Hi, we all know that rankings of a client's web site will vary depending on the searcher's IP, geolocation, personalization settings, OS, etc.

Most of my clients understand this. However, I do have one client who questions the validity of keyword rank because of this variation. I have always made it clear that the clickthrough rate and visitor retention from their natural results are more important metrics than rank numbers. But they are both a) convinced that keyword rank is what they want to measure and b) seeking an industry standard regarding ideal time of the search, system configuration, location, etc.

Location is easy - you should be searching from a PC that is in the IP geolocation of your target audience. But as for all the other factors...?

Have any of you found an acceptable, consistent process for checking keyphrase ranks, standardized for:

- Time of day/day of week of search
- Software like WebPosition vs. hand-check (their results always differ, do you have the same experience?)
- OS/system/browser/ISP configuration
- Personalization, if any, turned "off" (agreed?)

Thanks so much for your insights!
Liz