Why your Google rankings never seem to match your report
If you’ve ever searched for your practice on Google, spotted yourself near the top, then opened your monthly report to find a completely different number, you’re not alone.
It’s one of the most common questions we get asked at the moment. And honestly, it’s a fair one.
The short answer? Google has changed the way it shows search results, and ranking positions aren’t the simple, single number they used to be. This isn’t a problem with one tool or one report. It’s happening across the entire industry.
So before you start worrying about a drop, here’s what you need to know.
Google doesn’t want tools looking at its results
Ranking tools work by running searches on Google automatically and recording where your website shows up. Google has never been a big fan of this, and over the past year or so it’s been making life very difficult for them.
A few of the changes we’ve seen:
- Stopping tools from loading lots of results in one go, so they have to work much harder to get the same data
- Hiding where search results link to, so tools struggle to tell which website is which
- Blocking tools altogether, causing data outages across the industry, the latest of which happened just this month
Google shows tools and people different results
When Google thinks a search is coming from a tool rather than a real person, it can show a different version of the results page. So your practice could be sitting comfortably on page one for a patient searching on their phone, while the tool sees something else entirely.
There have been examples of websites in second place in a normal browser that don’t appear at all in tracking data. Same search, two very different answers.
Where you search from matters more than ever
Google now decides how local to make results based on exactly where the person searching is. That’s great news for patients looking for a dentist nearby, but it makes tracking rankings a lot trickier.
For your practice, it means:
- A patient searching from your high street will see different results to someone a few miles away
- A tool checking rankings across the whole of the UK sees a blended page that no real patient ever sees
- Practices that do really well locally can look weaker in wider tracking, because that local strength gets averaged out
So when you search from the surgery, you’re seeing a real result. It’s just the result for that exact spot, at that exact moment.
Google also knows what patients click on
Google pays attention to how real people use search results. If patients regularly choose your practice and find what they need on your website, that can help your visibility.
A ranking tool has no history, no location and no behaviour behind its searches. It sees a clean version of the page that fewer and fewer real people actually see.
AI Overviews have muddied the water
Lots of searches now show an AI summary right at the top of the page. Your practice might be mentioned in that summary, which is brilliant, but a ranking tool could still record a drop in your normal position underneath it.
Even Google’s own reporting tool, Search Console, blends all of this together into one average. Useful for spotting trends, but not a perfect answer either.
You’re being found for more than you think
Most ranking reports track a set list of keywords. But your website is likely being found for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of different searches.
It’s completely possible for a few tracked keywords to dip while your overall visibility grows. Looking at a small list on its own doesn’t tell the whole story.
So, are rankings pointless now?
Not at all. Rankings are still a helpful way to see which direction things are heading. They just shouldn’t be treated as an exact position that every patient sees.
The whole industry is moving away from single ranking positions and towards the things that actually make a difference to your practice.
How we measure success
We’ve always believed rankings are only one piece of the puzzle, and these changes have made that even more true. Here’s what we look at instead:
- Trends, not daily numbers: we look at whether your visibility is heading in the right direction over time, rather than reacting to every small movement.
- Local visibility: we focus on how you show up for patients in the areas you actually serve, including the map results.
- The bigger picture: how many searches your website is appearing for, and whether that number is growing.
- AI visibility: whether your practice is being mentioned in AI Overviews and tools like ChatGPT.
- Real enquiries: calls, forms and online booking clicks. At the end of the day, new patients are what count.
So, what should you do if your rankings look different?
Nothing, really. If you spot a ranking on Google that doesn’t match your report, don’t panic. Both can be right, because they’re simply showing different versions of the same search.
And if you’re ever unsure about something in your report, just ask. We’ll happily talk you through what it means and what’s actually worth paying attention to.
Get in touch with the team today on 01202 677277.
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