If you are anything like me (I feel sorry for you!) you keep the marketing eyes in the back of your head trained on the Google search results to keep tabs on the positions of your sites, articles and other work. If something is sagging a bit I can concentrate on boosting it. Things that are doing well (yes sometimes that happens) I leave alone since my time is limited and I prefer to make my steps count.

The keyword suggestion tool at first seems to assist greatly in this regard since it not only shows what the public is searching for but also shows you your search history as you start typing. One or two letters into my long tailed keyword and shazam! There it is and all I have to do is click on it!

But here is the rub… the organic results are also infected with your past search history! Google and in my case Firefox also gives position preference to sites I have previously visited. Not only are they a different color (violet instead of blue?) but they can actually rank in higher positions because you have been there before. On a different computer they can disappear altogether or at least be several positions lower.

This can fool you into thinking you are doing better than you actually are at defending or staking out your “keyword territory.”  When this first happened to me I couldn’t figure out why I was placing so well for a keyword and still getting no traffic. I knew the keyword was better than that since it had such a high PPC value.

I happened to check Google search at my work computer and was surprised to see a completely different set of results… I was 3 pages farther back!

Now I don’t know the mechanics behind this nor do I really care but I did need to get past this seaming glitch in order to press on with effective back linking. I deleted my browsing history (or used windows cleaner) and then my search results were pure again.

Some may have this affecting them without even knowing it. I have had friends tell me that they are at #1 position in Google and when I check they are know where to be found. “No I am not searching in quotes” they say and they are right… their not! There search history is messing with them!

Here is what I do now (on a regular basis)… my son (a bit of a nerd) turned me on to this. I use CC Cleaner (the nerd says “cr*p cleaner”) to sweep my computer of all gremlins. First, the registry cleaner and then the file cleaner. AND (here is the best part)… It is FREE! You can get it here (use the file hippo site to download): http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

The site is supported by donations if you like to contribute.

I use the analyze function first and then clean… leaving the cookies box unchecked. You can make a backup if you like first.

If you are using a third party program to keep track of your positions in the Google search results you most likely are not having any issues. I use Market Samurai now and the results have been impeccable up to now.  However it is best to double check your results especially if you seem to be getting less traffic than expected. Trust no one… especially big G.

P.S. Be sure to use this version: 2.33.1184

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner

Green tab on upper right side of page... left side is an add for a different product.

Bob