Private Browsing For Accurate Results

The other day I posted an article about how you need to be careful when checking your own website’s search engine rankings. If you missed it I’d recommend that you read that first before reading this particular blog post.

Today I’d like to add to the previous post by recommending that IF you do decide to check your own website rankings by typing in keywords you think searchers might be searching for in your area, then you must browse privately.

I’ll explain how to do this in a second, but to provide a little background, google knows what results are valuable to you. It’s very easy really. I mean if you do the same searches and visit the same websites, google considers these websites valuable to you.

So let’s say you search for your website using a keyword (ie: “boca raton window cleaning” assuming you live in boca raton). Your website is on the front page in the #5 spot. You then click through and visit your own site.

Then you search for your website using the same keyword the next day. And maybe you do it a couple of days after that. etc. etc. You click through to your website each time and spend time on the site. As mentioned above, google sees this and figures that this website is providing you a real benefit.

So what happens is that you’ll start getting an inaccurate reading of where your website is positioned as far as rankings go. In other words when you search for your website, google might display your website in position 1 for you because they recognize it as being a good resource for you since you visit the site regularly. However, when everyone else searches, your site may display in position 5.

This creates a problem because if you’re doing any search engine optimization for your site, you may think you’ve achieved the top spot if you see your site in the #1 spot, but the reality is that you haven’t.

So how do you avoid this? You need to browse privately. If you use internet explorer go to “Tools” and then click on “InPrivate Browsing”. If you use firefox go to “Tools” and then click on “Start Private Browsing”.

And that’s it!

Google won’t be able to track your browsing patterns or see which websites you’re visiting, so when you search for your website using whatever keywords you want to, you’ll get an accurate reading of the positioning of your website.

Hope the above helps. Take care and have a great day.

Regards,

Steve

P.S. A few days ago I received an email from a window cleaner who is a member of The Customer Factor, and she wrote that she tripled her quarterly business as a result of using The Customer Factor. Not too shabby. For 7 years now we’ve provided a full featured, automated software solution to window cleaners and other service business owners. It’s a serious tool for serious window cleaners. I invite you to give it a spin for 30 days risk free. It could change your entire business.

Chow for now!