On the First Page of Google But No Visitors

[warriorjohn1444]

I have heard/seen a lot of people complaining bitterly after going through the pains to rank their site high on the SERP for keyword that ordinarily should generate thousands of queries but are receiving close to nothing.


Major Possible Cause


One of the major possible causes is the presence of tons of sponsored ads Google display on the right hand side as well as the top page of search results.


There are cases where the top sponsored ads could have up to 3 ads at the top and 8 at the right hand side. These sponsored ads are there because other people are advertising and paying money to showcase their business on the same spot as you. The listings on the left hand side are the actual site you are competing against and they got through offsite SEO (link building) and they didn’t pay a dime to Google to be listed there.
If you eventually rank your site high for an advertised based competitive keywords, you are bound to lose a lot of traffic and it might be a waste of your time except, of course, the keyword pulls in thousands of thousands of searches each and every month.


My Little Research


I carried out a little research for two keywords that generates about 9, 500 exact searches monthly on a global scale, one on money making niche and the other on health niche. The business keyword has 8 sponsored ads both at the top and right hand page of Google for my business term while the health niche has only one.


The business keyword was on position 2 and the health on position 5 but I was receiving x3 more visitors from health niche on position 5 keywords with minimal sponsored ads than the business keyword on position 2 with 8 sponsored ads.


It is imperative to these days to consider this unprofitable trend to avoid wasting valuable time and resources gunning for just empty air.
So, when you hear the gurus say, if you find a keyword that generates a minimum of 2, 500 global searches monthly, you have a goldmine, sorry, that doesn’t include keywords with several sponsored ads like the one I mentioned above.



Verifying this is very simple, simply Google your chosen keyword and check how many ads you have on the top and right hand page of your search result. If they exceed 3, aim for much higher keywords searches otherwise you will be disappointed.


Note
The best spot that literally receives a considerable amount of keyword searches still remain position 1 to 3, this also depends on a number of factors like the niche, amount a keyword generate on a monthly basis.
I hope this saves you from pitfalls that can make you blacklist the internet as a viable source of income.

[mathman]

Hey thanks for this. I have a decent knowledge of SEO so when I look at what google displays for their results, I know the truely best results are not the first listed ads. However, I admit I forgot that most people don't know difference so they most likely click the ad in slot 1.

[warriorjohn1444]

Originally Posted by mathman

I admit I forgot that most people don't know difference so they most likely click the ad in slot 1.

Visitors don't care about any website in the search engine listing but the top, so long as it provide them with the information they are seeking for, its we the SEO/Imer/Webmasters that hope that visitors click our site.

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by warriorjohn1444

Note
The best spot that literally receives a considerable amount of keyword searches still remain position 1 to 3, this also depends on a number of factors like the niche, amount a keyword generate on a monthly basis.
I hope this saves you from pitfalls that can make you blacklist the internet as a viable source of income.

Just finished discussing this on another thread but yeah it applies to where your page lands. You could be third but if you are pushed way down like you are on 6th in terms of monitor real estate then you are going to suffer

[paulgl]

You should also mention that people think searchers in the real world
do one word searches. They don't. You can rank #1 for any keyword,
but if people in the real world search for a phrase, it doesn't matter.

You have to take estimated searches for a keyword with a grain of
salt.

Interesting thought, though. And google is no fool. They want people to
click on the ads.

You can eliminate having top ads show by targeting keywords and phrases
that are not brand specific or targeted by huge companies.

That's something that I can't remember anyone talking about. Ads getting
clicks as opposed to organic results.

You mentioned a pretty good observation.

Here's an example. Do a search for ipad and apple is on top.

Do a search for ipad problems, and there are virtually no ads. If I was
going to target ipad, guess what I'd do?

Paul

[JawadAshraf]

In a short sentence you need the spot from 1, 2 or 3 in order to get enough traffic for your targeted keyword otherwise your competitors will be stealing your visitors which you deserve in case you are on top 3 spots. cheers

[warriorjohn1444]

Originally Posted by JawadAshraf

In a short sentence you need the spot from 1, 2 or 3 in order to get enough traffic for your targeted keyword otherwise your competitors will be stealing your visitors which you deserve in case you are on top 3 spots. cheers

You can be on spot 10 and be getting a decent amount of traffic everyday, it all boils down to the amount of searches the keyword receives. Literally, if you are on spot 8 for keyword that generate over 14, 000 searches monthly, you won't get much searches when there are lot of sponsored ads.

[warrich]

The top sites are the ones that the SE like but if the users can't find the required information on any of them then they would never visit the site again and go for sites with lower ranking. So if your site ranks high make sure that it contains enough information to make the visitors want to revisit. Remember ranking high doesn't mean that you are going to get a load of customers it only increases your chances.

[gtk29]

I think it is all about the keyword and the meta description that appears in the search results.

[Jeremy Banks]

I find if you aren't seeing visitors and have a top 3 spot it's one of these reasons (in order)

1. You didn't do your keyword research properly, and no one is searching for your term anyways
2. It only looks like your site is #1 because you are logged in and are seeing personalized search results
3. There is a much better website with a much better title tag and description above or below you (it's hard to compete with OFFICIAL websites of companies / organizations when that is what people are searching for)
4. Maybe you only rank #1 on your countries search engine (google.ca google.com.au)

[designerpk.com]

Hi,
Not only keyword and meta description appears in the search results your page content also appears in search results if searched query match with them.

1st page but no visitors because of keyword research.

Good points jeremy.

[John Moore]

I find it amazing how little people optimize their title tag, most people just stuff their keywords in there, but there's no point in having a high ranking if no one is clicking on it, your title tag is the headline of your ad in the organic serps, you have to use your brain to combine your keywords with an appealing statement/question. Doing this you can increase your traffic without increasing your ranking.

[kidkid]

I have a couple keywords on the first rank of Google but one on the 10th have more visitors and all of them have about the same in local monthly visitor so I guess meta does help a lot.

Thank