How to deal with different Google rankings in different places?

[lionstail]

My boss and I don't live near each other, and we often have different Google results- for example, he sees one of our sites in 4th place, and I see it in 2nd. I have used a proxy server, and find that those results don't always mimic mine OR his.

How can I REALLY determine what place we are in? Is there a way to ensure that we have more consistent search results?

This is a problem that has been more compelling in recent weeks- has there been a recent Google change that would affect results in different locations?

As always, many thanks!

[tedster]

There is no single "real" ranking or position today. Exact ranking positions are geo-located now, as you've discovered, and for wome queries it varies more than others. That simply is what Google does, and yes, they are doing it more and more lately.

That's one reason why I use traffic and conversions as the most important metrics for daily watching, and only check on rankings as a kind of investigative tool once in a while.

[dickbaker]

If your boss insists on seeing what you're seeing, use the Firefox plugin so that you can both tell which Google IP's you're viewing. You can then use one of the few remaining Google IP search sites that show results from all of the Google IP's.