Is RankTracker reliable

[Chris1970]

Hi All,

Sorry to ask this but is RankTracker reliable?

I'm new to all this and I've set up tracking for my own website and three competitors for a particular keyword. I've  received a report telling me :

| <phrase></phrase> |   | Google / United Kingdom | 19 | +9 |
| <phrase></phrase> |  Competitor A | Google / United Kingdom | 7 | -2 |
| <phrase></phrase> |  Competitor B
| Google / United Kingdom | 3 | 0 |
| <phrase></phrase> |  Competitor C
| Google / United Kingdom | Not in Top 50 | 0 |

However when I cross check this with Google UK, the positions are only aproximately correct, and Competitor C is at position 12, totally different to the reported "Not in Top 50".

Maybe I'm missing something?

Chris.

[BruLee]

Are you using Chrome's incognito window or personalized results? This might be the problem.

I found RankTracker to be very accurate so shoot me a PM with the info if you want me to double check them.

[Chris1970]

Hi,

Not using an incognito window or equivalent. Not logged into Google either.

Chris.

[BruLee]

I believe that you are getting personalized results and not the actual ones, that's the only response that I can give you without having the keyword and site.

[gtrotter666]

I agree, I find RankTracker to be very accurate.  I trust typing things into google.co.uk far less.  If the two differ I generally clear my browser history, cookies etc, logout of google and then try again.  I can then see that RankTracker has it right!

It very occassionally misses something but I think this is when the SERPS are moving around and something falls between pages and gets missed.

[Chris1970]

But trusting Google.co.uk less doesn't make sense because its definitive right? I want RankTracker to match Google not Google to match RankTracker!

I've just tried checking results by using Firefox "personal browsing" which I am assuming doesn't make use of any cookie information at all, it makes no difference. Ditto Chrome incognito.

[gtrotter666]

It's not that I'm not (unavoidable double negative) trusting google.co.uk (that is the "correct" answer after all - that's what we are trying to find out).

It's just that browsers cache results and cookies sometimes interfere with the current position.  This together with personalised search can distort the "truth", i.e. what  YOU see on google.co.uk through a browser might not be what the rest of the world sees.  Make sense?

[Chris1970]

Thanks Gary.

I just happen to have a brand new machine here I could try it out on. If I get the same results, I'll see if I can get SEOMoz themselves to explain it!

Chris.