For those of you unfamiliar with Miquel de Cervantes renowned literary work, Don Quixote is a mind-addled character who most famously gears up in an old suit of armour, climbs aboard his trusty steed, and rides off to attack windmills, which he perceives to be giants.

In common usage, referring to someone as Don Quixote, (or as my very funny wife renamed him, Donkey Oatey), is implying that they are embarked on a fool’s quest, and that is exactly what I’m implying when I see some SEO’s and their clients set their tunnel-visioned sights on a Google first page listing.

Achieving page one rank is not the holy grail of every search optimization project (note that I left out the word “engine”). Achieving and surpassing a client’s primary goal for optimization is the grail.

“But dude”, you say, “my client’s primary goal is to appear on page one.” If this is the case, then you have failed to ask the next, all-important question, “Why?”

Page one rank is not a goal

There’s something about achieving page one that just transfixes folks. Maybe because it’s an easy measurable. Maybe it’s some sort of badge of honour. But if you or your client embrace page one rank as a primary purpose for being online, then I’d say your business plan is drastically lacking . Page one rank is not a goal; it’s a tool, and one of many.

Let me illustrate.

I recently did an optimization audit for my wife, who operates in the somewhat competitive market of (shameless plug alert!) maternity and children’s photography in Montreal. While she ranks decently well for some terms, she ranks poorly for what many would consider the golden terms. “Maybe I need to get to page one”, she suggests. Does she? If we ask why, the answer is simple; to garner more sessions. Will a page one rank achieve that goal?

As I took a closer look at her competitors in the market and at the business environment, something quickly became apparent – Google rank was not instrumental to their success! Photography, especially child portraiture, is an emotive business and the target market, in this case new mothers, do not ask Google who should be shooting their kids (sorry, I just had to write that). They ask their friends, peers and acquaintances, both online and off.

Consider your optimization toolkit

So, should we invest significant time resources towards optimizing her web presence to land a page one rank? Absolutely not. In this case, a social media and reputation campaign fits the bill. My wife’s photography needs to be at the fingertips of those who are blogging, tweeting, bookmarking and Facebooking the subject.

I am not suggesting that a first page rank is a waste of effort for every campaign, but it is for those where page one rank does not contribute to the true and underlying campaign goal – doing more business. Perhaps we need to drop the “engine” out of being SEO’s – it’s misleading to too many people  – and embrace a new acronym or title. If our job is to put our clients out in front of the people searching for something, then we have to acknowledge that Google rank is only one tool, and not always an appropriate one.