Almost every day, we learn about something upsetting, such as hacks into financial data, theft of personal information and various Internet scams. Also, even if we do things properly, there is a possibility that our efforts don’t work quite well. As an example, our SEO effort may fail to produce desired results. There are different issues that we may need to tackle. Any SEO professionals should know whether their search engine optimization efforts produce favourable results.
It is also important to assess our progress by involving a mix of various operating systems, search engines and web browsers. In fact, results may vary widely depending on search engines and operating system we use. Google could be guilty of intentionally or unintentionally skewing this search result. There are cases that search results are affected by whether we are logged into the Google account.
We should consider whether our niche has more competitors and whether our locations have competitors who offer the same products and services. As an example, if we have a legal practice in specific town with dozens of other lawyers, we will have more intense competition in current location.
Signing to any Google service could affect our ranking, especially if Google knows our preferences, such as legal matters. It appears that the search engine giant learns things that we typically search everyday and this is among metrics it uses in the algorithm. Clearly, Google doesn’t try to deceive us; it simply tries to provide relevant results for specific people. However, it can be a humiliating experience if we try the same search task in client’s computer and the result is entirely different. New SEO professionals may think that their rankings are stellar, although in reality they are not.
Results may also change after we delete cookies of the web browsers. Again, these seemingly skewed results are intended only to make it convenient for users to get proper results. Many new SEO professionals simply cringe when they know that a localized factor, such as deleting cookies could easily change their results. However, things are typically more encouraging if search based on the area we are in. In general, we should check results with as many combinations as possible to determine things more accurately.
Google and other major search engines use very complex algorithm. Classic factors, such as high quality inbound links and top searches are no longer dominant factors, depending on users’ situations. Any skilled professionals should still be cautiously optimistic about their SEO expertises, knowing that simple things like deleting users’ cooking (related to our online behaviours), web browsers’ search history and computer’s cache could have direct results. New SEO specialists shouldn’t have a false sense of bravado, thinking that they have beaten more established companies on the web.
Overall, the Internet will continue to become an intensely competitive landscape and search engines may add yet a few more hidden metrics that we are not aware of. Ranking even in 3rd or 4th page is already an extraordinary feat for some keywords, let alone ranking somewhere in the first page.
