On average, Google processes more than 40,000 search requests per second which adds up to a staggering 3.5 queries every single day. Whether it’s through paid advertising or organic rankings, Google is the best place to promote your products and services. But, many small business owners fall into the bad habit of Googling their companies in order to check that everything is running properly.
Let’s be clear from the start: searching for your company on Google is one of the worst things you could do for your online marketing!
Even if you’re not clicking on your ads, looking yourself up can actually have a negative effect on your performance.
Below, we’ll go over 4 reasons why you should avoid looking for your business on Google.
4 Great Reasons to Stop Googling Yourself
Looking up your company may feel like the best way to check on your performance, but the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.
Here are four reasons why you should avoid looking yourself up on Google:
1. Inaccurate Perception
All Google search results are personalized to some extent, including the ones that appear on your own devices. So, one out of two things can happen:
If you are logged into your Google account and standing in your establishment while you submit your search, you’ll likely see your company at the top of the results.
Or, you’ll see that your results or ads are at the bottom of the page, way behind your competitors.
In either case, the results will be skewed due to your location, search history, and other factors, rendering the information you receive completely and utterly useless.
2. Metrics Give You a Better Idea of Your Performance
Most small business owners fall into the false perception that the best way to see how things are going is to check for yourself.
If you want to assess the performance of your campaign and marketing efforts as a whole, remember that you have a vast collection of statistics to choose from.
This includes some of the following.
- Traffic volume
- Number of unique sessions
- Session duration
- Leads generated
- Return on investment
- Other objective metrics
Together, these will help you examine performance and determine what improvements you need to make.
More helpful reading: What is SEO?
3. Customer Don’t Follow Your Search Patterns
Even if you try really, really hard, you will never be one of your customers. Every person has a unique way of looking for something online and assuming you can mimic this will only create confusion.
Instead, you should invest your time in learning about your target audience. Ask yourself questions like:
- What answers are my clients looking for?
- Are there any recurring issues or identifiable patterns?
- How can you address these problems effectively and offer a solution?
4. It Can Have a Negative Effect on Your Results
At this point, you’re probably aware that clicking on your paid ads will cost you money. But, running a search that triggers your ads and results in an impression can also have a negative effect on the performance of your campaign.
Even if you’re opting for the organic route, spending too much time on competing sites while researching can send the wrong message to Google and boost your competitor’s rankings.
So, how can you figure out where you stand without affecting your performance?
Simple! You can use one of the many analytics tools available, such as AHREFS, SEMRush, or Moz. All of these allow you to see your rankings without affecting the SERP results.
You can also trust in an internet marketing agency to interpret these metrics for your business.
What You Should Do: Focus on Building a Solid Marketing Strategy
Falling into the “Googling yourself” trap is easy and breaking bad habits is always tough.
But, as long as you take the first step, which is getting your marketing organized (and investing your time wisely) you’ll be able to break away and put your time to better use.
Need help setting up your marketing? Get in touch with our team and we’ll be glad to talk about it.
