I noticed that Google Maps' rankings differ from device to device.

Comparison of the rankings on different phones and places produces entirely different results. Slightly confusing to report at times.

Google will view each device / activity / differently .

welcome to local seo lol. this is why reporting exact keyword positions to clients is a trap. they search from their office, see themselves at number 5, then search from home and see number 1. i just use geo-grid trackers for local maps to show them the bigger picture, and for organic i rely on search console average positions. trying to explain personalization and device fingerprinting to a client is a losing battle anyway.

Yeah what @XSMMDoctor said about geo-grid is the way to go honestly. One thing that helped me stop the back and forth with clients... i just stopped showing raw positions at all and switched the convo to calls, leads, GMB views. Thats what they actually care about anyway, the number 1 vs number 5 thing is mostly ego.

Also even incognito wont save you anymore, google still uses IP location so two people in the same office on different ISPs can see different maps packs. seen this happen a bunch. If you really wanna sanity check a position use a tool that lets you set the exact lat/long instead of trusting your own browser, your search history is poisoning everything.

Proximity do value here. That's why you will see different results.

Of course, I have also come across this. It really depends on where you are from, what device you use, or even your search history because the ranking can be quite different.

bibes Kharel said:

Comparison of the rankings on different phones and places produces entirely different results. Slightly confusing to report at times.

Click to expand...

Yes it depends where you're from and what device you use.

IP, and location if you are searching from different places

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If from same place

Device activities, model of the phone, past interests, searches. Sometimes I have seen the same device give 2 different ranking results in a 1-2 hours gap.

If device GPS is off, it may not give accurate result for Maps.