Rank Tracker Problems

For the past two days i`ve been manually checking all the results Rank Tracker gave me because they didnt look right. Example : For one of my keywords Rank Tracker said: Position 3, afterwards i`ve checked it manually in google and i was ranking at position 1 :| and many more examples but i dont want to bore you.
So.... is anyone else having the same problems with Rank Tracker ?

Yes since I started using it I noticed it can be as much as 10 places out .

I still use it to give an overall impression then hit up scroogle to zoom in for an up to date check.

rank tracker results may differ from manually checked results for several reasons:

1. you are running an outdated rank tracker version
2. you are affected by personalized search results - to disable personalization
- delete cookies from your browser
- log out of your Google (Gmail), Yahoo, and other webmail accounts.
- remove your browsing history
- you are using a set of international proxies that skew your search results to the region where the proxy is from
- you are using API keys - API-powered results are more historic and are pulled from different sources and not as frequently updated. Disable the keys and do the search to see if it is the API keys that cause discrepancy in search results.

same issues from me and I cleared cookies and cache and everything

For what i know now with social also making a difference on searches rank trackers tend to be less efetive

yes clear everything, cookies etc

Are you guys sure that Rank Tracker is off, not your manual searches? Use service like hidemyass and search then again.

clearing cookies is not enough to keep from getting personalized results.

If it looks like you are ranking higher in google than ranktracker says you are, most likely ranktracker is right, not you.

Results can also be altered by your datacenter, so not everyone in the world has the same results, you are just looking for a running average these days.

Also - these are capturing "moments in time" - it is entirely possible that you rank in one spot right now, and 1 hour from now, you will be in a different position. Unless your site has been stable for some time, it will probably go up and down several times per day.

If you need to verify results, use more than one tracker. Personally, I use ranktracker and sescout. Sometimes I also use serpattacks to triple check.
If you really want to know, Google webmaster tools gives you your average ranking for your top keywords (assuming your kw is on that list).

I've been having problems with Rank Tracker too. It used to work really well, and these issues only started occurring recently.

Google is constantly updating it's index, they also measure CTR data. So rankings can change based on that. Sometimes they rotate sites positions to test which users respond the best to.

They also take into account bounce-back rates... How often people are going to a site and then returning to search again.

Data Center location can also effect rankings.

looks like G changes rankling more frequently. I have a client, the main keyword was ranked #1 for the passing 2 weeks in the month, then right before I wrote the report, it dropped to #5. Now, I have to figure out a way to explain why dropped.