Google Rankings

It is very hard to figure out where a money keyword term actually ranks now. It depends on what browser, what IP, what other searches you have done, what sites you click on in search, what sites you work on, what sites you own, what computer your using, if your logged in or out, what account your logged into, what sites you visited, what city, state, province, country your in.

All this make testing SEO tweaks very difficult. It is hard to create a control environment to see if a change actually helped without fooling yourself into believing something that is not real.

On occasion, I have been fooled into thinking I am ranking well for a term I am shooting for, only to figure out I am the only one to see the good ranking. Even putting the browser to private browsing doesn’t seem to give clean SERPs anymore. Google is really all knowing. As an SEO for others or your own sites your really need to cover your tracks from big brother. I have a few techniques I use for clean SERPs but there is no telling how long they will last. I would let my readers know, but then I couldn’t give reliable information on what works and what doesn’t so for everyone’s sake I will keep my techniques on the down-low.

Even just today I did a search for a client that is trying to rank for the super competitive term ‘online shopping’ and a gtalk friend of my was ranked #20 for a post. I was very surprised to see his site because other then a post that mentioned online shopping, his site has nothing to do with the topic. But Google knows he’s a friend. I switched to a non logged in browser and he was not actually ranked. I was seeing him in the results because I starred his site and he was a gtalk friend.

So any testing you do, be aware then what you see may not be what others see. The best general advice I can give is cover your tracks. Where you go, what searches you do, what sites you own or work on need to remain only known to you and your clients.

Tagg: SEO, SERPs

Category: Google