Dear Shop Owner, Stop Googling Yourself!

Don’t google your shop.

Seriously. 

Googling your shop can be worse than googling your own name. Not because you’ll unearth five hundred people with your same moniker, or discover a cache of weird, decades-old photographs that are still on a Flickr account. 

No, friends, the reality is if you start searching for your shop to “see how your marketing is doing,” you might actually be…wait for it…screwing up your SEO or advertising. 

How?

Buckle up and we’ll explain. And please keep your hands away from your keyboard.

WHY YOUR SITE MIGHT NOT APPEAR RIGHT AWAY‍

Getting a new website up and running is really exciting. You probably want to make sure everything’s working the way it should. But it can take time for Google to properly index (or analyze) your page and start factoring it into search results—a process that can take up to a couple weeks.

So, that’s why your site isn’t appearing the instant it goes live. But even after Google indexes it, you want to avoid searching for it constantly.

HOW SEARCHING FOR YOURSELF MESSES UP YOUR SEO‍

We’re putting together this article because most, if not all, of our customers have experienced the same impulse: Why don’t I google my shop and see where it turns up? ‍

It does make a sort of sense. You’re making an investment and you want to see how that investment is doing. So you do some typing and poof! There you are…or there you aren’t. ‍

At this point, you possibly freak out. “I’m dumping all this money into SEO!” you cry. “Where is my shop? People can’t find me!”

Easy there, padawan. 

It is here that we need to point something out: what you see isn’t necessarily what other searchers (read: your customers) see.

Google is smart. Very smart. And it’s getting smarter. You, as someone who has presumably searched for things before, have a history with Google. That history follows you. Google figures out your intent as you search, and everything it shows you is selected based on what it thinks you will like and what you’ve looked at before.

At first, it may not show you “your” shop at all—because you’ve never indicated any interest in finding it.  

But then one day your shop shows up. Excited, you keep on searching. And Google realizes, hey, this person really wants to look up Aragorn’s Independent Repair Shop. So they’ll keep showing you your shop…but that’s hurting you in the long run. Why? Because it’s driving up interest (and therefore price) in the search terms (or keywords) you’re using.

Yes. Your searching will eventually smack you in the wallet. 

HOW CLICKING YOUR OWN ADS CAN MESS UP YOUR BUDGET‍

Shop owners don’t always stop at just searching for themselves. They actively seek out and click on their ads, which…well…also defeats the purpose. 

If you’re looking for your ads and you aren’t finding them, it doesn’t mean they aren’t out there. Remember what we said about Google serving up results based on your history? Google (and Facebook, and other PPC platforms for that matter) sees everything you look at and do. If you’re not constantly looking at repair shop-specific ads…well…why would it show them to you? 

(Something else to consider: PPC platforms let you (or your marketing people) select who you want to target. You may fall outside those parameters!)

If you do happen to see one of your ads on Google while scrolling, and you don’t click it, Google still counts that as an impression. Since you saw it and passed it by, it assumes you (and maybe others like you, with similar search histories) aren’t interested in this sort of ad. So it may not show it as often to anyone.‍

Yikes.

But Dieselmatic, you may be saying, I saw one of my own ads and did click on it! So Google knows it’s relevant, right?

Oh, dear. How can we put this gently? That click cost you money. 

Yes. You are literally paying to click on your own ad. ‍

Once is bad enough. If you do it multiple times, well, there goes your budget.

TO SUM UP: STOP GOOGLING YOURSELF‍

We understand the urge. Really, we do. But if you’re paying for SEO and advertising—whether it’s through us or your own internal team—then constantly searching for yourself is only hurting your shop in the end. 

Now, if you’re working with Dieselmatic, you’re in luck—you can see exactly where your dollars are going via our dashboard. It’ll give you a complete picture of your marketing spend and what you’re getting, including impressions, clicks, calls, and more. You don’t need to do your own recon (and mess with your results), because all the information is right in front of you.

Interested? Want to know more? We’re happy to answer your questions and show you how we can turbocharge your marketing—get in touch today!