Webmaster tools giving conflicting results. Is my site ranked?

I have posted a similar thread a while back about the same site but i am very confused about my site's ranking.. In webmaster tools the avg position is 6.8. When i search for it in google it is about 7th in the search results so that seems right.

However, SEO moz claims it's not in top 50 and longtail pro lists it at number 63! I'm not getting any traffic either for a 1500 exact search term.. I thought maybe it was a useless keyword but now i'm wondering if it's not really ranking.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

1500 exacts isn't that many, especially ranked #7. I would check a couple of online sources, it could be the various datacenters are showing differing results. It could also be a geographic keyword and since your IP is local, you're seeing localized results.

Thanks, It's driving me crazy! I know it's not that much but i would have expected a few visitors.. Traffic travis says it's position 10.. Results are the same using proxies so i don't think it's localized results.

Google gives very delayed info on WT, probably to please newbies and keep real pros away from any actionable data.

Hmm, I think seo moz is right! I'm on page 6 when i search with hidemyass.. Dammit! I checked before with hidemyass and was in position 10. So i guess my site has been slapped?

Kuryakin,

Its hard to say why you are seeing the discrepancy for rankings. Are all other things equal like the time frame of the average rank reported in WMT and perhaps any location settings. I know just searching in Google can be very misleading because they deliver results based on location, whether or not you are logged in, your search history, etc.

That is also a pretty big discrepancy. It would be interesting to see a test done with all known variables being pretty much the same.

Best,

Shawn

I must say i'm totally stumped by this.. Maybe it has something to do with location settings in webmaster tools.. I'm in the UK and i'm targeting the US with the site.. If it is actually on the first page for the UK i guess that means it isn't penalized then?

Are you sure this isn't any seasoned keyword? Do this:

1. Login into adwords
2. Type in the keyword with filters set (exact match, US, English etc.)
3. Add a column named Local Search Trends
4. Mark the keyword and download to open with Excel

Check the traffic from month to month, does it fluctuate too much or is it stable overall?

Now that was for the keyword bit, regarding your site, simply check the rankings through a proxy or VPN.

BHopkins said:

1500 exacts isn't that many, especially ranked #7. I would check a couple of online sources, it could be the various datacenters are showing differing results. It could also be a geographic keyword and since your IP is local, you're seeing localized results.

Click to expand...

1500 exacts isn't that many? What you talking bout Willis?

Right I've figured it out.. Webmaster tools was giving me localized info. It's ranked no.7 in the UK but 60ish in the US. Guess i've got a lot of link building to do!

I do have one other question for anyone that's listening: The keyword in question actually gets 1850 monthly searches, It's fairly competitive but i just noticed that the phrase to broad match ratio is 0% which makes me think there is not much point in even trying to rank for it..
Any thoughts?

Note: I bought said keyword from someone on here who said it would be easy to rank.. It's been a huge waste of time but i have learned a lot esp. the importance of good keyword research! So yeah- do it yourself when it comes to keyword research!