I encountered a very strange situation: Using Firefox from my computer my site is on the first page of Google for a specific keyword but using IE or Opera or any other browser my site is on the 8th page for the same keyword. Now, I checked it from different computer on another location and my site doesn't appear at all for the same keyword. And it is the same for a few days already. Can some one please explain what is going on?! Thank you, Vadim
Could be a number of different reasons such as being logged into your Google Account or the new personalised results feature that Google has rolled out. Its very normal what you see but I would guess the results you are seeing on the other computer is the important one to look at.
It's odd that you see them so far apart (1st to 8th), but be sure you are not logged in to Google when checking from your Firefox machine and also remove the cookies for Google on FF.
cormac is right. You should log out from your google account when you are checking the rankings. Use something like RankChecker to ensure consistency.
Theres another phenomenon called, "Cross Compatibility". Usually it is rare and occurs in very few cases, but apparently the Theory says ; "Some pages rank better on a number of browsers. However, if opened up in different browsers, the results are totally contradictory". However, SEO is a vast field and it requires a lot of time to show its results. For instance, Richard Jenkins, Optimized a page for Dog Food company and it took a fair amount of 1.5 Years to show up at a better place in SEO Rankings / PRs. Of course, they were only few keyword specific results, not the entire project.
Could it be related to different IP addresses? We experienced something similar with a site ranking #1 on computers at our offiice but when several of searched using our home computers some of us saw the site in the #7 place. Just guessing here, could be way off the mark.
Google normally ranks the website you visit more often. The best thing to do is use a rank checking software.
Normally, this type of issue creates due to logging problem in Google Account and Due to Cookies, but this type of issue creates owing to Data Centers problem. The thing is that There are so many Data centers of search engines,so may be this type of Result find at the type of search on Net because Every Data centers have different results.
Sounds to me like the people who invented this "theory" likely believe the earth is flat as well. Search engines don't "rank" URLs differently based on the browser you're using... To think that they do is ridiculous... Maybe they also rank differently based on the brand of computer you browse the web on or the operating system you're running your browser on. These "theorist" must not understand personalization. It's been happening for a LONG time ag Google... Get used to this "phenomenon". It's going to be happening a LOT more in the future... Each browser has its own cookies, it's own web history, etc. So now that personalization occurs logged in and logged out at Google, you will be seeing lots of differences.
you need to log out from your google account because it save your history automatically or you can turn off you history. secondly remove cookies and your problem will be solved.
Cormac is right if you are login then first logout from the account and deleted the firefox cookies and caches.