Drastic keyword position drop from time to time

[VinceWicks]

Hey guys,

I'm having the following issue. My keyword position in SERP is usually 10-11 but sometimes (like once a month or so) it drops to like to position 46 or something of that kind. Why would that be happening and what can I do to avoid that stuff?

[VinceWicks]

As a matter of fact, we've been ranking for the keyword for a few years. So, it can't be an issue. Thanks anyway.

[VinceWicks]

Thanks for the help. Well, I am checking my keyword positions in SEO Administrator. So, it cannot be a personalized search. And thanks for the input why Google might be doing it!

[malachiii]

Do you have the dates of the drops?  Panda would kill a clients SEO for about 2 weeks and then they have rebounded. This has happened for the last 3 rollouts.

If not, then it is something else.  are you making any changes before the drops

[Paessler]

Are these keywords that you have started ranking for recently? I have been having this kind of fluctuations with new keywords, too

[MarieHaynes]

I've had some keywords that do a flip flop like that just before they take a big jump up a few positions.  My thought is that Google is testing how the SERPS would do without your site present and see if there is another site that would get more clicks.  Somehow it takes that information and determines that your site actually is valuable and then they promote it.

On the other hand, are you absolutely sure this is not a personalized search issue?  When the keyword drops, does your traffic drop as well?  (That might be hard to judge as there is not a whole lot of difference between positions that are not on the first page).  It would be interesting to see if the keyword appears lower when you are not logged in to Google.  You may already know this, but to test if the search is personalized, add &pws=0 to the url and hit enter and then see if you are still in your higher position.

[AdiRste]

It's called fluctuation and there isn't much you can do about it to be honest, just keep building good links and hopefully it should stabilise. You should try Social Bookmarking as that can work wonders.