I just wrote a fairly extensive article yesterday explaining about search engine rankings and why they matter. 
It's at Search Engine Rankings – Why they Matter.
I had fun writing it, as I went right back to the basics to explain the value of high search engine rankings in a particular product niche.
Search Engine Rankings Explained
In this case, the niche was dog training. As I researched the article, I used the google Keyword tool to look up the term dog training, and to see how many many monthly searches there are for that term.
Search Engine Rankings Explained
As an aside, anyone who owns a website for their business should get familiar with the keyword tool, as it is a wonderful aid in finding out search terms relevant to your business, how easy or difficult it would be for your website to rank for those terms, and how much traffic can be expected for each term if get a tope search engine ranking.
I'll cover it in detail in a upcoming article.
Mainly, today I just wanted to take a moment to highlight yesterdays article.
Search engine rankings or SEO Rankings can truly be a make or break factor for your business.
Whether you are selling or intend to sell your product or service Locally, Regionally, Nationally, or even Globally, how high your sites pages rank in the search engines, will have a absolute, direct affect on the amount of traffic your site receives.
Search Engine Rankings Explained
If you are in the a top search engine ranking, #1 position on page 1, approximately 42% of all searchers with come to your page. It drops off drastically after that.
60% of all searches never go beyond the listings on page 1.. so if you're not there, you are, at a minimum losing 60% of the website traffic you potentially could be receiving.
So, if you are trying to do business either online, or just using the web to attract attention to your LOCAL business, getting w top search engine ranking on Google and the other search engines should be an absolute priority. And once you're there, getting to the top of the page, should be the ultimate goal. The changes in your results will be dramatic.
So there you have it, search engine rankings expllained, and why they should matter to your business.