Keyword keeps fluctuating between a high rank and no rank?
-
I've searched around and I can't seem to find anyone else describing the issue I'm seeing. Basically for a very long time our website (snappages.com) has always ranked in the tens and twenties for "create a website". It's a high volume keyword and we get a lot of traffic from it. Around May 16th it suddenly disappeared completely from search results on Google and now it will sporadically show back up with a SERP in the twenties every 5-10 days for a few hours and then completely disappear again. This pattern has continued to this day.
I've checked and there are no manual penalties and nothing has really changed dramatically from a content perspective or anything like that. I would understand if we got penalized and our ranking dropped, or even if it just completely disappeared? This is the only keyword that this is happening for, all the others remain unaffected. Anyone know how I can find out why this is happening or have suggestions on how to fix it?
-
That's a good point. I've tried incognito etc. I even use a few SERP tracking tools and they reflect the same thing. SERPWoo for instance will send me an alert saying they keyword "started ranking" instead of the normal alert that says it went up or down.
I guess it's comforting to hear someone else is seeing something similar though b/c I haven't seen anyone report this and I've done a lot of searching for it.
-
I have experienced something similar this year - it's not something I've seen before.
Everyday it can change. One day my client is number 5 for "keyword" - the next day it has gone.
This has been happening for about 3 months now.
I am putting faith in Google eventually settling down and keeping them on the first page. It is a very difficult one to explain though and I don't have the answers.
This is not about having a better SEO strategy - this is about something I'm calling GHOST RANKINGS
Anyone else seen this .. and what happened?
P.S I'm am incognito when I check. I also track it in MOZ rankings. I have also got people to check from different locations - this is not the reason!
-
Maybe.
But, if some of these have grabbed all or most of your text, then filing DMCA is what I would do. Before you file DMCA be sure that you know the risks and especially know the rules related to fair use. See an attorney before doing it if you have any doubts about your understanding.
-
No problem, here is another question somewhat similar to yours that has been answered https://moz.com/community/q/why-keyword-ranking-fluctuate
-
Thanks for the feedback. I do understand it's very competitive so I would understand going up and down in ranking but it literally shows up at 23, then gone for 4 days, then 27, then gone for 6 days, then 21, then gone for 5 days, etc.
This fluctuation has been happening for months and prior to this I was very steadily always ranked high.
-
That's a good question. I'm looking into it but it doesn't seem to be a way to check this reliably. Would switching up the content that is being used by those other sites make a difference?
-
I hope I can provide some useful insights in regards to this somewhat of an anomaly.
After reading your explanation carefully and doing some research on the keyword, it is apparent that this is quite an important keyword to rank for even if just in the first 20 SERPs. Due to the difficulty of this keyword, I am not very surprised with the fluctuation in your rankings since there is a lot of content generated around the topic on a daily basis.
Here are my suggestions if you're willing to invest a good amount of effort on regaining or securing a good position for this keyword:
- Create a new website page with the URL https://snappages.com/create-a-website
- Add the page in the navbar with an attractive CTA
- Differentiate it the new page from the home page
- Get your technical on-page SEO right for the new page.
- Then Publish a series of blog posts that are related to the keyword. In ex: Basic rules of web design, how to build a website for converting visitors, how to make your own website, etc. Try to find some low difficulty keywords, and link all of the posts back to https://snappages.com/create-a-website through a call-to-action at the bottom of each post. This will not only increase the new page's relevancy to search engines but if you do a good job at finding keywords will also yield some traffic.
- Make sure the blog posts are not product centric instead, make them as helpful as possible.
- Work on getting some backlinks to the new page, and repeat.
This strategy will require a good bit of time to create new and unique content, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, designing the page, etc. Though it might be worth it since it is very relevant to the company.
-
Are you going into the supplemental index or are you totally gone?
If you are going into the supplemental index then these guys using your content might be having an impact.
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
-
Best approach to rank for this keyword?
Hi i want to rank for the keyword "white sandals" on Google Australia. Currently, the top 5 ranking pages are not optimised and specific to white sandals. See screenshot: https://image.prntscr.com/image/WenSRHqTTFSqYNg2MHvH1A.png To rank for this keyword, would you create a page dedicated to white sandals even though it looks like it doesn't matter and you could rank the broader sandals page (not colour specific). Any recommendations? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | crazy4seo780 -
Irrelevant blog contents negatively affect ranking for main keywords?
Hi Moz Community, I am working at a branding company. Currently, we found our ranking for main keywords (branding company) is dropping a little. I am suspicious of the new blog posts that we published lately. We wrote different kind of stuff, such as company culture, how to inspire employees, the importance of leadership and some other stuff that is actually not as related to our main keyword - branding company. My question is, will these irrelevant posts hurt our ranking for main keyword, to some extent? Thank you. Best, Raymond
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | raymondlii0 -
Search engine keyword rank - easiest way to check the keywords that rank across website
What is the best keyword ranking tool you have used? I have used various tools by which I am expected to identify and input the keyword I want to track... However, recently I was introduced to Searchmetrics, which I think automatically pulls in the keywords a website ranks for, without the need for manual input from the SEO (I haven't used this tool yet, so apologies if I am incorrect!). Do any other rank trackers work like this? Thanks, Luke
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | McTaggart1 -
Keyword Ranks Jumping all over? Top 10 to 40 back to top 5?
So thanks to MOZ I now can track my very large website which has several hundred pages built for specific keywords. The problem is that If I have a page built for a keyword like "equipment transport" for example, and one week that keyword will rank top 5 and the next week in the 40's and then all the way back up to top 5 or 10 again. Google is bouncing these pages/keywords around like a trampoline would. How do I stop this. Do I need to make changes to slow down how often I want the pages to be crawled? In my research this is what I am hoping the problem is because my 1200 page site has no consistency on a 1000 keywords. One week 350 increase and the next week 600 decrease. And I track each keywords changes week to week in an excel sheet. Feedback would be greatly appreciated, because until I can get these pages to quit bouncing around so much a lot of my efforts are pretty much a waste as I can seo a top 5 ranked page/keyword that is ranked 40th the next week and back down to top 5 because of the lack of consistency.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | dwebb0070 -
Why I am loosing my ranking?
My website is lonestarperio.com, I am loosing my website ranking, Is SEO agency doing any black hat SEO or doing anything wrong to my website?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bondhoward1 -
Keyword research Methods
I am Looking for keyword research guide .because there are many ask about keyword research no idea where i can start .plz expert advice highly appreciate.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | innofidelity0 -
Google Page Rank Dead?
Does PR still work? I have sites that have PR3 and get almost no traffic and sites that are PR1 and get thousands of uniques per month. My PR on my main sites haven't moved for about 7 years, even though we've grown significantly. I know lots of you are going to jump in with get the MOZ toolbar, which I already have done, and I agree, it's great ... But can anyone tell me about what's going on with Google PR? Is it still active? Or has Google abandoned? I noticed that the Google toolbar is not even available for Google Chrome. That should say something ... If you like this question, do me a favor, and give me a THUMBS UP!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | applesofgold2 -
Triple listing in rankings
We have a triple listing for the keyword vca cursus (Dutch keyword). But the page we optimized for that keyword ranks lower than our vca examen page. First we had the number one spot but now we rank 2 to 5. In opensite explorer i compared the competiton and we scored on almost all factors better. Do you know the causes why the vca examen page ranks higher then the vca cursus page. Is it possible to change that or reverse the triple listing somehow. And why does our competitor ranks higher?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PlusPort0