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 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 -
Increase in Rankings, but search visibility is decreasing
I just started updating my site with the very basics, focus keyword, meta description, and page titles. I see that I am going up in my targeted keywords, however my search visibility has dropped from 3.34% to 2.78%. My assumption is that my keyword choice is a little off, however I see that I have increased in keyword rankings and dropped very little in what I was ranking for previously, plus the keyword volume seems relatively the same. In fact I've added far more keywords than I have dropped. Curious why my search visibility has dropped, however my keyword rankings only seem to increase.
Moz Pro | | kthomasd0 -
Best method for tracking true keyword ranking overtime?
It seems as though week to week ranking monitoring can be very volatile, and comparing over the course of a month only takes into account the absolute change and not whether the rank has been jumping up and down in the 3 weeks between. What is a good method (Moz tool or not) for tracking a true change in average rank?
Moz Pro | | ajranzato90 -
A question on keywords that rank 51+
Good afternoon everyone. I wanted to pose a question to the group about keywords and the "on-page optimization - grade a page tool." I have a list of keywords that I am trying to rank for. Some of them are not ranked in the top 50, so on the keyword ranking tool it gives you the 51+ message in the rank column. For the items that are ranked I can try to improve them by looking at grade a page and typing in the URL and keyword. It will then give me a score and suggestions on how to improve it. With that being said, is there an easy way to find out which pages I should be optimizing those keywords which rank at 51+ for, besides typing the keywords in Google and seeing what URL it associates with the specific keyword? I hope the question above is clear.
Moz Pro | | trumpfinc0 -
Checking multiple keywords in Rank tracking
Besides the rankings in the campaigns i want to check 100+ keywords at once in rank tracking. Is this possible and if not why? It says i can check 400 keywords a day but manually entering them is time consuming and that's exactly why i use SEOMOZ, to save time.
Moz Pro | | FindFactory1 -
How to track all domain keywords?
Hello, lets say I have domain www.example.com I want to track rankings of www.example.com/product and www.example.com/anotherproduct with different keywords, so do I have to set up 2 different campaigns? Or is it possilble to track whole root domain with paths? Thanks!
Moz Pro | | Rokas0 -
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 -
Do keywords in drop-down menus count?
In running one of my campaigns in SEOMoz Pro, it was recommended that I reduce the amount of times a keyword is used to 15. On the actual page, there are fewer than 15, but when you include the number of times it is used in drop-downs from the nav bar, the number is 53. I know there is really no hard and fast rule about how many instances of a keyword make for keyword stuffing and the drop-downs only use the term where needed. Without it's use, it would be difficult to navigate the site. Is this a problem or should I focus on more important fixes?
Moz Pro | | rdreich490