Can Rankings in Google differ so much from computer to computer.

[Lukescotty]

I was telling my friend via facebook to go on my website, I told him to search 'nightlife forum' in google.

To which, I believed it was 11th, top of second page.

On his computer, its currently ranking at 1st place

is it possible to have a difference of 10 places? even though he lives in the same city as me.

Would be good to see what it ranks on your computers too

google "nightlife forum" look for www.talknightlife.co.uk (don't get confused with the .COM one out there)

Cheers Guys

[CMC-SD]

Absolutely. If he was logged into a Google account, that can have a big impact. Even if he was logged out, though, a cookie on his computer stores information about his search history, and that can have a big impact, too. Then there's location -- not necessarily where you are, but where you've told Google you are. I've told Google that I'm in the U.S., so unsurprisingly, I see your .co.uk site toward the bottom of the 2nd page.

[conversiontactics]

You see different rankings on different computers depend on what kind of browser you use and if you have or haven’t deleted cookies and plug-in data. This does not mean that the real ranking changes, but only that your computer recognizes your searches and shows them  first.

[RUNNERagency]

To add to CMC-SD's response (which is dead-on), the reason different search results are served up by Google to different people is because they're serving up customized result based on what they know about you. any number of things could affect what you see in search results, including physical location, recent browsing history and cookies, Google profile info, historical browsing history and frequented sites, AND social media connections, to name a few.

[essdee]

Last time I saw Matt Cutts speak he said every search result is personalized, logged in or not. They use a lot of different identifiers to serve results. So yes, computer to computer the results can and will vary.

This is a good reason putting too much emphasis on rankings can be problematic.

If you want to check rankings, I recommend using a rank checker tool like the one Aaron Wall offers... http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker

[MattAntonino]

Another thing - if he's friends with you on G+, he's going to see your content higher than other sites.  So he could see you 10 results higher.  Google probably doesn't think you're Googling to find your own content but they would definitely assume a socially connected friend of yours would want to see your content.  Plus, he may have Googled that term before for you?  That would also personalize it.

[Lukescotty]

Thanks for your responses guys, Think i've learned a few things from you all. Much appreciated for your time. I'd still class myself as an amatuer in Seo, but with along side people such as you guys i'll definitely learn a heap load more

Thanks again

Luke