Google - two different results

Marketing
1

Hi,

I am currently doing seo for a client. I have managed to get them to page 1 of google under the search key phrase Business change and transformation.

Now on my computer (when i am not logged into my Google account) it appears art no. 9 on page 1. however when i was showing him this morning via the telephone (he lives about 200 miles away) he said it wasnt on page 1 at all it was half way down page two. He was signed out of his Google account and I also asked him to refresh the save. same result.

I also checked where it was on an independant tool (called free monitor for google) and it is on page 1 at place 9.

what could be happening here?

Can someone at least verify they see what I see! I think Im going mad!! :eek:(:

thanks

4

This is why any SEOist who promises to get you to #1 is generally lying.

SERPs can vary from one country to another, one account to another, one day to another, one computer to another. Even if you aren’t logged in to your Google account, there may still be ways Google can see your browsing history (eg cookies). You might be tapping into different data centres. There’s always an element of uncertainty about where a site is going to be ranking at any one time.

5

Then this begs another question. As a marketeer who just wants to evidance to my clients that I am having an effect on site positioning re a certain keyword im snookered. In fact it looks as if I am lying when Im not if this is going to happen often!!

Does anybody have any recommendations how I can evidence this sort of thing??

6

I had this a few years ago when my bosses at the time made the ground-breaking discovery that perhaps, just perhaps, Google offers different results to different people around the world.

The obvious solution would be to take a screenshot, but that can be faked easily with a copy of Firebug or just straight from Photoshop. I found the best way to do it is both a screenshot and a small screencast hosted on a site like YouTube showing your Google search. It can also be faked, but it’d be a lot harder to fake and people will generally always think that it is genuine.

7

Im just reeling from the fact that myself and my client are in the same country. Only about 1050 miles away from each other. difficult to believe that their is differences over such a small area. I’ve taken cookies out, our accounts arent being used, tried it on another computer. whats really infuriating is every computer but his shows the site on page 1.

Just out of interest can anyone put “business change and transformation” into Google and see where www.ascotbarclay.com is?

I know im going on about this - but I just want to provide an honest service when i am doing it so well. If there is this much difference maybe SEO is a con anyway???

8

I wouldn’t worry about it because it’s not important. What matters is the resulting traffic and how it behaves on-site. I’d go for a shot gun strategy, rank for a bunch of phrases so that you have more chance of ranking in this geotargeted/personal search world and also you’re more resilient against algo changes that way.

9

Second item on page 3 … that’s in the UK on google.com/ncr and without being logged in.

10

11 place (top of second page) here in Asia

11

here in pakistan “business change and transformation” at 16th place .

12

Ask him to delete all the cookies and cache. And are you optimizting it on google.com or google.ca or google.uk. For all results varies on each domain

13

Ninth place on page one from UK on google.com.

14

This is happening because you are getting personalized results over your computer… You need to clear your cache and history to get un-biased results.

For the Searching - you can make sure you always check the same way…

  • Logged out of G Accounts
  • Opted out of Personal Search
  • Use the same computer
  • Use the same browser
  • Use the same Search page
  • Use the same Search settings

That should help reduce the likelyhood of “bias” interfering.

15

Opted out of Personal Search

  • Use the same computer

What do you mean personal search?

Also the point is my client is somewhere else in the country on a different computer and I want hinm to see what I am seeing

16

I would like to ask you a simple thing… From how long are you into this profession?

17

The point is, Google notices and keeps track of the pages you look at and things you click on, and serves up things in searches (and ads on pages) it thinks you’ll most likely click on or want to read. The recommendation is to clear out your browsing history and log out of Google, so that Google has least chance of knowing who you are or bringing your history into the results you see on screen. Whether you can have a truly objective search, I doubt, but this must help. Of course, your client would have to do the same thing.

But, of course, most of the people searching the web don’t do all this before searching, so the results you get while logged out of Google and with browsing history cleared are probably not that helpful anyway. You have no idea what those web surfers like to click on, so have no idea what results they’ll get in their searches.

18

Thank you for your full answer Ralph it is as I thought. It is as I thought. I think as it has been said before when creating evidance for work done it really needs to be more to do with long term site behaviour rather than positioning of the site on Google. Although keyword targeting is obviously an essential tool. It is not evidence of work done.

cheers.