Keyword keeps fluctuating between a high rank and no rank?

[stestone]

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?

[EGOL]

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.

[elerman]

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:

1. Create a new website page with the URL https://snappages.com/create-a-website
2. Add the page in the navbar with an attractive CTA
3. Differentiate it the new page from the home page
4. Get your technical on-page SEO right for the new page.
5. 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.
6. Make sure the blog posts are not product centric instead, make them as helpful as possible.
7. 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.

[stestone]

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?

[stestone]

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.

[elerman]

No problem, here is another question somewhat similar to yours that has been answered https://moz.com/community/q/why-keyword-ranking-fluctuate

[EGOL]

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.

[Slumberjac]

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!

[stestone]

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.