Positions in Search Network different from position in Google

Positions are interchanged between myself and my competitor

[inasisi]

For one of my key words, on Google I am at the third position while my competitor is at the second position. But if I search on AOL, I am at second and the competitor is at third. How would this be possible?

[bostonseo]

Anything is possible with Adwords these days - that's the answer.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Inasisi, ad position is not fixed, and can vary widely from one search to the next - depending on all the factors that are constantly at play.

This can literally happen from one moment to the next - and you can often see ad position shift if you hit the refresh button.

With this in mind, searching on Google in one moment and on AOL the next can easily lead to what you're seeing.

AWA

[poster_boy]

Hello AWA, beyond the random nature of ad position, how much control does each search syndication partner have with regards to which ads show?

If I'm always #1 on Google.com (average position = 1.0), and, literally, never show on a particular search partner... how might this happen?

[inasisi]

AWA,

I saw this interchanging positions between AOL and Google over the last 3 days and atleast 10-15 times a day. So I do not believe that it due to some sudden changes.