I was perusing a forum the other day and someone wrote a really long post about how he is perplexed with the Google dance going on with his website in SERPS. He went on to describe in excruciating (and quite painful to any reader) detail how he is perplexed as to how his site keeps jumping 1 or two spots on an almost hourly basis, and yes he provided the forum members with a blow by blow of his day of checking minute by minute, and his frustration with these developments as his site was dropping a little bit at a time.
Ummmmmmmmmmmmm....Can You Say SERP Addicts Anonymous?...................Yeah!
About 1/4 of the way through I stopped reading of course, and I wondered if he realizes that if this is how he spends his day, then his SERP positions will just continue to drop because he is not focusing on nor doing anything to enable better SERP positions and checking them minute by minute will certainly not make that happen 
Getting obsessed and addicted to these types of things can often happen and especially with newbies to the business. In reality becoming fixated on those stats, as well as other aspects of Internet marketing and online business that people get caught up with, like checking commissions every 10 minutes is really self defeating. These are not productive activities as they only take valuable time from doing the array of important tasks for Internet marketing. There are regular fluctuations that occur naturally in SERPS and especially Google, and constantly checking these can be a source of great stress, which inevitably affect your work performance.
As an alternative spend some time...
Commenting on dofollow blogs, Gail from Growmap has a really useful resource to find some at Dofollow Blogs. How about some website promotion, link building, writing some good website content, networking for guest posts and article marketing.
You can also...
Work on boosting online conversion rates, commenting on some great blogs that have Comment Luv, testing ad placements, researching hot keywords for new or existing website pages, maybe you have been lacking in your search engine marketing efforts, or any number of other millions of tasks and duties that are on our plates, like social media marketing.
SERP analysis is important, don't get me wrong, but there are limits, the Google dance is constant and it's better to spend valuable time securing our positions rather than checking on them.
SERP analysis is important but they are the end all, in the grand scheme of things, falling some spots in Google will not crush you. The SERPS change all the time, and it's much better to spend time focusing on the tasks that promote those SERP positions than obsessing over them and getting some good links that will ultimately aid those positions.
When you do need to check the SERPS, try this neat little checker, Instant SERP Rankings Checker that offers a simple interface for SERP analysis.
If you should find yourself checking the SERPS all the time, then please stop. Don't let such distractions take over your online business and Internet marketing success!
What do you guys think?
Follow Me on Twitter @: DavorGasparevic
(1 comments)
Well, I check my SERPS 1-2 times every day, is that also too much?
I know you can use that time to get 5-10 more backlinks, but I just HAVE to check it from time to time.
.-= Davor Gasparevic @ Internet marketing ebooks´s last blog ..Don’t you ever grow tired of the same old article directories? =-.
@ Davor,
Well I think the guy in the forum certainly took it too far, as he was literally checking minute by minute, I guess it would depend on whether it is interferring with your work and also how many sites your checking, some people have 10+ sites, so imagine how long that would take.
The thing about checking daily is that little changes that will not last can send you into turmoil, or if your site disappears for a few hours, as sometimes they do, you will just upset yourself, and that could further interfere with your focus.
Follow Me on Twitter @: seommotips
(2 comments)
I come to realize how effective it is to implement an audio version of the article to post. It added a comfort and I could read your article with my ears.
Great!
.-= Suresh Khanal´s last blog ..Sexy Share Plug-in or Widget for Blogger Blogs =-.
Yes some people really seem to prefer the podcasts.
Follow Me on Twitter @: dmarketingspot
(5 comments)
I know that forum post is the most extreme I have seen. But really, we have all been there. We do one or two things and run and check to see if the search engines have picked it up. I know how addicted checking your rankings can bee. My suggestion is to spend your time learning more link building techniques. This would be a better use of your time. Plus after knowing and implementing your back linking techniques you know about how long it will take for those techniques to get picked up, and what type of results you will have. There is a ton of free information about link building. Just keep learning and taking action.
.-= Jonathan´s last blog ..Article Marketing Strategy Proof =-.
@ Jonathan
Well said, thank you for contributing!
Follow Me on Twitter @: AussieSire
(43 comments)
He could also come to my blog for a bit of mild entertainment, a heck of a lot better than going SERP crazy.
Say what’s with the tiny font in the comment section. You know lil ol’ Sire’s eyesight is starting to fail and you ain’t making it any easier on me.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..More Photos Of Reflections Of Sydney =-.
@ Sire
LOL, I agree. Is it small? I will go and edit it, I thought I made it big enough. This theme has been a pain for me to edit all around, but I think I finally got the hang of it.
Follow Me on Twitter @: AussieSire
(43 comments)
Small, it’s tiny, about i/3 of your regular font. But don’t worry about me, I have a magnifying glass here somewhere, probably sitting next to my hearing aid,
LMAO, good one. Okay I have emailed the developer, as this is a plugin CSS and nothing I’ve tried is working and I too have small font.
Follow Me on Twitter @: AussieSire
(43 comments)
Cool, I was starting to think it was me, but it’s not it’s your plugin
Okay, I found the damn code, is it better now?
Follow Me on Twitter @: AussieSire
(43 comments)
That’s heaps better, it’s almost like having a new lease on life. Now that is what I call good service.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Top Screen Recorder Gold The Powerful Video Recording Software =-.
@ Sire
You know I aim to please
Follow Me on Twitter @: AussieSire
(43 comments)
Hey, cut that out before you get me all excited
@ Sire
LOL
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(224 comments)
Get a room!
The name email and URL fields are still tiny, but the text box is OK.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The Time Has Come. The Deal Is Done. It’s Time To Move!! =-.
@ Dennis
LMAO, good one!!!!!!! Thanks for the laugh, okay damn it, I will go and fix those as well, I actually almost did last night and then got distracted.
@ Dennis
Okay done, hey that only took me 45 seconds, getting pretty good at this code thing
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(224 comments)
LOL it was merely an observation, not a request, but thanks!
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The Time Has Come. The Deal Is Done. It’s Time To Move!! =-.
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(224 comments)
Not all of us have this disorder, in fact there are some exactly the opposite…perhaps if I learned exactly what I’m looking for and how to do it simply, I might check SERPS more often; or ever for that matter. LOL
Well, now it’s clear. When I say i write for the readers first, y’all know I mean it!
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The Time Has Come. The Deal Is Done. It’s Time To Move!! =-.
@ Dennis
Somethings, maybe better left unknown
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(224 comments)
I see my subtle yet yearning cry for help went right over. lol
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The Time Has Come. The Deal Is Done. It’s Time To Move!! =-.
@ Dennis
You totally lost me, cry for help? Dumb blonde day I guess
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(224 comments)
I might check SERPS once in awhile, or ever, if I knew what I was doing with it.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The Time Has Come. The Deal Is Done. It’s Time To Move!! =-.
@ Dennis
lol, well basically you are just looking for your sites rankings in Google for the keywords you are targeting.
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(224 comments)
I get that, but what exactly do I type in and all that…just the keyword and see where I pop up, or is it one of those, site:domain keyword, deals?
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The Time Has Come. The Deal Is Done. It’s Time To Move!! =-.
@Dennis
the best way is just to insert your keywords in the Google search, without any site: or quotes to check regular rankings, then u can see where ur site sits in the listings. If you want to see
how ur site is indexed, like what pages and how many of your domain is indexed by Google, then u can search site: domain, this will give you all the pages that Google has indexed for your site, but not actual rankings over competitors.
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(224 comments)
Ah OK I gotcha. So just do a “view source” on anyone ahead of ya and see what their up to, yes?
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The Time Has Come. The Deal Is Done. It’s Time To Move!! =-.
@ Dennis
That is exactly the way to go, use a tool like LinkDiagnosis for Firefox to analyze their backlinks and see what their upto and if you could possibly get some of the same links. I am gonna do a post on this soon.
Follow Me on Twitter @: sakalabs
(6 comments)
Addicted to something good is great, especially if you love to share with your friend here
I just checked my SERP when I need to more spirit looking what I have done in progress, or if I did my little research about SERP
@ Latief
That’s the best way, to check ocassionally and not drive yourself crazy
I’m constantly doing Google searches when I know, realistically, that Google’s results won’t change much from one hour to another.
I need to also stop checking Analytics every three hours. (BTW- is it real time or not? I thought I read something that said they shifted to a real-time model)
.-= Mid Mo Mortgage´s last blog ..Feb 2 – Small Business To Get $30 Billion In Loans For 2010 =-.
@ Mid Mo
Not sure about real time, I really dread analyzing traffic, so have not delved into it that deep, usually just check every couple of weeks to see general stats. Yes, SERPS do not change that often and sometimes even if they do, it’s a temporary adjustment, I would only be concerned with major drops in SERPS.
Thanks for your writeup. I am the owner of SEARCHENGINEREPORTS.NET and I was wondering if you would possibly want an IFRAMEABLE version of our tool?
We made a special PARTNERS version that can be embedded.
Shoot me a tweet @garryegan.
Cheers. Glad you like the tool.
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(224 comments)
Oh goody, another tool. lol
Is LinkDiagnosis an addon?
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Hello & Welcome To The All New – DennisEdell.com/DirectSalesWebMarketing.com Merged – Direct Sales Coaching Blog! =-.
@ Dennis
LOL, I know!!!!!!!!! It’s not exactly an addon, but needs to be added to Firefox, however, it runs in it’s own browser tab, like on their site, when you go to it and elect to run reports.
Follow Me on Twitter @: webmaster_serve
(4 comments)
checking your site status its great but over doing it consumes more time than you think of instead of looking at your statistics you can emailed bloggers in your niche and built relationships ,or do anything to actively promote your site.
Follow Me on Twitter @: jameswheelock
(5 comments)
I think I have been guilty of the crime you speak of in this post. Especially when I first started. I would waste an hour or two everyday checking SERPs that I could have been spending on building content and networking with other webmasters. I have to admit that even today I spend to much time farting around with the search engines.
I need to get more focused. I wonder if there are groups of people online who are trying to refocus their energy into productive activities. If there are I would love to know about them. Maybe we could set up partnerships where each of us makes sure the other stays on task by keeping each other accountable for a certain amount of production on a daily basis. There by either making us more productive or preventing us from fixiating on non productive activity.
.-= James Wheelock @ Homes For Sale In Houston Texas´s last blog ..Did Green Home Enthusiasts Miss Purpose Of Movement? =-.
@ James
We’ve all been there James, believe me, and after all it is easier to click around Google than to actually work
Hey JR,
Great post. Sorry I missed reading it before but I’ve been too busy monitoring my SERPS.
That said, obviously this guy Dick was missing the boat, but one does need to balance paddling with maintaining a steady course. So one needs to check serps every now and then to see how you’re doing and where you are going… but not ALL THE TIME.
~ Steve
@ Steve
LOL
Follow Me on Twitter @: practicewebsite
(2 comments)
Not a SERP Analytics addict, simply an Analytics addict since I installed Clicky and can view real time stats of what people are doing on my blog.
My site’s too young for me to be a SERP addict
.-= Tom@Your Practice Website´s last blog ..Websites for accountants – 7 specialist suppliers in the UK =-.
@ Tom
Clicky huh? I have heard about them before, is it really that good?
Follow Me on Twitter @: practicewebsite
(2 comments)
I love it
To be honest I almost stopped using Google Analytics. Clicky is great to know if one of your blog post gets digged or buzzes on Twitter. You can then tailor welcome messages to target those specific visitors – and see your blog subscribers stats go through the roof.
There is a free trial of the pro version ($50/year for 10 sites – which I cannot fault) so you can give it a go if you really want to.
.-= Tom@Your Practice Website´s last blog ..Websites for accountants – 7 specialist suppliers in the UK =-.
@ Tom
thanks, I will definitely check it out.
Follow Me on Twitter @: Boomajoom
(23 comments)
I’m less annoying than that… I do real work, check SERPs, then go back to doing real work… rinse and repeat. The practice might annoy people which is why I’d never discuss it on a forum
…Especially since discussing it on a forum is neither checking the SERPs (which CAN be useful occasionally) or doing real work.
That’s crazy! Don’t you just hate people crying over something repeatedly instead of just doing something that can prevent that from happening? He’s just wasting time trolling in forums and telling people how he’s falling from the top slowly. And from the looks of it, he’s had a good ranking before all this dropping started. What a waste of potential, his site could’ve stayed where it was before or even improved if he had just learned how to use his time better or used better methods.