Keyword Ranking Fluctuation

[pulseseo]

Hi,

In campaigns, every week we found a big keyword ranking fluctuation.

For Example:

This week SEO MOZ campaign shows one keyword on 23 position and keyword change number shows 13 position down. When i have checked manually its showing on 13th position. Can you please tell me why its happen?

Waiting for your reply

Thanks,

[lonniea]

Where are you checking, Google?

Fluctuations are bound to happen at any time. Algoritms change constantly, competition make campaigns to move up the ladder. It also depends from which country you're searching the term. All these things create a factor in your positioning.

I see it happen all the time. One minute i'm number 1, and the next hour i'm number 50. Tomorrow i'll be number 5. To remain consistent with a search term, you need to keep making more linkbacks, internal links, content etc etc etc... it never ends.

[Keszi]

I have experienced big fluctuations in Google.be.

Don't worry to much regarding this issue, try to produce higher relevant content, and it will solve the situation (that is what happened with us).

I hope that hepled,

Istvan

[DougRoberts]

Agree with the others. Don't worry too much about fluctuations - it's when you don't bounce back up again that you need to be concerned. Keep an eye on overall trends, and for competitive keywords keep a close eye on the competition.

Look out for new-comers in the SERPS, and look out for new content.  fresh page can out-rank older pages but may weaken over time.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that the job's done once you achieve a high ranking. You need to stay ahead of the competition.

Good luck!

[DanielFreedman]

I think you should look at any single rankings report -- or even a group of them -- much as smart politicians look at public opinion polls: as snapshots in time subject to random variation

** What matters most are broad trends over time using a variety of data sources. **

I favor a "poll of polls" approach.

Here how I do reporting for a sophisticated client:

• monthly reports on just ten keywords
• data from three sources: SEOMOZ, Raven Tools, and a panel of 5 geographically dispersed people in the US doing depersonalized manual searches using the same devices, IP addresses and browsers each time
• attach equal weight to each of the three data sources

All this smooths things out and you can more readily see the trends.

Like so much else in SEO, client education is the key. When I explained to the client what I was doing and why -- it really helped gain trust and move the relationship to a new level.

[DougRoberts]

If you're manually checking you need to remove personalisation other wise the SERPS you see will more than likely be different to the one that SEOmoz (or any other ranking tool sees).

[DanielFreedman]

Yes, the manual searches are de-personalized.

Almost without exception, each data source is different on each occasion.

[DougRoberts]

Like the approach you take to smooth things out, and agree that client education is important.

I hope that my clients focus on KPI's that really matter to their business (conversions!) and not get bogged down chasing rankings! Although it is important for them to understand why ranking matter and how we track them.

If you see negative changes in keywords that were getting you good click-throughs/conversions then you need to do something about it.