Is There Something Strange Going on With Google Today? My Rankings Are All Over The Place!

[Liam Hamer]

I'm selling a site that sits at number 12 in Google for its main keyword. An interested buyer informed me that when he searches for it, it's appearing on page 11 (He's in the US, I'm in the UK). I then manually checked again myself, and it was still showing as number 12 for me. I then checked a bunch of my sites with the SEO Book Ranking tool, and NOTHING is showing up under Google.

To confirm something wasn't right, I checked the WF with the same tool, and again, nothing under Google

This has put a spanner in the works for my potential site sale, so I'm pretty frustrated. I'd appreciate it if some of you could check your own sites and let me know if they're sitting where they should be.

Many thanks in advance

[shaktimaan]

Google shows results according to location so results can be different location to location. Switch to us ip and then check.

[Negotiator74]

Everything looks normal for my sites...

[Liam Hamer]

Originally Posted by shaktimaan

Google shows results according to location so results can be different location to location. Switch to us ip and then check.

I'm not sure how to do that, but it seems as though my site is about to dance worldwide Great timing

That still doesn't explain the SEO Book Rank Checker issue though.....

[Brandon Sheley]

Everything looks good to me, but google is always changing, so this is likely.

[shaktimaan]

There is another solution. Log in to http://www.google.com/webmasters. It will let you check position of your site in different countries.

[rizzy]

I am noticing my sites all over the place. This has been going on since roughly May 1st for me, but it has been worse today.

I can search on one browser and be #2, then open a new browser and be #9. Then go back and refresh those rankings and they are in completely new spots.

They are definitely updating something.

[Liam Hamer]

Originally Posted by shaktimaan

There is another solution. Log in to Google Webmaster Central. It will let you check position of your site in different countries.

Thanks, but it's only showing me up to May 8th....

[shaktimaan]

Originally Posted by Liam Hamer

Thanks, but it's only showing me up to May 8th....

same here. I am not using it regularly so can not say when they will show recent data. You can expect it in next a few days. They have made some changes. Before they started showing up to date data on 7th or 8th of each month.

Check ranking with http://www.zend2.com/ They use usa ip.

[mjwoodi]

Originally Posted by Liam Hamer

Thanks, but it's only showing me up to May 8th....

Hi,

Im also UK based and always have a headache with serp checking, Google Global Firefox Extension - Firefox Addon For Search Marketers To View Google Search Results From Any Location - Redfly Online Marketing, Dublin, Ireland is a nice plugin to help you out

Also, any tools you are using to check ranks would have broken the past week due to the new SERPS pages so you will have to update your software.

[Liam Hamer]

Originally Posted by mjwoodi

Hi,

Im also UK based and always have a headache with serp checking, Google Global Firefox Extension - Firefox Addon For Search Marketers To View Google Search Results From Any Location - Redfly Online Marketing, Dublin, Ireland is a nice plugin to help you out

Also, any tools you are using to check ranks would have broken the past week due to the new SERPS pages so you will have to update your software.

Thanks for that, it's really useful

I just checked with it, and interestingly, it's now saying my site is number 7 in Google US, and number 13 in Google UK

I updated the SEO Book checker, and it says the site is 8 in the US and nowhere in the UK. Hopefully this is going to sort itself out in the next few days

[Zeb]

You can use Hide My Ass! Free Proxy and Privacy Tools - Surf The Web Anonymously as an ip (US) and check your results from there. Hidemyass is also useful if you can't view US cpa offers (if you're international) etc...

[Filter]

I always used to have this problem as I'm not US based so here's your answer.

Another quick way to check different countries is to run the search in Google, then in the address bar, at the very end of the huge address string that big G shows, add this parameter and hit enter:

&gl=us

That's obviously to check US results. Some others are

&gl=uk (United Kingdom)
&gl=au (Australia)
&gl=ca (Canada)
&gl=ie (Ireland)

etc etc. You can find any country's SERPs that you want as long as you know the country modifier. Hope that helps

Cheers

[Marko Vel]

Originally Posted by Filter

I always used to have this problem as I'm not US based so here's your answer.

Another quick way to check different countries is to run the search in Google, then in the address bar, at the very end of the huge address string that big G shows, add this parameter and hit enter:

&gl=us

That's obviously to check US results. Some others are

&gl=uk (United Kingdom)
&gl=au (Australia)
&gl=ca (Canada)
&gl=ie (Ireland)

etc etc. You can find any country's SERPs that you want as long as you know the country modifier. Hope that helps

Cheers

I have previously used this method when I wanted to change G to some another country to see some results from US for example etc. And for me was really useful

[adam westrop]

There is a massive problem with my UK rankings, however check through US datacentres and all looks fine.

[GeorgR.]

but it seems as though my site is about to dance worldwide

This is exactly how google works.

First, people need to get off the habit to check rankings every day or every couple of days. I admit i do this too, but its pointless.

Google is a very complex network consisting of many datacenters spread over the globe, there is no "true" result, rankings vary all over the globe depending on Google datacenter AND depending on what actual ranking you have in that specific country.

Furthermore make sure you dont have browser history enabled which would be another factor which could fool you.

[joetheseo]

One of my sites that was #1 for a 2 word keyword was dropped yesterday... But I admit to not keeping up with the proper link velocity for big G.

Today we slammed some serious links to it, Going to be very interesting to see how Google responds.

I think they may be launching Caffeine.

[hb031965]

Originally Posted by Liam Hamer

Thanks, but it's only showing me up to May 8th....

Use a browser like slimbrowser, go to tools, internet option, clear your cookies and temp files. Check with google com.

That works for me! It seems like it not show the correct results if not clear the cookie of ur browser. Make sure u are not log in some google account (eg. gmail )

[alenyuli]

could it be google dancing???

[LadyL08]

I just checked my rankings using SEOBook Rank Checker and I got NOTHING under Google for all my sites. Yahoo and Bing are about the same. I used googlesearchpositionfinder and the few I checked seemed to be in the correct spots.

I hadn't checked my rankings in a couple of days and I had done some social bookmarking, so I panicked at first that I had been de-indexed. But with all of my sites showing nothing, I'm sure it is just a temporary problem. Perhaps Rank Checker needs an update.

[javistuff]

It seems google is already applying some of the new stuff.

Just read a few days ago about this, mostly because I was having the same trouble, just entering Google ans searching for some keywords and out of the blue I'm in number 1 spot... nope.

Google is recording preferences of clicking for each search term, so, if you searched for those same keywords before and you clicked on your website you would appear much higher that if not.

I'm cross testing it also on all the browsers and each one gives me different results. I think the only way to solve it for now is to never click on your site when you look up for a keyword in Google, or to use external tools for it.

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by javistuff

It seems google is already applying some of the new stuff.

Just read a few days ago about this, mostly because I was having the same trouble, just entering Google ans searching for some keywords and out of the blue I'm in number 1 spot... nope.

Google is recording preferences of clicking for each search term, so, if you searched for those same keywords before and you clicked on your website you would appear much higher that if not.

I'm cross testing it also on all the browsers and each one gives me different results. I think the only way to solve it for now is to never click on your site when you look up for a keyword in Google, or to use external tools for it.

It's called personalized search and it's been in affect for a few months now. You have the option if logged in to your google account to turn it off.

[jijaybajay]

Originally Posted by Jacob Martus

It's called personalized search and it's been in affect for a few months now. You have the option if logged in to your google account to turn it off.

Can you explain what should be turned off?

How about changing the setting in site configuration of Google Webmaster Tools? It has a geographic target option.

[Bingtran]

They are localization and personalization functions of search engines. I had same issues and I used &gl=us ( au, uk, etc..) to check my rank. The question now is: how to go inside the personalized search result of search engines? I want searchers find us when they do not sign out their google account. Any idea?