Ranking Fluctuations
-
I need your help. My rankings have been on a wild roller coaster ride since I started optimizing the site with standard on page optimization changes. (No keyword stuffing or over-optimization...) I have only made positive changes for the content on the page; I created unique descriptions for every product. I redirected some urls that weren’t readable into a more user- friendly format.
I am only doing completely organic link building, really.
Yet for some weird reason the rankings initially rose and then steeply fell and ever since have went back up to the top and right back to not in the top 50 results.
Just to give you an example this is a graph of one of our main keywords: https://www.diigo.com/item/image/3vpdp/gd2q
This is another keyword that we admittedly never were in the top 5 results but usually we were in the top 20. Check out the wild fluctuations. If it wasn't the main keyword we were going after, I would probably laugh. https://www.diigo.com/item/image/3vpdp/rcy9
I asked an expert he said he think it might be from a major issue with internal competition. The keywords that seem to fluctuate the most, have numerous landing pages that compete for the same keyword.
Since we sell the same object in many many different sizes, thicknesses and colors it only makes sense that we have the same keyword on many pages.
I would love someone that is an expert in this area to have a look at the site and give actionable advice so I can stop the craziness.
Do you have any suggestions?
Do you have anyone that you’d refer for this type of job/consulting?
-
The anchor text is for the whole site. The home page is not the only page I am seeing crazy rankings for. The site name is http://plasticplace.net.
Thanks so much for taking a look!
-
Is that for the whole site, or is it for the home page? Is the home page the only page you are seeing fluctuations for? It's quite difficult to assess what's happening without seeing the site, but some of these details might help.
-
Your 100% correct that I should remove as much poison links as possible.
Google doesn't recommend using the disavow tool if you didn't receive a spam warning. Additionally google wants you to try to remove the actual link from the web itself. This would be a huge job to do if I'm not completely sure what is actually causing the fluctuations.
I should do it as soon as I can but I first need to ascertain that this is indeed causing the volatile rankings.
-
edit: sorry my response was to Rachel here and not David. Didn't want this to be misconstrued:
Yeah I don't think this is necessarily accurate. Yes most sites will see their rankings plummet the day of an update, but the update isn't a one-day event. It carries over to every crawl Google does.
Therefore if your site slips through the algorithm, it isn't guaranteed to continue doing so. Perhaps the next time around the algo catches something it didn't before (for lack of a better visual.)
There is never any harm in removing poison links, that much we know for sure. So at least if you can get rid of those we can eliminate that as a possibility, right?
-
The recent updates have not been like the previous with 1 date of change- it has been rolled out over the summer with lots of fluctuations as you can see here.
You need to remove the bad and work on getting really good links to replace the old.
-
I sent you a PM
-
While I agree with you that there are some links I should get rid of, I don't think the ranking fluctuations have to do with back links because then I would have probably saw changes to my rankings on the days of the updates.
Please correct me if this isn't the case.
-
I think the keywords you are going after have bad toxic links with those anchor texts that are hurting you i would check into that
-
Can you please share the website URL and both the keywords? If possible, can you please check your Google Webmaster Tools and let us know about the internal linking for these two keywords as anchor text along with the number of back-links for each keyword?
The reason for such a HIT & Drop in the rankings may be due to the "Over-optimization" of the keyword as against all other keywords in the website. I've been getting the same results for one of my website for one keyword only which has reached the fourth page of Google almost 7-8 times in last one year; but never came in the top 30 rankings. Whenever I think this time the keyword will surely achieve rankings in top positions, the website goes down in rankings..as far as 15th page of Google. Analyzing this, I'm thinking about stopping the SEO work for this keyword once I get it in top #50 positions this time..and may be this keyword will be stable for few weeks..
-
It's actually not bad, here's a snapshot of the anchor text: http://awesomescreenshot.com/01f1k00j2f
-
You should consider using the disavow tool, when needed, but only after the a very thorough back-link analysis. This tool can be used for good
-
This probably has at least something to do with it. What does your anchor text profile look like?
-
I check the google wmt weekly. I have never seen a link warning yet. Additionally all the rank fluctuations didn't happen when there was google updates, which would have been a sign of a penalty.
In the past the company had an Indian SEO company posting links to our sites on really spammy sites. I tried to contact some of the sites but I couldn't get them removed and I am hesitant about using the disavow tool.
-
Ask your boss if they ever got a link warning in google webmaster tools about links - it could be you have a penalty you need to deal with or it could be you have some bad links that are hurting you now you need to disavow or remove -call me if you need more help
-
I sent you a PM with the domain.
-
What's the domain you are working on and what are the KW's you are targeting. Graph's work, but without actionable information, it's difficult to look over and help make a few suggestions
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
-
Why am not ranking on google with 30 of domain authority
Hello my name is Alexander muller and around 2 years ago i have build this website https://muller-designs.com/ i love to use MOZ to analyze other sites, so i know that my page is better than some others but they still aut rank my website can someone give me an explanation for this ? and i also have a couple of other questions it would be great if someone can help me Is on-site optimisation really that important??? How often should I update my blog???
On-Page Optimization | | alexmuller871 -
How to change images of a page without loosing ranking?
Hi, I have two reasons to change some images of a page on a wordpress site: 1.Google speed service advise me to optmize the images size to better spead load times. 2.I want to change images titles (to improve seo optimization for the page keyword), so i need to replace them, since im using wordpress. Now the question is: Can i just change the images without worring about any related seo issues? Or should i follow some best practice to change images in order to not affect the ranking of the page? tx for your support!
On-Page Optimization | | Dreamrealemedia0 -
Is a particular page not ranking for any reason?
I posted about the Google WEbmaster tools Structured Data set up in this thread here: http://moz.com/community/q/using-google-structured-data-for-seo-benefit Just a follow up question (or separate)... would having a lot of products with marked up data (via webmaster tools and not on page) hurt SEO rankings? I have not got any warning/notice etc in Google Webmaster tools about it. Search term 'buy isagenix' on Google Australia Product listing page not in top 50
On-Page Optimization | | IsaCleanse
http://www.isacleanse.com.au/buy-isagenix 15th Result on Google Australia for 'buy isagenix' is a different page on my website:
http://www.isacleanse.com.au/isagenix-perth/ Any suggestions welcome0 -
Domain authority decreased but rankings increased
Hello! I'm a bit confused. It seems the industry as a whole that my company operates in has taken a bash from the update a few days ago as all of the competitiors have taken a hit to their domain authority. What is confusing is that my websites rankings have increased as well. There has been a change to the robots.txt file in an effort to stop being crawled by SEMRush which is messing with my site stats but that is the only change. Thanks in advance, Ben
On-Page Optimization | | Ben-Cleaver1 -
Blogposts and Google Rankings
I'm pretty new to all of this, my new website is starting to come along nicely in the SERPs, now appear on page 4 for my main key phrases were I didn't appear last week at all. I'm now on a mission to get myself ranked higher but my website is pretty much done... apart from the ongoing blogposts that I need to add, I'm a wedding photographer so every shoot is going on to it. My question, my blogposts aren't necessarily targeting my main key phrase, it might be mentioned once or twice but ultimately it'll most likely be the venue that steals the targeting. By adding the blogposts (I still have 36 to do) and using my keyphrase sparing, will this help to elevate me from page 4 in google? I know that I still need to build backlinks etc to but just something I can't seem to find an answer for on google hehe.
On-Page Optimization | | MartinWardPhoto0 -
Does anyone have any experience in trying to rank for terms that are 100% similar in meaning but different words?
I will be using street signs and road signs as an example to make it clearer. We previously only targeted street signs and then we realized that there is another keyword – road signs - that has twice as much traffic (more competitive too). Now we are trying to incorporate both in our onsite SEO. If you had a similar case - how did you work with this? Did incorporating the keyword help rankings go up for that word? Does adding another keyword to the mix make the rankings go down for the keyword you previously ranked for?
On-Page Optimization | | EcomLkwd0 -
Home page keyword effecting internal page ranking
Hello, My client has a second keyword for the home page that is competitive. The home page is not being ranked for this keyword. Instead, an internal category page is ranking. This internal category page is more relevant than the home page - it shows the categories for the actual products that this term refers to. But everyone around us in Google's page results has far more backlinks than the internal page, and we're all heavily optimized for this term. My question is, is it safe to pull the second term off of the home page or is this internal page strong because it is somehow being strengthened by the home page optimization?
On-Page Optimization | | BobGW0 -
Trying to maintain rank while switching back & forth from sitewide 301 to 302 redirects?
My company's website has earned industry "authority" over the years and ranks well for a number of keywords. For reasons not worth explaining, we've moved the entire site (all pages) to be secured (https from http). When we launch our completely new website in 5 months from now, we will launch it as "http:" For the next 5 months, we're stuck with using site-wide "https". Is it better to 301 or 302 all pages (from http -> https), with the intent to move back to 301 in 5 months from now? Obviously, this situation is not ideal, but we'd like to preserve as much authority/presence as possible. What should we do and why? Any input would be greatly appreciated!
On-Page Optimization | | WhiteCap0