Sometimes you need to turn off personalized search in order to get accurate search results (not skewed by your previous searches).
This is especially useful when you want to check the real rankings for your website which is often pushed in search results by personalized search algorithm, because of your repetitive clicks.
Here are two quick ways how to disable personalized search:
- You can add "&pws=0" parameter to your Google search URL
- Use Chrome browser, and open new incognito window (default Ctrl + Shift + N)
Of course you can always get rid off it for good too.
Suggested reading:
- Ad conversion rates as search engine ranking factor
- How to Do Clever Keyword Research
- Organic Search Optimization Strategy for 2011
Posted in: SEO
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5 Comments
Another really good way to check the real position of the website on Google is with help of this handy tool called Scroogle. Here is the link:
http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm
I always find visiting http://google.com/ncr is good. I believe it removes the country region (or maybe sets it back to US, not exactly sure on that but it's handy)
@Jami Broom. I also use SEO SERP plugin for Chrome but I've noticed that it took into account Google personalized search. So, the results are not reliable.
As Jami mentioned ... you may get different results based on your location ... To remedy that, after you performed your query, simply change the zip code on the left hand side of the results page to the location you want to retrieve results for and then search again.
Your results are still going to be skewed due to your IP address. I use a tool like Rankchecker plugin for Firefox or the SEO SERP plugin for Chrome.