What is the best way to know your accurate ranking on google? what analytics are most trustworthy?

[creativeguy]

with seomoz, i rank on google in one spot.  With market samurai, I rank in another spot,  With KPMRS (or whatever) i rank another place.  But then when i just type my keywords into google, it puts me in a whole different world...

am confused...

and the client i am trying to help rank higher is confused.

Thanks for any help you can offer

be blessed

bd

[Gyi]

In addition to the earlier points on "depersonalization", it may turn out that you actually want to report on localized results.

Is your client trying to attract visitors in a specific location?

Have you looked at how different browser locations impact searches for your "best" keywords?

Have you looked at how Google suggest / instant may impact searches for your "best" keywords?

Search "scientists" should collect all of the relevant data and then analyze it relevant to the goals of the campaign.

That means looking at unpersonalized, personalized, and relevant localized results.

[RobertFisher]

John and EGOL give good info here. EGOL says this best:

" .. and I also think that that the progress of your rankings over time is more important than where you rank on this device or that at a random moment of time."

The most important part of your question to me was -

am confused...

and the client i am trying to help rank higher is confused.

With a marketing client it is imperative that you get away from "where do I rank" as a conversation. That conversation invariably leads to... "this email says I am on page 8 and they can get me number 1..."

There has to be planning ahead of time and you have to set benchmarks around site performance before and after, etc. To try and live or die by ranking is insanity today. Dr Pete had great post on the SERPs not being the SERPs any more which further shows how muddy the water is becoming.

Show your client where they were in traffic, conversions,etc. (ok some ranking is fine if it is part of a package of results - good or bad). Give them results on a 1 to 4 week basis depending on type of client (eCommerce may need more frequent, etc.). Teach your client that it is not about fast and/or ranking. It is about conversions to sales, clients, etc.

[john4math]

If you turn Google instant search off, and then add "&pws=0" to the end of the URL after you perform a search and resubmit the URL, it should depersonalize and delocalize your search.  Google takes almost everything it can into account in terms of browsing data, location, history, whether you're logged into a Google account, and more.  So these searches won't take your location or user data into account, so they're the most general searches you can perform.

Check out http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-personalized-search for more info.

[EGOL]

I get different rankings using different browsers at my office.  I can remote to a computer on the other side of a small town and see different rankings.  I can get out my ipad and see different rankings and check my iphone and get different rankings.  (all of these are done logged out of google but using different machines, different ISPs, and desktops, laptops, tablets and phones).

Also did you know that google is always running experimental SERPs and those often involve A/B or multivariate testing?  (Read "In the Plex" if you want to learn a lot about google experiments.)

What are the correct rankings?

I trust SEOmoz because all of the browser and location and history data are eliminated (I think)... and I also think that that the progress of your rankings over time is more important than where you rank on this device or that at a random moment of time.