Why my rankings don't match?

The rankings the Topvisor Rank tracker delivers to you might be different from those rankings you see in the search results. There are some common reasons that can cause it: personalized Search, wrong location, different search settings (filters, search results language, etc.) in the search engine and in Topvisor, desynced front-servers, different time of positions check, etc.

To avoid getting personalized results, check rankings only in the incognito mode, with cleared cache and cookies (all types: permanent, temporary, and flash-cookie). Add-ons and plug-ins should be disabled, as they can influence the search results you get. In most cases, only following all the mentioned rules allows you to see the 'pure', unpersonalized search results.

For more details on how to search incognito in different browsers, please refer to the official manuals listed below:

How do I search incognito?

Google Chrome
Safari
FireFox

Common reasons

Personalized search

Search engines can show ads and display the search results based on what you previously searched for, which pages you visited, which applications you opened, what device you use to browse, etc.

Internet users can manage their browsing history. You can disable personalized search in the search settings. Please note that the search engines can track all browsing history: your search queries and the search results you viewed. You can clear and stop saving browsing history in the search settings.

Delete searches & other activity from your account
Search and browse Google privately
Turn Bing search history off or on
View and manage Yahoo search history

Locations

The Topvisor Rank Tracker tool supports 8 search engines: Google (all locations) + mobile search, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex (country domains) + mobile search, Yandex.com.tr + mobile search, Yandex.com, Mail.ru. You can pick target locations for each search engine, except for Yahoo.

A different location in the search results and in Topvisor settings is one of the most common reasons why you might see different keyword rankings. Keep in mind that the location you add as a target to Topvisor should match the location in the search results.

Also, please note that search engines support "technical locations" - special regions a marketer might use to manage geotargeting settings, set up context advertisements, etc. We do not recommend to pick these regions as the target locations for your project.

Front-servers

Search engines use servers located worldwide to process search queries and provide search results as fast as possible. A search query goes to the front-server to be processed. Different front-servers might display different search results.

Search engine dance

Each search engine has a search index that stores all details about document types, encoding, languages, saved copies, etc. Search engine dance usually occur when a search engine rolls out a major update that affects the search index.

Index changes and updates can cause dramatic moves in the search listings order. A user who's searching something during a search engine dance risks getting a result somewhere in between 'Before' and 'After' update applied. A search engine dance might occur as the result of the search engine penalties (filters, bans, viruses), or after the penalties have been canceled. New search listings, for example, news, may as well cause chaotic movements in the search results.

Spellchecking

Each search query is scanned by a built-in spell-checker. It finds mistakes and typos and automatically corrects them. If a user switched to a wrong keyboard layout when entering a search query (e.g. Cyrillic or Greek), the spell-checker will detect it and turn the word to the right one.

If you use several keyboard layouts, make sure you use the correct one. For example, keywords with a Roman "B" and a Greek "B" look identical, but their rankings will be different.

Filters

Experienced users know how to manage the search results by applying multiple filters and search tools: language, match types (exact match with a search query), time range, document types, etc.

You can apply more tools in the settings of the search engine you use. When manually checking your positions, make sure that no filters are applied (default settings are enabled) or they match the same settings in Topvisor interface.

Language

Most locations have a specific language suggested as the default one by a search engine. However, some users set up the preferred language of the search results manually. Keep in mind that the language settings should be identical in search results and in Topvisor. It's especially important for the bilingual countries with more than one language in use.

Mobile search

When a user searches something on his mobile device, a search engine often displays the web pages better optimized for mobile devices above those poorly optimized. This means that the rankings you get in the mobile search and in desktop search in most cases won't match. If you want to check mobile rankings you can set the Topvisor rank tracker tool to track the mobile search. The option can be enabled in the project settings.

More Tips

Google search engine
Yandex search engine