Every business owner has done it. Typed their trade into their phone, seen themselves at the top, and concluded things are going well.
That result is personalised to you, from where you are standing, with your search history attached. Nobody else sees it.
Why your own search lies to you
- Location. Local results change street by street. Standing at your own premises is the single best place you will ever rank.
- History. Google knows you have visited your own site and profile hundreds of times.
- Being signed in. Your account skews what you are shown.
- Device and connection. Both feed into it.
What a grid check shows
The better tools check your ranking from a grid of points across your service area and show the result as a heat map. That is far more useful than a single number.
What you almost always see: strong near your address, fading fast with distance. That picture tells you where your real catchment is, and whether a suburb you think you cover is actually producing anything.
It also tells you whether a change worked, because you can compare the whole map rather than one lucky search.
The numbers that matter more than position
Rank is a means, not the point. The profile insights in Google Business Profile give you the things that actually indicate money:
- Calls. The number that matters most. Track it monthly.
- Direction requests. Strong intent if customers come to you.
- Website clicks.
- Searches that found you, split between people searching your name and people searching your service. The second group is the one you are growing.
- How you were found. Discovery searches versus direct.
A sensible routine
- Once a month, same day each month.
- Record calls, direction requests and website clicks from profile insights.
- Record your review count and average rating.
- Check your position from three or four points across your area, not one.
- Write it in a spreadsheet. Three months of this tells you more than any single check ever will.
If a number moves, you will be able to tell whether it is a trend or a bad week. Without the history, every month is a guess.
Rather not do this yourself? Our Google Business Profile management handles the profile, the posts and the reviews every week, for one monthly fee.