Companies have been urged not to focus all of their attentions on rankings when considering search engine optimisation (SEO).

According
to Practical Ecommerce's Jill Kocher, many firms consider this the most
important aspect of SEO and judge their success according to their
position.

However, she warned that rankings often vary according to the internet user.

Ms
Kocher explained that search engines such as Google often tailor
results to each person using information gathered from tools such as
search history, Gmail, iGoogle, the Google Toolbar, Chrome, AdSense and
Google Analytics.

The number of results returned might also affect the position of each one on search engines, the expert added.

She
noted that geographic location of the search and the data centre that
is hit could also impact on the rankings when using Google.

"Understanding
this phenomenon is one of the most effective ways of helping your team
focus on the measures that really matter and halting obsessive rank
checking," Ms Kocher commented.

She added that rankings should
be tracked as a metric, but warned that companies might be making an
error if they attach too much significance to it.

This comes after HighPosition.net reported that having unique content on a website is essential for an effective SEO strategy.