You may not be seeing your ads when you search Google for your business or products, as they won't generate conversions. Ultimately, it's not a good idea to Google your own business as it won't give you an accurate reflection of how often they are displayed, and it can even hurt them. On average, Google processes more than 40,000 search requests per second, which adds up to an incredible 3.5 billion searches every day. Whether it's paid advertising or organic rankings, Google is the best place to promote your products and services. Unfortunately, many small business owners have fallen into the bad habit of Googling their businesses to check that everything is working correctly.
Nowadays, Google search results are based on the user's location, browsing history, social data, device type (e.g. laptop, tablet or smartphone), and even the user's operating system. In fact, there are more than 200 factors that Google takes into account when someone types in a word or phrase. This is why someone in Denver searching for “Joe's Plumbing” will get a different result than someone in Des Moines, and why a husband and wife who use different computers will get different autocomplete suggestions while searching for laptop covers. Using a single computer does not provide objective data.
Most of the time, the only thing a particular keyword search does is show the business owner what they want to see, rather than the reality of their website's search visibility to their target audience. In fact, according to Google's own engineers, 20 percent of daily search queries have never been searched before. Gone are the days when searching on Google for “medical spa” would bring up the site with the most mentions of those words on its pages. Nowadays, Google search is highly personalized and searching on one person's computer will not reflect whether or not a site has search visibility that reaches potential customers. Google is an ever-changing omnipresence that puts every ounce of its existence into being the best search engine there is. With many people searching for local businesses through Google Maps, you're sure to increase your site visits.
Searching Google won't reveal what factors are affecting your performance, but using SEO management tools will. The truth is that ten people in your office could Google your company name and get ten different results based on their location, device, Wi-Fi network, search history, and demographics. And as an HVAC business owner, you have better things to do than waste your time with unique and inaccurate Google results that don't provide you with useful information. When used correctly, your Google My Business listing can become a powerful customer acquisition engine. To make the most of Google My Business, you need to stop thinking of it as a generic list of yellow pages.
Even if you go down the organic route, spending too much time on competing sites while researching can send the wrong message to Google and improve your competitors' rankings. In addition to tailoring search results based on a person's location, Google searches are also increasingly adapting their results based on that person's browsing and social media history in their Google Account. With tools like Google Analytics, you can see what devices are being used, where your potential customers are looking from, and much more. In conclusion, Googling your own business won't give you an accurate reflection of how often they are displayed or how well they rank in comparison to competitors. It can also hurt them by showing them in inaccurate results due to personalization factors such as location and browsing history. Instead of wasting time with unique and inaccurate results from one computer, use SEO management tools like Google Analytics to get an accurate picture of how well your website is performing.
