I personally know of many companies listed on the top 10 of many keywords and they have not converted such positioning into cash.

With the millions of people around the world using the same keywords, it is impossible for all of them to achieve top 10 listing at the same time.   Are companies doomed to failure who never achieve a top 10, 20 or 30 ranking?

A Boxless Entrepreneur’s answer is, absolutely no!  In fact, many of the most successful online companies have never achieved a decent ranking with Google, Yahoo or Bing.

If your company is dependent on sales from your online business solely based on being ranked within the top 10 or 20 of any of the above-mentioned search engines, you are doomed for failure.

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Based on the 80/20 principle, if you focus on the 20% of your clients who can give you 80% of your income then, you can safely eliminate 80% of all your potential customers and still be 80% successful by taking care of those 20% that are giving you 80% of your income.

If the 20% market share knows exactly where to find you via the World Wide Web then, you can be sure that your ranking within any search engine is irrelevant to the success and sustainability of your company.

If your 20% market share can go to your website and easily find what they want, contact info is visible on every page, inquiries are being answered within a few hours and your refund policy and affiliate program are all well organized, Google, Yahoo and Bing ranking plays no role in the success of your company.

If you continue to brand your company to your 20% market share by making sure that each invoice, letterhead, envelope, receipt, business card, menu and promotional materials have your logo, website  and e-mail  address then, paying money to Google, Yahoo and Bing to be listed on their top 10 search results based on certain keywords, is financially unnecessary.

If your 20% market share that is giving you 80% of your income is satisfied with the quality and standards of your products or services then, being listed in the top 10 of Google, Yahoo and Bing will not be a part of your short and long term sustainable marketing and promotional mix.

If the only two questions you and your team focus on each morning are:

What are we doing today to keep the customers we now have?

What are we doing today to create new customers?

Then,your ranking on Google, Yahoo and Bing is not important to the success or failure of your company.

If you understand the importance of having an up to date database of past, present and potential customers and you use it effectively to stay in touch, then, your 20% market share that will give you 80% of your income is not dependent on your ranking in Google, Yahoo or Bing search engine results.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce online sales reached $165.4 Billion in 2010, for 14.8 growth over 2009.

eMarketers.com research revealed that 164.2 million Americans will use Social Network, or 67% of internet users by 2013.

Based on the above facts, insure your marketing and promotional mix includes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare and other social media, then, your 80% financial success rate based on your 20% market share will be more of a reality without once dependent on your ranking in Google, Yahoo or Bing.  You should also know the social profile of your 20% market share.

If you have a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly e-newsletter or Blog whose content focuses on your monthly success stories, product and services, customer satisfaction feedback and highlighting some of those companies using your products or services; this will contribute to the success of your business.

Even though I personally believe that one’s ranking in Google, Yahoo or Bing is a marketing strategy that is earning big money for many SEO companies around the world and it’s importance is widely over rated for the majority of Micro, Small and Medium Size Enterprises (MSME), knowing the demographics of your customers, what they are clicking on, where they are coming from, their age group and how they are learning about your products or services are important to the success or failure of your company.

Having a simple and functional website without flash if possible, is important to the success of your online business.  Make sure your telephone numbers, website and e-mail addresses are on every page of your website if possible.

If you understand the difference between Page View versus Hits, you would not be making a decision based on the amount of hits a website gets per month because Internet Pros know that this is the most unreliable method to measure the success of a website based on these facts.

A visitor to your website will generate one Page View for each page visited.   If those pages have 100 graphics each on them, they will also generate 100 additional hits.  One hit for each graphic on their pages, thus, they can easily say that they had 101 hits. One hit for the page viewed and 100 hits for the graphics on the page.

Boxless Entrepreneurs also knows that Pay-Per-Click was one of the biggest scam to be incorporated into online marketing mix.  Companies were charging Micro, Small and Medium Size Enterprises (MSMEs),  five (5) cents per click while that same company was paying calling centers and individuals two (2) cents per click to visit and click on your banner ads.  Many competitors were also clicking on those banner ads driving up that client’s monthly Pay-Per-Click marketing expense without any real Return on Investment (ROI).  Relying on Google, Yahoo & Bing Ranking or buying Pay-Per- Click advertisement is waste of money and time for Micro, Small and Medium Size Enterprises (MSME). Based the above facts, a website might have two hundred unique visitors, but shows 2,000 hits based on the amount of graphics and other impressionable items on the pages viewed.

Boxless Entrepreneurs treat complaints with urgency by implementing immediate solutions for each complaint.  Boxless Entrepreneurs are focused on the improvement of their products and services.

Boxless Entrepreneurs compensate their sales team well and are not afraid of getting the opinions of bottom line team members who sometimes understand the issues and weakness of their companies better that top management on many occasions. This type of Boxless Management will not only lead to the success of your company, but will take you out of the Search Engine overrated Ranking Bubble.

To learn more about the Boxless Thinkers and Boxless Entrepreneurs, go to: www.BoxlessEntrepreneurs.com

Theo Chambers is the Chairman/CEO of PanaCarib Web Services (www.panacaribwebservices.com ), headquartered in Panama Republic of Panama, with an office in Jamaica, West Indies.  He is the co-founder of the highly read daily e-Tourism Newsletter Positive Tourism News (www.positivetourism.com).  He is the founder of the Caribbean Premier Web Portal – www.LetsDoItInTheCaribbean.com and a Partner in the popular Medical Tourism Web Portals  www.PanamaMedicalTourism.com & www.CaribbeanHealthTourism.com. He can be contacted at [email protected] in Panama: 001-507-6116-6063 in Jamaica at: 876-381-1417.