Some rankings fluctuate dramatically

[JetBookMike]

Hi guys, just a quick query this one.

For one of our keywords, the rankings are fluctuating wildly. One week we went up 32 spots, then the next friday we were down 28. Nothing dramatic was being done to the site, I have not been trying to "force" any rankings instead focusing on just making our content better.

It just seems odd that one week we're on page one, then a few days later we're down on page four. It seems impossible to actually maintain a reliable ranking. I know to expect some fluctuation but every week it's up 20/30, then down 20/30 the next.

How can we try to give this keyword some stability?

Ideas?

[EGOL]

Google is always running experiments and you might be seeing some of them.  Also, Google has old data and new data and you might be seeing a little of each.

They have thousands of servers responding to search results and they don't all use the same data.

[JetBookMike]

Makes sense. I also just checked via a proxy and the cuterank tool, which both say we have maintained our position. So maybe seoMoz did a rank check that found old data or an experiment.

[ReneReinholdt]

or you might be experiencing some panda effect or it might just be that your in close competition with your competitors. It could be many things, no need to be alarmed yet, if it persists however you should probably take action

[mozalbin]

It's a natural respone from Google (just like EGOL states) that their testing different new algorithms. This in combination that you changed the content of the webpage can result in this fluctations.

[JamesNorquay]

As others have stated Google tests changes for keywords. One week you can rank the other week you may not rank.

My advice for making a more stable rank is the following:

1. Build links for this specific keyword.

2. Build great content for this specific keyword.

3. Push internal linking for this keyword.

4. Research competitors see what they are doing for this keyword.

5. Test many SEO techniques to find out what works and what does not work.

Regards,

James.

[DanHill]

Something that I also look at when checking rankings for different keywords(the very competitive ones esp) is to look at when google last cached each of the top results - I've found that this can sometimes lead to changes in rankings since our page has not been crawled in a few days and the few above ours just got crawled.

Just a thought