How to look at your SERPs and ad positions
Actually I wouldn’t create this post if I never got lots of questions regarding how to look at your real SERPs and ad positions. People sometimes misunderstood where were their websites on Google. This is a very common mistake and I still don’t get it how come they never understand even after I keep reminding them again and again.
So let’s just get to the point. If you type “google.com” directly into your browser, no matter what, you’ll get redirected to Google of your country, not Google.com US. Even if you click the link “google.com in English“, you still won’t see the same results as if you really go to Google.com US. To prove this, try using a proxy service and find US proxies there. Go type “google.com” and search the same keyword. Viola, you’ll see different ads and most of the times different natural listing as well (although not significant).
I usually love to use anonymizer. The complete URL is anonymizer.nntime.com and it still works until I write this. You can also check different proxies from there to get the most accurate ad positions and natural listing from each country on Google. This is crucial for me because when I target US market (for example), I have to know who are my real competitors there. The same thing goes with SEO. If you want to know where’s your site position for Americans, then use US proxy.
Strangely, lots of people out there still do not understand how it works. Sometimes they asked me “hey my site is on the top of Google but why my traffic is much less than I expected?”, well my answer has been always the same, “If you target people from outside of your country, always use proxy before you go to Google”.
