Lee Corso on SEO: "Not So Fast My Friend!"
Often times business owners will be tempted to check how their websites rank on Google by just popping in the occasional Google search. I am willing to bet that some of the people reading this blog post right now have done a quick Google search or two for their websites within the past few days. It's tempting, I know. Especially when you are in a competitive market like real estate, plastic surgery, the travel industry or business coaching or services.
What do you see when you check those rankings? Are you sitting pretty up at the top of Google? Frequently, this is the case but, as Lee Corso, one of my FAVORITE personalities from ESPN's College Gameday would tell you: "Not So Fast My Friend!"
What happened to my website?
I will never forget the time I was sitting in the office of a local insurance agent who had reached out to me asking for help with new business. He had just finished explaining to me how he didn't think his website was helping his business much and that "Google didn't work very well". He showed me several searches where his company domain appeared in either the top position or in the 2nd position.
I asked him if I may do a couple of searches and before I did this, I performed one CRITICAL first step: I deleted his browser history, cache and cookies.
For those of you who have no earthly idea of what I just said, I basically prevented Google from favoring HIS website just because he had visited it several times. Instead, Google was treating this search like a newcomer who had never searched for "insurance agents in gainesville, fl" before.
Needless to say, he was SHOCKED. His website wasn't on the first two pages of Google's results. "What happened to my website?" he asked me...with obvious frustration in his voice. "Nothing at all" I replied. More importantly he realized, without it being said, why his website wasn't generating many leads.
Google's Nifty Incognito Feature - For Better SEO Spot Checks
Google's Chrome Browser has a really nifty feature built into it. It's called "incognito mode" (browsing in private). If you aren't familiar with Google's Chrome browser, you might want to give it a try. It will probably run circles around your current web browser, especially if you are still mired in Internet Explorer. Its fast, lean and so far this year, 36% of this blog's readers are using it vs. Firefox or IE.
If you click on the menu in Chrome (top right), you will see a drop down menu containing all of your settings. Your third option in that menu should be: "New Incognito Window". You can also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+N. Immediately a new browser window will open and it will have the incognito symbol in the top left:
Run your keyword searches in incognito mode! Now you are seeing your website like a brand new visitor would see it with ZERO search bias. This even eliminates geo-targeted search bias (search based on your specific location). So, log into Chrome and spot check away and get a much more accurate picture of where your website is.
A Better Option for Website Rankings
The best option, of course, is to take advantage of the free SEO analysis that our team offers. Not only will we detail where you are ranking for your current rankings, we will answer questions like:
- Are there elements of my website that are HURTING my search results?
- What should I fix first to improve my search rankings?
- What is helping my competition outrank me?