Why am I getting different Google SERP result for same keywords?
-
Hi Mozzers,
I have noticed recently that Google (.com.au) has been serving up different SERP results for the same keywords. For example, one of our main keywords is "Car Loan". One result will show our site as ranking #5 organically from 242,000,000 results. A refresh of this search will then result in our site not ranking at all from 133,000,000 results.
We have been noticing this happen only in the last few days & more frustrating is that Google is throwing up the SERP from 133,000,000 results more frequently.
Would anyone know why this is occurring? And what can we do, if anything, to ensure we are shown regardless of how many results Google calls from? Is it from recent algo update & will it settle down over time?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
(Just to add - I'm not gogged in to Google when completing this test & regularly clear cookies etc so I don't believe its a personalised search issue)
-
Hi Tyler,
Thanks for the reply. Over the last couple of months we've done next to no link building - our rankings improved since penguin so kept focussing on quality links rather than quantity.
We have however been focussing on removing any links which we felt were spammy.
But it is definitely weird. It is definitely tied to the number of results Google is calling from though. Why would the total number of results available change so dramatically for the same keyword??
-
Weird.
Are you using aggressive off-page SEO techniques?
I haven't really seen results fly up and down every single refresh, but I have heard of results dancing severely on a day - week basis.
In my experience major dancing has only occurred from over aggressive link building
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
-
Google mystery: Website ranks inversely proportional in 2 countries for the main keyword. Any ideas or thoughts?
Hi all, Our website ranking for mail keywords is inversely proportional in the 2 countries (US and India). I mean...if the ranking is improved in one country, it drops in other country and vice versa. The graph looks like exactly something triggered and making this happen at Google. I wonder what might be reasons for this? We have been facing this for more than a year and made number of on-site changes, so I presume if it's something to do with backlinks. Any clue or thoughts on this? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz1 -
Google Panda July 2016
Hi Does anyone know what impact the recent slow Panda roll out may have? Obviously content, but would it perhaps include engagement/user behaviour factors regarding your on page content too? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | BeckyKey0 -
Does Google like pricing information?
Over the last year I have noticed a trend in a couple of industries. Google seems to prioritise landing pages with pricing information in the content. This seems more important than it used to. One industry is high end industrial machines. Traditionally there isn't a price list as everything is bespoke for the customer. Low end machines that display an off the shelf price are now ranking higher than they used to. This is frustrating because the different machines meet different customer requirements. However, both sorts of customers are likely to use the same search terms. Has anyone else noticed this trend?
Algorithm Updates | | Brighton-Soundsystem0 -
If I optimize for a long tailed keyword, will I also catch the short keywords within it?
Say my long tailed keyword has three words in it that I also consider keywords. Will I catch the searches for those short keywords, or just the long tailed keyword phrase?
Algorithm Updates | | Scratch_MM0 -
Can Ecommerce help with Keyword Rankings?
I am curious to know if an ecommerce website plays a role in higher rankings. we have been struggling for some time on a term and all of our competitors have an online shopping cart. we have a custom magento website with a request a quote form as our products are very costly. (range from $500 - $250,000). Is there something we can add to the code to help boost our rankings?
Algorithm Updates | | hfranz0 -
How to build good content and choose right keywords.?
I have started building content for our website using the Wordpress tool. Now I wanted to know that I use GA and the Adwords keyword tool. I go in for exact matching keywords and have selected a few of them. How do I know if these keywords are actually the ones going to give me good traffic? How can I select good keywords and write content along them. I don't wish to over stuff articles with the keywords. How can I refrain from doing so. Any optimum limit through which I know how much of the keyword needs to occur how many times within an article? Please give some good insights as to how this is accomplished? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | shanky11 -
Google above the fold update
Hi everyone, Ever since the Jan 19th Google 'above the fold update' I have noticed some strange ranking changes in some of my sites. 1. rankings increased dramatically (not in top 50 to page 2) on Jan 19th for about 5 days then dropped out completely from the top 50. 2. our rankings then did the same thing again around Feb 2nd for about 5 -6 days then has bottomed out ever since. We do not have any ads on the site but our pages are dominated by images for most of the 'above the fold' section then followed by the content down the page. Any insight into this would be much appreciated. Cheers, Andrew
Algorithm Updates | | jay.raman0 -
Is this a possible Google penalty scenario?
In January we were banned from Google due to duplicate websites because of a server configuration error by our previous webmaster. Around 100 of our previously inactive domain names were defaulted to the directory of our company website during a server migration, thus showing the exact same site 100 times... obviously Google was not game and banned us. At the end of February we were allowed back into the SERPS after fixing the issue and have since steadily regained long-tail keyword phrase rankings, but in Google are still missing our main keyword phrase. This keyword phrase brings in the bulk of our best traffic, so obviously it's an issue. We've been unable to get above position 21 for this keyword, but in Yahoo, Bing, and Yandex (Russian SE) we're positions 3, 3, and 7 respectively. It seems to me there has to be a penalty in effect, as this keyword gets between 10 and 100 times as much traffic in Google than any of the ones we're ranked for, what do you think? EDIT: I should mention in the 4-5 years prior to the banning we had been ranked between 15 and 4th in Google, 80% of the time on the first page.
Algorithm Updates | | ACann0