It may seem like a harmless habit, and you may even use it to check your rankings. Googling yourself can negatively impact your SEO and ad efforts, making them less effective. This can be frustrating when you invest time and money into digital marketing campaigns to increase your rankings! That’s why we’re taking a look at why you should stop googling yourself and the best ways to keep an eye on your rankings instead.
Googling yourself doesn’t give you the whole picture
We’ve all been there! Whether you want to strategically check your rankings or have an overwhelming curiosity, you find yourself typing your name into the search bar. Unfortunately, this won’t give you the results you want.
You’ll most likely come up as the top result when you search yourself. That’s because your search results are tailored to your personal search history and Google profiles. If you search for your business name from your office, the results won’t give you any important information.
Alternatively, you could now show up in the results and spend time worrying that your marketing strategies are ineffective and compare yourself to the competition.
Either way, it’s important to remember that you don’t see the same search engine results as everyone else. Since search results are tailored to the individual searching, you’ll end up with inaccurate results and a potentially misleading indicator of your performance.
Searching for yourself can harm your rankings
It may seem surprising, but monitoring your online presence can negatively impact your rankings. When you click on your PPC ad, it skews the data to affect your performance stats negatively. Additionally, when an ad is searched and not engaged, it will eventually stop showing up at all. When these things happen, you’re essentially paying more money for the same level of visibility.
Searching for your business can also affect organic rankings. Clicking on your website can inflate your visitor numbers, giving you a skewed vision of how your marketing efforts are paying off. On the other hand, visiting your competitors’ sites frequently will show Google that those sites are helpful, making them appear higher in the rankings. So, while the effects on organic rankings aren’t quite as detrimental, you should still be mindful of them when you’re about to click that link.
You aren’t your target market
If you’re a specialist in your field, you know what to look for to find the best in the business. You know all the keywords and jargon that may come up when searching for an expert in the field. So, when you’re googling yourself, you’ll probably use words that you relate to your business or profession. That isn’t always the case with your audience, though!
It’s often the case that unexpected keywords become higher ranking than the ones we might expect. Google estimates that around 15% of their search volume is unique. That means that there are millions of searches every day that Google hasn’t seen before. The options are endless as to how people will search for your service, so using what you think will be popular terms won’t necessarily be helpful.
Googling yourself doesn’t show your position in the SERP
In the early days of digital marketing, it made sense to google yourself – search criteria were simple, and there wasn’t so much content to sift through. Because of that, results were relatively static regardless of who was searching. Things aren’t so simple now, though!
Now, search engine results use many more factors to determine what pages appear in search results and when you see particular ads. Those factors include:
- The device you use to search (mobile devices will show different results than a desktop, for example)
- Searching with voice technology
- Your physical location
- Past search history
- The search engine used
Use better metrics to see real results
To accurately judge how things are going for your business, you should look at your KPIs, which include:
- Revenue growth
- Revenue per client
- Profit margin
- Client retention rate and
- Customer satisfaction
These are available on your analytics dashboard through your marketing agency. KPIs should be the leading indicators of your performance and the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.
Search results aren’t everything! Tracking your conversion rates, click-through, and inquiry rates will give you a more detailed and accurate view of your success.
Instead of focusing on being number one in the search results, try shifting your focus. SEO is still important for small businesses to maintain rankings, but your content strategy and website CTAs are just as important! If you aren’t quite sure how your current material is measuring up, don’t worry! Our team is always available to help you optimize your online presence and make sure you’re getting the most out of your marketing efforts.
Get the most out of your marketing strategy with Neon Canvas
Googling yourself won’t give you what you need when it comes to measuring your business’s online presence. Thankfully, SEO management can help you get an accurate picture of what you’re doing right and where you can improve.
Are you ready to get the results you want and the information you need? Our team is prepared to help you make the most out of your marketing dollars! Contact us today to get started, and click here for your free online audit.