What would cause a sudden rise and drop in keyword ranking?

[Ocularis]

I made one change to my site - creating a good, relevant, title.

A few days later, ranking for a keyword jumped pretty well - which is what I was expecting. We were ranked 9th.

Then the next ranking report showed a 20 place decline.

What would cause this?

[KevinBudzynski]

I would wait to see the rankings positions in a week or two.

Many things could cause the fluctuations and it would relate to your site or the competitors. If your competitors gain some good inbound links, it may push you down. If you lose some inbound links, you could be push down. There are hundreds of factors for this.

Just stay on top of it and adjust accordingly.

[AgentsofValue]

Hey Itamar!

Kevin has a point, check your content as well, make sure that there is a variation in your anchor text as I've read that it creates additional competition for your page in search results, that is if you use the keyword you're promoting.  Open Site Explorer also is useful in checking those that link to your site.

Good luck!