SERPS different based on location of search even with non-personalization

[kentaro-256929]

Hello Mozzers,

Our agency's website, www.kenta.ro - ranked for a long time at #1 for "ann arbor seo" and similar keywords. For the past several (4-5) months we've been sitting around #5. My guess was that this was Google playing around with the results but I'm not sure why we have been at this position for such a long time.

I have a vpn that I use for checking rankings overseas and if I connect to a server in Chicago, LA, Ontario, etc we show up as #1 - only when you search for "ann arbr seo" in our area do we get a lower ranking. All rank checking programs including seomoz show us at the #1 position because of this. What this means for us is that all of the traffic we target with this keyword sees the poor result, while the rest of the world sees the great result (should they search for it). How can we ensure that our target market finds us at #1 like the rest of the world does? Thank you in advance.

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[ClassifiedsKing]

Yeah, sorry. I saw that right after I clicked submit.

Well being that it is not a PWS issue, maybe you need some social optimization. I would add a Twitter and Facebook like button. Then ask some of your clients to go "vote" for you.

Maybe your competiors have started optimizing on their side and you are being surpassed?

Also I see the Google Analytic related error message on your site:
var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-19803413-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); " />

[kentaro-256929]

Thanks, if you check out the image I did use &pws=0; I have used different browsers, incognito, etc and the only variable that affects the search is where I am searching from (which I have changed using the vpn).

Thanks for letting me know what the S Africa result is

[ClassifiedsKing]

I think this might be because of you are getting Google's Personal Search results in your "area"/your IPs used.

To turn personal search off, add the following to the end of your serps' url: &pws=0

For example this old url: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GPCK_enZA431ZA431&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=ann+arbr+seo&hl=en

Should become:

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GPCK_enZA431ZA431&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=ann+arbr+seo&hl=en&pws=0

Also try "Incognito Search" in Google Chrome or to log out of your Google account while checking your rankings. But this is not necessarily going to turn it off completely as Google will still do personal search even if you are logged out.

P.S. I South Africa you are #2 for your keyword.