So you have decided to optimize you web page for search engines. You know that the being more visible on the Internet means you will have more traffic coming to your site and that, in turn, could turn to sales. You have it all planned out. Now all you have to do is get top ranking on you search engine then, you are all set, right?

Well, that might not always be so easy. Of course, no one is going to deny the importance of ranking on a website. If you do not have a good enough ranking then Internet surfers might not even be able to find you. Most people who are looking for something might not go beyond the first or second page of a search engine results page. So if you are way down there then your chances of being found seem really dim.

Internet marketers are very aware that having top ranking is extremely important. It comes down to the fact that there are millions and millions of web pages on the Internet and if you do not make an effort to stand out and make yourself visible then your site might just go unnoticed. Studies have shown that there is a huge difference even between the numbers of clicks that rank one and rank two get. And the difference can be as large as 50%! This goes to show that being number one does pay (no pun intended).

So why is it that having number one ranking is not the only thing a website owner needs to work at getting. The fact is that just because you are the first link that shows up on a search engine's results page does not mean that your campaign is an immediate success. Actually, if your goal was to be the first site that comes up on a search engine then that might be success for you. But that is a rather immediate goal. What next?

If what you want is increased conversion rate from visitors to buyers then becoming number one on a search engine results page is only half the work done. Once your visitors click on the URL and come to your landing page, you still have to convince them that you are what they are looking for. That is the proverbial distance between the cup and the lip. So, just because you are number one does not mean that the rest of the things will fall into place by themselves. Things like your landing page, your brand name, your website design and user-friendliness all play a big role in making your site a successful one.

It is not entirely uncommon to come across marketers who want to be number one on a search engine results page no matter what. This is a naïve goal to have since having a good ranking is really only half the game won. First of all, you need to decide if you can actually afford to pay for rank number one. It is obvious that the higher up you want to be, the more you will have to pay for your position. If you have a big enough budget and can afford to be there, then that is all well and good. Usually, those companies who pay so much to be number one are those who know that they can recover this cost with their profits. On the other hand, if a company is paying a huge amount to be number one, but not able to recover it, then that is unintelligent, from a marketing stance. As a marketer you need to analyze if paying for the topmost position is worth the costs. Do you have your other Internet marketing features in place so that being number one actually gives you results in the form of conversions?

No Internet marketer in his or her right mind would deny the importance of ranking on a search engine. It is only natural that searchers click on the first link that they see, given that it looks relevant to them. You also cannot expect them to sift to pages and pages of results to find you. So paying for ranking is important but that cannot be an activity done separately. All your other Internet marketing tactics should also be in place. If you are taking them to a mediocre website then paying so much for number one ranking does not seem so worthwhile. Its good to be ranked all the way up there, but at the risk of sounding clichéd, being number one is not the only thing that matters.

About the Author

Jeev Trika is a principal at azentec, Inc.,. an e-business consulting firm, based out of South Bend, Indiana. He possesses extensive experience in sales methodologies and holds over 9 years of experience in assisting organizations with their online experiences. His professional services have been garnered by organizations like IBM Global Services, Siebel, Jordan Industries, Cayman Islands Government, and more. Jeev holds a Bachelors in Compute