Why is our site jumping all over the place?

[PeterAlexLeigh]

Hi there,

We've been having some issues with our site recently where it seems to be jumping very erratically around the google rankings.

The site used to be pretty consistent on page 1/2 of google for certain term, but then in late April(ish) it took a dive down the rankings and flicked about between positions 30-70(ish). Late last month, it re-appeared suddenly on page 1 in position 10 and stayed there up until yesterday (6th July) and it now appears to have dived to position 287th or there abouts!

At the same time a deep link page has appeared at position 54, which seems a bit strange to me.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

[RyanKent]

Without a link to the page along with the keyword involved, we are left to offer generic advice and make guesses. It's kind of like asking what's causing your stomach ache. It could be bad sushi, or it could be stomach cancer.

Some general ideas:

• is there any reason for your site to be under any form of penalty? Have you violated any Google rules?

• have you made any changes at all to the page involved?

• have you made any site wide changes?

• are you certain you are entering the exact term you are using for comparison?

• is there any involvement at all with local search? Adding any term involving a location, or removing such a term, will provide dramatic changes to search results

• any other changes or factors you can think may be relevant? Have you lost any major links? added new pages which might cannibalize your existing keywords? etc.

[PeterAlexLeigh]

Hi Ryan,

The site is http://www.guarantorloanscompany.co.uk and the keyword is guarantor loans

Google have confirmed in the past there's no penalty on the site and no rules have been violated.

No changes were made between the site being on page 1 and falling on each occassion.

We made some changes to the site the last time it fell (such as changing the links from graphics to text and cutting down on internal links to the homepage), but it's been back on page 1 since then.

We don't do anything with local search and as far as I know we haven't lost any major links. In fact, I would say we've gained some good links recently.

[RyanKent]

A few general suggestions I can offer:

• I counted 9 links on your home page to your home page. I can understand the "home" link in your nav bar and footer, and the link from your logo. All the other links seem excessive to me and I would suggest removing them.

• Determine which key phrase you wish associated with each page. If you wish your home page optimized for "Guarantor Loans" then I would suggest not having the anchor text "Guarantor Loan" linking to your FAQ page.

While it is true the singular and plural versions of the terms are separate key phrases, it would take a solid focus on SEO to establish two distinct pages on the singular and plural forms of a word, and your site clearly does not have that focus. In fact, you link from your home page to your FAQ with the anchor text "Guarantor Loan", then your site uses that identical anchor text on your FAQ page to link back to your home page.

• The anchor text "What is a Guarantor Loan" is used on your home page to link to your guarantor_loans.html page. Once again, this is a partial phrase match and offers the opportunity for confusion if the phrase is not carefully handled. The handling in this case is poor. On your guarantor_loans page the anchor text "guarantor loans" is used to point towards the guarantor_loans page.

I can't speak to your past ranking. What I can share is the term shows as a highly competitive keyword, and your site is a mess with respect to SEO for this term. It seems someone made an attempt to improve the SEO and went link crazy. I would advise consulting with a SEO and creating a plan to apply basic SEO standards to your site.

[PeterAlexLeigh]

When you put it like that it does seem a bit messy. Thanks for your help Ryan