My Website is ranking…Right?

Seeing your company’s name appear on the first page of a search engine when you type in certain keywords is an amazing feeling. It gives you a sense of pride because you either invested a lot of time or money to make it happen.

It also gives you a sense of possibility when you see your website ranking on the first page of Google and that may be the most addicting thing about it.

The possibilities that can come from ranking on the first page of a search engine are infinite. I had clients come back from the verge of bankruptcy, break into markets that are already crowded, and transition from a mom and pop to business to an international one.

Producing leads by through search engine optimization is only one way to generate leads but to do that you need to know where you are currently ranking.

Many people think they are ranking on search engines such as Google because they type in their keywords and their website shows on the first page.

The issue is that Google is a very smart search engine. Its goal is to provide you with the most relevant results for the search terms you type into it, which it does, uniquely for every user.

For instance, let’s say you are the marketing director of an international manufacturing company and you sell “shopping carts”. You type that keyword into Google from your office at work and your Company Name shows up on the third organic listing of Google.

SWEEET! You say to yourself and you think about the pool you are going to build for your family from the bonus check you are going to receive from “all these orders.”

However, you fail to notice a line of text below your companies listing on Google that reads, “You’ve visited this page many times. Last visit: TODAY”

What is happening is Google is providing you the results it thinks you would like because you have visited your website many, many times before.

Where your company website is actually ranking to someone typing in “shopping carts” is nowhere on the first page or Google, or the second, or the third.

It is going to be tough to explain to the family the Memorial Day pool party is not happing this summer because there will no pool because there were no leads because your website is not actually ranking.

So, let’s talk about how to make sure you are the King of the Castle with your family this summer by making sure that pool happens.

What we need to find out is what I call your website’s “true rankings” This is where it is actually ranking on the devices and geographic areas where your prospects are searching.

There are a few simple ways to perform some of these searches and I am happy to help you with the others.

Let’s start with your websites true rankings for desktop in the area where you are located.

• You will need a “clean” browser to make your searches from where you don’t “click” on anything. Choose one that you do not currently have and do a fresh install of it to your desktop or laptop if that is possible, this way you do not have to clean out your browser’s settings and cache.
• If you are a Chrome user, use Firefox. If you are a Firefox user, use Chrome, Safari, or Explorer but remember this browser is only for entering keywords search terms so you can see if and where you actually rank. Remember you cannot click on any websites from this browser, or be logged into any Google account, otherwise, it will not generate the true rankings.
• Next, do the same thing for mobile on your mobile device. The reason you want to check mobile separately is that there are three separate algorithms on Google. There is one for desktop, one for mobile, and one for maps.
• Your Maps listings can be pulled from the desktop version because they display in a “pack” on the front page of Google.

If you have a regional, national, or international business you will want to also track your rankings geographically. This can add a great deal of complexity to tracking your rankings if you are wanting to keep track of multiple areas.

If you want help with this reach out to us and we will pull you your true rankings and we won’t even charge you.

We believe in changing people’s lives through lead generation so we are happy to help.

Maybe just invite us to the pool party this summer!