Accuracy of rankings FAQ

To verify a ranking, reproduce the conditions of the tracked check. Follow all three steps — skipping any one of them is the usual reason a manual check doesn't match SE Ranking:

1. Search in an incognito window. Searches performed in an incognito window don't take your browsing or search history into account. In Google Chrome, you can open one with Ctrl + Shift + N (Windows) or ⌘ + Shift + N (Mac). A logged-in Google session will produce personalized results.
2. Search from the exact location tracked in your project. The location you're checking must match the location configured in your project. If your current location is different, use our Google Location Changer to view Google search results for any country, city, county, municipality, location, and language. The Location Changer is a separate lookup with its own settings, not a project ranking check — see Why can the Google Location Changer show a different position than my project? if the two values disagree.
3. Compare against the live search results, not the cached copy. The live SERP is what tells you where the page ranks right now; the cached copy shows what the tracked check saw when it ran.

A result checked any other way — logged in, from your own location, or against the cached copy alone — is not comparable to the position stored in your project.

Google may use signals such as your account activity, browser language, and location to adjust the results it returns, so the same query can produce different results for different users. Personalization is not applied to every search — in some cases Google states directly on the results page that the results are not personalized. There are over 200 factors that define SERP results. The main ones are previous browser search history, browser language, and location.

The complete list of factors that influence search results can be found here. 
If you have any questions, please contact our support team.

When you enter a query into Google's search box, the results you see can be shaped by your own preferences and search behavior. That's one of the reasons why rankings shown in SE Ranking can differ from those you see in your browser. SE Ranking shows objective search results that aren't affected by your personal search history.

Several factors can influence the results shown in your browser. The most common are:

1. Previous search history. To avoid personalized search results, search in an incognito window.
2. Location and browser language. Google determines search results based on your IP address and location. If you want to check rankings for another location, use our Google Location Changer. It lets you view search results for any country, city, county, municipality, location, and language.

Learn more about all factors that influence search results in our blog.

Google Search Console reports an average position, while SE Ranking reports the position recorded during a specific ranking check. The two values are calculated in different ways, so they are not expected to match — and a difference between them is not by itself a sign of inaccurate data.

• Search Console averages many results together. Its average position is calculated across everything included in the current filter set — all queries, devices, countries and dates. A page that ranks 3rd for one query and 40th for another is reported as the average of the two, not as either position.
• SE Ranking records one tracked check. Each keyword is checked for the search engine, location and device configured in your project, and the value stored is the position found in those results. You can open the cached copy of any value to see the exact search results it came from.
• The keyword sets are different. Search Console reports every query that produced an impression, including queries you don't track. SE Ranking reports only the keywords added to your project.
• The time periods are different. Search Console data is reported per date range and is available with a delay, while a tracked position reflects the moment the ranking check ran.

This is why rankings can look like they dropped in SE Ranking while Search Console looks stable, or the other way round. Before treating it as a data issue, compare like with like: filter Search Console down to the single query, country, and device you track, and to the same date as the ranking check.

The Google Location Changer is a separate tool with its own settings, not a project ranking check. The two can legitimately return different positions for the same keyword and URL. These are the differences that matter most:

• The device is chosen separately. The Location Changer has its own desktop and mobile Google options; your project uses the search engine configured for the keyword. Desktop and mobile SERPs differ, so a mobile lookup compared against a desktop project will not match.
• The location and language are set independently. The Location Changer builds the location from what you type into it and uses the language you select there. Your project uses the region and language saved in its search engine settings. A city instead of a country, or a different interface language, is enough to produce a different SERP.
• They ran at different moments. The Location Changer queries Google when you use it. A project position is the value recorded when the ranking check ran, which may be hours earlier — and Google results move during the day.
• URL matching is not identical. The Location Changer matches your address at domain and subdomain level. A project check does more: it also recognises ads, map results and other SERP features, so what counts as your result can differ between the two.

One thing that is not the explanation: results depth. Both the Location Changer and a Google project check read the top 100 results, so a position within the first 100 is inside the range of both.

Before treating a difference as a data issue, line the two up: same device, same location, same language. If they still disagree, contact our support team — see what to send support below.

“Updating” means the keyword has no saved result for the date shown yet — the check has been accepted and is waiting or running. It is not an error state, and it does not mean a request to Google is happening at that exact moment. In practice it covers four situations:

• the keyword is queued after you started a manual check and has not reached a worker yet;
• it has reached the checking queue and is waiting its turn there;
• a first attempt could not load the search results page and the keyword is being retried;
• the check has finished but no result has been saved for the displayed date yet.

How long this takes depends on how many keywords and search engines are being checked and on how busy the checking queue is, so a large project takes noticeably longer than a small one. Checks are processed per keyword and per search engine, which is why a project can show some keywords updated and others still updating. You do not need to keep the page open while it runs.

If the status has not changed after a long wait, or most keywords have completed and a few stay behind, contact our support team and include the project, the search engine, the keywords affected, and when you started the check.

If you have already ruled out personalization — an incognito or guest session, the exact location tracked in your project, and a comparison against the live SERP — the next step is a report we can reproduce. Send the following to our support team:

1. The exact keyword, as it is added to the project.
2. The project name and the tracked URL or domain.
3. The project's search engine, location and device for that keyword, exactly as configured.
4. The position SE Ranking shows and the position you see, with the date and time of each.
5. A link to the cached copy of the check, if one is available (click the position value in the project to open it).
6. A screenshot of the live SERP that includes the date and time, and how you set the location (incognito, VPN, or the Google Location Changer).

The timestamped screenshot and the project's search-engine configuration are the two items that let us reproduce the same check you did, so please include both even if the rest is already in the ticket.