Google search results vary based on which computer I use?

Something very strange is happening with my site's listing in Google. If I am at work and I type "childcare nvq courses harrow" into Google we appear about second in the rankings; however, if I am at home (about 10 miles away) we do not appear in the listings at all, even if I enter the unusual company name "auralern" in the search engine.

Why would we be listed if the search takes place in one location and not listed if the search takes place in another? I am baffled!

Dave's Answer:

That's one I haven't heard before, I must admit. Thinking about it, though, I imagine that it's got something to do with the browser preferences you set within the Google world, preferences that you might well have tweaked months or years ago and then forgotten.

To see your preferences, go to the Google home page and you'll see:

Notice the tiny "Preferences" on the right side? Click on it.

You'll now see a variety of different options you can specify, including interface language (including both Klingon and Latin. Really.), search language and the setting that I expect might be the culprit:

Google Safesearch Filtering: Preferences

It's possible that your work and home computers have different settings, which will give you different results, sometimes with even the most innocuous of searches.

Of course, it's also possible that your workplace has a different sort of content firewall getting in the way or, perhaps, its domain is registering at Google as one based in a different geographic region than your home account?

Finally, Google uses lots and lots of different servers to respond to a search query. Perhaps you're somehow getting different results because you're hitting different servers? If you could bring your home computer into your office and try a search it'd be very interesting to see what kind of results you get!

Check out those search preferences, see what kind of results you get.

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Categorized: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (Article 5979, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: google, google search preferences
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Reader Comments To Date: 14

Brian Peterson said, on February 25, 2006 8:45 PM:

Another possibility is that the user has Google's Personalized Search turned on in one location, but not the other.

According to Google, signing in to Google Personalized Search (beta) will allow you to: "Get the search results most relevant to you.
Personalized Search orders your search results based on what you've searched for in the past. Early on, you may not notice a huge impact on your search results, but they will continue to improve over time as you use Google."

na said, on February 26, 2006 10:05 AM:

Google does have various data centers around the world and as they update the various algorithms to calculate page ranking there will be some lag time in the results. Google also uses some load balancing to determine what data center you actually get your results from and can 'localize' your search results. For a good look into the inner workings of Google check out Matt Cutts website and blog.

Matthew Poer said, on February 26, 2006 5:59 PM:

I'm sure the problem lies within something suggested above, but I would add that there are forms of malware that will affect search results. Adware that puts certain companies as the top result, or even masks the companies as a fake link and sticks it on the top of a google search to be deceitful, as malware tends to be.

Ron said, on March 17, 2006 9:32 PM:

My Google PR is 4 some days and other days it is zero. This has been going on for weeks. It's completely unpredictable. Explainations?

And then, one of the few pages that has no title, tags, or description has the PR of 5. It's the only page on the site with a 5. All the others are 4 or less. There's no reason to believe it has more incoming links than other pages. Again, possible explanations?

Dave Taylor said, on March 18, 2006 10:19 PM:

Ron, most likely you're seeing your query routed to different Google servers. Some of them will be in the middle of an update while others will have already been recalculated based on the latest algorithm tweaks. In this sort of situation, your best bet is to just wait a few days and see what happens.

Mark said, on January 15, 2007 6:46 PM:

Dave:

I just stumbled across this problem and I'm searching for an answer. The interesting part is how I work with a Laptop next to my office PC and they both get the same search results. When I take work home on the same laptop, I get the same search results as my computer at home.

The results from home are different from the results at work.

The fact that I'm using the same computer in both places and I can compare to the computers permanently in each place tells me is has something to do with how Google treats me based on my Internet connection.

It's all very interesting!

Dave said, on January 7, 2008 11:26 AM:

I get the same problem. It is nothing to do with settings. I tried on 2 brand new computers running the same software only difference is different ip's and locations and I get different results.

alex said, on July 14, 2008 2:25 PM:

i think its conclusive that it has to do with what IP, but what i want to know is which server is the updated one, how can i know which connection is getting the updated info first, or neither or a combination. when i search from a proxy server such as megaproxy i get different results i wonder what kind of info their getting, what server, how updated

Rick said, on July 19, 2009 8:38 PM:

I have been having the same problem, although in my case I have found it's not the IP. A search performed while at work for a specific term comes up with my site listed 3rd on google, but then on a different computer on the same server its about 12th. When I am at home and using it shows up as 3rd again in firefox, but 12th in IE and on a friends computer on my home network they see the site in 12th. At first I thought it had to do with some sort of customized results based on my google account, but I have tried on both my home computer and work computer signed out and I still yield the same results. Any ideas?

Aaron said, on November 22, 2009 1:14 PM:

I have the same thing happening, but on the same computer. I think it has to do with what google ip server your on when your searching. But the interesting question, what server is the updated final results on?

Parzival said, on April 19, 2010 7:38 PM:

I believe that Google's servers are updated at different times or rates. From home, I ping www.google.com and get 74.125.67.104; from the office, 74.125.159.103. Very interesting...

Jumbaya said, on August 16, 2010 8:47 AM:

Hi, it's NOT IP specific as I have noticed I get different results if I am signed in to google, than when I am not signed in.
This is on the same computer!!

tram said, on March 13, 2012 8:32 PM:

It's google messing with you

Ben Davis said, on September 21, 2012 8:35 AM:

I have noticed that I get different results on my PCM running Firefox and my iPad running safari. For certain keywords my website is # 2/ page 1 on safari iPad but for the same keywords on my PCM running Firefox I'm page 4 - I have tested this while signed in/ out of my google account . Strange

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

Google search results vary based on which computer I use?

Reader Comments To Date: 14

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

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