If you’re like me, you like to check your rankings in Google about 35 times a day to see if anything changed. Did I move to #1 yet? Am I still on the 2nd page?? Google why don’t you like me?! But then, all the sudden, I see my keyword pop up at the top! Woot! But wait, my traffic hasn’t jumped…why am I not seeing more traffic? Ughh…that dang Google lied to me! I’m not really on the first page…how rude!
Google Is Lying To You About Your Rankings
When checking rankings on your own computer, you may see something completely different than the computer your co-worker sees. You may see something different on your iPhone.
You may also see something different at a different time of day. Google likes to shuffle rankings depending on many different factors from being signed into your Google account, flash cookies on your machine, mobile results, A/B split testing different data-centers and customized search results based on IP location.
So how do you find out where you’re really ranking in Google? Here’s what I do to get a better idea:
#1 – Use a search engine that hides my IP address at https://startpage.com/.
#2 – Use a Google Scraper that hides your IP address at http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm.
#3 – Use a free proxy service that hides your IP and can give you results from many different areas in the USA, UK, Netherlands, and other places: http://hidemyass.com/.
#4 – Use a tool (I pay for it but you can get the basic features for free) called Rank Tracker. You can download it here: http://www.link-assistant.com/rank-tracker/
#5 – Use another tool called Market Samurai *. This tool is free for the first 7 days and then it’s like $97 one time fee afterwords. If you have $97 to spare, I would recommend you buy this tool if you’re serious about keyword research. It has the best keyword training videos that teach you how to find good keywords and the best keyword discovery tool that I’ve found on the market. If you like keywords, this is a great tool to find them!
#6 – Ask others where they see my rankings. I have a bunch of friends on FB that I ask to check my rankings periodically. It’s a great way to see what someone else is seeing as well as start a conversation. As Realtors, this could be a great way to “touch” a previous client or friend that you haven’t spoken to in a while.
After using all these tools, you can usually find the correct rankings for your site. They’ll usually differ by a couple, but you’ll at least have a better idea of where you rank so you know what keywords you need to work harder on.
*Disclaimer – That link to market samurai is an affiliate link. If you don’t want to use my affiliate link, you can visit their site by clicking this one instead http://www.marketsamurai.com/. Whether you buy this program from my link or not, I still think it’s the best keyword tool on the market. If you don’t believe me, just search reviews in Google, there are millions. 