Hi guys.. post-penguin my website coming in and out of serps every other day... what reason for that? ie. #11 --> #300+
-
We had one of the pre-penguin "unnatural links " messages in WMT - then Penguin hit April 24th/25th..
wee then set to work on Link profile...
since 19th May we have had numerous search phrases come 'back' into rank pre-penguin for a day ie.. #5 - #10 and then drop the next.. ie 300+
this has been happening across a wide range of key phrases.... in fact it may well be that the key phrases are added to the serps 'briefly' or for a set amount of time... but our ranking checker checks daily so while it appears to be every other day in and out there may be another pattern...
but the question is What is Google doing here and Why?
any suggestions?
-
Many of the rankings that were dropped were ranked on page 1-2 for 5+ years...
-
I agree with EGOL here and think duplicate content may be an issue. I'm guessing that your site and another similar site are switching places with the other being kicked to the supplemental index.
Try adding some more, new unique content to your pages. See if that helps.
-
I am having a similar issue ...but am only seeing a a few sites and it seems to be segments with grand competition and over use of keywords, like tactics that were grey hat are for sure black What tool displays ranking 200 to 300 indexed pages back in Google?
-
There is more than one "google".
Google runs lots of experimental algos at the same time. You could be in on one and out on the other.
Also, if your site has duplicate content that is on another site, google will sometimes display one site with that content and then another.
So keep working on linkprofile and check for duplicate content.
-
Interesting -- so serps that have held steady for a while then dropped by that much? It's strange to think penguin could have such a huge effect.
Curious, if you don't mind answering, the rankings that dropped, were they steady for a time and how long?
-
just to clarify I am NOT talking about daily serps movements - I am talking about massive drop by 200-300 places... and show pre-Penguin results and then post-Penguin results...
-
I've noticed similar happenings with sites I monitor and I too have been searching for an answer. I know Google is working to improve the "real time" results to show more on topic, on date events so you can't always be sure daily of a certain spot. Also, tools we use to run these reports are databases and only get updated so often, they are not truly "real time"
I've also noticed differences in ranking reports across several tools so which is the best? I use seomoz, webceo, ahrefs and semrush and I rarely get an agreement amongst these.
In the long run, my opinion is that "ranking" for a certain keyword is not as important as seeing relevant traffic for a keyword coming through your seo campaigns. So, if your ranking drops, does your traffic drop for that keyword? If yes, then it may be an optimization thing and you need to look at link authority, competitors that are now ahead,...or maybe it was just a fluctuation in real time results.
Interested to hear what the experts have to say.
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
-
Local SERPs Question - Phone Call or Click?
I have a client who recently experienced a boost in local organic rankings. They were appearing towards the bottom of the local (maps) results (with their phone number & address listed) for their main target keywords. After this ranking boost, they are now positioned higher in the SERPs, in the traditional organic section. It seems as though this boost in rankings has actually caused a slight DECREASE in organic search traffic to their website. My theory is that when they were listed in the Google+ Local section of Google, some people must have been calling directly from the SERPs instead of actually clicking through to their website. Due to the issues involved with organic call tracking, it's obviously difficult to measure the actual impact of strong Google+ Local rankings. So, I'm on a mission to find some reliable data on this. For my own peace of mind and that of my client. Does anybody know of any research conducted that analyses the % of local searches that result in a phone call directly from the local SERPs without actually clicking through to a business' website or Google+ page? In know this is a tricky one (and probably harder to ascertain on desktop than mobile) but any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Search Behavior | | Dave_Eddy0 -
Any Good Study on the Effects of CTR on Keyword Capitalization in SERP Description
Hey Guys I am wondering if any of you have done any study or testing on this ( or perhaps you might have come across one at some point in your career ) Personally I feel that while adding a description , it makes sense to Capitalize the Keywords and other words ( first letter only ) that I want to emphasise on ( perhaps stuff like Buy, High Quality, Best, etc ) . I want to pick your brains on this and see what you guys think about it. I have not tested the effects on CTR yet .. if someone else has then it will be a good resource for me to go through. ( and if no one else has done any relevant study I might do it at some stage ). Regards Saijo
Search Behavior | | Saijo.George0 -
Using Google Analytics to See What Time of Day Visitors View My Site
Hi folks, My company has Google Analytics setup for all of our websites, but I am a bit stumped on something. Now, this may not be possible, but am I able to see what time of day visitors most frequently view my blog? I would like to optimize blog post publishing for when I know we have in influx of visitors, yet I cannot find this information on GA. Any input would be much appreciated. Regards,
Search Behavior | | Instabill
Meghan0 -
Theme influence in your SERP
Hello SeoMoz community. I'm a new member here and i took the 30 day trial to test out your tools and to check if i find a need to them. I've a situation that is bugging my mind for a few days and i wish i had more data to have more accurate information. I have a website that stayed on first in my SERP for a competitive term. I did it with a very few links because i focused a lot on the UX (mostly on site performance & layout) and the outcome was a good usability for my site. Since the latest panda my site dropped from first to fifth and then came the Google dance between 5th and the 15th position. Then i decided to change the theme because i saw loads of problems like the page titles, i fixed loads of 301's and 404's, gave it a more clean UX, removed some ads and fixed some of the url's making them shorter and more accrued. This stopped the Google dance completely! And now the site is on the 10th position. I'm not complaining about the positions or panda updates or whatever happened. I just would like some comments on this situation. And i would like to ask if a theme update making the site better (better is a very complicated word in the SEO world know) can give negative feedback to the search engines? Thank you.
Search Behavior | | luisvestia0 -
Why would my Bounce Rate drop from 40% to 2% over 3 days without making any major changes to my site www.hiltonhead.com?
Our Wordpress site has had an historical bounce rate of 40% for the last 3 years but last Thursday it dropped to 17%, Friday to 7% and now is running at 2%. The pageviews per visit have also increased from 3 to almost 6. Thanks
Search Behavior | | CorkyGifford0 -
+1 articles and opposed to a website
What is the difference if a friend on Google +, +1's your blog entry as opposed to your blog (as a whole)? Will it be displayed differently to their network or better yet, have a difference in their search engine results the next time they search for a relatable keyword?
Search Behavior | | StreetwiseReports0 -
Have you seen any good articles on implementing customer reviews on an E-commerce website
Looking for a great article on implementing customer based review system with the ability to feed that data to Google with rich snippets.
Search Behavior | | WebResource0 -
Ranking multiple domains in the SERPS for same keywords?
Curious if anyone has had success ranking multiple sites with same whois and server info? We have a client who has purchased multiple businesses over the years in the same industry. Each site has a solid amount of link popularity already and good respected Brand. But I'm wondering with the whois info being the same and the same servers, if ranking for multiple domains will be worth attempting.
Search Behavior | | iAnalyst.com0