Google webmaster tool

[hassanalipak]

In the webmaster tool I can see my average position is between 1 & 3 for many keywords but in real if I search for the exact same keyword in google I see my pages far lower in the list.

Is that average postion not reliable?

or am I getting targeted results for my search?

How can I see standard search results for a term?

Thanks!

[PhilipSEO]

The data you see is reliable, but rankings constantly fluctuate and moreover differ geografically (depending on location, Google datacenter, and the regional Google engines used, such as google.com, google.co.uk, google.fr, etc.). WMT jumbles data from various regions into a single statistic. This explains why it differs from your own observations.

[Kevin H]

As Philip says Google jumbles all the data together from many data centres, countries, over a period of time, etc so the number you see as 'standard' is not going to be accurate (or unllikely to be) for any given search you are likely to make.

To get a more accurate idea of position (though I still wouldn't take it as absolutely accurate on any given day) you can apply a filter in WMT.

On the seach queries page click the filters option (just below the top queries tab); then in the location section you can change the value from 'all locations' to where you are.

Hope this helps