Promoting Your Search Ranking On Your Site, Does it positively influence visitors? Options

[cline]

A competitor of one of my clients has a page page on their site that includes a "Google Box". It's a feature that queries Google on a particular keyword phrase and shows the top ranking sites. Shown below an example of a Google Box on the keyword "google". An interesting feature of the live code is that if the SERP is referencing the page the user is on, that link is marked as used, making it a different color from the other links, causing the self-reference to be more noticeable.

Since many of us have clients who are highly ranked on certain important keywords, would a Google Box be content that would positively influence visitors to the site or page within the site? There is an implicit endorsement by Google in these results.

More info about Google Boxes .

(IMG:http://radio.weblogs.com/0100059/myImages/Google/googleBoxExample.png)

[copywriter]

Hi Cline! Great to see you around again!

I don't view this as "content" per se. Does this Google Box reveal pages within the site it's on or does it reveal pages in any site in Google's index. (Sorry, I didn't take the time to read that long page.)

[cline]

The Google Box shows the sites in Google's index.

Suppose you run a widget repair company, and your homepage is ranked #1 in Google for "widget repair service". The idea is that you put a Google Box on your homepage showing that Google considers you #1 for "widget repair service", implicitly endorsing your site.

[Hyperformance]

Hmmm, So this would be showing 9 of your competitors? Or at least for 'that' keyword reference?

Interesting.

[copywriter]

I wouldn't put one on my site because I wouldn't want to advertise for my competition. I wouldn't see that as Google endorsing my site anyway. Maybe some would see it that way, but I don't.

[cline]

In the case of this client's site, their most important keyword is an acronym that has several meanings. They're the only commercial site in Google's top 5 on their meaning of the acronym. In this case it would therefore not be identifying any competition.

[qwerty]

It's not clear to me whom this is supposed to impress. OK, so Uncle Billy's Used Toothbrush Emporium is number 1 for "used toothbrush emporium". If I'm already on the site, do I need to know that? If I came to the site via that very search, I already know. If I came to the site in some other manner, is this going to matter to me?

[copywriter]

I'm with Qwerty. It wouldn't impress me. Now, maybe it would impress somebody who didn't know any better, but it doesn't do a thing for me.

[rolf]

I could see it being useful if you're selling SEO/SEM, or you're selling ad-space on the page or you're selling some other form of traffic based monetisation, but I would think for most situations it wouldn't have much relevance.

That said, it's an interesting gadget and could be of interest to some visitors as a curio, so who knows? Visitors may like it and enjoy your site more because of it, which has got to be a good thing IMHO.

[cline]

It's not clear to me whom this is supposed to impress. OK, so Uncle Billy's Used Toothbrush Emporium is number 1 for "used toothbrush emporium". If I'm already on the site, do I need to know that? If I came to the site via that very search, I already know. If I came to the site in some other manner, is this going to matter to me?

This site, like many other sites, gets only a minority portion of traffic from organic search, and within organic, only a small portion of traffic from even its highest volume keyword. Therefore in only a small fraction of the cases did the user come to the site because of the keyword SERP to be displayed in the Google Box.

"Is this going to matter to me?" is my question. Some people consider the search rankings as an implied endorsement. If Google recommends Uncle Billy's as the top site to see if you're interested in a used toothbrush, then it's probably a good place to get a used toothbrush from. BTW, it's important to note that the site in question is not an ecommerce site; it's a professional services site. It's selling its own branded service, not the brands of others, such as used BrandX toothbrushes.

Another way to look at it is that Google may be passing on a branding effect. You've never heard of Uncle Billy's, but it's the first brand to come to Google's "mind" when asked about used toothbrushes. If it's Google's top recommendation, it must be a well-known brand for used toothbrushes. Therefore the user may reclassify the brand from one they've just heard about to one of the best known in the business. People prefer to buy from well-known brands than unknown brands. Of course it's optimal when it's the prospective customer who knows the brand well, but in the case of a category where the prospect doesn't know any brands well in the category, might the prospect consider the Google results as indicating it's a well-known brand?

This is what the competitor seems to be banking on. The only difference here is that the competitor is showing a relatively obscure keyword in their Google Box, whereas my client is the top-ranked commercial site for the most heavily trafficked keyword in the business category.

[Randy]

I understand and even agree with your thoughts regarding that it could potentially pass along some trust and/or authority on the branding side of things cline. However I think there is some significant risk involved too.

Since we all know rankings fluctuate a good deal from time to time, could this Google Box end up having the opposite effect from time to time? Meaning it's showing on site, but if someone clicks through they don't see Uncle Billy's site listed anywhere near the top, or maybe not even on the first page. If the first thought is correct, does this mean users will view Uncle Billy's site with more skepticism if it's not listed in the top 3 or whatever?

I think this is certainly possible. People are strange in the way they make connections in their mind sometimes.

The other major concern I would have --especially for an ecommerce site-- is whether the Google Box itself is going to end up distracting users from the real goal of the site. Is it going to take users who were already 90% down the mental path to buying and yank their attention off onto something else.

I'm not sure, having never tested it. But the above two possible negatives, both of which would be out of my control once I decide to put the Box on the site, would make me pretty wary. From personal experience I know the littlest of things can have a drastic effect on conversions. So I'd be pretty careful about adding something like this into the buying process.

[qwerty]

This isn't exactly the same, as it's static text, but a site I'm reviewing right now has the following text on the home page, above the fold, in red:

This website, [www.thisandthat.com] is ranked #1 on Google out of 11,900,000 websites.

It doesn't even say what it's ranked #1 for. It is #1 for "this and that" (domain name changed to protect the innocent... and the ignorant (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ), but only out of 1,950,000, not 11.9 million.

This certainly doesn't impress me.

[chris whewell]

This website, [www.thisandthat.com] is ranked #1 on Google out of 11,900,000 websites.
It doesn't even say what it's ranked #1 for. It is #1 for "this and that" (domain name changed to protect the innocent... and the ignorant (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ), but only out of 1,950,000, not 11.9 million.

This certainly doesn't impress me.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Yes, but you know what you are looking for. If this doesn't work for you, something else might. How many times have you seen people advertising themselves with phrases such as "Britain's favourite Shoelaces".

The cynic, or even the wise will question that statement: Who's favourite? Who voted?

Most people just pass over statements like that without giving it a second thought, but the message somehow sticks in the subconscious in a positive way, and this has the desired effect - that of enhancing the reader's perception of the product.

[Ron Carnell]

I run a web site where writers can showcase their work to the world. The size of that "world" is obviously of some importance to them.

Several of my writers have been "discovered" on the site and subsequently published, the most notable example being in the Chicken Soup series. Promoting that fact helps me attract not just more writers, but also better writers. My site is also one of the few remaining, outside Geocities, that includes a "hit counter" at the bottom of each page, one maintained by a third party (Site Meter). It documents about 138 million visitors since we opened the doors, which again helps me attract writers. Our "world" is bigger than many, and yea, that matters to them.

I don't publicly proclaim our SE rankings, in large part as Randy said because they change too easily, but I also don't try to hide them. My regular writers know we have good rankings for most of our keywords, and they seem to be genuinely proud of that. Surprisingly so, in fact. I've never asked them if they think that constitutes an endorsement. I do know, however, that it has helped cement their loyalty to the site. They want to make their mark in the world and our good rankings helps them do that.

It works the other way sometimes, too. Just about any of my writers performing a vanity search, for their own name, will find their poetry at or near the top of the list. I've occasionally been asked to remove their work because they didn't want family, friends, or business associates quite that informed. Google giveth and Google taketh away. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[torka]

Since we all know rankings fluctuate a good deal from time to time, could this Google Box end up having the opposite effect from time to time? Meaning it's showing on site, but if someone clicks through they don't see Uncle Billy's site listed anywhere near the top, or maybe not even on the first page.

This would be my concern as well.

Offtopic

And JFTR, used toothbrushes? Eww. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/yuk.gif)

--Torka (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mf_prop.gif)