The the **** do they do this???

by 14 replies
16
When I search for my site here using my computer at home it shows me that my site is number 1. But today I checked it from a friends computer and my site wasn't even on page 1. How comes google does that???

It is only irritating. I heard that google customizes searches but why are they doing this confusing stuff ????
#search engine optimization
  • My guess is your site was not relevant to your buddies search habits. Google offers up suggestions based on your past search history.
    • [1] reply
    • It is a niche site and ranks for a keyword that probaby 99% of my friends aren't searching for. But why do they do this? It is confusing you never know if you are actually ranking well or not.
  • I don't know, Google is a paradox wrapped in an enigma to me. And yet they know everything about me and you.
  • Google has recently introduced personalised searches - search results are tailored to what google thinks you want to see based on your history.

    To check your proper rank, always clear your browser cache.
    • [1] reply
    • You need to do a bit more than that if you are based somewhere like the UK where Google is really determined to serve up "local" results.
      • [1] reply
  • If you have clicked on your result way too many times Google will show it as number one when you search from your computer.
    Whilst personalized search has been introduced..it won't make as big a difference as you mention. It won't change your listing from being number 1 to totally not there on someone elses computer UNLESS you've been searching and clicking your result yourself.
    • [1] reply
    • Is there a way to get honest results then? Is it better not to check your page rankings on your own computer?
  • you are most likely logged into your gmail account. Try logging out of it at home and it should show you the proper results! Being logged in tricks many people and it tends to rank your site higher in the results.
  • Logging out is one thing you can do. Another thing you can do is trying to browse through google using proxies. Pagewash provides good proxies.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I have noticed this as well and it really got me frustrated a few times when I thought my site was at the top for my keyword phrase. I was really stoked followed immediately by a feeling of disappointment. When you search, there is a link that says "view customizations" right above where it shows the results numbers. Click that and then click view without customizations. This should work to show you what other people see.
  • I actually think it does still use personalisation sorry so ignore this -

    If you have a Adwords account you can use the Ad Preview tool to get an idea of what appears from different locations - it doesn't use personalised results either.
  • The things are simple. There is time when you get results from different datacenters. So this might be the case that while searching for your site from your friend's home your results came from different datacenter.
  • This should help you understand it and turn it off.

    d
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    The the **** do they do this???

    When I search for my site here using my computer at home it shows me that my site is number 1. But today I checked it from a friends computer and my site wasn't even on page 1. How comes google does that??? It is only irritating. I heard that google customizes searches but why are they doing this confusing stuff ????