How to Test Your Site on Google
Look Beyond Your Business Name
If your business name is unique enough, typing it into Google may well bring up your site on the first page of results. But unless your brand is already well known, very few people will ever search for it.
What you want is for people to find you in search results before they know your name.
How Do People Search For What You Offer?
Easy ways to find the 5 most common searches potential clients might type into Google to find what you offer:
Get Insights from Your Customers
Chatting with existing customers is a good way to find out how they look for things on Google, and their answers might surprise you.
People also ask and Related searches
Next, type the ideas you get from talking with clients into Google. The "People also ask" section near the top is a list of popular related questions. You can find more ideas in the "Related searches" section just under the first 10 search results.
How To Test Your Site's Appearance in Google
Use a Private or Incognito Browser Window
Google remembers your past browsing, and uses this "history" to personalize search results. To see unbiased results use incognito or private browsing mode. You can also use a browser you've never used before.
Search Your Top 5 Questions
In the incognito browser, open Google and try the 5 most common searches you found from talking to clients and looking in the "People also ask" and "Related searches" sections of Google.
Other search engines like Yandex, Bing, Baidu, etc., work in a similar way.
Note Your Site's Position
Does your site appear in the first two pages? Keep track of your site's position over time. If you don't want to do this manually, you can open a free account with Google Search Console: https://search.google.com/search-console
Learn from Your Competition
You can learn a lot from the sites which appear above yours in the search results. Don't copy them, but be curious!
What Titles Do They Use?
The words and phrases you use in your Page Titles, Search Engine Titles, and Block Titles can make a big difference.
How Are Their Sites Organized?
Do competitors have a page for each service or topic? Do some pages have more content than others? Are there prominent links between the key pages of their sites?
Make Small Changes and Watch For Their Impact
• Write Clear Titles: Make sure Google and visitors know what each page is about.
• Create Helpful Content: Answer customer questions directly.
• One Topic per Page: Don't try to fit everything onto one page.
• Get some backlinks: Talk to local business and link to each others' websites.
After making changes, wait for around 2 weeks to see what effect they have.
Remember, it's up to you to guide Google towards your website.
Simplify SEO with PageOptimizer Pro (POP)
POP is a powerful but easy to use SEO tool which analyzes your website and its competition on Google.
POP automatically finds the most important words and phrases for each topic, and then tells you exactly where to put them to improve your page's position in Google.
Find POP SEO in the 'G' Tab in SimDif
