How to verfy ranking?

google ranking

[xalex]

This has become big issue for new sites. I go to sitemap, it say I am ranked no. 1 for "blue widget". I check my logs and see I am getting referred by Google for "blue widget". However when I check Google datacenter/home, I don't see my site.

How do I find the datcenter ip by which Google is sending me traffic?

[SuddenlySara]

Third party stats programs like Webtrends works well.
Just make sure your site has a stats program installed. Now days any decent host offers "cPanel" with multiple stats.

[xalex]

Getting stats is not the issue here. I want to know which Google datacenter is sending me the traffic.

[SuddenlySara]

You could try Google Earth then?

[JeffOstroff]

I had posted this same question last week, and someone replied that Firebox has a way to show you which of the 500 IP addreses Google was using, but I only use Explorer.

SOmetimes I call one of our gusy to say one of our words is #7, and he says he sees it as #17 on Google, nad he live basically 15 miles from me!

Also, forget about what Sitemaps tells you about rank, that is 100% erroneous. Since day one, we have never had any of the rankings it tells us be correct, or even close, so I have no idea where they get our rankings for certain keywords inside Sitemaps.

The rest of the Sitemaps tool is quite useful though, such as the error pages it finds, when it spiders your sites.

[nippi]

advanced web rankings software

[Adam_Lasnik]

1) Worry less about datacenters. Traffic is traffic. Spend more effort ensuring that users have a good experience on your site from wherever they land.

2) Don't use automated rank checkers. 'tis against Google's Webmaster Guidelines and quite frankly you're not likely to get very accurate or useful/actionable data.

[bruceh]

I have found the stats in sitemaps to be reasonably accurate, valuable and useful. I use it for an ecommerce site and also use google analytics with full goal stats down to the $. With these tools I could not ask for more. One example of how useful this can be is the fact that my catalog is constantly updating.. ie products get discontinued and new products are added. Since search results always take some time to update I sometimes notice a high ranking and traffic for a discontinued product. I can then use a 301 redirect to send users to either a very similar instock product or the related products category. I feel this is better for users to get a related or similar page than to get a "product not found" page. I hope this practice doesn't violate any terms of service. I don't see why it should since it is better for the user. But I must admit it helps me too.

[whitenight]

2) Don't use automated rank checkers. 'tis against Google's Webmaster Guidelines and quite frankly you're not likely to get very accurate or useful/actionable data.

Haha, a G employee siting. If i catch you, will you take me to ye lucky pot o gold?

Are saying the G purposely gives false info to tools like McNameless?

[Adam_Lasnik]

Heh, whitenight, as if I'm all that incognito ;). I list my affiliation in my profile and was introduced in a prominent thread a while back, so I definitely hope there's no confusion.

And about the only resemblance I have with a leprechaun is that I'm short. I can't even boast the cool facial hair that Matt sports.

Lastly, re: your 2nd question... let's just say that the search results one person sees aren't going to be the same as what another person sees: personalized search adaptations, regional factors, different datacenters, and so on.

I know, I know... many clients insistently want to know "Where am I ranked? Where am I ranked?!1" (believe me, I've had a few of those clients in the past!), but at the end of the day, Webmasters and companies and such are best served by investing in a quality analytics product* and understanding what happens to visitors as they interact with the site.

*Sure, I like and personally use Google Analytics, but it's one of many fine analytics tools out there, IMHUO.

[whitenight]

Well Adam,
We talked in that first thread and then you disappeared into G-land for a few weeks ;)

Thanks for the rather forthcoming answer.

[JeffOstroff]

You can use automated tools to check your ranking on Goolge if you obtain an API key from Google, and do it through webposition gold.

Also, the best way to see which IP address your Google search is going through is to open a DOS window, and type in ping google.com.

That will tell you which IP address of the data center you ar ebeing routed to. My buddy 12 miles form me sees a different rank than me because he sees a different DC.

[nippi]

advanced web rankings, allows you to check many mutiple data centers at once, chart your rankings on each data centre daily, and you can throttle it to a speed that is goolge friendly

it works

[colin_h]

"Worry less about datacenters. Traffic is traffic."

IMHO I think that Adam is right with this point, but I may change it to "Productive Traffic is Good Traffic". I've found that although, during these periods of Google quiet, my sites actually receive roughly the same amount of visitor emails, service sales and a far more local audience. All of these things cement my suspicions that Google traffic made up of a huge number of webmasters just searching and checking out there 'competition' and not the high ratio of customer / hits that MSN & especially Yahoo send me. I've tracked Yahoo visitors in the past and have found that, by far, they are the highest proportion of service buyers.

The point I'm trying to make is that Google hits tend to just waste my bandwidth, and any alteration in the algo that can make more £'s per hit can only be a good thing IMO.

All the Best

Col :-)

[whitenight]

I've tracked Yahoo visitors in the past and have found that, by far, they are the highest proportion of service buyers

Indeed, Indeed. I can confirm Yahoo searchers are cash-in-hand buyers.

[Adam_Lasnik]

We talked in that first thread and then you disappeared into G-land for a few weeks ;)

Without wanting to severely derail this thread, I just thought I'd acknowledge that posting notes around the Web is an important but proportionally small part of my job.

Other stuff that keeps me busy:
- Reading (tons!)... forums, blogs, MSM news, etc.
- Working with Search Quality folks internally to scalably combat spam
- Working with many different other teams at Google internationally to enhance Webmasters tools & communication.

I was in Europe recently for two weeks meeting up with UK and other European Webmasters, plus learning from and collaborating with international Googlers.

I'd love to spend more time posting here in WebmasterWorld and other fine places around the Web, but there are only so many hours of the day and night... :-)

[colin_h]

*** Not meant in an antagonistic way ***

That's ok Adam ... While Google has left us alone, we're all busy finding other revenue streams. Competitiion is really hot right now and Google is on the back foot ... Great new software, terrible search results (IMHO).

All the Best

Col :-)

[vite_rts]

There are a number of sites on the net called

"page rank checkers", is it against google web master guidelines to use them?

I thought it was automated software that bombards the google site with queries that was not liked by google

So , is the google bar the only acceptable way to check page rank?

[Adam_Lasnik]

Hi vite_rts,

Here's the text from our guidelines:

Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.

Hope that helps!

[vite_rts]

Thanks, I 'll be sticking to the google bar then :-)