One of the major assumptions of SEP is that increased search engine traffic visibility will lead to increased traffic. Search engine positioning should lead to capturing the right visibility that will drive the most qualified traffic to the site. Then, the true measure of success can, in fact, be stated in terms of the search engine optimization campaign.

Qualified traffic is the natural outcome of a successful search engine positioning campaign. The goal of search engine positioning is visibility on the universe of keywords and phrases in all the major search engines. When search engine positioning has traffic as its goal, the practice is perverted to achieve an end that is not necessarily related to the potential of a relevant set of keywords. Each different keyword universe that each different Web site targets will have its own potential.

Rankings are just one key element of the visibility equation. The diversity of keyword phrases that have rankings is another. If a site has hundreds or rankings on a handful of keywords, visibility will be limited to searches for those keywords. A small number of keywords doesn't necessary mean that the site will have no or little traffic; a site with a number one ranking on a high frequency keyword may in fact, net more traffic from this lone keyword than it might from a handful of low-traffic keywords. For most sites though, the optimal situation is to have a number of top rankings on a broad universe of keywords that accurately define the site's contents. Then, the offering of the site will appeal to a broader base of searchers using a broader search vocabulary.

For one client in a niche industry, a fully optimized Web site with ranking on every targeted keyword in very search engine will drive a few thousand visitors a month, where for another client with a different keyword universe, similar rankings will drive hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of visitors a month. To expand the keyword universe with the aim of increasing the Web site's traffic produces little value. Broader, less relevant keywords may be queried with greater frequency but the quality of the click-through declines. This strategy will surely increase the site's traffic but the increased number will do nothing to improve the quality of the outcomes that the site produces.

In essence, you can succeed at increasing your traffic and fail in the success of your campaign at the same time. The quality of outcome, the richness of the visitor's interaction with your Web site, the conversion rate of visitors into customers, the subscription rate, quantity of page impressions, or length of time on the Web site should be considered depending on a company's site and the goals of their online marketing program. To increase traffic without consideration for how that traffic interacts with the Web site is folly, but worst, it wastes time and your bandwidth on an endeavor that will yield little if any improvement in your customers.

Increased referrals from search engines are a major component...but not the totality of the traffic equation. A successful search engine optimization campaign should result in an increase in the number of visitors who find the site from a search engine the first time and return a second or third time from a bookmark or a remembered URL. If your content is engagin or your business proposition worthy, your increased referrals will translate into increased monthly unique visitors.