Google customizes the search results it shows you based on your past behavior. It looks at what you’ve searched for and what you’ve clicked on and delivers different results based on that.
If you are doing any search engine optimization (SEO) work for yourself or your clients, you need to turn these customizations off so you can accurately see the results that others are seeing.
This video shows you two ways to do that:
Here is the string that I show in the video – you can append this to the end of the URL in your browser bar after you do the search, and this will return a non-customized result for you:
&pws=0
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Don, nice job, good clear explanation, good luck on really hitting first place
This is very important and not many people know about this. It’s especially frustrating when you talk to a client or potential client and they say, “but I already rank #1 for all of my keywords!” and then I have to explain to them that that isn’t actually the case. heh. I also like to use Google Chrome’s Incognito Mode when I’m doing my daily Google query’s, just make sure you never sign in to Google while in Incognito Mode. http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?answer=95464&hl=en
Thanks for sharing and spreading the word
May I ask what program you use for screencasts? I like that drag and click highlighting feature better than the round spotlight I see in other screencasts.
Thanks Chris! I appreciate the kind words and the good wishes. I’m working on getting more sites linking to me with the anchor text “wordpress websites” – we’ll see if I can move up to #1!
Justin – Agreed! And I have not used Google Chrome’s incognito mode – thanks for the tip. For my screencasts, I use Screenflow on the Mac, and a tool called OmniDazzle to highlight or point out things on the screen.
Good luck and point me to your screencasts sometime – I’d love to see them.
-Don
Yikes! I just noticed that Chrome’s Incognito mode will still try and grab your IP and customize your results based on your metro if you do a “local” query. Adding &pws=0 still looks to be the only way to guarantee your results aren’t being customized.
Thanks for the screencast tips!
thank you! i found this via a google search and this was exactly the information i was looking for.
I am now addicted to this! Thank you.
Legendary! I’ve been looking for ways to do this for what feels like ages now… can someone please cook up a firefox plugin to automatically append my google searches turning off personalisation pretty please
Hi Don,
This is very important info – something I hadn’t realized was happening. Thanks for the great video! I agree with Mark R… we need a firefox app for this. But in the meantime, we can rely on one of these simple solutions to get accurate search results!
Good vids Don
Are the search results only customised if you are signed in?
If they are, does signing out get rid of the customisation?
Google is getting way too clever.