Just over a week ago, Google launched a massive change to search personalization, Search Plus Your World. Along with this change came a new toggle switch to shut off personalization. Below the Google search box and above the results, you’ll see something like this:
The default, person icon is personalized results, and you click on the globe to shut off “your world” (I won’t comment on how little sense that makes). Of course, we already had personalized results and a handful of ways to shut them off before, so what does “personalization” mean now, and do any of these de-personalization methods actually work? I thought it was time to put that question to the test.
The Methods
I actually started with 6 ways to de-personalize, but ended up excluding two of them for the final test (more on that below). The original 6 were:
- De-personalization toggle
- “pws=0” parameter
- Signing out
- Signing out + “pws=0”
- Incognito (Chrome)
- Incognito (IronKey)*
I’ve already discussed the new option (1) above, but I thought it might be a good review to talk briefly about the other options. Here’s a quick primer:
(2) “pws=0” Parameter
If you’ve been in SEO for a while, you’re familiar with the “pws=0” de-personalization parameter. By adding it to the end of a Google query URL (“&pws=0”), you can theoretically remove history-based personalization. A simplified URL would look something like this:
(3) Signing Out of Google
This one’s pretty straightforward. Just sign out of your Google account. Unfortunately, the Google interface has been changing a lot lately, but if you have Google+, click on your avatar in the top bar, and you’ll see an option for “Sign Out” at the bottom of the menu.
(4) Signing Out + “pws=0”
Option (4) just combines (2) and (3). Sign out of Google, run your search, and then append the “&pws=0” parameter to the URL.
(5) Incognito Browsing (Chrome)
Google’s Chrome browser has a built in “incognito” mode that supposedly removes any traces of your browsing activity, such as cookies or search history. In Chrome, click on the wrench icon in the upper right, and you’ll get an option for a “New incognito window”:
(6) Incognito Browsing (IronKey)
While Chrome’s incognito mode does seem reliable, there’s something about trusting a Google product not to pass Google data that just makes me itch. So, for my “control” condition, I used another incognito browser, a version of Firefox that runs directly off of my IronKey USB drive.
(x) Stand-alone Crawler
Originally, I was going to use a stand-alone crawler (PHP-based) as the control condition. Unfortunately, my crawlers all run out of a different state from a different C-block of IPs, so I decided to confine the test to only methods I could use directly from my office setup.
The Dry Run
I’ll discuss the search queries and metrics more below, but I initially did a dry run of 5 queries, and I ran into a couple of issues and insights that caused me to scrap that data and start over. Briefly, here’s what I learned:
Google’s Toggle <=> “pws=0”
As I was collecting data, I realized that switching Google’s new de-personalization toggle was actually adding “pws=0” to my query URLs. If you add it manually to the URL, the toggle switches itself. Options (1) and (2) are functionally identical, so I only used the de-personalization toggle in the final test.
Queries Change Frequently
I originally ran each option one-by-one, recording the data. By the time I was done (15-20 minutes), the Google results for the control had sometimes changed. I realized that I would need to run all of the versions of each query as back-to-back as possible and then collect the data. In the final experiment, I ended up using multiple windows and 2 PCs on the same connection.
Signed Out Data Didn’t Change
There was no measurable difference between options (3) and (4) in my pilot data. Adding “pws=0” to a signed out query didn’t seem to have an impact. So, I dropped option (4) in the final test. This left 4 methods:
- De-personalization toggle
- Signing out
- Incognito (Chrome)
- Incognito (IronKey)*
The Data Set
Given the labor-intensive nature of collecting this data, I decided to use a set of 10 popular queries, pulled from Google Trends Hot Searches list for 1/17. I purposely picked popular queries so that they were more likely to be personalized and/or have social results. The point wasn’t to measure how much results are being personalized, but how well methods to remove personalization work. The query list was as follows:
- paula deen
- jerry yang
- seattle weather
- victor martinez
- mary tyler moore
- betty white
- jenelle evans
- wisconsin recall
- wikipedia blackout
- girl scout cookies
The original #10 on the list was “school closings”, but I decided that had too much of a local SEO aspect, so I bumped up #11. Localization is a completely different issue these days (shutting off “personalization” doesn’t shut off localization), so I decided to avoid any searches that had clear local intent.
The Metrics
To compare the SERPs across methods, I tracked three different metrics, as described below:
(1) Total Results
This was a count of all non-paid results – organic, universal, and social. News, images, and TV/movie results all counted as +1 each. In other words, if news had 3 items, it was +3. If there were 6 images displayed, it was +6. I did this for two reasons: not only are these counts variable, but Google is now mixing in social images with regular image results. For example:
Here, a search for “jerry yang” (former Yahoo CEO) shows 9 image results, but 4 of them are coming from the new social integration.
(2) Social Results
I did a separate count of social results – anything with the person icon next to it. As with total results, social image results each counted as +1. So, in the Jerry Yang example above, that set of image results would count as +9 total results and +4 social results.
(3) Ranking Change
Finally, I calculated the shift between each pair of organic rankings. This ranking “delta” could range from 0-100, and was calculated with 3 simple rules:
- Result in same position = +0
- Result moved positions = +|change|
- Result fell off entirely = +10
So, if the #2 result in the control SERP ended up in #5 on one of the other de-personalization methods, it would count as +3 (change was always positive, regardless of the direction). If the #2 result fell out of the Top 10 on the comparison SERP, it would count as +10.
The Final Test
Sorry, that took a bit of explaining. So, in the end, I measured 3 metrics across 4 methods (counting the control) and 10 search queries. There are actually 5 “methods”, since I also measured personalized results, for comparison. The following table shows mean total results, social results, and change for each method:
| Method | Total | Social | Change |
| Personalized | 18.3 | 0.7 | 13.0 |
| Toggle/pws=0 | 18.0 | 0.0 | 4.5 |
| Logged out | 18.0 | 0.0 | 3.1 |
| Incognito 1 | 18.0 | 0.0 | 4.3 |
| Incognito 2* | 18.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
So, what does it all mean?
(1) Logging Out Won This Round
Logging out seemed to de-personalize results the most. Granted, this came from only 10 queries, and the difference between logging out and Chrome’s incognito function was only 1 query – where logging out matched the control. I should also note that I had to run the logged-out queries on a different machine (same network and IP). So, practically, I'd call logged out vs. Chrome's incognito a tie.
(2) Chrome’s “Icognito” May Not Be
I’m hard-pressed to trust a tool Google built to be free of Google’s influence. That’s not conspiracy theory – it’s just common sense. Two of the queries showed different results for Chrome’s Incognito browser than my IronKey control. You could argue that my IronKey browser wasn’t actually a “control”, but in both cases, the Chrome Icognito results mirrored the de-personalization toggle results. Ultimately, no de-personalization method 100% matched the control condition.
(3) Social Results Are Limited (For Now)
Every method of personalization shut off the new social results, but even with a solid Google+ presence, my social results were limited. Four of the queries returned social results, ranging from 1-3 results (including personalized/social images). Keep in mind that these were all trending queries with a much higher than average likelihood of having social mentions.
(4) Universal Results Are Independent
The total result count only varied in one query – universal results (news, images, etc.) appeared and remained fairly stable for all forms of de-personalization. When personalized/social images appeared, these seemed to displace regular image results, keeping the count consistent. The same happened with organic results – social results replaced the organic results.
The Verdict
Google's new de-personalization toggle does seem to remove social results, and it's fairly effective for de-personalization, but it's not foolproof. Unfortunately, no method seems to be completely personalization free, and I'm willing to bet that situation only gets worse. It's interesting to note that, no matter what method I used and how radically I cleared my history, ever method still localized me to the Chicago area (even the IronKey incognito). While I didn't cover localization in this experiment, it's yet another way that what you see may be different from what your clients see.
Third-party tools and crawlers should still remove most personalization, and provide one way to standardize the numbers you use for reporting. My best advice is to pick an outside source (or even more than one) and stick to it over time. At the same time, supplement ranking information with search traffic and conversion metrics. You can't trust any one method to show you "real" rankings, and the very idea of "de-personalized" results may become little more than myth over the next few years.
Hola Peter,
nice research indeed.
Personally I use Chrome, and I am used to search in many different Googles (.com, .es, .it, .co.uk mainly). But even though I don't care that much about "totally neutral" SERPs results in .es/.com/.co.uk, yes it is for me important to see unpersonalized results for google.it.
That is why I tend to use the classic logged off and "psw=0" method for that. So... Chrome offers a nice way to establish this as standard search.
Remember, first, that you can use directly the URLs bar in the browser to commit a query. Said that, you can go to "Customize and Control" and in the "Basics" and - in "Search" - you can tell Chrome what Search Engine you want to have as default. Clicking on "Manage Search Engines" you have a very large list of options (i.e.: you may choose Amazon as SE!) and one of the option is the NP (Not Personalized) version of Google.com. The NP of Google.it is not listed, but it is extremely easy to add it, as Chrome allows that.
This way I can do the same search in different Googles at the same time, having personalized results pages in the tabs where Google.com, .es and co.uk are used, and not personalised in the tab I see the Google.it SERPs obtained using the URLs browser bar.
Said that, I honestly believe that we have to deal with personalization, and - instead of blaming it (it is unuseless, as Google won't change its decision about this) - to see how we can use it to our and our clients' advantage.
Yeah, it's definitely hear to stay. I just worry when we have to trust Google that their functions (like de-personalization) work. To a specific set of engineers with a specific definition of "personalized", the toggle and &pws=0 probably work fine. To the rest of us, for whom "personalized" means "my results are different in any way from the norm", it's a different story. What bugs me is when people are convinced that their one way to de-personalize is the only right way and absolute truth. Every method is suspect, from what I'm seeing.
The real problem with the personalization in the google search reasults is that you really don't know what would be the conditions (browser, history, cookies, logged on/off ... whatever) when any of your customers searches for anything. You may choose to use a browser different from Chrome and clean every possible "thing" out there and you will see a result, but 99,99 % it will just be your personal result. Maybe (just maybe) if you use a different custom location (or a different proxy) on every search you make, there will be a difference.
That's a great point. Even if you could perfectly de-personalize your results, that's not what your customers see when they search. That's why 3rd-party reports can help, but so often people still wonder why that report differs from what they see on their own machine.
I think Google refer to localization of search results as a contextual signal rather than personalisation - hey it's semantics - the bottom line is universal SERPs are increasingly less important, no? As in 90 million users less important than BG+ (Before Google Plus).
ps. Rob Ousbey did a nice post explcitly about how to set the omnibar for search shortcuts that includes non personalised searches https://www.ousbey.com/blog/chrome-shortcuts-opensiteexplorer It's a boon for your productivity if you're a ranker.
With the help of your test I figure it out one thing that we never get totally un-personalized result! Now I am worried about what can we do as an SEO if Google continually moving towards personalization and give user what’s he want (it’s a good thing) but the problem arise when user won’t get new or updated information due to personalization.
For example
I am searching for mobiles in Pakistan in Pakistan and every time I searched it and move to one particular site (which seems to be accurate price of mobiles for some time but suddenly this particular site have stop updating his mobile price) but I still got this site on top due to my personalization (I don’t need this site now).
Now as an SEO/inbound marketer we must instead of optimizing site for Google we must need to promote it as a brand or else our site won’t survive for a long time!@
Thanks for this Pete. More evidence to use when we educate our clients away from the belief that ranking are all important.
Trying to get them to focus on more meaningful metrics can be a challenge. If you're not getting the traffic and conversions then your ranking position doesn't really count for much.
I do worry about how increased personalisation is going to affect both what we do, and the perception of what we do.
I also wonder if this means a rise in the number of companies who will conduct surveys - getting specific ranking reports from your target audience. After all, you don't care where you rank infront of someone who's never going to be your customer do you?
It's increasingly important to get the site owner to recognise that the key to having a successful website is to find where their prospects congregate and have a compelling proposition for them and that's going to mean reaching out to social, online communities etc.
There is no magic bullet. I just wish people stopped asking for it!
Well said, Doug. Couldn't agree more. (ie no magic bullet and rankings not all important)
I often have trouble remembering "pws" without looking it up because the letters aren't obviously related to "personalization" or anything. Here's a choice of acronyms to help you remember (depending on your personal preference :)
Patriots Will Score
Patriots Won't Score
Packers Will Score
Packers Won't Score
Or, if you're not into American football:
Panda Will Slap!
I always thought it was Personal Web Search?
Ah, now I feel silly :)
I'm all for "Packers Won't Score" personally :)
Consistantly to date, the best/most faff free 'completely personalisation free' search results I can get are through using a proxy service. The one I use most right now is Proxify (www.proxify.com) Proxify is highly configurable (access to 130 geographically diverse satellite servers around the world with a small one time fee), but even running a standard free search will give you personalisation free results. I have absolutely no affiliation with this service btw :) That said, I'm becoming less and less interesed in 'universal' SERPs. They just don't hold much meaning (for me, or my clients) any more. P.S. A good tip while running searches with PWS=0 is additionally to visit https://www.google.com/history/ and remove then pause your history while you search. Thanks to @TomSchmitz for that one.
It is true that Google is getting more and more personalized. If someone click on my competitors website in some niche with the logged in SERPs (in Chrome), so he will get this website in top listing every time he search for that related niche. Therefore the personalized results will always stay up and organic results will be ultimately listed down, which is not very good in few scenarios as the user may not get the updated news/results.
This is bad!
SEO vs. Google - We Don’t Stand A Chance. The general user is not going to know to turn personalization off, or that they can even do that. Most of my clients have no idea what the difference between Google Ads and Organic is. So I doubt that they will know anything about how to turn personalization off. Most people are going to search when logged into Google one way or another, so they are going to use personalization without knowing it. We can’t run from Google, they own the web. The only way is to capitalize on this and use them to get listed #1.
Wow, great testing and writeup! The localization problem can be fixed if you click the "Change location" link and change your location. I did some tests with this myself. I had someone in another state do the same searches and I changed my location with that setting to their location... it ended up that the results are the same as if you were "really" in that location or simply changing the location settings.
What about switching the IP by any IP hides or bypass software, i guess this should work the same way... no?
Yes, sadly, that's all we can do now: using proxies and switch between various locations to see how results differ
It's a shame Google is not giving the users at least one legit way to do that though
Along with that, changing your location to "United States", or whatever country you're in, will give you results that are not localized (except to your country as a whole).
I have pretty good luck with "Change location", too, at least for major metro areas. To be fair to Google, the new toggle is a lot more transparent than the old "&pws=0". The problem is that both functions are black boxes, for the most part. We put a lot of faith in Google when we let them decide what "personal" and "location" mean.
That blog post offers lots of new insights for me - like "personalization doesn't shut off localization.That brings up the question "How can I shutt off localization" - which seems to us SEO's a quiet interesting point of view.
Furthermore - apart from incognito browsing I prefer the de-personalization toggle instead of signing out and in the whole day.But - here I do have a handicapt again. If I use e.g. the google toolbar I can click the toggle after my search and have one more click to make.And once the toggle is clicked for de-personalization it won't last if you use the search in the Google toolbar - you have to do that again each time you use it.
Great informations!!
There is a permanent toggle in Google now, that I forgot to mention. Click on the gear icon, then "Search Settings", and there's an optin for "Do not user personal results." That's equivalent to the toggle and "&pws=0".
Thank you so much Dr. Pete. Some of this may be no-brainer info for expert mozzers but I'm spreading this article around to everyone anyway. Outside our profession, people are scared and confused about what Google is doing. I'm looking for any writings that offer help and protection.
Personally...just the fact that we have to protect our privacy, even personal email, from a search engine frosts me.
There are just too many layers at this point, and the data Google is using isn't completely clear. Even if they "de-personalize", in the sense of account preferences and social factors, they still use search history, IP-based history, localization cues, etc. Some information about us is in play almost all the time.
Thx Pete
I built this tool for my clients because I was tired of explaining how they made impersonal searches
www.impersonal.me
Great tool. Just had a few late night moments to play with it ! I passed it along to my SEO office team. Nice job. Clean and easy to use. Seems to be working great, so very nice job. Cudos on the build. I think we'll be using this as a tool in our daily work/testing etc.. Just wanted to pass it along. I'll do more testing with it this week and holler back at you! Cheers.
Liked the tool! Great to see that it will help us doing impersonal searches!
It seems Google has removed the options in your search settings to turn off personalization. I went to their support section and the instructions to do this are still the same and haven't been updated (big surprise). It makes me wonder if Google has snuffed out the de-personalization on purpose?
I'm seeing that, too, and I don't remember it over the weekend (but I'm old and don't remember things ;) ) - nice catch! Have to keep my eye on that.
Question: what do you think of either of these tools: Track Me Not and Google Sharing
Have you tried or (better) tested them?
Haven't used those, unfortunately - hopefully, the community has some experience. I'm curious if a proxy or incognito tool can build up a history with Google, based on IP. In other words, if the same tool hits Google over and over, does it build up its own history and "personalize" over time? Unfortunately, it's incredibly tough to test, because search results naturally change over time.
Yes, the problem is in testing. That's why I asked. None of those tools uses any IP addresses. Instead, they (1) create "ghost" searches to "overwhelms the trackers" "since your actual search history is lost in a sea of other searches"... That makes them an interesting idea but one which is even harder to test...
I personally use the Impersonal.me tool for this. Works really well and the cool thing is that you'll be able to instantly search like you're in a different country (which is nice since I have US websites but live in Europe).
EDIT: I meant to say website and not tool. It is all online based: www.impersonal.me
Personally I use a completely different browser I never log in on and clear cookies, cache and history on each shut down to cross-check rankings in a clean environment. This is the only way it works for me. Btw. I also use a tool called BetterPrivacy to delete Flash cookies that otherwise stay on your machine forever and allow cross-browser tracking.
I think Google is using their own, IP-based data in some cases, on the server side. The ultimate problem is that there's not one gold standard we can use. Even my "control" is suspect (or any control I could come up with). I'm not sure there is a default ranking anymore.
Great information never delved into such details about how to depersonalise our browser history! Google's this move will surely improve visitor's search experiences!
Guy, you are a Genius, good information.
I do a lot of ad-hoc checks on international SERPs so doing a quick check but accurate check is pretty important for me so thank you!
I built a Google search parameter GUI to expedite it but as you say adding &pws=0 doesn't really do much to personalise things. Therefore I tend to use this plus a separate browser - for me Opera - that I don't use for anything else and that tends to give me pretty accurate results.
As Ann says above it's a pity G doesn't give us a tool to check, maybe in Webmaster tools, like the AdPreview tool but for Organic.
Thanks for the interesting well researched article.
Don't forget that while signed out of your Google account, your search results will still be personalized based on a cookie. So, while signed out, you will still have some personalization, untill you've cleared that cookie from your browser.
Google has an opt-out link for disabling the personalization of results based on history (info. in the cookie) while signed out (https://www.google.com/history/optout).That means that they won't write cookie information anymore. The trick however is that opting out deletes the cookie, yes, but since the opt-out info is in that cookie as well, it too is deleted. Thus the enabling the signed out personalization again. Conclusion : you will need to disable it in the opt-out page again ...
I think you should ad the Google Adwords Preview Tool. I sometimes use it.
So I assume the incognito window keeps your web history from before, but deletes your history within Incognito mode. Great post, nice niche topic, additional generic compliment. Thank You
Nice post Pete! I wish I had more time for testing!!! I love reading these things and pass them onto my SEO/Search team all the time for educational reasons! Keep it up. Would love to see a post about local search too! Well done. Cudos and Cheers!
My problem is I"m usually signed on all day through Chrome, so without realizing it (when searching) I'm seeing personalized results, and not de-personlized. I started using my other browsers now for other various tasks, which makes it a bit more frustrating at times, but helps keep me searching online with the 'keyword unavailable' turned off - so other sites I visit have data to use! LOL
Thank you so much Dr. Pete for these insights. I am going to implement your ideas for a while to see how it works out for me. But I think that using a seperate browser should also be helpful in some way to solve this issue.
Regarding #5, Incognito Mode on Chrome: I'm finding that incognito sometimes does show personalized results. --Had a REALLY exciting moment today when one of my sites ranked #3. But alas, it seems incognito doesn't also mean unpersonalized.
Does any know how to bypass the "not set" keyword data in Google Analytics or is that impossible to get aroundZ
Really awesome data & research - they don't call you Dr Pete for nothing!
I tried the "pws" command but it just wouldn't work for me. I don't know whether it varies if you are using localised search (.co.uk) vs. (.com) but it just wouldn't run for me and didn't give me the results I was after. Incognito mode via Chrome worked nicely and I'm amazed that I've never used it before, so thanks!
Great post thank you! We are seeing that after doing all of the de-personalization tactics, and after setting our geography to United States in Google, our ranking results in some instances are still personalized significantly by Google. We are based in Seattle, and this is affecting the rank checks we do for Seattle-area clients. Google apparently is personalizing our results for the Seattle area even though we told it not to do any personalization. If we use proxy IP addresses from different locations, we consistently see a particular phrase rank #20. If we turn off all personalization and localization and do the search from our office (and also tried from home office in Seattle), the phrase consistently ranks #2. Dr. Pete I know you said this happened to you in Chicago as well, so I am just confirming we are getting the same thing. We do ranks checks with software and proxies. This seems like the best consistent way right now to check ranks. Although for a client that happens to be where the proxy we are using is located, that could screw up our rank checks. So that is a new thing we'll have to watch and not use a proxy in their city.
It does seem like localization is happening automatically now, without any login or personalization being active. I'm even seeing localized results on some proxy servers, based only on geo-location.
I know one trick we've tried at SEOmoz is to check rankings via Google.co.uk but then set the country to US. This creates a "generic" US result, instead of location-specific. Of course, using the international ccTLD has it's own potential issues, but it does serve as a gut check.
Thanks for the research and write-up.
When I try to get "clean" SERPs I switch to a different browser - Firefox in my case since Chrome is my main browser - and use private mode. It's easier than logging in/out constantly plus I have all my SEO plugins in Firefox.
Working in SEO marketing I am actually very concerned about this idea. While normal people will think, "Hey, what a great idea from Google!" anyone who works in online marketing will know that these 'personalized' results will quickly get abused and the results you see will all be heavily influenced by people and companies working SEO.
While Google itself is not in the wrong here, the concern remains that the abuse of this kind of tool for marketing purposes removes the most relevant results from Page 1. Naive users get results created specifically for marketing purposes and only people with more experience navigating the online world are able to filter through the junk manually.
Throughout Google's updates it has always seemed that they were moving towards a more ethical and more demanding SEO game. But this SPYW update seems more geared towards promoting it's own Social features above anything else.
This seems really immoral but the flip side would suggest with Social Media being such a huge element in the Internet's development they are actually moving forward in the right direction.
However, I don't think either side could deny that Google making it so difficult to get un-personalised results is nothing more than forcing us to see what it THINKS we should be seeing rather than what we may be looking for.
Fascinating post though, thanks for sharing this information with us all!
I normally check de-personalized rankings by using Internet Explorer without having any history/cache/cookie etc as I can't afford doing that with Chrome.
By doing so Google would consider me as a new searcher for that particular keyword so there should be no personalization at all.
Unfortunately, you're still hitting from the same IP and Google has its own history (even with no cookies, etc.). At this point, I'm not convinced that even a clean browsing session is de-personalized.
What happens if you have a dynamic IP address?
The part that's dynamic is only the last block, the first three blocks of the IP are the same and considered all one location.
-Dan
There is also an add-on for FireFox and Chrome called Google Global that allows you to check SERPS on different data centers/different countries and also de-personalize the SERPS.
I would not use Chrome and always remember to log off. Thanks the other ideas :)
I am also interested on how to make our customers personalize their google results so theyll help promote our website on google+
Indeed a very Interesting point!
All I learn from this post is not to use chrome for Rank Check (that I usually do) plus the other option that I usually use to check depersonalized results are “pws=0” which is quite accurate in most of the cases with me!
SEOmoz Rank checking Tool also use “pws=0” like this “https://www.google.com/search?q=SEO+Guide&pws=0”
Over all a good read!
I've been using Safari for quick SERP checks. Just hit the gear in upper right corner, then "Reset Safari" to clen things up, then "Private Browsing". Seems to work. In any event, It lets me log into multiple Google accounts simultaneously.
Great article and thanks for taking the time to test and share your results. I found the same thing that signing out is the best way to de-personalize the results.
I would like to make note that I think is quite important to keep in mind while performing these tests. I work with many different people all over the US and I have personally been running these sorts of tests for years. One thing I have noticed is that even prior to the personalization I found Google providing different results on different queries and I am not referring to the “Local” results mixed in. I am speaking purely national. So when I did a search for say “Airline Tickets”, I would get one set of national results, then after repeated attempts sometimes I would get a few different ones mixed in. And if I called a buddy across the country and asked him to perform the same search he would get similar national results, but almost never the same.
Awesome post! I've been trying to explain personalized results to some clients so they understand that searching a keyword when your the only one in the area that is qualified for that keyword doesn't mean that you are on top of the search results and to attract a wider base of traffic they need to implement SEO tactics. Using the de-personalization button seems to the one that works for me or atleast gives me results I can show, without using a third party crawler from a different state.
What about clicking
Web History > "Disable customizations based on search activity."
?
Google has a built-in setting, too, now. The testing procedure was getting a bit too hairy, so I left out some options, but I suspect that both of these are similar to a permanent "&pws=0".
Thanks for the work and explanation. While I've had difficulty with getting rid of the local aspect for a while, It does seem to be getting more and more difficult to get rid of the social one. I just rely on moz's ranking tool to determine rankings. I have had to explain to clients the difference in what Google pulls up for them and what our report (with moz's rankings) shows several times. Looks like I'll be explaining it for a while.
Hey Peter,
Great job with the research and the write up! I was unaware of Chrome's built in 'incognito' options, but I must agree that a Google developed tool wouldn't be 100% de-personalized. For de-personalized results, I typically use a different browser that is logged off.
Thanks again!
Good stuff,
I'm personally struggling with what I would class as the opposite problem. An example: I have a client that is international. They want me to track and report how well they are doing. How can you really do that!
Previously I have been crawling SERP just using the correct Google TLD for each market they target. I'd have to say the results do vary, but my crawler cannot be representing a typical search as it's location does not make sense.
I've now got a VPN to crawl those TLDs as if I'm from the right country. I suspect results will change but just because Google can then localise me. e.g. a San Francisco server instead of a Sydney Server. Still, not a representative result for the whole of a country.
How can we understand and track how personalisation and localisation is affecting us? Can we monitor and work out which tactics help us show up more personally/locally?
Dr Pete,
Have you tried comparing the SERPs from StartPage.com to your results? They claim to offer a completely private and depersonalized proxy for Google.
It would be interesting to see how the results stack up against your findings.
I was hesitant to use a proxy or crawler, because that would be on another IP and likely hit other data-centers. That's the tricky part - it's hard to find a valid basis for comparing two SERPs. Anything I did was probably biased by my history, to some small extent, but anything too separate would be hard to compare apples-to-oranges.
In general, I think a proxy is a decent solution, as long as you don't have localization in play.
I've recently seen some articles/videos about collecting SERP data via Google Docs, I wonder if you would get truely depersonalized results from searching 'within' the bounds of Google from their own servers/ip addresses etc?