Huge difference between GSC ranking and browser ranking for certain keywords: How to proceed?

[vtmoz]

Hi,

There is a huge ranking difference between the GSC and browser  for our primary keyword. As per GSC, our ranking is around 15 and when checking on the multiple different incognito browsers it's around 50. How to handle this? Which is the accurate one? Product expert from Google forums claim that what I see on browsers are the personalized results; but I tried on different browsers with different connections.

Thanks

[WebQuest]

Agreed with what Gaston explained and would also add that you should check all elements on your website when it comes to what GSC is reporting. For example, it could be that you have an image ranking for that keyword in position 15 on the Image SERPs and a page from your website is actually ranking on position 50.

[GastonRiera]

Hi there,

Yes, what you are seeing in your web browsers are personalized results, the same for everyone searching for that specific keyword.

The most reliable way to track the average position is with GSC, but you have to keep in mind that:

• Those results are for a specific country and for users that google chose to collect data.
• That metrics depends on the selected date and for the type of search(web, mobile, desktop, etc).
• From day to day positions can change rapidly.
• The last position you might find in GSC is at least from yesterday and might be different from today's ranking.

My advice here is to rely on GSC and/or use a private tracking tool to compare, such as Moz's rank tracking tool.

Hope it helps,
Best luck.
Gaston