I’m often asked Where do I really rank in Google?
When I sit down with photographers and we start to analyse their current position in Google for given search terms almost all of them simply launch their browser and enter the search term. They are thrilled when their site is at the top, or near the top of the Google search page.
However, this is nearly always not a true representation of the organic search results that others will be seeing.
Your search results are invariably affected by:
- Your recent browsing history
- Your Google account
- Your Google+ Circles
- Your web browsers cache
….amongst other things.
There are many sites out there that claim to be able to accurately tell you where you rank for a given search term. Some may work well, but to be honest, the only one that was consistently accurate that I found has been decommissioned (due to Google changing the way it passes the search queries through to the sites – more on this in a future post).
So, what do I do?
Well, I simply launch my browser in a Private browsing window. I use Chrome, mostly, and in this browser it is called “Incognito browsing”.
Take a look at this image:
You can see that I am logged into Google (which most people are, by default) and you can see that my website is ranking first in the result set. Now I know this is not true organically (I’m something like sixth or seventh).
If you look at the next screen shot you will see that I am “Incognito Browsing” (we know this, because of the little shady character in the top left) and you can see my website is no longer number one in the results page.
So, if you are asking yourself the question Where do I really rank in Google? - or you suddenly see yourself ranking really highly and you are not sure why, make sure you are checking your results in a private browsing window as a bare minimum to start your research.
Check out this Private Browsing post that gives you full instructions for all the major browsers regarding activating Private Browsing.
A very quick post today – an update from an original post in the old Photography Web Tips. This is likely to be it for 2012 so A very Merry Christmas everyone and lets hope 2013 is prosperous and wonderful for all of us photographers.
Please feel free to comment and share.
Yup, so true is this. Besides the incognito mode if you have a smart phone there are a few apps you can get that monitors where you are on Google. SEO Manager is one of them on the iphone. It’s great as it works for different keywords
Kevin, this is a very en-lighting article – especially to some who has limited SEO knowledge. Looking forward to reading more of info. Tony F
Good choice of search term Kevin
… A very interesting article too.
Hi Kevin
Interesting article, I have also noticed another anomaly. When I check for ranking from my desktop connected via my house BB service, I get ranked quite high for a particular search term. Yet when I do the same experiment using my T-mobile dongle I drop right down the rankings ! Have you come across this, are ISP’s caching search results in some way, or caching personal info that affects the incognito status.
Would be interesting to know, as just when you think you are doing well with your ranking you discover your results are skewed, its very frustrating as it’s so difficult to know what it working.
All the best and keep the good work.
Dave
Hi Dave,
Yes, this is something I’ve also seen. The IP address of your different providers will be what’s confusing things – as they are often geographically very different. It does seem that even private viewing is sometimes affected by the geographic searches.
Google UK seems to assume a geographic location for some searches, even when incognito. I just tried with Chrome in incognito, not logged into google: if I search eg. “childrens photographer” then it assumes I’m in London (I’m not) & comes up with google places results for London. If I change my lcation by clicking on the cog in the top right of the resulting search results, then I get results for that location.
Thats all OK so long as clients have the right location set!
The location is based on your ISP delivery point. Mine is normally Bournemouth which is also wrong.
Hi Kevin
Thanks for your thoughts.
Yes it would seem that this is the case. I have since started using tunnel bear, which is a proxy which means I can test on my desktop, without having to connect up my mobile dongle.
It seems from analytics that more and more clients are browsing on a mobile device, so I’d say it imperative ones listing is strong across all locations.
Dave
I was getting so confused until I started the private browsing tip! Good advice!
Kevin, or anyone, have you found a good replacement for somewhere that does the rank check for you, and stores the results? Hopefully free! There are lots out there, but its hard to find a good one.
Cheers
I’ll answer my own comment! I’ve started using whatsmyserp.com. I’ve no idea how accurate it is, but I’ll see how it goes…
.. and even better is the firefox “Rank checker” extension. Pretty much any number of keywords/domains
I have been using rank checker, but for me it doesn’t seem to accurate. Keeps reporting higher rankings than what I get if using incognito & when connecting via proxy.
This is a great tip. I knew that Google knew what I had been looking at. Its great to get an accurate(ish) reading for key search terms.
Hi Kevin,
When I first started tracking my own website, I was impressed how quickly it shot up to the number 1 spot for all the searches I was doing. Then someone told me that if you are signed in to Google and do searches, it works out what you search for and what sites you visit as a result and give them priority in the search results.
So, I started to log out of Google to see how I rank.
It’s a great tip.
Gary