Ranking strangeness

[MickEdwards]

Just wondering if anyone had come across this kind of scenario which I had/have with a client.

Rebuilt/revamped site that has got problems with thin content we are looking to resolve.  Rankings for the main keywords were ok on page 2 or 3 and being worked on.  Two weeks ago ALL main keywords disappeared from ranking (category pages).  The homepage took over and ranked ALL those keywords at #1!  Bang -straight to top spot.  However happy I was I find this disconcerting as there is a reasonable level of competition.

Today homepage rankings in the main go and directories come back into the rankings at some good positions on page one.  We still need to fix thin and duplicated content!

I can justify the problems and swing with the category pages but the massive cross the board top position for the homepage has been pretty bizarre.

Has anyone else had the experience where the homepage suddenly 'out-performs' in a big way?

[RyanPurkey]

This reminds me of one of Rand's WBFs from early last year: http://moz.com/blog/what-should-i-put-on-the-homepage-whiteboard-friday...  Although it's a bit of the opposite of what you're seeing now. It'd be harder to break down without looking at some of the keywords and specific site design elements at play, but it sounds lie the homepage has a lot more breadth than it did previously.  There could be some branding at play depending on the keywords as well.

[MickEdwards]

I take on all your points and would typically agree.  However, for some keywords only a menu link to poor content exists but there is the relationship with the overall content/theme.  What I would say is that the site was live some time before I began work so the pages were 'settled'.  I've just not seen the scenario where all those directories nose dive completely off the radar and for a period the homepage (against some stiff competition) instantly dominate so strongly, previously struggling page 2-3.  I've seen fluctuations but this was a bit whacky.