Many searches for 'My domain' but I get less than 1%

[walkman]

I have a relatively popular 'Generic name.' Using Google adsense I see that globally it is searched in the hundreds of thousands/month and even for exact match I can see in the tens of thousands /month. But I only get a fraction of it, probably around 100 a day, even though I'm #1 every time I searched. At least in the US I'm definitely #1 and even have the topic links.

Do people skip my site in that large percentage or what ? I have what the same says

[tedster]

It sounds like not everyone who does that search sees your site at #1, doesn't it? Are you 1005 sure that you're not seeing personalized results?

[walkman]

Tedster, I am pretty sure I'm #1. I even used a proxy and a different computer and I was #1 even in far away countries.

Maybe it's because my name is too generic and can mean 'widgets' in hundreds of categories. But then, I have some categories so it's a puzzle.

[tedster]

Sounds like the Adsense data might be way off. I've certainly seen that happen.

[ken_b]

You might be doing a cookie free search and using a proxy, but that doesn't mean much.

It's what the surfer sees that matters.
How many of them are seeing personalized results?
Where does your site rank on the surfers personalized serps?

[TheMadScientist]

Where does your site rank on the surfers personalized serps?

I'll answer for them...
There's really no way for you to know where you rank in any browser you don't have access to.

Yeah, this might be a bit OT, but I think this is one of the things people are missing about personalization.

It doesn't really matter where you rank if you delete your cookies when everyone else with their own little 'result set' might see something totally different, but my guess is much like TBPR people will carry on about how you can find out where you really rank by deleting your cookies and using a 'clean' browser for years into the future, even though those results aren't what anyone else sees unless they do the same thing, so IMO it's the same 'feel good' check as looking at the 3 month out-of-date, inaccurate, estimated, green pixel dust in the toolbar... It doesn't really mean anything, and the 'clean' results could even be 'personalized' to some extent based on location, browser, 'known proxy' or even 'no info available' at some point in time (if not now).

I don't know if it's your issue or not, but I think it's a point worth making, because I think there's going to be as much confusion, FUD, and misunderstanding of the situation with personalization as there is with ToolBar PageRank.

[imbckagn]

walkman I think Google is doing something with the SERPs that we don't see. I rank #1 for a term that was sending me about 300 visitors per day until the end of Dec.

Since Jan. 1st I still rank in the #1 position just like always and traffic for that phrase is about 150 visitors per day.

I'm not sure what is going on but something is up.

[walkman]

Ken_b
I doubt personalized search explains all the discrepancy, because it's not the type of search you would personalize. If you search for "my name" it comes in #1, on second - 10th you see all kinds of results from HP, a .Gov site to a hotel chain, to a car company. Since I'm on top and they searched for "general term" they should probably click on my site since I may have what they're looking for. The other ones are very specific, mine is general and I might have it.

Plus, I don't remember getting many visitors even before the personalized search for this search. I will change the title and description, hopefully it works.

[Robert Charlton]

I will change the title and description, hopefully it works.

I was thinking that they might be at least part of the problem. I'd change them one at a time in order to isolate the effect of each change.

Changing the description won't affect your rankings... Changing the title might.

So consider playing with the description first, and changing the title only after you've been able to track the effects of the description change.