There are a variety of reasons why Rank Tracker results can appear different from Google results in your browser.

Market Samurai's rank tracker works by sending a request to Google (or Bing/Yahoo) for a page of search results.  When the results are returned, it will step through them one by one, searching for the site in question.  If and when it reaches that entry in the list, it will report the position that it's found.

This means that the results shown in the module are exactly those that Market Samurai has been given.  But there are several reasons why this may not be the same position as you see when searching manually in your browser.  Some of them can include:

1. Difference in search query

When Market Samurai performs its search, it includes extra parameters along with the keyword. For instance, it will include location and language information as you specified in your project settings, and it turns off some browser features such as Google Instant.

A manual search in your browser will result in a different search query, which sometimes means you get a slightly different set of search results.  

If you are looking to verify Market Samurai's information, it is best to use the 'click-through results' (clicking on the rank numbers in Rank Tracker) to verify the data. This opens a page in your default browser using the same search string, and ensures both you and Market Samurai are asking identical questions of Google (or Bing/Yahoo).

2. Search History

When reporting search results, Google will perform some tailoring of results for personalization purposes.  This is based partly on your search history and partly on your location.  Thus if you have often visited the site you're tracking, Google can assign it a higher position in your rankings.

Market Samurai's Rank Tracker results are not subject to this tailoring, and as such can vary from the search results you receive from a manual search.  This is particularly important to bear in mind when assessing the ranking of your own website, which, by virtue of your visiting it often, may rank more highly in your browser than in Market Samurai's rank tracker.

3. Data Centre Discrepancies

Due to the distributed nature of Google's search engine around the world, it's not possible for all their data centres to show the exact same data at all times. This can result in occasional and temporary differences in results, as your request can get routed to different servers from moment to moment.  This is why Rank Tracker's click-thru URLs are directed to a specific IP reflecting the exact server from which the original result was obtained.