you could count on a high level of consistency in search engine rankings. Meaning, if you ran a search for “internet marketing blog” at Google.com, and your friend in Seattle and your grandmother in Boca Raton did as well, you would all get the same results. There would be some minor inconsistencies occasionally, if two of you accessed different databases, but generally you would get the same results. But now, the three of you will see different things – sometimes wildly different.

Google factors so many unique variables into the algorithm that determines the results you see that they’re not consistent at all. For example, a logged in user will get different results than a non-logged in user. Geo-local results will serve up different content to users in different locations, even if your search was not related to your location at all. Even if you’re not logged in to a Google account and have search history disabled, Google will remember you and sites you’ve visited before and rank them higher in your results – completely skewing any hope of consistency.

So, when an SEO firm tells you that rankings don’t matter, you may want to take that with a grain of salt. It may be that they’re using this statement to avoid the hassle of explaining why your site’s high rankings aren’t what you thought they were.