help! I'm number 3 on Google but very little Google traffic. Why?

sorry, meant to say blog was set up on 10th June so its a month old - have blogged virtually every day.

Is that broad search or exact? Whats the phrase?

Are you sure about the longtail keywords having that much traffic? That seems a bit high for a longtail.

You need to set Google tool to check for "exact" monthly search and not broad. This is a lot of traffic for a long tail keyword.

Exact match - [how I lost weight] - gives 7,480,000 on the Keyword tool. Does this mean its just not that reliable for keywords anymore?

You said there have 1 Million local searches and 7 Million Global searches per month. So is that exact match?

Another thing is no matter what position are you in 1st page, the mater is do you have a title that easily catch visitors attention.

What tools you have used to see your position? First log out from your Google account then recheck your position.

I have just checked and on Google.com you are ranked number 9. Most of the traffic are going to first 3 spots, this is the reason for low traffic. When you check where you are ranking use Google Chrome incognito window.

I know the problem of Google history and saved cookies, leading to misleading Google listings, so I have checked my position with three other people and they all confirm number 3 for that search.

Its an exact match keyword.

Title is "How I Lost Weight", domain name is How I lost weight blog | A blog about how I lost weight without resorting to gimmicky diets!., so if they are searching on "How I lost weight", how come they are not clicking through? This is just sooo frustrating as have worked really, really hard on SEO to get to number 3.

Thanks SXI. I will check on Google Chrome next time. So presumably my number 3 ranking is only for Google UK then as all the people I asked to check were in the UK - but it should still give me the 1 Million on local search? Or doesn't it work like that. Am confused?!!

7m and 1m searches are for broad match.

For exact match only 140 people search for the phrase in the UK and 1000 worldwide so based on that 40 people a day is excellent!

Ok, thanks, just realised where I have been going wrong on Adwords - didn't tick the exact match box in the sidebar, which i hadn't spotted before - was just putting it in brackets in the keyword box - arrghh!! Oh well, you live and learn! Trials of a newbie! This is definitely going in the newbie blog - feel a bit stupid now!

First off, lets keep something very important in mind. You did something! You made a website, made content, SEOed it as much as you could....kudos to you.

I think this is going to be your lesson on understanding exact phrase and broad phrase matches. However, let's not throw this away because you actually have something here.

A couple quick suggestions for ya. Start doing some more long tail keyword research for things people are looking for, and write some articles on that subject. That would be things like "how can I eat chocolate and still loose 100 lbs". It should have next to no competition with around 100 people searching for that a month. That is an example but find things people are looking for to draw traffic to your site.

My only other suggestion is about your header. This may just be just me, but as English readers we all read from left to right. We also see before and after photos from left to right and it appears your lady has gained a lot of weight. It was the first thing I noticed and was immediately confused by it.

That may be something you just want to flip around to avoid confusion. Most of all let's remember you have a site that is ONLY a month old getting 40 people a day, that is not bad, keep up the good work.

My one suggestion I would give....if you are ever going to work for months on a specific keyword in SEO....at least do a week of PPC testing on the keyword.

Sure it will cost a little bit of coin, but it could save you months and way more dollars in the long run. With a little PPC you can get actual impression data on that keyword and discover if it's really worth targeting.

Use keyword research tools as a starting point, but I would never invest too much time in a keyword without testing a little PPC first. Hope that helps.

Hello,

You ranked 9 on Google. The thing is that your ranking position on Google varies with your location. For instance, if you check your ranking from the UK, you will find your site as the no 3 but from the US, you ranked 9th.

Therefore, you will need to build better backlinks and make it rank no 3 form the US and probably no 2 or 1 from the UK and I assure you of better and quality traffic.

Have you tried to monetize it to earn some profits off the site? Granted 40 cust per day is not bad for a brand new blog at all. If you can earn $1 roughly you could easily sell the site on flippa for $300 or so then you can buy more domain names and even outsource the link building unless you enjoy the process or simply want more profits, either way a great start to a nice earning online

Don't just depend on Google for traffic, social networks and video sharing sites are nice place to add more traffic to your site.

All the above replies are irrelevant. The only relevant reply is that the number of exact searches is NOT 7m monthly but just 1000 a month. That isn't enough to get huge traffic from pos 3.

You may rank number 3 but it does not mean that you are in the 3rd place for having the biggest number of traffic.