What a rank tracker cannot see: personalisation, location and ads on otto.de

What the measurement captures exactly

A tracker loads the search results page for a term the way a visitor without an account from Germany would, and reads the order of the products. It separates organic hits from ads, counts the position on the page and the page itself. The result is a snapshot under clear conditions.

Those conditions are the value of the measurement. Because they are the same every day, the difference between today and yesterday is a real change in your listing or your competitors, not a change of viewpoint.

What can differ for the shopper

• Ads: which and how many Sponsored Product Ads are mixed in depends on the bids at the moment of the request. Two requests minutes apart can show different ads, shifting the organic hits by one or two places.
• Account and history: a logged-in shopper with history can see products matching earlier purchases or clicks slightly higher.
• Tests: marketplaces test their search continuously. A share of visitors gets a different ordering from the rest, for days or weeks.
• Device: app, mobile site and desktop show different numbers of products per row and per page. "Page 1" on the desktop is three screens of scrolling on a phone.
• Region: delivery times can differ by postcode, and a long delivery time lowers the purchase probability, but not directly the measured position.

How big the deviation typically is

Within the first page, deviations of one to three places between two viewpoints are normal, mainly because of ads. A product the tracker measures at position 4 can sit at 3 or 7 for a shopper, but not at 40. Large differences only arise when one of the viewpoints is not from Germany at all: some product pages and search results are not served, or served differently, outside Germany. A tracker therefore has to measure from Germany.

How to keep the measurement comparable

1. Measure at the same time of day and with the same setting (organic and ads separated).
2. Judge movement over several days, not one check. An outlier on one day is usually an ad or a test.
3. Look at the page, not only the number: moving from page 1 to page 2 is a real change, moving from position 6 to 8 rarely is.
4. Never compare a tracker number with a screenshot from a logged-in client. If you want to put both side by side, have the client search in a private window instead.

Why the fixed viewpoint is still the right one

One could try to simulate "the real shopper", with account, history and location. Then every measurement would differ, and you would never know whether your listing changed or only the simulation. A fixed, neutral viewpoint is like a thermometer in always the same spot: it does not measure every corner of the room, but it reliably shows whether it is getting warmer or colder. For decisions about title, price and ads, that is the information that counts.

Frequently asked questions