Your Search Engine Optimisation Expert – Sheldon Nesdale

In a previous post “Think you know the rank for your website in Google? No you don’t“, I explained how, every time you do a search using Google, Google learns a bit more about the search results that you  like (especially if you are logged in with a Google account), and next time, shows you more results like that rather than starting from a blank slate.

Earlier this month, Google announced that is going to begin to personalise your search results even when you are not logged in.

This means that if you often check the ranking of your website in Google, don’t be surprised if you see your website climbing up the rankings – but don’t be happy, because it is only climbing up the rankings from your point of view, everybody else will see your website at a much lower ranking!

So what can you do to check the ranking of your website in Google?

In my previous article I recommended RankTracker for getting an unbiased ranking for your website in a Google search.

I have recently come across an alternative: CuteRank

4 Advantages of using CuteRank to check the ranking of your website in Google

1. You can type in your url, the keywords and choose the Search Engines you want to check all on one page (RankTracker forces you through a “wizard” interface with several steps)
2. The free version lets you save the results for one website (RankTracker doesn’t let you do any saving)
3. When you install CuteRank, you aren’t asked to install other software at the same time (RankTracker is pretty pushy in that department)
4. CuteRank saves your search engines choices (RankTracker defaults to a American-centric  list)

2 Criticisms of CuteRank

1. The interface emphasises the history of your rank, rather than drawing attention to today’s ranking
2. Google.co.nz results are available but not “pages from New Zealand” (but probably coming)

Conclusion

I propose you install both and decide for yourself which style you like better. But the important thing is that either is better than checking the ranking of your website in Google yourself, because your search results are increasingly personalised for you so your view of reality is distorted.