You might not actually be ranking on the first page of Google

Hi guys,

A few days ago I Googled my keyword and found out I was ranking on the first page, of course I was very happy but when I switched to my desktop and did the same search I was no where to be found. I was pretty confused but then realized on my laptop where I ranked on the 1st page I was logged into my Google Account and did some research and found out that Google edits your search results to show websites you visit frequently on the first page so next time you search your keywords make sure your not logged into your google account.

 

You are absolutely right. Even I experienced this some time back and my senior told me about it.

Additionally, when we search in google it automatically takes to the local country's url like in India its google.co.in. However, the clients search in google.com and the results vary. Therefore when we are optimizing websites of US clients we ensure that we search in .com

 

Google now personalize every search based on IP, to be sure that you don't get overly excited because of that I recommend turning off search wiki in the google options. Then you won't see any of this behaviour.

Regards

 

It works both ways
I have my website which is ranking at 7th position while logged in and shows at 2nd position when logged out
You can change these preferences, while logged in you can move up the search results in SERPs of any website to set your SERP preferences

 

Definitely threw me for a loop when I first discovered this.

 

Yes, took me a while to figure this one out.. lol use a proxy like hidemyass.com to get a better idea.

 

Just signing out won't be enough.
Google have extended the reach of personalised search - it's cookie based and is altered according to your web history. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/personalized-search-for-everyone.html

 

Google is making it a lot harder to see the same results as others will see for seo purposes. Even if you logout and see the standard listing, this does not mean that this is what others are going to get, as they are going to see personalized listings as well. Google is becoming a very tricky search system for sure.

 

This surprised me too when I first discovered personalized search. How do rank checkers compile data?

 

great. now i'm not sure if i still wanted to brag that i'm in the first page.
thanks though

 

Hah, i had that suprise too.

I was really happy and started call my friend. But than i searched for my site in other browser and i was really upset.