Rankings changing every couple of MINUTES in Google?
-
We've been experiencing some unusual behaviour in the Google.co.uk SERPs recently...
Basically, the ranking of some of our websites for certain keywords appears to be changing by the minute.
For example, doing a search for "our keyword" might show us at #20. Then a few minutes later, doing the same search shows us at #14, and then the same search a few minutes later shows us at #26, and then sometimes we're not ranked at all, etc etc.
I know the algorithm changes a lot, but does it really change every couple of minutes?
Has anyone else experienced this kind of behaviour in the SERPs?
What could be causing it to happen?
-
Hi D4,
Rankings are affected by a host of factors, not the least of which are personalization and localization. Given that different people search for different things in the normal course of things, it is quite likely that two different people searching on different computers will get different results.
I would be very cautious about conducting repetitive searches every few minutes as you have described, because in the end, it could be you and your helpers that are influencing what you see in the rankings!
It is important to remember that Google and Bing both utilize click through data from the SERPs to inform rankings. Every time your site is returned in the results, but not clicked-through and every time a searcher clicks through, but quickly returns to the search engine, Google and Bing are gathering information that suggests your site is not seen as relevant or helpful by searchers. Constantly running redundant searches like this could eventually have a negative impact for your site.
I would say that you might be better served by conducting an in depth analysis of the pages concerned and putting the focus on improving them. If you get this aspect right, rankings and traffic will improve naturally over time.
Hope that helps,
Sha
-
@Rick Maggio: We've seen this happening from the same browser, as well as from different browsers, all of which came from the same IP address. I've just tested it from home, and I'm unable to reproduce the problem. It seems unlikely that it's IP-related?
@remco t hart: Interesting theory about the data centers. I would've thought that Google would be using some sort of "sticky sessions" whereby all queries made from a particular IP address would be served from the same data center, but I suppose Google could be using a "round robin" approach whereby each request gets sent to a random data center regardless of IP address.
To give a little more background on the issue... the keyword that we were checking is one that we used to rank really well for a few months ago before we launched a massive re-design of the website. Since the re-design, we've dropped off the rankings completely for this keyword - that is, until today when I just checked it on a whim and saw that we were #26. A few minutes later, someone else in the office checked it and we were nowhere to be found. Then I checked again a few minutes later, and we were #20. Then I checked again a few minutes later and we were nowhere.
Bizarre.
It makes me think that Google might be "testing the waters" by slowly re-introducing our website back into the SERPs and seeing how it performs on CTR and other user-experience metrics?
-
Curious if you check your rankings that often? Must drive you crazy!
I really only look at webmaster tool data as search is personalized, localized, etc. Are you looking from the same browser each time (like just refreshing the page)?
-
I might be have more to do that google has different data centers around the world and maybe giving different data some times. Do you have this problem for a long time? I am asking this because i had this but after a few weeks it stopped and my search rankings where steady.
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
-
High clicks and low rankings - Correlation?
Hi everyone, we noticed while doing last month's reports that even the best performing campaigns have a few keywords that slipped - some up to 10 positions down. We know keywords fluctuate every month, but May was just a weird month for rankings. While looking at possible issues that caused this, we noticed that these campaigns' clicks have gone up. So while keywords have gone down, their visitors seemed to be on the rise. Is there a correlation? Maybe Google saw an increase in visitors and decided something's up and lowered the rankings (this sounds ridiculous - sorry! May just be pure luck, but thought I'd ask anyway). Has anyone seen a drop in their rankings for May also? I checked everywhere, and I don't think there has been a major update going on. Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | nhhernandez2 -
Have you seen what happens when you Google Academy Awards 2014?
Hi All... Just wondering if it is a new feature on Google's side (knowledge Graph)? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | BeytzNet0 -
Rankings drop
Hi! Since the new Penguin rollout, we've seen rankings drop for http://www.leanonturkey.co.uk/ for the terms 'turkey recipes' (UK) and 'low fat recipes' (UK) from #4 and #15 respectively. This may be down to very strong competition, but I'm also concerned over the on-page content, which may not be detailed enough. Any tips would be much appreciated!
Algorithm Updates | | neooptic0 -
Google Love and Bing Hate
I have a site that is currently ranking 6th for a certain key phrase. But when i search on Bing it is on page 4. The result on google is for the homepage and the bing result is a search result. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am not logged into to google when searching but we do use adwords.
Algorithm Updates | | SoundinTheory0 -
Yahoo & Bing algorithm changes?
We have noticed that several of our clients have been falling fairly significantly in the rankings in both Yahoo and Bing in recent weeks. Do you know if they have made any algorithm changes lately, and if so, do you have any indication of what changes may have been made?
Algorithm Updates | | GregWalt0 -
What Is The Deal Between Indeed and Google?
Anyone notice the love affair of Indeed and Google lately? Indeed is cannibalizing the top 30 SERPs for job related keywords. Seeing keywords where Indeed has 10-15 of the organic listings in the top 30. Compete.com is showing a +8% increase in search volume between in April and May. But it seems as if they really started to cannibalize the SERPS since the Penguin update at end of May. Any one else noticing this?
Algorithm Updates | | joncrowe0 -
Google Panda Update - google.com.br ( brazil )
Hello folks, Someone know if google run their panda update in brazil ( www.google.com.br ), this week? Coz I can see a interesting boost in my google traffic sources. Thank you.
Algorithm Updates | | augustos0 -
How Google Determines Sitelinks
Does anyone have authoritative information on how Google determines which links to use as sitelinks? I thought I saw that Top Landing Pages was a metric Google used (in part).
Algorithm Updates | | joshfialkoff-778630