Last updated: November 1, 2026.
One of the questions we hear most often in SEO is this:
“I see us in 3rd place on Google, so why are you saying 5th?”
Both sides may actually be right. Because not everyone who searches for the same keyword has to see exactly the same search results page (SERP).
When Google shows results, it doesn’t only look at the words we type. Factors such as the search’s:
- Location
- Language
- Device
- Time
- Recent searches
- Personalization, in some cases
can also change the results.
Let’s start with a simple example. Imagine you search Google for dentist. We wouldn’t expect a user in Istanbul and a user in Konya to see the same results anyway. Because here, where the user is matters.
But the difference doesn’t only show up in searches where it’s this obvious.
1. Location
Google can use your location to make results more relevant. For example, it’s completely normal for queries like florist, car repair or breakfast to return different results in Istanbul, Ankara or Konya. Local results in particular can change even within the same city. Google shows which location it used for the search at the very bottom of the results page, and you can change it there.
That’s why, for a business doing local SEO, the question “Where do I rank across Turkey?” sometimes isn’t very meaningful on its own. What matters is visibility in the area we’re targeting.
2. Language
Google taking into account the language you use and the language you search in can change the results. For example, when you search in English from Turkey, Google doesn’t have to show only Turkish or only English results. It tries to figure out which result will be more useful to the user. This becomes even more important for sites that target more than one country or language. I cover this in detail in Chapter 26.
3. Device
Mobile and desktop search results aren’t always exactly the same. That’s why rank tracking tools usually have a mobile / desktop option. This distinction matters especially for sites that get most of their traffic from mobile.
4. Time
I think this is one of the most overlooked points. The ranking you see in the morning can be different from the one you see in the evening.
Especially in fast-moving topics such as:
- News
- Current events
- Sports
- Finance
- New products
the difference can be much more noticeable.
New pages get indexed, competitors change their content, Google re-evaluates the results. There’s also a technical side. Google answers searches from data centers in different parts of the world. Changes to its ranking systems don’t reach all of these data centers at the same time. So you can also see short-lived differences depending on which data center answers your search (Google Search Help).
So “I was 4th yesterday, today I’m 6th.” doesn’t always mean you did something wrong in your SEO.
Rankings move all the time anyway. I explained what Google looks at when ranking, and core updates, in Chapter 3.
5. Personalization
If you’re signed in to your Google account, your past searches and the Google services you use can, in some cases, affect the results you see.
But there’s a misunderstanding here too. Google doesn’t build every result from scratch just for you. It uses personalization only when it thinks it will give you a more helpful result. According to Google, personalization sometimes changes the order of results, and sometimes the position of content blocks, such as videos appearing above web results. In some searches its effect is too small to change the results much at all (Google Search Help).
For example, if you keep searching for your own site and clicking on it, it may not be right to read what you see as “Everyone sees me here.”
6. Recent searches
The recent searches I listed above can also affect the result. Google says it can use your recent searches to understand what you’re looking for right now. And when you click a result and come back to the results page, you can sometimes see additional results related to the one you clicked.
So even if you search for the same keyword several times in a row, in between other searches, the page you see can change. You need to keep this in mind when you check rankings.
Does searching in an incognito window solve the problem?
Partly. An incognito window can reduce the effect of your personal history and your signed-in Google account. But:
- Your location
- Your language
- Your device
are still part of the search’s context. Google says plainly that even if you turn off personalization, it keeps using information such as your location, language, device type and current searches.
So an incognito window is not “the screen that shows Google’s single, objective ranking for everyone.”
What you see in an incognito window is a single search, made from where you are, on your device, at that moment. If your target audience searches from another city or mostly on mobile, your screen may not represent what they see. Also, a single search doesn’t show you the trend. When you run the same search the next day, you may see a different position.
So how important is ranking, really?
So far we’ve talked about how rankings can vary from person to person and over time. But this shouldn’t be taken to mean “It doesn’t matter where we rank.”
Quite the opposite. One of our core goals in SEO is to rank as high as possible.
Most users find what they need in the results on the first page. Very few go on to the second page. In most searches, the top three positions collect the majority of organic clicks.
That’s why it makes more sense to think of the goal in two stages:
First goal: Get onto the first page.
Second goal: Get close to the top 3.
For example, climbing from 40th to 12th for a keyword is good progress. But from the user’s point of view, we’re not where we want to be yet.
Then, when we move from 12th to 8th, we cross an important threshold:
We’re on the first page.
Moving from 8th to 3rd for the same keyword, on the other hand, can make a much bigger difference in traffic.
Of course, there’s no single rate here either. A user searching for weather is very unlikely to go to the second page. But a user researching a very specific technical problem, or making an important purchase decision, may go to the second or even the third page if the first-page results don’t satisfy them. For some queries, the share of people going to the second page rises noticeably.
So the value of a ranking also depends on search intent.
That’s why we need to think not just “Where do I rank?” but “Where do I rank for which query, and how much traffic or value can that bring me?”
So how do we track rankings?
Rather than relying on a single Google search, I find it better to look at several data sources together. I usually look at these three together:
- Google Search Console
- Rank tracking tools such as Semrush
- Actual Google results
For example, an SEO tool tells you 5th. On your own computer you see 3rd. And in Search Console, your average position might be 4.2.
None of these has to be wrong on its own. Different users may have seen different rankings, from different places, on different devices and at different times.
What does average position in Search Console tell you?
Average position in Search Console’s Performance report is the average of your site’s topmost position each time it was shown for a query. Google’s own example goes like this: if your site appeared in positions 2, 4 and 6 for one query, and in positions 3, 5 and 9 for another query, then 2 is counted for the first query and 3 for the second. The average position is (2 + 3) / 2 = 2.5 (Search Console Help).
Two things follow from this:
- Average position is calculated only from searches where you got an impression. If your page didn’t get an impression in a search, that search isn’t counted.
- When you look at many queries together, the average can be misleading. If you’re 1st for one query and 40th for another, the average comes out around 20. But that isn’t the real situation for either query.
That’s why it’s better to look at average position by query and by page, with country and device filters. I cover Search Console in detail in Chapter 29.
What to watch for in a rank tracking tool
Rank trackers check the keywords you set at regular intervals and record the result. Their biggest advantage over a single search in an incognito window is that they measure with the same settings every time. That way you can see the trend, not the daily fluctuation.
But these settings need to be chosen correctly:
- Location: All of Turkey, a city, or a district? For a local business, tracking at the city or district level makes more sense.
- Device: Mobile or desktop? Use whichever device most of your traffic comes from. If possible, track both separately.
- Language and country: If you publish in more than one language, track each language in its own market.
- Keyword list: Don’t add only a few of the most searched keywords; add the queries that actually bring you traffic and value.
The position a tool shows is, in the end, also a measurement taken from a specific location, on a specific device, at a specific moment. That’s why it’s normal for it not to match the number in Search Console exactly.
Don’t rely on a single screenshot
That’s why in SEO there’s sometimes a more important question than “Exactly what position am I in?”:
“Is my overall visibility increasing over time?”
A keyword can be 4th today, 6th tomorrow and 3rd the day after. But if a page that averaged 18th a month ago now consistently shows up in the top 5 or 6, that progress is what we really need to look at.
I think one of the biggest mistakes in rank tracking is treating a screenshot of a single search result as the absolute truth.
Google results are a living structure that keeps changing. We should interpret SEO performance not through a single moment but by looking at rankings + visibility + traffic + change over time together.
Practice
- Open your 5 most important keywords in Search Console at the query level. Is there a difference between the average position and the position you see?
- Use the device filter in Search Console. Are your mobile and desktop positions different from each other?
- Which city does your target audience search from, and on which device? Do your rank tracker’s location and device settings match that?
- If you’re a local business, are you tracking rankings for the city or district you serve rather than for all of Turkey?
- Compare rankings not against a single day but against a trend of at least a few weeks.
Previous: Chapter 5: The Search Results Page (SERP) · Contents · Next: Chapter 7: Google Search Operators
This chapter was first published in Turkish on X (September 3, 2026).