7th in Google But Still Getting Low Traffic

[gr101]

Hi,
I launched a site about a month or so ago.
The keyword phrase that I'm targetting gets 90k searches per month in the USA on exact matches (as per the Google External Keyword Tool).
My site is currently 7th in Google's listings.

However I'm only getting about 10 hits a day. This is wierd I thought I'd be getting alot more than this.

Has anyone had similar experiences to this?
Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks

[Mohammad Afaq]

Originally Posted by obseerver

Maybe your website name is not getting attention. Sometimes people look at website name which should explain the contents of the website. Anyway this is just a suggestion. There maybe other important reasons why people do not click a particular link. Also wait for some time and your website traffic may increase as your website gets popular.

Here's what I think:

Maybe the traffic statistics are not accurate.

Yeah, I know it's weird and it happens alot

EDIT: Keep in mind that no keyword tool is a 100% accurate and you can't do anything but go with the best information you have.

EDIT: I call this the sad truth of Keyword Research

[regska]

Originally Posted by obseerver

Maybe your website name is not getting attention. Sometimes people look at website name which should explain the contents of the website. Anyway this is just a suggestion. There maybe other important reasons why people do not click a particular link. Also wait for some time and your website traffic may increase as your website gets popular.

He's right. If your website is in the 7th, and you're still not getting a lot of traffic, maybe the name of the website is not that attractive to people to click on. You should also try having a domain that is also related to your website. for example, you have a site about "how to grow your subscribers list" or "list building tips". You can have a domain like listbuildingtips.com, buildyourlist.com, listbuilingtactics.com etc. So when people search for ideas on how to build your subscribers list, they will also see you domain and will probably click on it.

Try testing more, and see what works for you the best.

[Opportunex]

Maybe your choice of words in the Title and Description on the Google results page isn't compelling enough for searchers - even though the words are great from a SEO point of view.

Check your Title and Description with the mind of a Copywriter.

Abdul.

[gr101]

Thanks for the responses.

I have a keyword domain so my domain name is the keywordphrase they've just entered into Google.

As for the Google Keyword Tool not being accurate, I thought this might be the case but 90k a month if that's out by 50% and it's only 45k per month that's still alot... thought at least on that I'd get more hits.

Perhaps the site is new and I need to wait another couple of months or so?

[Sheryl Polomka]

What about your description? Is your description enticing enough for people to click on your link rather than clicking on those above or below yours.

[abednego]

Stupid question, but how do you describe your webpage in its <meta> tags?

[gr101]

The description is in the meta tags.
The site is called BrassHOTrains dotcom. If you google "Brass HO Trains" it should be listed on the front page (depending what country you are in).
I'm targetting "Brass HO Trains" and am 7th on Google (in the USA) with only about 10 hits a day when Google Keywords says this phrase is getting 90k searches a month.

Thanks

[AngelMira]

I have been having this problem too, but I have been sitting at #10 (bottom of first page). I have the kw phrase in my site description and name and low traffic.

[Rich Struck]

The 7th spot is not going to get you much traffic, I don't care what the search phrase is.

[Angela V. Edwards]

Originally Posted by Rich Struck

The 7th spot is not going to get you much traffic, I don't care what the search phrase is.

That's exactly what *I* was going to say, although making sure the meta tags description is "descriptive" does help. Quite a few searchers never look "below (or even near) the fold" when conducting an internet search and will never see the #7 site. That's why the first THREE sites in a search query get the highest percentage of all the searches.

[Sten]

As some others said, it could be your meta description, which keeps the CTR too low.

[rondo]

Keep building links. You really need to be in the top 3 to get a decent share of the traffic.


Andrew

[Zeus66]

I didn't see this mentioned, so here's a possibility as well...

Google is more and more tailoring search results to an individual's habits while at Google. If you're logged into your Google account and searching, you may be #7 while others are not seeing your site in that position. I'm not sure how pervasive this is, but I have seen this have a pretty big effect on my own sites showing up ranked high. Try logging out of your Google account and clearing your cache. Also, shut your browser down and start it up again. Then search again and see if you still show up #7.

John

[Angela V. Edwards]

Originally Posted by Zeus66

I didn't see this mentioned, so here's a possibility as well...

Google is more and more tailoring search results to an individual's habits while at Google. If you're logged into your Google account and searching, you may be #7 while others are not seeing your site in that position. I'm not sure how pervasive this is, but I have seen this have a pretty big effect on my own sites showing up ranked high. Try logging out of your Google account and clearing your cache. Also, shut your browser down and start it up again. Then search again and see if you still show up #7.

John

I always use a proxy when looking at my positions. Pagewash.com works very well for this. However, I saw the OP's site in the #7 spot, too...and that's the first time I've EVER conducted that test, so I'm assuming that is his real position.

[thecableguy]

Do an exact match or use Wordtracker's tool and you'll see that it's only a couple of hundred searches a month.

[DrFresh]

Sucks doesn't it?.. I've had a site at #3 with 15k searches (60k "keyword" competing) and I only get like 100-200 visitors per month. I'm on a break from SEO.. Glad to know someone else has a similar problem..

I also checked with proxies, still at #3.. 90k should definitely get more hits than that... Half your work is done man, just rank it higher. If you send me a pre-spun article I'll do a senuke blast for free if you want.. It shot me from 7 to 3 within a week.

[tristen]

7th in Google first page doesn't means anything unless you get the spot of 1 - 4 ranks.

The 1st - 3rd position will get the most click & only few visitors really scroll down to bottom & click on the 7th - 10th ranks.

[genietoast]

Your stats might be valid.

Statistically,

Position 1 gets 42% of clicks.
Position 2 gets 12% of clicks.
Position 3 gets 8% of clicks.
Position 4 gets 6% of clicks.
Position 5 gets 5% of clicks.
Position 6 gets 4% of clicks.
Position 7 gets 3% of clicks.

and so on...

Also keep in mind that Google's data is based on last month's searches. You won't really know this month's data until they post it next month. And we are nearly half way through this month.

Google's data is pretty accurate. It's just a month old.

[lacraiger]

7th is still pretty low. you won't see huge results unless you are top 3.

[justinknightley]

We had more visits from position #3 PPC than position #1 SERPS!
How?
Better copy in the title and description.

Take a look at any PPC copy in position #1. How is yours different?

Try A/B testing of the title and description (remember to bookmark or tweet your page when you change it and Google will reindex within a day or two).

Good luck!

[nitin22]

I checked your keyword on Keyword tool.
Exact searches are 170- Local 390- global
90,000 the number that you mentioned is broad searches.
You are ranking for exact search only.
So essentially the term you are ranking #7 is getting hardly 400 global searches + obviously you may get a few here and there long term traffic. So overall 10 hits a day is probably max you should expect from this.

[Martin.Avis]

nitin22 beat me to it!

I just checked "brass ho trains" as an exact match search and the Google tool gives 480 worldwide searches last month. So on that basis 10 is pretty good!

Here in the UK the site in question is currently showing up at #11 for the broad term.

This example really highlights the importance of checking the exact and phrase match counts for your keywords as broad matching can be wildly deceptive.

Martin

[Matt Maiden]

Roughly between 9% and 14% of the searchers that type a keyword or phrase into Google never finish their search. They realized that they made a mistake, the phone rang, the power went out...

So start off deducting 10%.

Then another 8% to 12% immediately go to the second page of the listings.

If you are on the front page, you can deduct another 10%.

Right off the bat you are looking at 20% of the results that do not click on the front page.

Out of the 80% left, you are going to get 3% - 5%.

As others have said, the numbers were not exact to begin with.

Another thing to consider is the possibility of monthly or seasonal trends.
Christmas Trees gets an overall average number but you know that 99% of that is searched for in December.

You can use Google Insights to give you an idea of the search trends for your keywords.

Google Insights for Search

Brass HO Trains over the last 12 months had more searches in Nov then sunk at the end of May so it is flat right now.

[frqhuss]

May be site above you have more info so that visitors stop their end on those sites, Its just a guess...

[Morriskl]

Hi,
I am no expert but there are a few things I would like to mention here.
1. Google gives friendly result. I mean, Geo-targetted results. Google tends to give results based on your geographic position. You can use some tools to find your actual (or at least you will get a better idea) search rankings. I would have posted a link, but at the moment, my post count is less than 15 which is acting as a hindrance.
2. If the above is not what needs your attention, then probably people search for your keyword for a few months only. For example, "Christmas gifts" is mostly searched in the months of nov-dec
Check with your keyword tool. See which part of the year, people are searching for this keyword.
3. If this is not also what you need to work upon then something must be "not-okay" in your meta desc.
People will click on what they see is good for them. So check if your description is good enough.

4. There are some small errors which, sometimes, we marketers don't see or are unaware of. Hope you are not making any mistake with your keywords. Even a slightest mis-placement of 's' will change the results drastically.

Hope the above points will help you.

If you feel comfortable, then you can PM me your keyword and site name. May be I could help you in this.

Regards

Originally Posted by gr101

Hi,
I launched a site about a month or so ago.
The keyword phrase that I'm targetting gets 90k searches per month in the USA on exact matches (as per the Google External Keyword Tool).
My site is currently 7th in Google's listings.

However I'm only getting about 10 hits a day. This is wierd I thought I'd be getting alot more than this.

Has anyone had similar experiences to this?
Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks

[medosabry]

Originally Posted by Zeus66

I didn't see this mentioned, so here's a possibility as well...

Google is more and more tailoring search results to an individual's habits while at Google. If you're logged into your Google account and searching, you may be #7 while others are not seeing your site in that position. I'm not sure how pervasive this is, but I have seen this have a pretty big effect on my own sites showing up ranked high. Try logging out of your Google account and clearing your cache. Also, shut your browser down and start it up again. Then search again and see if you still show up #7.

John

This exactly what i was going to say. What I do is simply use one browser (firefox) to log in to my google account and do everything and I use another browser (Safari) to check my ranking so I don't need to clear cache of firefox or log out and log in again each time I want to check my ranking for a keyword.

[justinknightley]

Originally Posted by medosabry

I use another browser (Safari) to check my ranking so I don't need to clear cache of firefox or log out and log in again each time I want to check my ranking for a keyword.

This is a good idea, but Google will still skew your results to location & IP.

I recommend you use 'Scroogle scraper' - please see thread:
Different Google rank in different browser. WTH??

Good luck!
Justin

[mowens17]

Agree with genietoast, usually first 3 spots get more than 50% of all the clicks but you'd think you'd receive more then 10 clicks with 90k searches a month.

[rchudej1]

This is an addition to Genietoast post,

Position 10 get more click than 4-9.

It's just human nature! There are too many info to look at on
any given search result. (We're bloody lazy specie!)

Here is the key to improvement!

You're expecting human visitors, (I hope you're). Then you should
make your site stand out (in the search result, btw).

Look at all the listing on your keyword terms.

Is your site standout?

Is it invite click thru?

You can always improve on your description, title tag etc.

Look at any search keywords in any industry and if you find
that you're drawn to some particular description take note "Why"?

Then you can adapt their style of writing to your site.

Good Luck,
Mike Chudej

[JamesDubec]

HI. I just used Market Samurai on this phrase and it has a BPR (Phrase to Broad) of 1% which means most of the searches have a work missing. Brass trains has a BPR of 9% which also means there is a word missing. They dont recommend going with any keyword witho out at least a BPR of 15% That could be the problem. On an exact search for States only according to Market Samurai it gets 6 searches a day. Hope this helps.

[rchudej1]

Originally Posted by JamesDubec

HI. I just used Market Samurai on this phrase and it has a BPR (Phrase to Broad) of 1% which means most of the searches have a work missing. Brass trains has a BPR of 9% which also means there is a word missing. They dont recommend going with any keyword witho out at least a BPR of 15% That could be the problem. On an exact search for States only according to Market Samurai it gets 6 searches a day. Hope this helps.

James,

Thanks for the extra effort and for putting thing into perspective.

I'm hitting a thank you button for you now.

You're the man!

[Chantal-Louise]

Usually people find what they are looking for in the first few spots. It is only in rare occasions that they will not find this by the 7th spot. What you can do however is try and use a BROADER set of keywords to match many more peoples needs. Hope this helps.

[Vincent Sparreboom]

Originally Posted by Mohammad Afaq

EDIT: I call this the sad truth of Keyword Research

That's the truth indeed, nicely said

[connorbringas]

Thats whats so frustrating about organic search..if your not the first three you might as well be last..there are always other ways to get traffic..