If you have a company in Irvine and you’re thinking about hiring an SEO company, then one of the tasks that you might have set for them is to optimize your site so that you rank highly for specific search terms. But do you need to have the first result with Google to be successful? Is it enough to be on the first page? And do you have to rank on the first page for many different search terms for an optimization campaign to be judged a success?

 

Do You Need to Have the Number One Ranking?

 

You have probably seen SEO companies out there that advertise that they can get you the number one Google ranking for a specific search term. You should view these claims with suspicion, especially if the company claims that they can get you that result in a matter of days. It’s likely that they’re going to try and use a black hat technique to get you that spot, and that’s quickly going to get you penalized.

 

But if you talk to an Irvine SEO company and they make it clear that they have no intention of using black hat strategies, and that they are going to use approved techniques to get you high rankings for search terms, that’s probably going to be helpful to you. However, it’s not always realistic for them to get you the number one spot, so you shouldn’t demand that of them.

 

These days, the top spots are usually taken by paid advertisements and other non-organic search results. If you want your website to rank for a keyword organically, you’re going to need to give your SEO company some time. If you’re asking them to get you a number one spot within a week, it’s virtually an impossibility, unless it’s for a relatively uncommon long tail keyword.

 

Ranking for Different Keywords

 

This brings us to the next question, Irvine businesses. If you’re going to think of your optimization campaign as a success, do you have to rank number one, or at least very highly, for several different search terms related to your niche?

 

It’s great to rank for many search terms in your niche, but if you use a search term generator and come up with a list, it’s probably going to make the most sense to focus on a few specific long tail keywords. That is especially true if you have a smaller business that relies a lot on foot traffic or local commerce. For instance, if you have a flower shop in Los Angeles, then you’re probably going to want to be focused on keyword strings like “best flower shop in Los Angeles,” “best flower shop Koreatown Los Angeles,” etc.

 

What you’ll need to do is grab your SEO company and put your heads together to determine the keywords that you feel you most need to rank for if you’re going to increase your website engagement and sales. It’s probably not going to be possible to rank for two dozen keywords that you feel are relevant to your niche. It’s much better to rank for half a dozen more specific ones that you feel sure customers in your niche are searching for which will bring them to your website or through your doors.

 

Keywords are a tricky business, Irvine. Luckily, there are more analytics tools out there for identifying them than ever. If your SEO company knows how to use them, they can get to work on helping you rank for some of the ones that will most benefit you. That’s the way you allow your small business to grow.