Fluctuating Rankings on "difficult" keywords

[stevedeane]

Hi guys,

I have a client who wants to rank well for two very "difficult" keywords and eight easier ones.

The easy ones are "treadmills + city" and the difficult ones are "treadmills" and "treadmill".

We have got great traction on the "+city" keywords and he now ranks on page one for all those.

However, we have noticed that although he ranks on page 2-3 for "treadmill" treadmills", those rankings fluctuate widely day to day.

Rankings for the "+city" versions are stable, a rising slowly as I would expect.

Rankings for the difficult keywords can be 235 one day, 32 the next week, 218 the day after that, then stable at 30ish for a week, then fluctuation again.

I know Google update every day, but what are the likely causes of the easier keywords being stable, while the harder ones fluctuate?

Thanks.

[NakulGoyal]

Steve

Check the rankings manually using different computers / locations. Call family/friends and have them check to make sure your tool is reporting it correctly.

You are right, it should not move that much on a "daily" basis. There's no reason to.

[RobertFisher]

The key word here is likely causes and there are a few qualifiers as well.

First, how are you arriving at the ranking for the terms each day? Assuming you are using the same tool and it is correctly doing non personalized search, the biggest difference is the geo locator. With local you are going to have less competition than competing with companies all over the web. When you add the +city you pare down many of the outside competitors.

Best

Robert