Google Webmaster Tools

[nikmcg]

I would like to ask if anyone else has noticed differences in the stated position of a website in Webmaster Tools and those in Google itself?
I have one site in particular that generally ranks well for some quite competitive keyphrases. My google webmaster tools account shows the website as having a position of number 7. Click on the link and sometimes the site is there, sometimes not. When it's not there it vanishes completely, not a trace. Currently it seems that for half the week I have a decent search engine ranking, the other half of the week, nothing.
Has anyone got any ideas? Thanks Nik.

[The Leader]

I have noticed it as well with sites showing a lower ranking than what I see.
Maybe its to do with search coming from different datacentres which distorts my view of serps!

[danlefree]

Try switching views (i.e. "Show: <Web Search> / <Your Region>") with the dropdown menus at the top right of the impression and clickthrough tables - may make a difference (particularly if you're getting impressions worldwide but you are only concerned with a particular geographic region).

Another possibility would be searches under Image Search throwing things off (also corrected with the right "Show:" filter)... not that you'll ever get perfectly accurate or reliable data from Webmaster Tools, but it helps to narrow things down a bit.

[angilina]

I would like to ask if anyone else has noticed differences in the stated position of a website in Webmaster Tools and those in Google itself?
I have one site in particular that generally ranks well for some quite competitive keyphrases. My google webmaster tools account shows the website as having a position of number 7. Click on the link and sometimes the site is there, sometimes not. When it's not there it vanishes completely, not a trace. Currently it seems that for half the week I have a decent search engine ranking, the other half of the week, nothing.
Has anyone got any ideas? Thanks Nik.

How old is your site?

If its a new site then such variation of ranking in SERPs is normal. In order to get a stable and good position, a new site must get trusted/solid backlinks.

"Click on the link and sometimes the site is there"

SERPs changes all the time where stats in GWMTs do not change that often. So such thing is normal I guess.

[Ace]

Yes its normal, Google Webmaster shows you data of last 7 days and serps is changing almost daily.

[morestar]

yes i see a difference all the time by a few ranks or so....

usually I break it down by doman (google.ca/google.com/google.co.uk) and from there I get more accurate results but it's usually right most of the time even if it's off by one or two ranks....

[mp3r4]

Yes its normal, Google Webmaster shows you data of last 7 days and serps is changing almost daily.

I agree, there is a delay in ranking updates at GWT.

[SemAdvance]

Its nothing more than Google messing with you so you don't get a warm fuzzy feeling about your SEO ability. They can't be 100% accurate or people could reverse engineer their evil plot to take over the world.

[subsystems]

It also makes a difference if you are logged into your Google account in the browser. The sign-in at the upper right corner. It seems that if you are signed in the SERPs are tweaked to better suit your search history, location etc.

IE 8 In-Private browsing shows different results for me than IE 8 while logged in to my Google account.

I haven't tested this effect to any great extent. FF not logged in seems to show SERPs like IE8 In-Private.

[tomg1234]

Does newer Google search also look at historical interest and users location/ip to sort shown results? If I do a keyword search from office then visiting a friend later and doing same keyword search the result is different.