Moz Keyword Ranking Report

[jesse-landry]

Well a few things could be happening here, but I'd say the most likely one is that you aren't de-personalizing your SERPs.

Add &pws=0 to your search string and see what happens. for example, if your search is for "moz ranking" your google URL should read:

https://www.google.com/search?q=moz+ranking&pws=0

You can and should set your chrome/firefox to do exactly this all the time.

[AWCthreads]

Jesse, can you set Chrome to add this automatically to searches?

How, cuz I'd love a shortcut.

[jesse-landry]

• Go into Options
• Click "Manage Search Engines"
• Add a new Engine. Call it Google De-Personalized. The Search string is:

http://www.google.com/search?&q=%s&pws=0

• Copy and Paste that into the field.
• Make it your default browser.
• You should now be able to search de-personalized in your url field anytime.

Voila!

[AWCthreads]

Ha!  This is great.

I found it in settings, but when I add the information in the field as you suggest it doesn't save it.

It just bounces me out.  Am I missing a step?

[jesse-landry]

Be sure you fill in all 3 fields. Sometimes you have to give it a key-stroke or whatever.. I just use "g" but that is irrelevant if you're making it your default.

[AWCthreads]

The keyword field was hosing it up.

I put the letter "g" in there and it took.

Excellent tip. Thanks Jesse.

[AWCthreads]

Wait a minute.

I just googled, "lumber" with https://www.google.com/search?q=lumber&pws=0 showing.

It returned local results.

However, when I ran the keyword "lumber" through page wash, it returned non-localized results.

The search string that you provided was copied cleanly when I created the search engine.

However, the string I provided is missing a few characters.

What does this mean?

[Rubix]

Thank you all, I actually use 'Private window' on Firefox or sometimes I do cross check with Chrome in 'Incognito window' to depersonalize my results.

@Jesse: Would you please advise which method is better to use for depersonalize the SERPS. Using browser in private mode or use what you recommended earlier? I've just tested 5 keywords on both they gave me same results but testing 5 keywords may not be enough to make decision, i appreciate if you share your view.

Since i use depersonalized browser, any ideas why it could be happening?

Thanks

[jesse-landry]

I'm sorry I should have been more specific. The &pws=0 parameter removes all personalization correlating with your search and browsing history. It does not affect local. So in other words, Google normally uses your cookies and browsing history to sculpt the SERPs page you see. When it's a term you search often (your target keywords) you will start to see weird results. Probably your site at the top as you click it the most and Google tracks that from your browsing history. &pws=0 removes this aspect and the this aspect only; the search history.

The local targeting remains through this parameter as you've seen. If you do local SEO and happen to be in the city of the business you are marketing, I feel this is a good thing as you want to see what your target market sees. However if you don't live in this city of course it's bad.

To completely remove all traces of personalization the best possible method is to switch to Chrome's "incognito mode." This is done in the menu (you'll see it) and removes anything and everything from your search parameters, no &pws=0 necessary.

Hope this helps. Sorry for the confusion.

[jesse-landry]

Well as per which method is "better," see my last response to AWCthreads above. They both do pretty much the same thing but which is better depends on if you want localized results or not. For certain keywords this won't make a difference of course.

As for what's causing your problem, I'm not sure. I haven't even thought or looked into this, but is there a chance that since you're in the UK the moz keywords are pulling US google rankings? Or is there an option when setting up your campaign to specify browser location? I would assume there is as the moz team would think of this but just thought I'd ask as I'm totally unaware.

Are you referring to the campaign level reports only? Have you tried using the instantaneous rank tracker? http://moz.com/researchtools/rank-tracker

See what that reports as it will be the most current and up-to-date. Perhaps there was a funny flux/carousel thing happening when the moz crawl happened. I've seen a few of my keywords report <50 in the past when I know they're more like 8 or 9 and the next week they're more accurate. Sometimes moz even sends out an "oops we adjusted your campaign crawl a bit" message.. Or maybe that was a dream.

Let me know what you think... Hope I can help.

[AWCthreads]

Thanks Jesse.

[Rubix]

Thanks Jesse,  You've been very helpful.

I knew the tool you've sent me but I haven't used it for a while. I've just done the testing on that as well and I think i kind of know what the issue is now.  I think Moz gives the ranking report for the home main URL but keywords ranks different for different pages. I will use the moz keyword ranking for the keywords that i target on the home page but for everything else, i think it is better to use another tool. I will check again with Moz team but i think i kind of know what the issue is.

Thank you so much for help

Seda

[EEE3]

Hi Jesse,

I use Chrome Incognito for checking search results, and I find that I often have to go into the gear settings and click Disable customizations based on search history.

Do you also take that step as well?