by Ana Hoffman 70 comments

Google Incognito: How to Search Google Without Being Tracked



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search engine ranking incognito imageWe all know that Google personalizes the heck out of our search results, down to the kind of toilet paper we like best.

Sure, it makes sense for finding the best restaurant in your area or checking out what one of your blogger buddies had to say on a subject.

However, when it comes down to finding accurate search engine ranking for your site for any given keyword, you’ve got to turn that personalized search off.

That way the search engine ranking results won’t be skewed by your previous searches.

Side note: there’s no such thing as “pure search engine results“.

What you see when you perform Google searches with always be different from what I see.

You can log out of Google, use incognito search function, change the search settings all you want.

Google search results depend on which one of their data servers you are the closest to, and that’s something you can’t change.

Your want to see the results in all their purity (or at least, as pure as possible – see the note above) and not the ones Google serves you thinking it knows best as far as what your are looking for.

Before I tell you how to actually do it, you need to know that simply logging off your Google account won’t do the trick; Google will still customize your search based on your cookies.

Here are two quick tips on how to disable personalized search and see the true search engine ranking:

1.   You’ll need to add &pws=0 to your Google search URL.

Took me a while to figure it out (I am not a techie after all :) ), but here is how it works in practice.

  • As an example, I will use “traffic generation” as a search term
  • Normal Google search URL for that keyword would look like this: http://www.google.com/search?q=traffic+generation
  • Now to “de-personalize” this, all I need to do is add &pws=0 at the end of if – no spaces. Now my search URL would look like this: http://www.google.com/search?q=traffic+generation&pws=0
  • Note: if you keyword consists of more that one word, add a plus sign between each.

2.  This way is WAY too cool – talking about “incognito”.

Turns out that when you use Chrome browser, which I do on occasion, you have the ability of opening a new incognito window (yes, it’s actually called “incognito“).

How to open incognito window: for PC – Ctrl + Shift + N; for Mac – Apple + Shift + N.

Once you do that, here’s what you see:

chrome depersonilized search engine ranking

How cool is that?

Now you can search to your heart’s content and REALLY learn how you are doing with search engine ranking.

By the way, you can always get rid of personalized search for good.

Personal opinion: seems like a drastic step; personalized search does have its benefits as far as I am concerned.

Marketing Takeaway

Don’t even think of checking your search engine ranking without taking one of the steps above – you won’t be able to trust the results, trust me.

Got it? Good. Now comment to show me that you’re alive!

ana hoffman search engine ranking


traffic generation cafe comment below

Google+ Comments

{ 70 comments }

Robert Antwi February 13, 2012 at 10:55 pm

Thank you Ana, Out of my results i choose yours as yours said

How to search Incognito in Google Chrome

I though I would share this with you because i see that your connected to Google+ but your image did not display.

Thanks

Ana Hoffman February 14, 2012 at 10:26 am

Yes, Robert, even though many bloggers implement Google’s rel=”author” tag, their pics are still not showing in the results.

Thanks for coming by!

Robert Antwi February 14, 2012 at 10:42 am

Ana i think i have found your culprit

Add your about page to your Recommended links on Google+

Also in your page header you have a link that points to one Google+ Page and then you have a link in the body of your about page that points to another Google+ page, this must be where Google is have conflicting problems in displaying your name in the SERPS

You will need to remove one of the links i presume

Once you have done that, this tool will help:

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

Plus if there are any problems after, Google will help in the troubleshooting.

Ana Hoffman February 14, 2012 at 9:01 pm

Thanks for your suggestion, Robert.

Actually my snippets are validating just fine; Google is just slow to implement it for everyone.

Daniel December 22, 2011 at 10:32 am

I work mainly from my PC, and hence used Google Chome’s incognito to check out my search results for some of the websites created. Add on note would be that Google Chrome’s Google’s search page may default to the country that one is doing a search from; gotta click on the bottom of the site to google.com (eg: I’m from Singapore, and typing google.com defaults to google.com.sg).

For the iPad, there’s their Safari private viewing (Settings > Safari > Private viewing on). :)

Ana Hoffman December 22, 2011 at 6:52 pm

Thanks, Daniel – I definitely need to update this post!

Astro Gremlin December 18, 2011 at 8:39 pm

Ana, I didn’t notice anyone else mentioning this . . . but Google Chrome itself — the little icon of the wrench — offers a pulldown menu. For me the third menu item is “New incognito window” and in grey “ctrl+shift+N” (the command you correctly report in this article). It’s funny to have to rely on search tools devised by a corporation bent on taking over the Internet. Umm, perhaps not wise to criticize Big G. I for one would like to be among the first to welcome our new robot masters.

Ana Hoffman December 19, 2011 at 9:46 am

You are very right, Astro – that’s exactly what I do now as well.

They didn’t have it available when I wrote the post and now it’s time to update the post; thanks for reminding me.

Mark Aylward December 7, 2011 at 11:22 am

Hey Ana
This is the second time I came over from your guest post at Yaro Starak’s site (I’m late commenting because I had to bookmark it and return later) and I’m adding you to my Reader list. This is a really cool tip for people helping small businesses with SEO too because you can prove your results and probably box out the competition that doesn’t know this. Is Safari’s “Private Browsing” another solution or is that different?
Thanks
Mark

Ana Hoffman December 8, 2011 at 8:32 am

Glad to see you in my neck of the woods, Mark!

I don’t use Safari, but it does sound like the same feature.

Jon November 22, 2011 at 11:49 pm

Excellent post definitely deserved tweeting. I wasn’t aware of the incognito option and you’re giving me another reason to switch from Firefox to chrome.

Ana Hoffman November 23, 2011 at 6:41 pm

I think the latest Firefox has it available as well, Jon.

Tools => Web Developer => Page Source

Rika November 9, 2011 at 5:48 am

This is wonderful, Ana! I never knew how to get to the real listing positions. And this is so simple to do. Thanks! Now I am off to do some investigating…

Ana Hoffman November 9, 2011 at 6:43 am

Awesome, Rika! It really is pretty simple once you get the hang of it.

Melanie October 12, 2011 at 1:26 am

Thank you Ana. I didn’t know these tips. However, there is an option on Google (Web history setting) that says “Disable customazations based on search activity”. It works the same way, doesn’t it ?

Ana Hoffman October 14, 2011 at 3:19 pm

Hi, Melanie:

That feature will disable Google suggesting results based upon your prior history, but it still won’t disable customizations based upon your location or social connections, etc.

Nicko October 7, 2011 at 4:49 pm

That’s really good to know. I’ve been wondering about this.
Another useful google tool that can become annoying is the social search thing. I think it used to show tweets but now shows stuff that my friends or I have +1′d or shared on G+

Akram Sabra August 24, 2011 at 10:28 pm

@Ann
The &pws=0 will De-personalize the search but a person searching from the USA will get different results from a person searching from the UK or from Singapore even when they use the &pws=0.

Ana Hoffman August 25, 2011 at 2:06 pm

I suppose there’s no such thing as a perfect search command, Akram.

Ana | Traffic Generation July 19, 2011 at 11:45 am

That’s great. :-)

Annabel Candy, Successful Blogging July 19, 2011 at 2:31 am

Blimey, this is handy. I always get my hubby to check my ranking using Google’s search engine tools but this is brilliant too:)

Ana | Traffic Generation July 19, 2011 at 11:44 am

You’re welcome, Annabel.

Camden May 20, 2011 at 5:02 am

I read this post a few days ago, and just thought I’d let you know I’ve been using this tip several times each day since then. It’s so much faster than pulling up Market Samurai or clearing my cookies to check my rankings. Thanks for yet another, practical, easy-to-use tip!

Ana May 20, 2011 at 11:04 pm

Thanks for letting me know, Camden. I always appreciate feedback.

Chris Bennett May 18, 2011 at 3:37 pm

Thank you for the interesting post Ana! For what it’s worth, there is also a search engine out there called “Scroogle”. It is at http://www.scroogle.org/ and we’ve tried it. (We have no affiliation with Scroogle and we don’t profit from them at all. It shows Google searches, but eliminates unwanted stuff like “Instant”, “Preview”, cookies, etc. Have a great day! Thank you for your blog! ~ Chris Bennett at The Daily Decibel

Ana May 18, 2011 at 10:01 pm

Thanks for your comment and sharing “Scroogle” with us. Will check it out. Thanks!

Ed Howard February 27, 2011 at 9:28 am

Hi Ana,
In my case everytime I compare incognito chrome results with logged-out firefox results for a variety of my target keywords, the results are the same. The advantage of firefox is that all the links to my pages are highlighted in purple (visited) – so it is much quicker to find them. I will use incognito chrome periodically just to confirm the matching results continue.
thanks for the post.

Ana March 3, 2011 at 10:53 pm

I saw some differences for sure. Always a good practice though, although I do see your point about purple links – they do help! :)

Sheila Atwood February 25, 2011 at 1:38 pm

Ana,

I just had to come back and tell you how helpful this was. I have been testing the search terms I have been going for and this give me a true picture. I am winning on some and others I am not. Now I can work on those I am not.

Ana March 3, 2011 at 10:47 pm

Sheila – you have such a methodical mind; never seize to amaze me.

You are very welcome.

Elle Billias February 24, 2011 at 5:55 am

That is SOOOOO cool!! I never knew about incognito, I spend half my time logging in and out of my Google account so they don’t skew my search results!! You just save me a heap of time!

Ana March 3, 2011 at 10:44 pm

I used to do that too, Elle – we are both much better off now. :)

Tom February 24, 2011 at 12:40 am

While Chrome is probably the best browser to use for this because you can have one window showing personalized results and open a new incognito window that doesn’t show personalized results, the other major browsers do have “private browsing” options.

For checking the ranking positions of my sites, I use the Rank Checker Firefox plugin from seobook.com which will show you your rankings in Google, Yahoo, and Bing for a list of keywords. You can save your list and even export the results as a CSV file if you want to keep a record.

Ana February 24, 2011 at 10:00 am

I do like Rank Checker; I only wish someone would come up with a tool that tells YOU what pages are ranking for what keywords, instead of us trying to see if we ranked for a particular keyword.

Makes sense?

Kerry February 24, 2011 at 3:10 pm

Ana, do you use Google Webmaster Tools? They provide you with a report that shows the impressions your site gets for different search queries.

I find the data very helpful,as the report gives you info on the “impressions” that keywords from your site are getting in searches.

Here’s an example: You may see that a search for the keyword “traffic generation” resulted in an impression for your site at #100 in the search results. The report will also give you the clickthrough rate for the impressions.

Note: The data is not presented in real time, however it is extremely valuable to know what keywords are making impressions and where they are in the SERPS.

You will discover keywords and keyword phrases that you aren’t even targeting…but they are appearing in searches.

You can take this data and optimize the keywords and move them up into the traffic. Best of all it’s a free service! Give it a try.

Ana March 3, 2011 at 10:43 pm

Thanks, Kerry.

I am not a huge fan of webmaster tools, but I do use them.

I find them a bit inaccurate/incomplete, in many cases, probably because of the delay you are talking about.

Much appreciated!

Kesha February 23, 2011 at 8:20 am

Thanks Ana for this tip! I surely was one of those people who thought all I had to do was turn log out of my Google account. This is a true gem! On to use it now :-)

Ana March 3, 2011 at 10:39 pm

I used to think that as well, Kesha. :)

Oliver Tausend February 23, 2011 at 7:19 am

Hi Ana,

I always wonder where you dig out these tips – thanks for sharing. It makes sense to search incognito.

Take care

Oliver

Ana March 3, 2011 at 10:38 pm

Not sure how I stumbled upon this one, Oliver – but it’s my job to know to tell you! :)

Lisa February 22, 2011 at 10:03 pm

“STILL DON’T LIKE ME? AHHH…”

BRILLIANT Ana!! :) Also, this is epic Google info here..of which I had no clue! UH, der.

Thanks for always bringin’ it Ana

Ana February 22, 2011 at 10:50 pm

Thanks, Lisa – as you can tell, I am making it up as I go. :)

Kerry February 22, 2011 at 1:27 pm

Ana, thanks for tip about changing the search location. Your post reminded me of a website that I found a while back on Google search. I recommend that you check it our for lots of advanced search tips that you may find useful. (or just bookmark it and then forget about it completely until someone writes a blog posting about it…like I did.)
Here’s the link: googleguide.com

Sheila Atwood February 22, 2011 at 1:52 pm

Ana,

I love how this works. It makes my search real and not just what I want to see. I will be playing around with this one and doing a good search of the terms I have been going for.

I like your new banners too. Very pleasant. They look more like “your recommendations” than a regular banner link.

Ana February 22, 2011 at 10:49 pm

Thanks, Sheila.

Banner blindness is definitely an issue; hoped to solve it with these new banners. :)

Ana February 22, 2011 at 12:41 pm

Stop using internet? :)

I think our choices are quite limited here, Tim.

Jeff Yablon February 22, 2011 at 12:14 pm

NICE, Ana!

That’s all, nice. And that &pws=0 trick . . . sometimes I really am amazed by the stuff others know!

Jeff Yablon
President & CEO

Ana February 22, 2011 at 12:40 pm

It’s good to know what others know. :) And now, Jeff, you are in the know.

Sorry, couldn’t resist…

A. Tatum Jr February 22, 2011 at 10:50 am

Nice tip. This is the kind of stuff I love. Effect, but simple. I just ran across something similar with my post last week. Check out my latest post and you will see how this search engine doesn’t track your habits or save your data. You can also proxy results.

Ana February 22, 2011 at 12:35 pm

Will check it out!

Mavis Nong February 22, 2011 at 9:23 am

Great search engine ranking tips you’re sharing here, Ana.

I only started using the “incognito” option recently and it works like a charm.

I know most people think that by simply logging off your Google account will do the trick, well it doesn’t.

All the best,
Mavis

P.S. Love the changes on your blog. The new banners are beautiful! :)

Ana February 22, 2011 at 12:35 pm

Thanks, Mavis – I got some great feedback from my readers and no working on ti slowly, but truly. :)

Ian Belanger February 22, 2011 at 8:38 am

Hey Ana,

Awesome tips, I had no idea about this until you opened my eyes. Thanks for sharing these great tips.

Btw, Who made those great banner ads for you :) jk

Ian

Ana February 22, 2011 at 12:33 pm

:) You are welcome, Ian – and THANK YOU! Do you think they are a bit large though; should I scale them down?

Ian Belanger February 22, 2011 at 12:44 pm

You are very welcome also Ana,

Maybe a little big, What do other people think? I would ask everyone’s opinion.

They do draw attention being big though. If you need me to re-size them just let me know.

Thanks Ana and have a great day!

Lisa February 22, 2011 at 1:08 pm

On the contrary Ana, I think they are perfect. Not too obtrusive and quite eye catching. Kudos Ian! :)

Ian Belanger February 22, 2011 at 1:11 pm

Thanks Lisa!

Thomas February 22, 2011 at 8:01 am

Great tip Ana. Hate when Goggle think they know what I want ;-)
Thank you for sharing those tips.

Ana February 22, 2011 at 12:32 pm

I know; I turned Google Instant off in an instant. :)

John February 22, 2011 at 7:14 am

Hey Ana,

It’s definitely important to turn off personalized search when you want to find out your true rankings. I appreciate the two tips you have shared with me because I knew nothing about them.

When I want to find out where I really am in the search engines I just go to tools and click on clear recent history. That usually does the trick, but sometimes I don’t want to clear all my history so I will try out both the methods you’ve listed here see how well I like them. Thanks for sharing your tips and advice on this topic.

Ana February 22, 2011 at 12:31 pm

I am with you, John – I do like to keep history intact; makes my life easier in many cases.

Lou Barba February 22, 2011 at 6:55 am

Hi Ana,

Awww…and here I thought I made it to the first page.:( I guess I’ve still got a lot of hard work left for that distinction. I noticed on Chrome that if you clear your cookies, it does the same thing.

Lou

Ana February 22, 2011 at 12:28 pm

I know, Lou… those personalized searches: can’t live with them, can’t leave without them. :)

Linda February 22, 2011 at 6:44 am

Wow–another thing to add to the tech-toolbox. Although I’m undyingly grateful to those Google guys for drastically simplifying my life the past decade, they don’t need to know the toilet paper I use.

TY for the code, Ana and welcome back from your ski vacation:)

Ana February 22, 2011 at 12:24 pm

:) Thanks, Linda!

Although if I am out shopping for toilet paper and forget which brand I like best, all I need to do is Google it. :)

Andreas February 22, 2011 at 6:38 am

SEO companies should eliminate web history because when they optimize a website for certain keywords, test searches and analyze competitors, then google may show results in favour of that website to them, while for others different results would appear.

Ana February 22, 2011 at 12:23 pm

Either way you look at it, there are downsides, Andreas.

At least these searches are a good start.

Robert Dempsey February 22, 2011 at 6:35 am

Being in Thailand I need to go even further with this. I use a Firefox plugin called Google Global that will show me results specific to the US and other countries. I notice it adds in the code you mention automagically, so I’m covered!

Yay tools! I’m excited. And yes I’m alive!

Ana February 22, 2011 at 12:22 pm

Good to know, Robert – sometimes I do need to do a search in a different country.

By the way, I use Market Samurai for this types of searches and it also automatically adds the code.

Robert Dempsey February 22, 2011 at 5:38 pm

Very cool never noticed that. Thanks.

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