Rankings and visibility fluctuating wildly from week to week
-
I have 1 campaign (out of 9) that has it's ranking fluctuating wildly from week to week - and in the past 3 weeks, it's tanked, and the next week come back, and this week, tanked again (what I mean by that is Keyphrases ranking #1 dropping to +51 - I had over 20 keyphrases (both local and universal) that were ranked in the top 10 (many in the top 3) that are now at 18 or higher.
I have not changed anything on the website in the last 3 weeks, but I've been working with Yoast SEO Pro to add in metadata, titles etc. The content, managed by the marketing manager, is basically unchanged. Help!!! This is the second time this has happened and our top competitor went from where we are now to #1 - We've been flipflopping week after week. Not good.
I have also been getting an increased # of 803 and 804 crawl errors. Jon with Moz added me to the next beta cohort, but I can't imagine that this has anything to do with Google ranking. I have 2 campaigns experiencing a high number of 803-804 crawl errors but only this one with the dramatic ranking and visibility swings.
mccdental.com is the domain for the campaign.
I appreciate any insight. Newish client - NOT good.
-
That would be great, however I AM the SEO consultant.
What tool would you recommend to identify potential bad backlinks?
-
Hi Cindy,
I'm afraid it's a little bit difficult to isolate - as I mentioned, the Google search algorithms generally will usually have very acute impacts on particular search sectors so this could explain why you're seeing it only with one campaign and no others at this point (you may see this happen with others in the future). To investigate any potential algorithm changes, you'll need to check out our tools:
http://mozcast.com/
https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
https://moz.com/blog/rankings-history-new-features-moz-proThat client's competition may also be working on their SEO strategies so that's something you'd also want to take into consideration. To investigate any other potential causes, you may need to work with your own SEO consultant to dive in a little deeper.
-
Well no. Why is only one of 9 campaigns effected (don't get me wrong, I'm relieved it's ONLY one.)
-
Hi there Cindy,
Sam from Moz's Help Team here!
I'll address the 803 error first (it looks as though you're already working through the cause of the 804 error in terms of being added to the Beta).
When you see an 803 error, that means your site closed its TCP connection to our crawler before our crawler could read a complete HTTP response. You don't see this error when you go to the page in your browser because content-length is an outdated component for modern browsers and they will disregard this error, but the intention of our crawler is to report any errors that might be occurring. So the crawler is configured to detect and report such errors.
I'm not a web dev (since I'm just here to support our tools) so I can't exactly tell you how to fix this issue (much as I wish I could!). However, one of our very trusted community members, Sha Menz, has a great answer regard 803 errors here: https://moz.com/community/q/how-do-fix-an-803-error
With respect to a large dip in rankings, it's important to keep in mind that Google tweaks their algorithm frequently in minor ways. This will usually have very acute impacts on particular search sectors, which almost always normalize quickly which is likely what's been happening in these cases.
Keeping in mind that each weekly rankings update is just a snapshot from a particular moment in time, I would recommend using Mozcast as a resource to help determine how turbulent Google SERPs are on any given day. It's also worth mentioning that we would always advocate for examining your rankings over a large period of time, in order to exclude extreme outliers.
I hope this helps to clarify but do let our team know if you have any further questions!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How accurate is Moz Rank Tracker tool? It's showing different results than a Google incognito search.
I have a keyword/url combo with Moz Rank Tracker showing 3 spots above what a Google Incognito search showed. I performed my Google Incognito search based on these suggestions: https://moz.com/community/q/best-and-easiest-google-depersonalization-method Is the Moz Rank Tracker tool off?
Moz Bar | | chiefmoz1 -
Rank Tracker won't update rank
Hi all, Is anybody else having trouble with Rank Tracker this morning? It doesn't want to play with me today. It just hangs when the update rank button is clicked. They all go orange/amber and think about it for a while but never update. Any ideas?
Moz Bar | | SanjidaKazi0 -
Create a report with keyword, label, difficulty, global search volume, and ranking?
Is it possible to create a report with containing keyword, label, difficulty, global search volume, and ranking? Currently in order to get the data, it seems like I need to manage two lists, the keyword list we are tracking and the keyword list in the Difficulty tool then somehow manually combine the data. Is there an easier way?
Moz Bar | | promfgsystems2 -
Keyword Ranking Report Blank
I have a custom ranking report set up to run every month. The module that shows the overall changes (how many improved, how many dropped, number in rank #1-3, etc.) populates with data, but the keyword ranking for tracked keywords listing is blank for all keywords, all search engines. I haven't changed anything in my campaigns - why is this reporting blank? Thanks!
Moz Bar | | GranthamUniversity0 -
Rank Checker and Keyword Difficulty
This is the only time I have seen this but the rank checker shows a keyword ranking #2 but the keyword difficulty tool does show the url ranking anywhere on the first page. I have some ideas as to why this may be happening but I am wondering if anyone actually knows?? Keyword: motion capture url: www.organicmotion.com/motion-capture
Moz Bar | | JBeaton0 -
Keywords Rankings Per Campaign
I want to use the keyword ranking tool, however I want to separate the keywords being tracked for each campaign (or client). I added two campaigns, but it seems the keyword tracker tool is not connected, or has no way of even filtering the list. I have multiple clients who may want to use this feature, but I can't use it if they are all lumped into one interface. Any ideas?
Moz Bar | | colewebdev0 -
WHAT HAPPENED TO RANK TRACKER!!!
iT IS GONE I GOOGLE IT, IN A FRESH CACHE, IT SHOWS UP AS moz.com/tools/rank-tracker i GO TO IT, IT SHOWS the proper page, and then when i login it goes to http://moz.com/researchtools/rank-tracker OR http://moz.com/tools/rank-tracker even if i copy the address and try typing in directly, it redirects over there. this must have happened very recently, i was just conducting research there and had over 100 kw left to use for the day. it is now a 404 no matter what browser i use PLEASE HELP MOZ!
Moz Bar | | Raydon0