Where, geographically, does Rank Tracker track from?

GlennFerrell

Where, geographically, does Rank Tracker track from? Knowing that might be helpful to explain disparities between what my client sees in Google results & what Moz is showing.

donford

Hi Glenn,

Good question there, I'm not sure where exactly the service is launched from Moz. I had always assumed that Moz buys some sort of package from Google to run these request from one of their servers. Though I actually don't know for sure, perhaps somebody could enlighten us both about how that process actually works.

Even without knowing the actual answer I do think it is irrelevant. A service like this that gave any bias to results based on the location of the request would be near worthless. What is likely happening is your 1 of 2 things.

1. Your client is not familiar with private browsing. If you really want to check your own rankings manually you need to take some precautions. First you would enable private browsing (FireFox CTRL+SHIFT+P), Chrome (CTRL+SHIFT+N), Safari (tools -> Private Browsing). Second you would make sure you use the "right" Google website. In the case where your client may be in a different country you could end up on google.co.uk or wherever simply based on your browser language preference. You can switch browser languages to ensure this doesn't happen or try to go directly to the right "Google" using direct links like google.us. Third, device type. Google delivers different results based on device type, a mobile device may not see the same results as a laptop or pc.

2. Normal fluctuations in rankings. Google rankings do fluctuate for a lot of reasons and this is normal. I've seen rank 6 and rank 15 on the same day. What really matters is the average. Obviously #1 is the desired spot for any organic keyword ranking, but on the first page (1-10) is a noble pursuit for most companies, with the ultimate goal of being in the butter zone (1-3).

When I'm doing my normal SEO stuff here, I used to do a lot of manual checks with my own searches and using plugins like RankChecker from SEObook. Now I simply look at the rankings from week to week and only act after I consistently see a pattern to the rankings over a 3-6 week span.

Hope this helps,

Don

GlennFerrell

Thanks Don - nice detailed answer. I'm still hoping someone will be able to answer the location question. Google keeps this whole thing a bit complicated:

Signed-out tracking - Even when we're signed out Google's "signed-out" tracking still customizes results based on the last 180 days of searches, so this cookie (or all cookies) would have to be deleted.
Private Browsing - I'll have to do some more experimentation with the Private Browsing function. From what I had read, my impression was that it kicks in when you activate it (so that your history as of that point is not being tracked) but it doesn't prevent personalized results from being delivered based on previous searches. Chime in if you believe that's not the case anymore.
Do Not Track Requests - have no effect. Google still delivers custom results.

It would seem that signing out and clearing cookies would be the best advice but that still leaves the location question.

You made a great point on normal fluctuations. I am starting to deal with those by showing a typical Six Sigma run chart with upper and lower control limits to define the channel (based on standard deviations). That way we can show when the search results for a phrase have successfully been moved out of the channel to a new "lower channel". Of course -- this makes more sense when the data range is not so tight -- for phrases for which we are ranking on the 2nd page or lower.

donford

Hi Glenn,

Glad to lend my 2 cents to the question. The only thing I comment on in your reply would be about private browsing. Most my experience here is with FireFox, so I'll comment just on that browser. When in Private browsing it is like you just cleared all your cache and search history. On top of which, FireFox will not store anything into hard disk cache, using only memory for the session which is dumped upon close.

I have also found that switching languages can be required since Google really likes to serve up the search engine associated with your language preference. My last attempt at learning German I uninstalled FireFox and downloaded it again in German. I am betting somewhere Google's engineers are full of schadenfreude as I fumbled around like a cave man.

Good luck and hope to hear from others,

Don

GlennFerrell

Thanks - great info about Firefox - didn't know that. I usually check ranks in Chrome and sometimes in Safari (because of how many of my clients use macs). Altho -- Firefox firebug is still my favorite developer tool

Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately?) I am dealing with strictly domestic clients and have not had to deal with language issues -- but your point on languages is great for filling out this entire story! And I think your "schadenfreude" comment could inspire a great xkcd comic

kevin.loesken

Hi Glenn!

Would you be able to collect a few examples of the inconsistencies your client is seeing between Google results and Moz results? When you have them, please send them to help@moz.com so that we can take a look.

Thanks!

Kevin
Help Team

GlennFerrell

Kevin -- thanks for the response! Hopefully, you didn't misunderstand me -- I'm not saying there is a problem with Moz results. They seem to line up reasonably well -- within normal channels of variation -- with other sources.

This is just my OCD personality trying to find out how the results are produced. As far as I know, one of the factors Google tweaks the results by is the "location" of the search. It would be nice to know what location is associated with rank tracker. Perhaps it's in Seattle (your offices) or if you are buying a package from Google -- maybe it's in Mountain View. Or maybe the answer is that Moz doesn't really know. Apologies if this question is out-of-bounds.

Thanks! Glenn

kevin.loesken

Hi Glenn - Rank Tracker will show by national results rather than local. This is discussed in another thread here about local vs. national keywords:
https://moz.com/community/q/moz-local-results-vs-national

Have you tried using our MozBar at all? You can actually use the MozBar to search by a specific location, if you'd like to compare these against the national results. I hope this helps!

GlennFerrell

Kevin -- thanks! So National results are search-location-independent. I never really understood that.

Thx,

Glenn

DonnaDuncan

You can use MozBar to search by a specific location? Cool. I wasn't aware of that. Can you explain please?

BlueprintMarketing

I have found SERPS.com to be fantastic every country can imagine and the only downside is the price.

Hope that helps,

Tom

BlueprintMarketing

To search Google without search personalizations, I simply use the following settings:

Name: Google NP

Keyword: gnp

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

Or

https://serps.com/tools/rank_checker

https://serps.com/tools/

Free Keyword Rank Checker

Spot check global and local rankings.

A simple keyword rank checker that works.

Easily check keywords in any country or location in Google or Yahoo. See where your site ranks through the top 250 positions.

Moz crawler is hosted on a hybrid cloud system as well as AWS & WowRack running incapsula ( not on all the crawlers but sometimes) So you will sometimes find Verizon Terremark IP's many times. There are so many it will not be influenced or better likened it to a real search where somebody is searching all over everything.

Yes maybe not up to date on the hardware and hosting but this was correct last year I believe.

All the best,

Tom

EBSAR

Very useful piece of information to me!

DonnaDuncan

Thank you Thomas, for the thorough response.

My question was specific to the Moz toolbar and I've checked the help documentation and still seem to be missing something. How can one use the MozBar to search by a specific location?

kevin.loesken

Hi Donna!

I made a video of how to create a Search Profile by location using the MozBar here:
http://www.screencast.com/t/So50yPdAioE

When in a Google search, simply go to the MozBar, create a profile for the location you'd like to see, and then select and enable that profile (or a different one that you already have created.)

I hope this helps!

BlueprintMarketing

You cannot unless you can use Moz bar to do you anonymous searches in Google.ca .de etc. Like I said in the beginning if you want that type of information by zip code you will have to use a tool like SERPS.com or http://isearchfrom.com

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