Google’s been ramping up the algorithm updates for some time now – has your website been affected by one of their cutely-named updates?
If you’ve ever cried foul over one of Google’s pets, you may want to think about the KPIs dictating the direction of your local SEO in Toronto (or national or even international campaigns). One good example of an overrated KPI is Page Rank.
Too General a Metric
This is especially true if you’re running local campaigns (SEO Toronto, for instance): page rank is too general a metric for your needs. Let’s do a little backstory here for a second.
Page Rank is Google’s specific parameter that measures link equity – how many backlinks you have coming from where. Google measures the quantity and quality of your backlinks and moshes them together in the form of a scale of 1 to 10 called Page Rank. The fact that this score is only based on 10 units should be enough of a clue: it’s too general to use for KPI.
How much effort did it take to move from a PR 2 to a PR 3? During the period where your SEO (Toronto focused or not) efforts paid off with an increase of 1 PR, which specific actions provided the critical boosts you needed?
Here’s a clue: no one really knows but Google.
Too Disconnected from ROI
Not only is Page Rank too general for SEO efforts in Toronto or otherwise, it’s also too disconnected from ROI. Let’s say you managed to bridge cause and effect: you found the specific actions that led to a boost in PR (by just 1).
How exactly does that tie into your ROI? Your bottom-line?
Because Page Rank is too general, you need more guesswork to tie it down to its probable effects that impact your actual revenue. You may argue that SEO for Toronto or any location for that matter, was never intended for revenue-generation but for traffic improvements and visibility, but then you’d have admitted you’re trapped in the SEO game five years ago. SEO’s impact in various other fields of internet marketing are much more pronounced now – from conversion optimization to actual lead generation.
This is, in fact, another reason to leave Page Rank behind as a KPI.
Too Shallow to be “Key”
This is not to say that Page Rank should never be a factor considered or monitored in your SEO in Toronto. It’s just that it’s too superficial to be a “Key” Performance Indicator. It’s an indicator of performance, but definitely not key.
You may want to check more significant indicators of organic search performance. You can extend your reassessment to how your optimization for organic search ties in with your other efforts for a more holistic approach. See, focusing too much on Page Rank means defining your SEO strategy (for Toronto and other major cities) in a way that generalizes your approach and misses genuine opportunities like targeting long-tail, transactional search keywords that directly impact bottom-line revenue
Page Rank IS a reference point for Toronto SEO
Okay, let’s not put all the heat on Page Rank. It’s usually not just one KPI driving your SEO efforts straight into pitfalls (regardless of whether or not Google’s algorithm updates dragged you down into them or otherwise). But the concept of Page Rank is a good reference.
Are you using KPIs that are too general, too disconnected from your aligned strategies, and too shallow to actually be “keys” to your success? Use Page Rank as your analog: find the SEO KPIs that seem important, but in reality are only best used as concept references and not concrete indicators of actual performance, whether tied to your bottom-line or otherwise.
You don’t want to waste your Toronto SEO efforts on futility.
