Rankings go up and down, up and down, up and down

[BlueLinkERP]

Almost every week we have more than a two dozen keywords that will all suddenly increase in rank only to then decrease in rank right back to where they were the previous week. This happens constantly despite the fact that we are doing very little SEO-wise on a week-to-week basis.

What might be causing these constant shifts?

[Kara.Wallace]

I hear ya... but it's what makes our jobs so darn interesting

[BlueLinkERP]

Thanks Mike.

I figured as much. It's just annoying that there are so many fluctuations.

[Kara.Wallace]

Hi David,

This is completely normal. My understanding why this happens is that

1. the algorithm is in a constant state of change
2. your competitors can just as easily start doing SEO to try and rank higher
3. backlinks are in a constant state of change on your site and your competitors (gaining/losing)
4. Google crawls websites at different rates, so depending on why yours is crawled vs your competitors, the index will change where you are ranking

Just to name a few.

You shouldn't have to worry about anything UNLESS you see a big drop that is constant. If you move from position #4 to #24 and it stays like that for over a week... you may need to investigate things further; however, if you are just seeing some bouncing around, but are usually maintaining a good position, I would not worry about it.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[FDFPres]

Google!