Difference In Ranking Position And Google Webmaster Tool Rank

Hi .. this is not a g analytics q, but its as close as I could find.

I am trying to find out how my ranking of a keyword is improving and I visually check it on Google chrome .. and it appears to be ranked five, BUT when I go into google webmaster tools it says that it is ranked 22 !!

I am not logged into google when i am searching and I have turned off personal preference search results so none of those things should be affecting artificially raising the rank of my site on my search screen.

the only thing i can think of is that somehow google places is deciding that in my state of Australia that it will boost me artificially (although for this keyword the usual google places A to G location placed results are not showing.

Any ideas about the discrepancy?

 

If I'm not mistaken, Google Webmaster Tools will give you the average rank..Meaning you may see it as #5..but someone else may see it as #10..and maybe someone else in another country see's it at #30..and so on..but your average position is #22...

Not positive on this but I think that's what I remember seeing last time I was using webmaster tools.

 

Yes I am also noticing the same problem...analytics is showing some other position and webmaster is showing some other and when i search in google my keywords may come sometime up and sometime down from its actual position which are showing in analytics and webmasters.

 

I think in webmaster account, you can find the option to target specific area. did you changed it to your current location ? As per my understanding, webmaster account's data is the source of all the data centers around the globe and when you search in your chrome or whatever browser, the data will be collected from the data center which is located in your area. this might be the reason for the discrepancy.

Try checking in other locations (use proxies) or ask your friends who stays outside your location to check the rankings. you might get an answer for your query.