Google RankBrain Update Affecting Ranking Reports?
-
In the past 2 months we have been seeing a large amount of movement in our ranking reports in Moz Pro.
Here is what is going on: We run reports for around 15 different clients using Moz. We also track around an average of 100-150 different keywords for each client (some more, some less). What I have seen lately is that we have a week where the sites do great, next week a large shift down. The week after a large shift up. The next week a large shift down. Rinse, repeat.
It makes it very hard to spot the trouble areas on a page or keyword when there doesn't really seem to be a consistent way of knowing what the trends are. It appears to be random, and the next week they seem to recover, along with some that do not. We will see some keywords drop 30 places, only to regain the majority of that drop the following week.
Some of the sites have received content updates while others have remained largely untouched. It is very confusing to see this pattern, and I have tracked it for about 2 months. Is anyone seeing a similar pattern in their reports? Could this be related to the rollout of Google's RankBrain, the new AI learning tech from Google? Most of the keywords are tracked are not long tail, and are basic local business/service type of keywords. Plumber in St Louis, etc etc
-
I saw this and thought it might be related: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-fluctuations-continue-likely-not-penguin-21489.html
-
yes, they are accurate. Again just last night I looked at the latest ranking reports. We had a powerful keyword fall 31 places for no reason. The site was not updated, the content was not changed, the listings were not updated. None of the competitors edited their sites, its just very strange. You can argue that the content should have been updated, etc but I am also seeing keyword driven domains coming back, spam sites taking the place of branded sites, its crazy.
We had another main keyword fall 34 places. true we had others move up 1-4 places across the board, but this is consistent for other accounts. Slight movements on some, then a massive drop on others for no reason. These are also items that have ranked for a very long time with everything being done correctly.
What the hell is going on? Is this what we can expect from Google's new learning machine? If so, oh boy.
-
Very interesting. Possibly a silly question but have you confirmed that these ranking fluctuations are accurate?
We use a different tool and on the odd occasion we see something like this only to find it's just the tool giving false data; it shows a term drop to page three but if you Google it anonymously, you find it's still on page 1 where it was.
-
Most of these are sites that have been around a while and doing good. They have already been optimized and are in the external profile creation and backlinking phase. This is what makes it so confusing, as they are "good" sites. Some will go from page one to page 3, then next week go back to page 2 then back to page one.
What gives? The only explanation I can come up with is that Google is rolling out something that is taking time to settle down.
-
I don't know that it's really Rank Brain related but it's certainly frustrating!
Ranking fluctuations like that are fairly normal if you're lower down in the ranks (several pages deep) since a small change in quality can push you above a lot of competitors and search engines are basically still trying to figure out if you're trustworthy or not. if you're seeing it bounce from position 8 to position 48 and back, that's a bit more unusual.
Are these sites all quite new or at least new to quality SEO? If they're more established and rank quite well then I can't say I really have an explanation for that one!
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
-
One page report are empty !
Hi Rodgerbot, Now, i've no seomoz one page report for any campaign 😞 What happen ? I've previously several report. Thanks,
Moz Pro | | Max840 -
Are the SEOMoz queries banned by Google?
Hi: In our company, we have notified that Google is banning our IP due to massive queries under the same IP. It is caused mainly by local softwares installed in PCs or some plugins of Firefox. We think that SEOmoz don´t causes this due to its tool uses its own IP and servers, not ours. We would like your opinion about this. Thank you,
Moz Pro | | Equipo_SEO_HUB_Interaction0 -
Ranking History - different to my actual
Hi Little confused with the ranking report on a campaign. www.google.co.uk I am position 1 for "web development company". On the ranking report I am not in the top50. Last update was on the 18th Jan. How current is the ranking report as my other ranking software (Rank Tracker) is a little more upto date?
Moz Pro | | Cocoonfxmedia0 -
SEO moz poor rankings reporting
How are we supposed to send ranking reports to clients if the rankings are constantly reporting false metrics This is not the first time this has happened, but the rankings are WAAAAAAY off. What is the point of reporting rankings that are not accurate? What is the possible cause of this. Is there a solution? What is SEOmoz doing to improve their ranking programs. Our client actually ranked #2 for "northern Virginia HVAC contractors" when moz had us not in the top 50! How are we supposed to bank on information that is so consistently unreliable? northernvirginiahvaccontractors.png northernvirginiahvaccontractorsrank.png
Moz Pro | | imageworks-2612900 -
Crawl Diagnostics Update
I have corrected some errors in my SEOMoz Crawl Diagnostics, however the errors are still showing. It says a crawl has happen since. Any idea's why?
Moz Pro | | petewinter0 -
Problem with Rankings and On-page Optimization
Hi SEOZ 🙂 I have a question regarding the Rankings and On-page Optimization in the seomoz Campaign Manager. I have setup a website url for examle: www.keyword.com After that created a list of all the target Keywords, that I want to reach within my Website: keyword-a, keyword-b, keyword-c and so on... Then I did a On-Page Analysis for all the urls with the specific keywords. keyword-a: www.keyword.com/keyword-a/ keyword-b: www.keyword.com/keyword-b/ keyword-c: www.keyword.com/keyword-c/ and so on... Most of the urls got the A grade. Now after the Website hast launched and got crawled, I have a problem with the Rankings and the On-page Optimization. The Rankings for my Keywords and also the Grades at the On-page Optimization are only shown for my Start/Homepage: www.keyword.com NOT for the urls that are specific for a Keyword for example: www.keyword.com/keyword-a/ Also the Grades are shown for the Keywords but again only in combination with my Start/Homepage www.keyword.com NOT for www.keyword.com/keyword-a/ What is the problem? Bye, Alex
Moz Pro | | krseo0 -
Sudden drop in rankings
I've been working on a site since it launched in April and the rankings for all targeted keywords have been creeping up in that time. For example the site was position 5 for "satchel" and 6 for "satchels". I've just had the latest rankings report from SeoMoz and it is showing "not in top 50" for both keywords and big drops on most other keywords. What is the likely explanation for such a big drop? The website is Z atchels.com
Moz Pro | | MulberrySqCraig0 -
Ranking better
Hello there, I am after some specific guidance on how to rank well for the keyword ‘Translation Services’. I have managed to get the site www.pstranslation.co.uk to page 2 of google UK for this key term. The difficulty is I seem to have run out of steam now on how to get higher rankings. After spending a considerable amount of time creating content and gaining links I managed to get the site from around page 15 on google uk to page 4 then to page 2. That’s where it seems to have stopped. I (think I) have got the onsite SEO pretty well nailed. I have got some good linkable content (http://www.pstranslation.co.uk/infog_languages.html,http://www.pstranslation.co.uk/language_resources_indus.html) and have plans to produce a more. Experience working within the language industry tells me that a top 3 position on page 1 for this keyword can very lucrative so my main focus of SEO is to rank well for this key phrase. There is a very good chance you reply will simply be get more (better) links and if it is that’s fine but is there anything else I can do? Am I missing a very obvious trick anywhere? Looking forward to your reply.
Moz Pro | | bigtimeseo0