Can Googling Your Business Have Unintended Consequences?
You Google your business to see what others may see or how you rank. It’s easy to do, but it can have unintended consequences.
“We were curious to see what companies popped up with certain keywords but didn’t think it could harm us!”
If you are reading this, you probably are guilty of this, and you’re probably curious about how this could impact your online presence. You’re like most businesses. Here are a few quick pointers…
Here Are Facts You Need to Know That May Stop You From Googling Your Own Business
SEO has rules. And we have to play by Google’s rules. To play within Google’s search engine, they must trust that your website will represent their search engine to a high level.
No two searches are the same. There are hundreds (or even thousands) of keywords and phrases relevant to what you do/offer that people are searching for. When you search on Google, the highest results are those that Google trusts. It’s nearly impossible to rank in the top spot for all of them. Start making changes based on a single search term, and you may kill your organic performance on others.
Two people searching the same word(s) may have different search results. While Google says they don’t necessarily “personalize” results in the way you might think, they do consider the context and intent of the searcher. For example, Google knows that you are in Plymouth, MN. It’s also figured out that you may often search for businesses and places. Google adjusts your search based on your location at any given time. So when you search for something in the future, you’re more likely to get results relevant to your current location. Add to this the prevalence and density of local search results, and what you see may differ quite a bit from your potential customer.
If you Google your business name, you’ve put yourself in a bad situation because your actions may send less positive information back to Google regarding your site’s quality. For example, if you Google yourself, see your website, and don’t click on it, you’ve told Google you are not relevant for that search. Ope! Let’s avoid that.
“Didn’t even think about how we were lowering our rank by not clicking on our company links or spending enough time on our pages. Eek!”
Here Are Ways to Work Around Googling Your Own Business and Services
Improve the user experience: Is there content, products, or services a user would find interesting? Useful? Relevant? If you took down all your content tomorrow, would anyone miss it? Useful sites get visited and shared more often. They get linked to more often. And all of these actions are great for improving your organic rank. Create content that people need and want to share.
Use an incognito browser when searching. This route will remove your search history and things you may have searched for in the past. As a result, you may see a more accurate result of your current Google rankings for set keywords.
If you Google yourself, see your website and want to avoid sending the wrong message to Google about relevancy, you could click on it. But unless you spend time on your website next and click to other pages (showing engagement), you send Google Analytics a bounced visit and pull down your website stats. So again, you may be telling Google that the site’s relevancy to your search wasn’t great.
Track your overall organic traffic performance: There are free tools available such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console, that can help keep a pulse on total organic traffic to your site. Use this data to find areas that are working well and areas for improvement, then monitor your stats to make sure things are going in the right direction as you make them better. Not sure how? Reach out, and we can guide you through SEO basics and understand the data.
Action Items
The temptation to Google your own business is strong. The negative repercussions outweigh the immediate relief. Trust your marketer or marketing team! Marketing is what you pay for! Together you can forge a path forward to ensure your success and satisfaction.
