Google’s search algorithm is one of the most complicated on the interent, factoring in a multitude of data about both the keyword you’re searching for as well as you the searcher. If you’re logged into your google account (gmail, youtube, ect.) then Google search will be able to read their own cookies to try to better personalize your search results. Even if you’re not signed into your Google account, Google search will still be able to gather search optimizing data from you based on what sites you’ve navigated to from Google in the recent past, your current location based on ip address, ect.
This is highly useful for an average web surfer looking to find the most relevant content. For webmasters who want to see how their website is ranking on a certain keyword, this can be a bit annoying as you will ussually observe a search engine position that is inflated compared to everyone else’s results.
To fix this, what we have to do is first turn off Google instant search by changing it in your settings if your logged into your google account (gear in the top right hand corner), otherwise there should be an option to the right of the search bar.
Next search for the term you want to check rankings on. After Google populates it’s results, append &pws=0 to the end of URL. So if your search for ACN scam in google the origional url will be (with some extra paremeters added)
google.com/search?q=apple
Now just append the &pws=0 to the end like so:
google.com/search?q=apple&pws=0
and submit the URL. This should populate un-personally filtered search results for any keyword! You can also use Google webmaster tools to find aggregate average position for your site in Google search results.