Darren Jamieson: On this week’s edition of The Engaging Marketeer, I was asked quite an interesting question—and one that doesn’t have an obvious answer.
Somebody asked me, in our Engage Web Club Mentor group:
“Does it matter what time of day it is when someone searches on Google—will the rankings change depending on whether it’s 10:00am or 5:00pm?”
Now, the short answer is no. Time of day doesn’t inherently affect your rankings.
But… it’s not quite that simple.
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Darren Jamieson: Let’s say you’re searching for your own business. You’re checking your rankings for a keyword at different times throughout the day—10am, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm—and clicking your own result to see where you’re appearing.
Google picks up on that. It starts to understand that this is the result you want. So it might bump it up—for you. Not for everyone else.
What you’re doing is creating your own little filter bubble. You’re seeing improved rankings because you keep clicking your own site—but in reality, others still see it where it naturally is. For example, position 12.
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Darren Jamieson: So that’s the first point: you’re influencing your own view of the results by interacting with them repeatedly.
The second thing to consider is that Google’s algorithm is constantly changing. It fluctuates and updates hundreds—sometimes thousands—of times per day.
So, if you search for something in the morning and again in the evening, yes, the results may differ. But that’s not because of the time of day—it’s because the algorithm has shifted naturally in the meantime.
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Darren Jamieson: Now, there is a scenario where time of day genuinely impacts your visibility—and that’s with Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords… I still prefer the old name, to be honest).
If you’re running paid search and you’re on a limited daily budget—maybe you’re trying to keep costs tight—your ads will stop showing once the budget is used up for that day.
So if someone searches in the morning, you appear. But if your budget runs out by 3pm? When someone searches in the evening—you’re gone. Someone else takes your place.
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Darren Jamieson: This is where time of day does matter. If a potential customer searches for a restaurant in Chester at work during the day, sees your ad, thinks “Great, I’ll book that later,” and then searches again at home—but now your ad is gone because your budget’s run out?
They’ll book the other bistro that’s still showing.
That’s a real loss for your business—and it all comes down to setting your daily budget too low to last the full day.
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Darren Jamieson: So… does time of day affect your rankings?
Technically, no—not for organic search.
But yes—in the following circumstances:
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You’re skewing your own search results by repeatedly clicking your own listing.
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The algorithm naturally changes throughout the day.
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You’re running paid ads, and your budget runs out partway through the day.
So, a simple question… with a not-so-simple answer.
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Darren Jamieson: I don’t know if I’ve clarified this or just made it murkier—but I hope it’s been helpful in showing how fluid Google’s search results really are.
Whether it’s organic or paid, search is always in flux. Rankings change by the hour, the day, the week. You can’t take your eye off it.
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Darren Jamieson: If you’ve found this useful, I’d love it if you left me a rating—on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you listen.
And I’ll catch you on the next episode of The Engaging Marketeer.
