Google Observation

[watto]

Has anyone else noticed this with their sites?

When I log into my google webmaster tools account, my position jumps up 2 places in the serps for my main phrase. When I log out it goes back down.

Weird!!

Regards

watto

[cw1865]

I'm not seeing the effect, but it sounds like you should just stay logged in?

Maybe being logged in makes google give you results from a different center?

[watto]

Maybe you are right...... It is really weird. Happens every single time. I'll take your advice and stay logged in...

cheers

watto

[inertia]

Its a personalisation issue. When you say "log into google webmaster tools" aren't you just logging into your general google account, where they know everything about yooooouuuu?*spooky*

[incrediblehelp]

Sure Google monitors websites that you visit often in personalized search, so they feel if you like a website because you visit often why not rank it higher.

[sofomor]

Hey, you may be experiencing this "benefit" due to same session. If you are using IE, start FF or any other and try searching for your keyword.

[craigmn3]

Yes.
Exactly the same I get all excited going from 3 to 1 and then remember that I am signed in. Makes me grumpy

[tbond]

I have seen the same thing for a long time now. I'll explore it and post what I find out.

[kevsta]

i always search using Joosts unpersonalised search plugins for firefox. anything else is deluding yourself

Google de-Personalized Search for Firefox and IE7 - Yoast - Tweaking Websites

[deepsand]

All you need do to get un-personalized results is to append &pws=0 to any search query URL.