Keyword keeps fluctuating between a high rank and no rank?
-
I've searched around and I can't seem to find anyone else describing the issue I'm seeing. Basically for a very long time our website (snappages.com) has always ranked in the tens and twenties for "create a website". It's a high volume keyword and we get a lot of traffic from it. Around May 16th it suddenly disappeared completely from search results on Google and now it will sporadically show back up with a SERP in the twenties every 5-10 days for a few hours and then completely disappear again. This pattern has continued to this day.
I've checked and there are no manual penalties and nothing has really changed dramatically from a content perspective or anything like that. I would understand if we got penalized and our ranking dropped, or even if it just completely disappeared? This is the only keyword that this is happening for, all the others remain unaffected. Anyone know how I can find out why this is happening or have suggestions on how to fix it?
-
That's a good point. I've tried incognito etc. I even use a few SERP tracking tools and they reflect the same thing. SERPWoo for instance will send me an alert saying they keyword "started ranking" instead of the normal alert that says it went up or down.
I guess it's comforting to hear someone else is seeing something similar though b/c I haven't seen anyone report this and I've done a lot of searching for it.
-
I have experienced something similar this year - it's not something I've seen before.
Everyday it can change. One day my client is number 5 for "keyword" - the next day it has gone.
This has been happening for about 3 months now.
I am putting faith in Google eventually settling down and keeping them on the first page. It is a very difficult one to explain though and I don't have the answers.
This is not about having a better SEO strategy - this is about something I'm calling GHOST RANKINGS
Anyone else seen this .. and what happened?
P.S I'm am incognito when I check. I also track it in MOZ rankings. I have also got people to check from different locations - this is not the reason!
-
Maybe.
But, if some of these have grabbed all or most of your text, then filing DMCA is what I would do. Before you file DMCA be sure that you know the risks and especially know the rules related to fair use. See an attorney before doing it if you have any doubts about your understanding.
-
No problem, here is another question somewhat similar to yours that has been answered https://moz.com/community/q/why-keyword-ranking-fluctuate
-
Thanks for the feedback. I do understand it's very competitive so I would understand going up and down in ranking but it literally shows up at 23, then gone for 4 days, then 27, then gone for 6 days, then 21, then gone for 5 days, etc.
This fluctuation has been happening for months and prior to this I was very steadily always ranked high.
-
That's a good question. I'm looking into it but it doesn't seem to be a way to check this reliably. Would switching up the content that is being used by those other sites make a difference?
-
I hope I can provide some useful insights in regards to this somewhat of an anomaly.
After reading your explanation carefully and doing some research on the keyword, it is apparent that this is quite an important keyword to rank for even if just in the first 20 SERPs. Due to the difficulty of this keyword, I am not very surprised with the fluctuation in your rankings since there is a lot of content generated around the topic on a daily basis.
Here are my suggestions if you're willing to invest a good amount of effort on regaining or securing a good position for this keyword:
- Create a new website page with the URL https://snappages.com/create-a-website
- Add the page in the navbar with an attractive CTA
- Differentiate it the new page from the home page
- Get your technical on-page SEO right for the new page.
- Then Publish a series of blog posts that are related to the keyword. In ex: Basic rules of web design, how to build a website for converting visitors, how to make your own website, etc. Try to find some low difficulty keywords, and link all of the posts back to https://snappages.com/create-a-website through a call-to-action at the bottom of each post. This will not only increase the new page's relevancy to search engines but if you do a good job at finding keywords will also yield some traffic.
- Make sure the blog posts are not product centric instead, make them as helpful as possible.
- Work on getting some backlinks to the new page, and repeat.
This strategy will require a good bit of time to create new and unique content, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, designing the page, etc. Though it might be worth it since it is very relevant to the company.
-
Are you going into the supplemental index or are you totally gone?
If you are going into the supplemental index then these guys using your content might be having an impact.
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 can a site rank high without any visible SEO tactics?
Hi SEO specialists, I don't know if this is the right place to ask this, but there is something bugging me for awhile now, so I thought let's give it a try. I work for several clients and one of them works in the Psychic business. Since a few months we see that site from Psychicvop.com is taking over all kinds of top rankings in Google. The strange thing is that I can't detect anything that I always learned which is basic material for SEO. There isn't much content and there link profile isn't really spectacular either. Does any of you have an idea what it is about this sites that makes them outrank every other site in the business?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | LiveFootballTickets0 -
Why my website disappears for the keywords ranked, then reappears and so on?
Hello to everyone. In the last 2 weeks my website emorroidi.imieirimedinaturali.it has a strange behavior in SERP: it disappears for the keywords ranked and then reappears, and so on. Here's the chronicle of the last days: 12/6: message in GWT: Improvement of the visibility of the website in search. 12/6 the website disappears for all the keywords ranked 16/6 the website reappears for all the keywords ranked with some keywords higher in ranking 18/6 the website disappears for all the keywords ranked 22/6 the website reappears for all the keywords ranked 24/6 the website disappears for all the keywords ranked... I can't explain this situation. Could it be a penalty? What Kind? Thank you.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | emarketer0 -
GWT Keywords not showing my Keywords Focus, What to do?
Hello Community I will like ot know if im doing something wrong here..... I have setup keywords for my google ranking using yoasr SEO http://imgur.com/BCWTifV but in my Google Webmaster http://imgur.com/V1texto What im doing wrong?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | dawgroup0 -
How to rank product pages?
Hi guys, Please advice me on something improving my product pages ranking. We are doing well for head terms, categories but not ranking for product pages. We have issues with product pages which I am think is hard to tackle. For instance we have duplicate products (different colors), duplicate content internally (colors) and from manufacturer websites. Product pages linked from sub-category i.e. Home > Category > Sub-Category (20 per page) using pagination for next 20 and so on. Product pages linked internally via widgets that says other Similar products, featured products etc. Another issue with our product pages is that we are using third party reviews platform and whenever users add reviews to product pages this platform creates an hyperlink to different anchors which is not relevant to product. Example - http://goo.gl/NUG652 Can somebody please give some advice on how to improve rankings for product pages. writing unique content for thousands of pages is not possible. Even our competitor not writing unique content.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Webmaster_SEO0 -
Weird Page switch for a keyword in Google Rankings
Over this past weekend Google switched the page which usually showed in search results for keyword benchmarking. It went from from http://www.apqc.org/benchmarking to http://www.apqc.org/benchmarking-portal/osb. Also on Google the Rankings for the keyword 'benchmarking' sank from 15 to 47 for http://www.apqc.org/benchmarking Just looking for some theories or ideas or anyone that has had this happen to them.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | inhouseninja0 -
A Keyword Occupied Google Top 7 Ranking. Please Comment........
Hello Everyone, When the whole world is debating on EMD, whether one should use it or avoid. Many bloggers from India still crack a very good traffic from EMD only. Recently, I was researching and found a very impressive link. Keyword: " sad shayari hindi" Google India Search Top 7 position occupied by a single domain with multiple URLs. I would like to request everyone to check the screenshot and comment. VJSQkuy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | pushkar630 -
Meta Keywords: Should we use them or not?
I am working through our site and see that meta keywords are being used heavily and unnecessarily. Each of our info pages will have 2 or 3 keyword phrases built into them. Should we just duplicate the keyword phrases into the meta keyword field, should put in additional keywords beyond or not use it at all? Thoughts and opinions appreciated
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Towelsrus1 -
Is there any correlation to time and search ranking?
Is there any evidence that google acknowledges the time that a site has been online with all other things being equal for search ranking?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | casper4340