Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Why are my keyword rankings dramatically changing week to week?
-
I have a site (actual several) that has been up for many years now. Content is changed monthly - regularly. It would always rank in the top 5 positions for 5 or 6 keywords.
Now all of a sudden (without any dramatic changes to the website) my ranking results from my weekly Moz reports are dramatically different from week to week - every week. One Keyword will be #1, then the next week it will drop 49 positions, the 3rd week it might be #5, then Not in the Top 50, then #1 again, and so and so on. This happens to all my keywords on my site.
I was waiting for Google to finish it's changes to it's algorithms but it's now been long enough and I can't get a handle on what's happening, why it's happening, and what to do about it, and what direction to take with my SEO.
My Traffic has actually improved over last year by approx. 25%, but I have also started a PPC campaign for this client.
Any suggestions would be great.
-
Thanks for your responses. I looked at everything using your suggestions and I just think that my wild fluctuations are real. I used the Rank Tracker tool on Keywords on my competitors for a long while now, and it shows what I felt, that starting back in April through around June 2013, Google started messing with everything. Around 45 Keywords are all over the place since then- one week they rank 50+ the next week #1, etc. Before that pretty much of a straight line. I think Moz reports are sometimes off a little, but in these cases it's pretty accurate. I've tracked in Moz Rank Tracker for a couple of years my 5 main competitors, they now are barely on any page in the top 50, and the Rank Tracker proves it.
I've even done just a manual search and counted the positions - and it's fairly accurate. I just can't figure out what to do now in Google to get a consistent score and a consistent good score. All my pages grade A for the specific keywords I want, and they have always ranked for several years in the top 5. Now it's just all over the place.
Just can't figure it out.
Thank you for your input. I was trying several things to see if I could get a change, before I replied, but no joy.
-
We have wild fluctuations like that for our sites every week, and many of them are not accurate when checked manually - sometimes they're more than 10 positions off. And then sometimes the changes as showing it out of the top 50 is completely wrong.
A Moz team member looked at our campaigns said we just have highly volatile keywords. That seems kind of ridiculous to me, it's not like we're in a super super competitive niche.
-
Have you double-checked your rankings either through another tool or through unpersonalized searches to see if the Moz data is correct? I have a few search terms on two of my campaigns that regularly swing from 1st one week to "Not in top 50" the next according to Moz when in reality they barely shift ever.
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
-
Unsolved Questions about travel industry keywords
My question is regarding my current learning of SEO and keyword research. I have been leaning towards Keyword Everywhere, SEMrush, and Google Keyword Planner for keyword research. What do you recommend? I know you might suggest Moz, but I'm looking for something that will enhance and help me find valuable keywords for the travel niche. If I sign up with Moz, will someone from the team help me with keyword research for the travel niche and my website? I haven't found any resources or lessons specifically focused on travel websites and their keywords.
Moz Pro | | RavenBhutan0 -
Unsolved Mobile Rankings for me and competitors disappear in Moz but still ranking.
Hi, I'm trying to create an SEO report for my client however their mobile rankings have completely disappeared for Google Mobile rankings. Competitors rankings have disappeared as well. Could this be a Moz configuration issue?
Moz Pro | | baddjuju0 -
What's the best way to search keywords for Youtube using Moz Keyword explorer?
I want to optimize my youtube channel using identified keywords, but I'm concerned that the keywords I'm identifying work well for SERP's but might not be how people search in Youtube. How do a distinguish my keywords to be targeted for Youtube?
Moz Pro | | Dustless0 -
MoZ vs SEMRush - Keyword Difficulty and Keyword With Low Competition.
Hi, My question is very focussed regarding these 2 tools. Is it correct to understand that MoZ tells keyword difficulty and not which keyword is easy to compete. And SEMRush tells which keyword is easy to compete but does not tell which keywords are difficult to compete? I mean one (Moz) misses the one part and the other (SEMRush) misses the other part. Hope some will enlighten me to the point. Best
Moz Pro | | Sequelmed0 -
Rank Tracker For IRAN?
Hello dear. I have a client in IRAN and I want to track Persian keywords.But the MOZ tracker keywords doesn't support that country. Please help and advise me how can I use track keywords in IRAN?
Moz Pro | | allyunit1 -
Find Historical SERP Ranking for a Term?
Is there any way to find out what pages ranked for a given term historically? I.e. what were the top 10 search results for "Widgets" 6 months ago, 1 year ago, 2 years ago? If I had a campaign tracking that term, I'd be able to look back, but I do not. Does this data exist anywhere in a format that could be queried?
Moz Pro | | kpclaypool0 -
Increase of 404 error after change of encoding
Hello, We just have launch a new version of our website with a new utf-8 encoding. Thing is, we use comma as a separator and since the new website went live, I have a massive increase of 404 error of comma-encoded URL. Here is an example : http://web.bons-de-reduction.com/annuaire%2C321-sticker%2Csite%2Cpromotions%2C5941.html instead of : http://web.bons-de-reduction.com/annuaire,321-sticker,site,promotions,5941.html I check with Screaming Frog SEO and Xenu, I can't manage to find any encoded URL. Is anyone have a clue on how to fix that ? Thanks
Moz Pro | | RetailMeNotFr0 -
Meta keywords no longer in use
Can someone point me to the official article explaining why meta keywords are no longer taken into account by search engines please? I know Moz has indicated that search engines ignore them, but I would like to read a bit more about it - what was the reason behind it and since when.
Moz Pro | | coremediadesign0