How Googling Yourself Can Hurt Your SEO & Paid Ads
9 Minute Read
Just admit it—you’ve been Googling yourself, haven’t you? Everybody does it once in a while. Whether it’s searching your personal or business name, it’s basic digital curiosity to want to know where you rank in search results on Google and other search engines. But should you Google yourself?
Business owners and marketers search high-value keywords to see where they rank versus how competitors rank in online search. These searches are foundational for SEO and pay-per-click advertising (PPC), enabling you to see how your business performs compared to other businesses in your market and your industry.
However, Googling yourself (or your own business) can actually hurt your organic rankings and PPC campaigns. So, don’t do it! And if you need to know why exactly, keep reading. We’ll go over how to get the insights you need without self-sabotaging your search marketing.
Another way to handle it? Contact the experts at Twelve Three Media, and we’ll do it all for you. Our SEO and PPC mavens have the smarts and skills to achieve top results for your business. We’re ready when you are.
Why Googling Yourself Is Bad!
Google places a premium on discerning user intent. The massive amount of data Google collects from user searches is fed into its algorithms and machine learning programs to deliver the most relevant search results.
What Google’s automated processes do not and cannot account for is the nuance of people searching for purposes of competitive analysis. To Google, high-level keywords (i.e., “solar energy company,” “Columbus personal injury lawyer,” etc.) are searched so users can find the businesses that meet their wants and needs—not so business owners and marketers can scope out the competition.
The disconnect between your intent when you Google yourself and how Google reads that intent can skew the search results. It’s the equivalent of poisoning your own well.
1. Organic Click-Through Rate
Google assesses a number of different factors in determining what results should be delivered to people searching for a given keyword or phrase. A page with a high click-through rate (CTR) from organic SERPs for a particular keyword signals to Google that the page in question is highly relevant to the user’s search.
High CTR correlates strongly with better SEO ranking. A study by FirstPageSage found that the pages ranked first in Google SERPs have an average click-through rate of 39.8%.
Now, what does this mean if you are Googling yourself? Say you routinely search one of your most valuable target keywords, and you usually end up clicking on one or more of your competitors’ results. Every time you do this, you are telling Google that that competitor’s page is a better result for the keyword in question than yours. If this pattern is repeated by you, the members of your team, your agency, and consumers as a whole, the competitor will consistently rank ahead of you.
Now, what does this mean if you Google yourself? Say you routinely search one of your most valuable target keywords, and you usually end up clicking on one or more of your competitors’ results. Every time you do this, you are telling Google that that competitor’s page is a better result for the keyword in question than yours. If this pattern is repeated by you, the members of your team, your agency, and consumers as a whole, the competitor will consistently rank ahead of you.
2. Bounce Rate
In addition to organic CTR, Google assesses several site-level ranking factors to determine whether a page is worthy of ranking for a given keyword. Problems with usability, poor performance on mobile, and other issues generally harm a website’s ability to rank.
Of course, Google can’t “see” these problems the way a human user can. Instead, Google relies on signals sent by the user to determine if the experience on the website is positive or negative. When a user leaves a website after landing on a particular page without visiting any additional pages, this is called a “bounce.”
Though highly debated, a site-wide low bounce rate seems to have a minor correlation with higher rankings. A high proportion of bounces may be a signal that the page or the site as a whole offers an inferior experience. However, it is important to take other factors into consideration. While bounce rate is not technically a ranking factor, it is a valuable SEO consideration.
When people Google themselves, they might click to their own website just to get a glimpse of the page that’s ranking (and they might not even go this far). But, when they click to a competitor’s website, they often peruse multiple pages to see what they’ve got going on.
That quick click to your website followed by hitting the back button or closing the tab increases your bounce rate. Delving into a competitor’s website, meanwhile, will lower their bounce rate. Generally, Google will assign a negative SEO value to the former action and a positive SEO value to the latter.
Google Analytics 4 does not include the bounce rate metric. Instead, marketers and webmasters rely on the new “engaged sessions” data to see how users interact with the website.
3. Dwell Time
Dwell time refers to how long users stay on the page after arriving from SERPs. Like bounce rate, dwell time is another metric that correlates with a number of user interaction and engagement metrics Google uses to suss out the quality of a page. WordStream assessed its own content and found that 30 of its 32 top-performing pages in organic search all had dwell times way above the site’s average time on page.
Pages that users spend a lot of time on after arriving from a search will send a strong signal to Google that the page is a highly relevant result for the given query.
As mentioned above, marketers and business owners who Google themselves tend to give short shrift to their own pages in search results while (dare we say it?) obsessing over what the competition is doing. If you click on a competitor’s page from search results and spend half an hour reading every word on the page to see what they have that you don’t, you’re not doing your own SEO any favors.
4. Relevance
Personalized search results are the norm. Google serves different results to users based on personal characteristics such as:
- The user’s geographic location
- Previous browsing and search history
- Whether the user is signed into a Google account
- Variations in keywords and phrases
- And more
Because of the wide variations in user search habits, there is really no way to get an “objective” picture of what page is ranked first for a given keyword. Googling yourself will not help because the results you see are tailored to the individual user based on the factors listed above.
A customer across town or even a few blocks away will see different results than you do. What’s more, they will approach the search differently because they may be unaware of the specific terms that can connect them with the right product or service.
Make no mistake: Ranking first for search terms related to your business is important. However, fixating on first-page rankings for select keywords to the exclusion of other indicators of success (such as click-through rate, leads, and sales) turns SEO into a vanity project more than an effort to maximize your visibility to customers.
Read More: Keywords – How Much Is Too Much?
5. Proximity
In addition to relevance to the user’s query, Google will also heavily favor results that are in close proximity to where the user is located. Research by Semrush shows that the Google Maps results for most industries display businesses less than 1 mile from the searcher.
Organic search results are similarly affected by proximity. The SERPs you see when you’re Googling yourself are different from what other users see because they could be located across town, elsewhere in the state, or even in another country.
Because proximity is such a huge factor in local and organic search, you cannot reliably gauge your rankings by Googling yourself. The difficulty is especially pronounced if you only search from one location (such as your office or your home), as you will have no way to make an accurate comparison between what you see in a narrowly defined geographical area compared to what customers in many different areas see in the search results.
6. Prominence
Prominence refers to the online “footprint” of your business. An extremely simple search devoid of virtually all context (ex: “burgers”) will generally show nationally recognized brands because customers know these businesses more than they do the local establishments.
The name recognition of these big corporations exemplifies the importance of prominence in local search. Behind the scenes, these businesses also have the marketing budget and SEO infrastructure to stand out in search.
Small and medium-sized businesses can build their own prominence through local search marketing. However, the more you Google yourself and click on competitors’ results, the stronger the signal you send to Google that the competition should be treated as more prominent (and therefore ranked ahead of your business).
What Happens to Your Paid Ads When You Google Yourself?
Googling yourself affects more than just your organic SEO. Your PPC campaigns—which also run on keywords—can be at risk, too. Why? Well, as we’ve said before, you’re sabotaging your own success. The disconnect between your intent when Googling yourself and how Google interprets that intent can distort the search results.
When you search your business and your PPC ad shows up in the search results, if you don’t click that ad, Google interprets your inaction as the ad not satisfying the user request. Over time, this results in a lower quality score, which is Google’s metric for determining ad relevance. A lower quality score results in an increase in ad cost and a reduction in ad rank for future searches.
Eventually, when potential customers are at stake, your ads appear less frequently and cost you more. Ouch.
Maybe you’re thinking, “Oh! I’ll just Google myself and click on my ad! That’ll solve everything.” WRONG. Googling yourself and clicking on your ad ends up costing you money without providing any return on investment.
In addition, Googling yourself doesn’t provide you with accurate data. Your search results are personalized to you. Paid ads rely on similar data points to organic SEO:
- Geolocation
- Proximity
- Previous browsing & search history
When you Google yourself, you see results tailored to you, not the results your target audience is actually seeing. You may think it’s a good sign that your ads are showing up at the top of your SERP, but all it really means is that Google knows your preferences.
Simply, Googling your business isn’t an accurate gauge of how your ad campaign is doing. You will not get solid analytics, and you might end up damaging your ads and SEO. Instead, you can measure by:
- Tracking conversions
- Using analytics tools
- Applying attribution models to see where conversions are coming from
- Conducting A/B testing
- Performing ROI analysis
Bottom line: Stop the self-Googling. It confuses the algorithm, skews your data, and drains your funds. Focus on optimizing your paid campaigns based on genuine user interactions, not your own frivolous searches. Your ads and your wallet will thank you.
Stop Hurting Your SEO: Get Expert Search Marketing Advice Today
The value of Googling yourself and keywords related to your business will likely continue to be the subject of debate. Business is competition, and it is natural to want to know what your competitors are doing and the results they achieve.
Unfortunately, many businesses undermine their SEO and paid ads through their efforts at search reconnaissance. Radiohead put it best: “You do it to yourself, you do / And that’s what really hurts.”
Working with a kickass PPC and SEO marketing agency can help you get the insights you need on how you and your competitors are performing without succumbing to the temptation to self-Google. At Twelve Three Media, we use a three-point process to help our clients dominate both SEO and PPC:
- PLAN. We get to know your business intimately and conduct extensive keyword research to identify the keywords and queries that drive success for both organic and paid search campaigns.
- TARGET. Based on the research, we optimize your website and marketing strategies to boost your presence in search results and ensure your PPC ads reach the right audience.
- VALIDATE. Finally, we check our work. Our team dives deep into the data to determine what’s working, what needs improvement, and how our efforts have improved your rankings and ad performance. You can rely on us to be honest and provide actionable insights.
Our SEO and PPC experts have the knowledge, skill, and data savvy you need to start climbing the rankings and standing out to your customers. Gain the unfair marketing advantage with SEO and PPC services at Twelve Three Media today!