Searching your own business on your own phone gives you the wrong answer. Here is how to see where you really show up, and what to do with it.
The honest way to check where your website ranks is a clean search from the town your customers are in, not a search on your own phone. Your phone knows you. It has your location, your search history and every time you have clicked your own site, so it shows you a kinder picture than a stranger gets.
That is why so many owners are sure they are on page one, then wonder why the phone is quiet. They are on page one. Just not for anybody else.
Why your own Google search lies to you
Google tailors results to the person searching. Three things push you up the page when it is you doing the looking.
- Location. Google leans hard on where the search comes from. Search from your own street and you are the local option. Search from the other side of town and you might not be.
- History. If you have visited your own site a hundred times, Google has learned that you like it.
- Being signed in. Your Google account carries all of that from your phone to your laptop and back.
Incognito does not fix it
The usual advice is to open a private window. It helps a little, because it drops your history. It does not drop your location. Google still works out roughly where you are from your connection, so you are still searching from your own doorstep.
Asking a mate to search for you has the same problem. They get their own location and their own history. You end up with two opinions and no answer.
Where you are changes everything
For anything local, results move from town to town, and sometimes from one end of a city to the other. 'Plumber' searched in the city centre and 'plumber' searched in a suburb can give you two different top threes.
So the question is never just where do I rank. It is where do I rank for this search, from where my customers actually are.
The map and the normal results are two different races
For local searches Google often shows a map with three businesses at the top, then the normal list of websites underneath. They are ranked separately.
The map is mostly about your Google Business Profile, your reviews and how close you are to the person searching. The normal results are mostly about your website. You can be top of one and missing from the other, so check both.
What about Google Search Console?
Search Console is free and worth having. It shows the searches you already turn up for, and your average position for each one.
The catch is the word average. It blends every location, every device and every day together. Brilliant for spotting which way you are heading over a few months. Not much use for answering where you show up in the next town over today.
What to do with the answer
Once you have a clean position for each search, it usually lands in one of four places.
- Top three. Protect it. Keep the page fresh and the reviews coming, because the businesses below you want that spot.
- Four to ten. You are close. A stronger page and a few good links pointing at it is usually what moves it.
- Page two. Nearly there, but hardly anyone clicks through to page two. This is often a page that needs more depth.
- Nowhere. Usually there is no page on your site built around that search. One focused page often changes that.
Then look at who is above you. Not to copy them, but because their pages are the bar Google has set for that search.
Questions people ask
How often should I check my rankings?
Once a month is plenty for most businesses. Rankings move a little every day, so checking daily just gives you noise. Monthly shows you the direction.
Why do I show up on my phone but not on my customer's?
Because your phone is searching from your location, with your history. Theirs is not. A clean search from their town is the one that counts.
Can anyone guarantee me page one?
No, and be wary of anybody who says they can. Nobody controls Google. What you can do is give it the strongest page and profile for the search, and keep at it.
