My ranking spiked then died in the butt? why? Please help!

[Bodie]

Hi guys,

I have been persevering with this ranking for some time now and thought you might be able to help. Or direct me to where I can get help. I am learning a lot through SEOmoz but I am still very green.

Basically on the 20th of the 12th we jumped up to a 2nd place listing and then dropped back down on the 17th of the 1st 2011.

The site is http://mlb.broomeaccommodation.com.au and the search term is 'Broome Accommodation'  as you can see it is a considerable drop and really affecting our bookings and sales figures.

I have attached a link to a screen capture of the problem - http://exitforward.com/kimberleyaccomm/seomoz.png

Interested to hear your thoughts and get some help on this frustrating matter

Kind regards

Bodie Czeladka

[Nemek]

Hi Bodie,

a spike like that can happen due to either a temporary change in Google's algorithm that happens to favour your website, or (more likely) a temporary change in the signals Google is using to rank your site.

The direct cause could be i.e. a good link that your website got in early December and which then disappeared sometime after. Google would reward you with a higher ranking, because of the link, but when it noticed the link disappeared, your rankings returned to previous levels.

The remedy - keep increasing the authority of your website by acquiring more links.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Sounds like a little bit of a 'Google dance' going on, and this is a lot more common than you might realise.

As Nemek has already said, there could be different factors for this, but it is not unheard of to rank more highly for a phrase quite quickly then drop again - it's all part of Google's great game.

Don't worry, it will sort itself out in time.

Regards,

Andy

[perfectweb]

I agree with the others, this is mostly likely acused by a temporary change int he way Google si viewing your site. Possibly by a link apeparing/disappearing or possibly from an algorithm change. I ntoice this on my sites all of the time.

It is, of course, also possible that the other sites reacted to your ranking increase, and started to do more SEO and now rank above you because of that - but this is highly unlikely in my experience.

The best next steps is to keep building your link profile. Ensure you get good quality links and Google will recognise this and start to attribute more rank.

One point that is worth mentioning, is do you think that the site you've sent should rank at #2? Taking a look at the SERPs that are more relevant pages to rank at #2 then the sub domain in question. The top leveld omain of your site is in fact #1. Maybe you need to increase the on page relevenecy of your sub domain to the keywords you're ranking for?

[Bodie]

Thank You Nemek, appreciate the help! ill keep up the hunt for more links.

enjoy ur weekend!

[Bodie]

Haha yes its not the first time i have experienced the "google Dance" but this is definately the biggest drop i have seen, really appreciate the feedback though.

thanks alot!

[Bodie]

Thanks Gary, thanks for that i will have a look into the serps and perhaps try to match them up to a similiar style to that of http://broomeaccommodation.com.au  as currently this site has the highest ranking our of all sites in our group, which i think can be attributed to this particular keyword ranking.

i just purchased Broomewa.com which is ranked 3rd for the Kewyword 'Broome' so hopefully if i link that to the site it might help with the ranking.

I could ask you guys a million differen questions right now but i wont keep you.

Really appreciate the help and feedback

cheers

Bodie