Checking Your Own Site’s Search Engine Rankings

It forever amazes me when I’ve recently set a site live and immediately upon notification of live or within a very short period of time thereafter, the client contacts me to tell me they’ve just checked their own search engine rankings and “Ohmahgosh … they’re #1!” They’re out of breath, absolutely ecstatic and literally bubbling over with enthusiasm and gratitude for the work I did to make this happen. Their email is stuffed full of “!!!” and they’re singing my praises to me and others. How cool is that for me to hear?

Actually, it’s not cool at all because what they’ve just done is to type in something like their domain name, their business name, their address, their own name or something else equally inappropriate and totally ineffective into their favorite search engine and voila! There they are at the very top of the search results just as plain as day and in their minds, for all the world to see. Their mind moves immediately to the thought that the entire world is immediately going to come charging to their web site in droves and purchase every single product they have and that they’re going to be rich in a matter of a week’s time.

Did I REALLY Just Pull Off the Impossible?

Although I know it’s pointless, I’m not going to take anything for granted. Who’s to say I didn’t just pull off the impossible? Wouldn’t I just love to be such a miracle worker? Just think of the fame and money that would begin pouring in. Well, a girl can hope, but even Jill Whalen herself can’t do this and she’s top of the line in the SEO business! I bet if you asked her, she’d be the first one to tell you this as well.

So, I go have a look at the rankings myself and things are just not computing. I’m not seeing what they’re seeing and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what’s just happened. If they were a fly on my wall they’d see me banging my head on my keyboard and screaming “not another one!”

Bursting Bubbles

When my head banging and screaming stops and I’ve popped a few pain relievers to banish the sudden pounding headache, I then have to burst their bubble and I really hate doing that. It’s soooooo depressing!

Folks, please trust me when I tell you it just doesn’t work this way! If you use this type of criteria to do an Internet search you’re not going to get accurate results. If you let your fingers do the walking through the Yellow Pages, yup, there ya are. Your business is right there where it should be. The problem with this is that the Internet is not the Yellow Pages. If you live in Podunk USA, Population under 1,000, everyone in town knows your name, they might and very likely will search on it. But … what about the people that aren’t local? Three cities away these people have never heard of “Bud’s Nursery” or “Susie’s Craft Shoppe.” How in the world can you expect them to find your site by using a name for search criteria when they’ve never heard the name? This will work if your name is a household word such as Tiger Woods, Ford or Sears but not if you’ve got a small business and particularly if it’s a new business of any size.

People doing Internet searches use different criteria when they search, which is where keywords and key phrases come into play. When your web designer or your SEO Specialist asks you for this information, we do it for a reason and that reason is that these words are what people search on in order to find your business.

If you’d like to learn more about how people search for what they’re looking for, please review “How Will People Find My Web Site.“