Member Avatar for woodendart

When I search google for, life poker, or ,poker life, on my home computer my site << poker-related url snipped >> is in the top ten but when I search the same on my work computer it does not show up even in the top one hundred. Any ideas?
both computer I am using google.ca and I have cleared the cashe on both computers.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by AuctionMan

Dani AI

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Short answer: differences like the one describes are normal and usually diagnosable — multiple things can change the SERP you see (datacenter/serving differences, personalization, location, or even the exact punctuation of the query). Google documents that results can vary by location and personalization, and they publish a Search status dashboard when there are system-wide issues. (See the Google help note on differing results and the Search Status Dashboard.) ()

Quick checklist to isolate the cause (do these in this order):

  • Run the exact same query on both machines but remove stray punctuation or leading commas — punctuation is usually ignored, but stray characters can change matching.
  • Test signed out in a private/incognito window on both machines to remove personalization and account-based reranking.
  • Use site:yourdomain.com and cache:yourpage to confirm Google is indexing the pages you expect.
  • In Search Console use the URL Inspection (Inspect URL) or the index coverage reports to see if Google has crawled/indexed the URL.
  • Check the Google Search Status Dashboard for any crawl/index/serving incidents before assuming a local problem.
  • If the work machine is on a corporate network, test from a different IP (tether a phone or use home Wi‑Fi) — corporate proxies/filters or geo-routed IPs can change which datacenter or regional results you’re served.

Most of the checks above are standard debugging steps; the Search Central docs explain useful operators and why the URL Inspection tool is often more reliable than ad‑hoc queries for diagnosing indexing issues. If the site shows in site: results and Search Console says it’s indexed, then differences are usually transient (datacenter propagation) or due to personalization/location — wait a day and recheck the status dashboard if needed. (developers.google.com)

Notes tied to the thread: and were on the right track about propagation; and pointed toward ways to check particular servers — start with the simple signed‑out/incognito + site:/Search Console checks before chasing IPs or datacenter traces.

Recommended Answers

All 11 Replies

Member Avatar for Antonbomb22

it may be by chance that google.ca uses 2 different indexes so one of them is out of date.

Member Avatar for Dani

Google is constantly updating their search algorithms, and most likely you are accessing different datacenters between the two locations. They may not always be entirely in sync.

Member Avatar for woodendart

Is there a way to tell which is the most current one if this is the case.

Member Avatar for Dani

I think that certain datacenters are known for propagating before others. I, personally, don't know which is which though. Perhaps someone else can clarify?

Member Avatar for subnet_rx

is a good one to watch.

Member Avatar for woodendart

Is it possible that the different ranking is caused by a filter that my employer has on the local network at work?

Member Avatar for WireNine

Is it possible that the different ranking is caused by a filter that my employer has on the local network at work?

Most unlikely, it seems that the information is not sync properly on one of the networks.

Member Avatar for DirectoryForce

yes it is most likely the update

google has about 79 different datacenters and their main index keeps switching between them. So if they stop on one and it has differnt results, that will show up

Member Avatar for ezest

Any way of getting addresses of all datacenter Google IPs?

Member Avatar for mnemtsas

There is a list around somewhere but I can't find it. Here's a neat tool to allow you to check your rankings across data centers:

Member Avatar for AuctionMan

Thats a funky little tool, thanks for posting it.

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