Search Optimized Traffic (SOT)| How SEO Placement Alone Isn’t A Solid Site Strategy

Often we will inherit clients who have had previous experience with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and sometimes even find themselves ranking well, but have little to no traffic to show for it.  Even worse, the methods used by previous Chicago SEO Companies have left many of our clients with horrible content that reduces readership and increases bounce rates. Cheesy SEO tricks that cause for a higher SERP ranking aren't necessarily going to equate to better traffic and conversions; this is why our Naperville, Glen Ellyn and Chicago SEO Teams focus on a full Search Optimized Traffic performance plan.  We could only hope that more Internet Marketing Agencies would recognize the common problems seen as the SEO standard that cause horrible conversion rates. In the old days of Search Engine Marketing, and sometimes still true today, ad agencies would charge ridiculous amounts of money for ad driven traffic even when it had nothing to do with a site's content. Conversions were low and bounce rates were high. Today, the same is still occurring but now expanded to SEO campaigns. In Chicago it is far too common to find websites littered with footers pages for each individual township and suburb.  At first, companies like Reach Local and  Orange Soda did this as a way to push relevant content and lift their own clients in the SERPs.  The problem was, these pages were comprised of the same city data, spun over and over, and leaving multiple sites with the same giant spam bomb in the footer and sitemap of each of their clients.  Many freelance and smaller SEO Companies in Chicago followed this blueprint and littered the search results with more of the same.  As a result, the practice became one of the basic principles to Chicago SEO tactics. Poor overall traffic from high SEO placement is another problem. Imagine a keyword ranking at the #1 position but only delivering 50 visitors a month, and then a keyword that was ranking in the #6 position that was delivering 900 visitors a month - which one would you rather? Traffic numbers are much more valuable than rankings alone and converted traffic is the primary focus. This cheap and semi-effective SEO and SERP placement method had a major downfall: when the sites received the positive listings resulting from all of the city data, they also received few visitors willing to trudge through the mounds of crap content to find what they were actually interested in. The basic remedy for this problem is the keystone for the framework of Search Optimized Traffic.  

Searchable Content Written For The Readers, Not Google

Repeating the same phrases and keywords spamming with local pages is a great way to ensure that garnered traffic bounces from your site. Your goal as a business content creator is to inspire readers to become both customers and secondary promoters, you are not to be writing what "Google will enjoy".  Inherently, if your content is satisfactory to your readers, describes and informs your product or service and inspires visitors to engage, then Google will already be satisfied and reward your efforts. Well written data will attract both Google and engage site visitors.

Optimizing Content For Visitor Interactions

It's one thing to get people to read your content, it's another to have them find it important enough to respond with comments or even more important, to share with their Personal Social Networks (PSN).  Everyone online has their own, individual PSN.  Inspiring visitors to engage your content via their own PSN is the basis for using the facebook comment plugin or commenting widgets like Disqus. With every user that your reader is able to re-engage your content to, your site gets more than just another reader, it gets relevant linking with every interaction.

Traffic Strategy With Quality Page Descriptions

This is likely the top failure we have seen in the Chicago SEO market. We will have clients come to us with incredibly high listings for quality terms.... and they will have horrid and useless descriptions for their search results (yes, this still happens even with the updates Google has made to results). This is often the direct action of a previous Chicago SEO Company they had managing their site. Descriptions written to please Google are almost certain to discourage real readers.  Descriptions and page titles, while important to specific points of an SEO Strategy,  can't be the one trick to Search Engine Ranking.  Title and Description are the main driving force to bring readers to your overall content; if they don't match, or worse, are redundant and ridiculously written keyword spam bombs, then the readers will have no incentive to actually follow them.  Consider signs for rest areas and food along an Interstate; if they don't adequately describe their product, you are less likely to stop unless desperate for a bathroom.  If your content is ranking highly, yet the descriptions don't adequately match the search terms, you will only gain the traffic of those are desperate to get off the search. Again, Search Optimized Traffic (SOT) is the main strategy that should be the focus of any business with serious SEO campaigns. Listing high for the purpose of listing high is a strategy that can be a waste of resources.  Ensure that your SEO Content and SEO Countermeasures are written to elevate user interaction and the overall conversions.
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